Cost to charge at home

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bradleydavidgood777

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 29, 2017
Messages
264
Location
Quarryville, PA
I get this question all of the time. How much does it cost to charge at home? I know it is based upon the cost of my electric and I'll have to look that up on my bill. How would I calculate a full charge cost?

Thanks
 
Full charge cost can be misleading - a better common-denominator is fuel cost per mile.

Looking up electricity rates for Media, PA, I am shocked as to how LOW they are! :shock:

https://power2switch.com/PA/Media/

Let's pick a nominal number from that list: $0.075/kWh

Now, driving your i-MiEV without excessive exuberance, a good round number of wall-to-wheels consumption is 4.2 miles/kWh

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=403&start=20#p5744

Thus, $0.075/kWh / 4.2 miles/kWh = 1.786¢/mile

Compared to an ICE vehicle, with your gasoline prices presently at around $3/gallon, let's pick on a 25mpg car -

Thus, for ICE, $3 / 25 = 12¢/mile

Depending on how you look at it, the i-MiEV's fuel cost is around six times less expensive than ICE!

Here in California the prices of both electricity and gasoline are radically different, but the i-MiEV continues to be just about the lowest-cost vehicle you can drive.

BTW, I moved this thread into the operating cost subforum. You might peruse this subforum for more answers to your question.

Edit: Say you drive 1000 miles/month, your electricity ("fuel") costs will thus be around $17.86/month. Compare that to the afore-mentioned ICE vehicle, which would be $120/month.
 
i just use easy round numbers.

Electricity from the wall is measured in units of kilo-Watt-hour, and costs ~10¢ per kWh.

The battery pack in our car is nominally sized as 16 kWh, and there are 16 bars on the "fuel" gauge--so one bar is about 1 kWh and costs a dime.

So i tell folks that it costs about 80¢ to $1.50 per day to charge up and drive, depending upon how far and fast i happen to go that day.

i also tell folks that ask, that the car was rated to go 64 miles on a full charge.

Another simple equation is 64 miles divided by 16 kWh, giving ~ 4 miles per bar as an average. So if i see 9 bars left i figure i can go another 36 miles, 3 bars means i have 12 left, etc. i've never run out and been stranded using this math as a rule of thumb.
 
Thnk you. You both gave me some great information.

I've been signed up with "The Energy Coop" in Philadelphia for years now and only getting wind electric. I have not checked the prices.

My bill says PECO (Philadelphia Electric Company) distribution charge is 0.06359/kWh and The energy coop charge is 0.13990 / kWh.
 
bradleydavidgood777 said:
I just called The Energy Coop and got onto an ECO national plan (all wind) fixed rate of 0.1049 for 12 months.
That's more realistic! So, does that $.1049 rate include generation and distribution?

In California, we also have per-kWh charges for stuff like Transmission (separate from Distribution), Transmission Rate Adjustments, Reliability Services, Public Purpose Programs, Nuclear Decommissioning, Competition Transition Charges, Energy Cost Recovery Amount, DWR Bond, New System Generation Charge, etc., all with asterisks that further convolute an already incomprehensible rate structure. Sickening that we have for-profit utilities with guaranteed rate of return but with class-action-suit hungry lawyers blaming and suing them for billions for things like the massive Santa Rosa fire and if they win then the utility simply turns around and jacks up the rates. </rant>

Back on-topic, at 10.5¢/kWh and assuming you don't fully deplete your battery, it'll cost you about $1.50 to charge up your car. Conservatively, that's about 2.5¢/mile.
 
That's pretty close to what we pay - 11 cents. Ours comes from a co-op and there's nothing else added. Comes out to pretty close to 2.5 cents per mile for 'fuel'

For ICE costs - I usually quote 10 cents per mile. $2.50 gas in a 25 mpg car, $3.00 gas in a 30 mpg car . . . . comes out about the same, 10 cents per mile. That is, unless you're driving a 15 mpg pick-up burning $3.00 gas - In that case, it's 20 cents per mile. Most SUV's fall somewhere in between. None of those factor in the added cost of oil changes, tune ups and $500 to $600 every 60K for timing belt replacements. The timing belt alone adds another penny per mile

People who claim it will take $5 gas to make driving an EV practical just don't understand what driving an ICE is really costing them . . . . nor how little used EV's are selling for

Don
 
Don said:
That's pretty close to what we pay - 11 cents. Ours comes from a co-op and there's nothing else added. Comes out to pretty close to 2.5 cents per mile for 'fuel'

For ICE costs - I usually quote 10 cents per mile. $2.50 gas in a 25 mpg car, $3.00 gas in a 30 mpg car . . . . comes out about the same, 10 cents per mile. That is, unless you're driving a 15 mpg pick-up burning $3.00 gas - In that case, it's 20 cents per mile. Most SUV's fall somewhere in between. None of those factor in the added cost of oil changes, tune ups and $500 to $600 every 60K for timing belt replacements. The timing belt alone adds another penny per mile

People who claim it will take $5 gas to make driving an EV practical just don't understand what driving an ICE is really costing them . . . . nor how little used EV's are selling for

Don


Thanks Don - yea that's an easy way to talk about it, and a good comparison. About 2.5 cents per mile compared to 10-20 cents for a gas guzzler depending on size. Or you could say 25% of the cost of a standard small gas sedan...for fuel. Then there are the maintenance savings also.
 
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