First electricity bill after 2 months of ownership

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burnabyimiev

Active member
Joined
Feb 1, 2014
Messages
25
I'd been waiting for the first BC Hydro bill to come after owning our "new" 2012 miev for 2 months. This 2-month bill, covering Feb. 20-Apr. 17, came to $88.43 CAD. The previous two month period, Dec-Feb, was $87.76. In December and January, my mother was using a space heater in the basement. In March and April, we were charging the Miev in the garage. Seems to be a wash. I've charged for free at Chargepoint units 20 times, and done 6 quick charges in Surrey, Bellingham, and Squamish, but the other charging has all been at home. No noticeable hit to the pocketbook. I'm loving it!
 
My crude, drunken calculations tell me we saved $200 in gas if we had driven our 1999 Toyota Tercel--recently sold--the same 2000 km (1242 miles) we've driven the Miev over the past 2 months. That'll add up to $1200 a year. We're charging 110V at home; I bought a Clipper Creek Level 2 charger but haven't installed it yet. We have an old subpanel in the garage and I haven't found any 25 amp breakers to fit it...bought some 25 amp breakers on Amazon.com, but now need a new subpanel (and a good electrician) to go with them.
 
I don't know about Canada, but in the US, 25 amp breakers are pretty rare. For 12 gauge wire, you use a 20 amp and for 10 gauge wire you use a 30 amp - Not much call for anything in between since there is no such thing as 11 gauge household wiring

You don't need a 25 amp breaker to charge your car - A 20 will be more than sufficient since the car will never draw more than about 14 amps. Using a 20 amp breaker, you can use a 12 gauge wire, which will be much less expensive than the 10 gauge you would be required to use if you insist on using a 25 amp breaker

Don
 
We picked up our "new" 2012 Mitzi de Bubble on May 1 with 197 km on her. (Dealer's demo) I bought a ClipperCreek L2 charger and converted it to a plug-in. I was lucky as we have an unused 30A "dryer plug" just on the other side of the garage wall. Bought a "dryer cable" with the moulded plug, drilled a hole and installed a 240V 30A outlet on the garage side.
Notes:
-As mentioned above, you don't need a 25A breaker, even if you can get one. A dryer circuit uses 10 Ga wire which is rated for 30Amps. Dryer circuits use 30A double-pole breakers, they will work fine for the ClipperCreek L2 charger.
- Cost of driving 100km
I take the number of hours from the website of KW Hydro to read the number of hours of charging. I use 3.3kWh which is very generous, because the actual absorbtion of power is not even. However 3.3 kw is the maximum Bubbles can take by design. So I err on the high side.
The cost of power in Ontario is 7.5c/kWh - off peak. However this cost does not reflect the other charges and the HST on the actual bill. So I work with 10c/kWh. Based on these numbers it is costing us around $1.68 to drive Bubbles 100 km.

To put this in perspective, our 2003 Corolla - we traded- used around 8l/100km and a litre of gas is around 1.32.

I am smiling all the way ! :D
 
I have had my imiev for seven months.
My fiance has had hers for five months.
We both knew very closely the running cost of my Volvo 240 and her Toyota Hilux, and I measured all of the power I used for the first 4,000km on my imiev.
Between the two of us we have saved over $3,500 so far, and we still use the hilux for towing trailers and so forth.
She can charge at work also, so we are saving even more.
At current rate, we will have paid the entire purchase price of both cars between five and six years in.
 
Wow! Impressive. The upside to very high fuel prices is that EVs pay for themselves very quickly. I'm saving about $100 a month, driving 25 miles a day, the i-MiEV replacing a 25 MPG Cavalier. So, for a $27,000 car, that's about 23 years for ROI, gas savings only.
 
Well we do live in a rural area....and do a lot of miles.
It would be roughly a 14 mile return trip to my work, but often I will make the trip again to get shopping, one night a week I go to sports training, another night I make a 50 mile round trip to play competition, then there is going out on weekends (50 mile return to the city...) and running around to visit friends and family etc.
My fiance does 5-600 miles a week...

Fuel cost on my Volvo 244 was 25 cents per kilometre.
Her Hilux cost 27 cents per kilometre average.
At retail power price where I live the imiev costs 5 cents per kilometre....
The two cars were both bought ex demonstrator for around $20k each, so $40k total. In around six months the savings are between $3500-4000, almost ten percent in six months.
Between five and six years total payback for us.
We are both allowed to charge at work too, so the real savings are even higher....
 
When we had our car in to have the charger replaced , we used our gas car that uses
9.5l/100 km, 25 mpg

With our gas prices & the mileage we do, it was costing us $ 75 a week =
$ 300/month
and that is just fuel.
 
Well the first full power bill has come in since the purchase of the electric....the bill has gone up by around three weeks worth of petrol, but that covers three months of charging the car.
 
carnut1100 said:
Well the first full power bill has come in since the purchase of the electric....the bill has gone up by around three weeks worth of petrol, but that covers three months of charging the car.

Why do they only send billing quarterly instead of monthly?
 
Just the way they do it here....

Power here in Tasmania is around 27c/kWh
I don't get off peak where I am...

Petrol is around $1.65 per litre right now, but goes up and down a lot. The electricity price is pretty stable....

At my house I have 5kW of solar panels, and when I installed we had net metering, so basically my meter winds backwards when I am generating excess. For those who missed the cutoff date, now it is set up so that excess fed to the grid is paid at 9c/kWh....any drawn from the grid is at the full 27c...which means those people have an incentive to charge by day if possible. Whereas I have the ability to charge whenever.
 
Bumping this posting because I do not want to start another one that is the same :)

I have had my 'i' for 1 month (well 32 days) but I just got my 1st Electric bill (Monthly billing compared to the OP). No special rate. I plug in when I gethome (5-6pm) and unplug about 7am.
I stopped pluggin in my Diesel Truck 2 months ago. So this bill and last were just my Daughter and I at the house. Gas heat/hot water/cooking (not that I cook ...)


My bill went up $9 !!!!!!!!!! :eek: :mrgreen:
I think it was $62 and change, and last month was $53 I don't have the bill in front of my at the moment

I have saved $300 in Diesel Fuel for the past month. So my yearly Insurance bill of $277 a year is already paid for :)



The A/C goes in this weekend ............. :(
 
JoeS said:
tigger19687 said:
My bill went up $9 !!!!!!!!!! :eek: :mrgreen:
I think it was $62 and change, and last month was $53.... :(
That's a 17% increase in your electricity bill! :eek: Time to start thinking about PV solar... ;)

If I didn't rent I would be SOO all over that !
Actually my Landlord would love to do Solar, but he moved out of our Duplex and into a single family. now he no cares about the Duplex and how it looks :( I still treat it like my own, but I won't put up Solar on my Dime... I won't get any tax write offs .
 
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