[oldstuff]

I bought two Volts used, in the spring of this year.
My light bill was running around $106.00 a month for the last year as I heat, cook, and hot water with gas.
The first month with charging both cars daily my light bill went to $76.00.
After five months my light bill is still around the $86.00 mark per month.
Has anybody else seen such a phenomenon.

 

[canehdian]

Gotta control for all variables.
Your vehicles are not magically reducing the bill - you've reduced in other consumption over previous years.

My bills are way down this year over last, but I've replaced 256W of lighting with 40W and used next to no AC all year compared to all the time last summer. My vehicle use has actually increased, yet my bills have gone down.

 

[oldstuff]

I haven't done anything different that I can discern, other than adding a 240 volt charging station. No air conditioner use last year and only 4 days this year.
I would think it would be higher even without the car charging.

 

[calvinist]

I bought two Volts used, in the spring of this year.
My light bill was running around $106.00 a month for the last year as I heat, cook, and hot water with gas.
The first month with charging both cars daily my light bill went to $76.00.
After five months my light bill is still around the $86.00 mark per month.
Has anybody else seen such a phenomenon.

The only way to find out how much you are paying to charge your car is to get a dedicated meter and measure it. They are pretty cheap (less than $30).
https://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Ele...F8&qid=1506798952&sr=8-1&keywords=kill+a+watt

It takes about 13 kWhrs to complete one full charge of my 2014. Given rates here in Tennessee, that's about $1.30 to $1.40.

 

[Norton]

.....Has anybody else seen such a phenomenon.

You're complaining about your E bills being too low?
Of course this does not add up.

Maybe you chould call out the E company and have them check things out.
Or you could Xnay about the Olay Ilbays.

 

[oldstuff]

I have one of those but it doesn't do much for 240 volts.
The power co. has smart meters and they show a graph on the bill and it hasn't changed much.
If it cost as much as your showing my bill should have risen more than $40.00 only charging the car that goes 45 miles a day on all electric.
The other one just runs errands but it gets charged two times or more in a day but not every day.

 

[caronjeff]

Could it be that you changed rate plans to time of use? Some utilities give a big $ break for middle of the night useage, so charging an EV, drying laundry etc might be like 6 cents a kw as opposed to peak rate of 18 as an example?

 

[oldstuff]

Our rates are the same all the time.
I'm not complaining, I'm enjoying!
Maybe it's karma on their part as they tried to charge me $400.00 a month year around, set amount to be adjusted yearly.
That's when I went for gas as much as I could, now with the gas setup my gas bill runs at most in the winter around $100.00
so add that to the $86.00 and you can see how bad they were trying to screw me over.
I even pump my own water now instead of paying them almost another $100 utility bill on top of the power bill.

 

[freshcut]

I would suggest looking at your previous years bills for how much electricity you were billed for and compare. Any changes you've made to appliances, lighting, a/c use, etc will impact it. I noticed my bill went up about $40-50/mo with the Volt, effectively doubling my bill. Most of my charging is when I get home from work and still have about 1/2 of a battery left so only a few kW rather than the full 10.5+ to charge from empty. Looking at my energy usage, I'm usually roughly double the electricity as well so it wasn't much surprise to see the increased charges. About the only changes I've made since I got my Volt is that now I try to remember to shut off my computer nightly (draws about 340W/hr) and rely more on fans to help circulate air in the room rather than relying exclusively on the A/C blower. Those changes have helped bring my monthly consumption down as well.

 

[Loboc]

My bill is between $250 and $500/mo depending on variables such as pool pump and HVAC use. The ~$30/ mo to charge the car doesn’t make a blip.

 

[calvinist]

Random suggestions to consider as you see fit:

Charge one of your cars on 120V (so you can use the meter) for a week to see how much it uses. Maybe there is a serious inefficiency in your other car. As you have been driving the Volt, you may have been driving the other one less and hence using less energy.

Have you bought any new appliances lately? Have you turned off any appliances lately? Is the freezer in your basement still working?

Has the weather this month been milder than the weather last month or last year? (Depending on what you were comparing it to.)

 

[Kvanhutton]

There's nothing magic about the Volt. If you aren't on some kind of time-of-use plan, or you're not on a level payment plan that hasn't adjusted to your new charging usage, then your meter is malfunctioning.

 

[Cord]

you are spending all your time out driving the Volt and your home Nest sees you are not home and dials back the A/C.

 

[fotomoto1]

My electricity bill went down when I started plugging in. Why? Because it got me to really focus on our home electric use, its inefficiencies, and choosing a better electrical provider.

Like others here in the south, HVAC is such a major draw that a few additional bucks for charging isn't really noticed.

 

[oldstuff]

How much electricity my cars consume is the only variable for the last 6 years when I converted to gas for energy intensive applications.
My light bill has been running from $110 to $120 per month year around for those years and only dropped to $86 and under since I bought the two Volt cars.
I haven't added or subtracted anything. That's what is so interesting.

 

[firehawk72]

You are experiencing the random act of the Volt's IPT (Inverter Pulse Technology) where as the Volt's battery is charged it is able to allow your battery to power your house. This lowers the amount of KwHs used due to the superior efficiencies of the Volt's IPT over the transmission line.

 

[oldstuff]

you are spending all your time out driving the Volt and your home Nest sees you are not home and dials back the A/C.

I've only used the AC six days in six years and four of them were after I bought the cars.

 

[oldstuff]

You are experiencing the random act of the Volt's IPT (Inverter Pulse Technology) where as the Volt's battery is charged it is able to allow your battery to power your house. This lowers the amount of KwHs used due to the superior efficiencies of the Volt's IPT over the transmission line.

wow! I'd better get another level 2 station hooked up and keep both of my Volts plugged in whenever the cars are at home. Might just pare another $40 bucks off my bill. Wishful thinking I suppose.

 

[firehawk72]

wow! I'd better get another level 2 station hooked up and keep both of my Volts plugged in whenever the cars are at home. Might just pare another $40 bucks off my bill. Wishful thinking I suppose.

Thanks for taking my joke in stride, LOL. My electric bill usually runs right @ $20, but that is simply because I net meter.

 

[BAZINGA]

Did you have to pull a permit when you installed your 240V EVSE? Maybe that alerted the power company to the presence of an EV and they have special rates???