Higher than expected electric bill

DerekA said:
Did you have the charger installed by a professional? I drive ~25 miles a day and we've seen ZERO increase in our electric bill. I'd get that wiring checked out...
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The OP is reportedly using the OEM, Level 1, 120V device that was supplied with the car. No other device has been installed.

If you’re driving 25 miles a day, presumably on batteries, you are using ~7kWh’s each day. At $.10/kWh, cost would be $.70/day or $14-21/ month for 20-30 days of driving. Perhaps you’ve reduced electrical consumption elsewhere in the house to reflect a zero increase in your bill, but the car is consuming 140-210kWh that wasn’t being consumed before, unless you’re charging elsewhere.
 
turtleturtle said:
The bill doesn’t show actually daily usage, but an average daily usage. Up by 20%.

The meter, if it’s not the car, will be useful to see what other appliances are consuming. Help eliminate them.
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Was there a price increase that caused the large jump in the bill?
Was this bill for more days?

If average daily usage only increased by 20%, the 'daily' bill should only increase 20%, unless there is an additional price increase. The 20% increase could be due to the Clarity, depending on the previous usage.

This bill could also be for more days - time between readings may vary, and this would be made-up with the next reading.

(Is the $100 increase a 20% increase in your bill? - Is your monthly bill $500?)
 
turtleturtle said:
I installed the kilowatt meter yesterday and will let it accrue for a month.
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You should get a pretty good idea of the results after a day or two. If you are using $100 of electricity in a month, it would be $3 per day - 30 kwh per day... If you are less than 20 per day, you have not found the problem.

I would encourage you to get daily readings, in case it gets messed up before the month is over.
 
Any chance your home HVAC fan accidentally get set to On rather than auto setting? If you utilize a smart thermostat, have the daily setting been adjusted because folks are home all day? Whose in the fridge all day in a way they didn’t used to be? Are you running a basement dehumidifier now because that’s the new “office”? Has someone new taken on laundry chores of late? How many more laptops, tablets, phones, TVs are on when household members would have been out of the house pre-COVID...?
With only two in our home, we found our electric bill has gone up ~$30/mo (@$0.12/kw) just because we are home all days. I suspect home use is a much more probable source of increased use than a car problem. Let us know when you find the reason(s).
 
turtleturtle said:
I installed the kilowatt meter yesterday and will let it accrue for a month.
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Looking forward to the results.

FYI - Electricity is expensive where I live (Oakland, CA) and I drive about 1,000 miles a month. Here's what I current pay for the whole home including charging my Tesla.
Tier 1 Allowance 237.80 kWh (29 days x 8.2 kWh/day)
Tier 1 Usage 237.800000 kWh @ $0.24430 $58.09
Tier 2 Usage 367.921000 kWh @ $0.30743 113.11
Energy Commission Tax 0.18
Oakland Utility Users' Tax (7.500%) 12.84
Total Electric Charges $184.22
 
Tek_Freek said:
I wonder if he got paid for his time when he figured that out.
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Sorry for the totally unrelated question but since I see you live in Vegas and I will be moving there soon, I wonder how has been your Clarity experience there with dealers, maintenance etc?
 
Bought in Salt Lake City. Only one here at the time and it was white. No maintenance yet. 1 1/2 years and still under 5k miles. Welcome to Sin City! LOL. We never go to the strip and we used to vacation here every couple of years and spent most of our time there.
 
Tek_Freek said:
Bought in Salt Lake City. Only one here at the time and it was white. No maintenance yet. 1 1/2 years and still under 5k miles. Welcome to Sin City! LOL. We never go to the strip and we used to vacation here every couple of years and spent most of our time there.
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Thanks! If you see in Vegas a silver Clarity honking at your white Clarity, that would be me!
 
SAronian said:
Looking forward to the results.

FYI - Electricity is expensive where I live (Oakland, CA) and I drive about 1,000 miles a month. Here's what I current pay for the whole home including charging my Tesla.
Tier 1 Allowance 237.80 kWh (29 days x 8.2 kWh/day)
Tier 1 Usage 237.800000 kWh @ $0.24430 $58.09
Tier 2 Usage 367.921000 kWh @ $0.30743 113.11
Energy Commission Tax 0.18
Oakland Utility Users' Tax (7.500%) 12.84
Total Electric Charges $184.22
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That's not expensive compared to L.A. How is your summer bill? Down here my bill never goes below $200 even in winter. In summer it comes close to $500 (mostly air conditioner, even with me fighting my wife's polar bear instincts of setting the thermostat at 70). It was roughly the same as before I bought the Clarity, driving roughly the same 1000 miles a month and then charging every night before retiring. Not too much of a change after retiring/Covid/less travel either.
 
coutinpe said:
That's not expensive compared to L.A. How is your summer bill? Down here my bill never goes below $200 even in winter. In summer it comes close to $500 (mostly air conditioner, even with me fighting my wife's polar bear instincts of setting the thermostat at 70). It was roughly the same as before I bought the Clarity, driving roughly the same 1000 miles a month and then charging every night before retiring. Not too much of a change after retiring/Covid/less travel either.
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Later I realized your bill is monthly. Mine is bimonthly, so you're 100% right, your electricity is very expensive indeed. My apologies.
 
I talked to our solar installer and he said that lots and lots of people are using more electricity compared to last year because of changes with the pandemic, working from home, or otherwise. We noticed the same thing with higher electric bills this year (did not correlate with buying our Clarity PHEV) but it is pandemic related. Get some solar panels :)
 
The OP mentioned about several people living in the home. In my experience, having a variety of people living here - I've run into the following: computers, monitors, curling irons, curlers, bathroom lights (the ones with the 60-watt globes,) TV's (especially plasma), separate HVAC for bonus room, garage/shop. All of these can cause a strain on the electric bill when left on most of the time.

I too, have a 4,000 sq ft house with three car garage, and we have an 1,150 sq ft shop, with a separate heat pump. Rates are about $0.085 / kwh. Average monthly electric bill is around $340. I have both 120v and 240v available in my garage. I normally charge with 240v and stock 12-amp Honda EVSE. From one year to the next, there was no significant difference in out bill after getting the Clarity two years ago (30k miles.)

I spend time every day going behind and adjusting thermostats, turning stuff off that others can't seem to remember (or actually think about!) We have an old 60" plasma TV that draws about 500 watts -- and everyone else thinks that it should be ON all day long with no one watching it! << end of rage! >>
 
Mid-month update. 89 KWh so far.
IMG_1830.webp
 
David in TN said:
I spend time every day going behind and adjusting thermostats, turning stuff off that others can't seem to remember (or actually think about!) We have an old 60" plasma TV that draws about 500 watts -- and everyone else thinks that it should be ON all day long with no one watching it! << end of rage! >>
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I’ve seriously considered replacing every outlet, switch, and power strip with a WiFi connected unit just to have the peace of mind at night that everything has been turned off.

There’s a terrible ROI on that, but sometimes wonder if I really can put a price on my own sanity.
 
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