Kill-A-Watt / KillAWatt and Level 1 charger numbers

I am thinking of getting a meter for the 110V L1 home charger to tally the electricity usage for keeping the car topped off. Sounds like the KillaWatt unit is prone to overheating based on some of the reviews, but the other two seem to not have that concern. Any experience of suggestions?
1) KillaWatt: https://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4460-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B000RGF29Q/
2) Poniie (has battery for retaining memory): https://www.amazon.com/Poniie-PN2000-Electricity-Electrical-Consumption/dp/B0777H8MS8/
3) Floureon (has volatile memory without battery): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B3VQBZH/
 
Chooch said:
Thanks for posting that. I have been trying to determine what the payback would be for installing a level 2 charger at home. Most of the time overnight charging on Level 1 is fine for me but the convenience of quick charging via a Level 2 at home would come in handy at times. So I've been wondering how much more efficient the Level 2 is compared to Level 1 so that I could determine how much money I'd save per full charge to see what the payback time is...Hopefully someone here can make better sense of the numbers since I am not sure of my methodology but here's my shot at using your #s (12% more efficient)...
As I recall, from the readout on a Level 2 at work, a full charge usually takes on average, I'd say around 14.3 kWh. Does that mean that on a Level 1 it would take 12% more energy---> 1.12*14.3 =~16 kWh for a full charge? If so,I think I'd be saving an average of 16-14.3 =1.7 kWh per full charge by installing and using a Level 2 instead of my Level 1 at home. My rate is $0.16/kWh which I guess would mean that each full charge on a Level 2 would save me 1.7*0.16 = 27.5 cents as compared to using my Level 1.
I was quoted a cost of$2K for installing a Level 2 charger, so is payback would be 2000/0.275 = 7272 full charges, and at about 1 full charge per day, am I looking at a ~20 year payback for the convenience of Level 2 charging at home??? Have I got that right? It seems crazy so I assume I must be missing something. Thanks for any input.
Click to expand...
I put in two L2 chargers not for payback but for charging convenience, wifi monitoring and logging of charging (can view & download history of sessions & see on the phone) with JuiceBox Pro, and the ability to fully charge when and if our utility rolls out ultra-low rate after midnight. Also is infrastructure for the house that is another feature that can boost its value and we anticipate changing to full electric in the not too distant future. To boot, our province paid for half with the rebate that happens to end today.
 
Ray B said:
I am thinking of getting a meter for the 110V L1 home charger to tally the electricity usage for keeping the car topped off. Sounds like the KillaWatt unit is prone to overheating based on some of the reviews, but the other two seem to not have that concern. Any experience of suggestions?
1) KillaWatt: https://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4460-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B000RGF29Q/
2) Poniie (has battery for retaining memory): https://www.amazon.com/Poniie-PN2000-Electricity-Electrical-Consumption/dp/B0777H8MS8/
3) Floureon (has volatile memory without battery): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B3VQBZH/
Click to expand...

I've used a Killawatt in solar applications for years with no reliability issues. But, I wish I had a plug-in meter with a battery backup. I've lost a lot of data by accidentally loosening or unplugging the Killawatt while moving plugs around and if it's unplugged for even a fraction of second, all data is lost (at least on mine).
 
I have used a Kill-a-Watt inline with my 110v charger non-stop since February with no sign of overheating or other problems. Maybe I have been lucky!
 
I have a similar situation to David Poulson. I live in a condo and we have a communal garage. The exectricity bill for the garage goes to the condo association not to individual owners. I have to pay the condo association for the electricity I use. Right now I have a 2012 Prius Plugin which I am about to give to my daughter and buy a Clarity. Since 2012, I have been using a meter. I can't remember which brand my first meter was. It may have been Kill-a-watt. It had that loss of memory problem, but it was also was impossible to unplug from the charging cord which is how I broke it.

In January of 2014, I bought the meter I have been using ever since. It does have a memory so it is not affected by power outages. It seems to be fine. (I don't know if my Prius draws the at the same amps as the Clarity.) https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E945RMY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I am planning to continue using it with my Clarity. If my neighbor gets a Clarity as well, we may spring for a Level 2 charger and share it. We do not have TOU rates so we can charge a mutually convenient times.
 
kent335 said:
I am very curious to see what numbers you come up with. Based on my analysis of my Pacific Gas & Electric Bill, I came up with about 80% efficiency using the Level 1 Charger, and about 92% efficiency using a Siemens 32 Amp Level 2 Charger. I do live in a hot location, and recharging has been in a garage that is around 85-90 degrees hot.
Click to expand...
How did you calculate that? I have always heard that Level 2 is more efficient than Level 1, but have heard that the difference is small. A 12% difference is massive.
 
I’m as curious as @Mark W. Getting the kW going to the car’s onboard charger is easy peasy but how in the world are you accessing the amount of power exiting the car’s charger on the way to the battery. I assume these two figures are what are divided to yield the percent efficiency wirh the difference list to heat.
I’d really like to know how to do this.
 
Reading through this thread, I would for sure shop around on install. I just purchased my Clarity 1 week ago today, had the L2 charger installed last Sunday. To run the line in the garage was $140, and done by a licensed electrician, came out clean and looks great. Spent $520 on the ChargePoint 18' setup. Couldn't be happier. My electric company doesn't change the cost per kwh, so I am paying 6 cents / kwh consistently. Each "fill up" on the battery is coming in around $1.70 so far, according to the ChargePoint app. For me personally, the pure convenience of the L2 charger is great. My wife and I do a lot of driving around town on weekends so it's nice to be able to plug in and not really have to worry about touching the gas.

Our Electric company also provided a small $100 rebate for getting the L2 charger installed.
 
It's so nice to have such cheap install. I got 2 estimates so far and the install itself is reasonable, about $1000 (it's Canada so this is reasonable for us) to bring the line from the panel to the garage (about 30 feet). But both said I need a power controller (since I only have a 100A panel) which cost over $1500 so I don't over power my panel. Or I can pay $5000 to upgrade the panel to 200A. So for me, it's over $3500 cheapest to get the install and charger which is not worth it for me
 
Wow, that is crazy. Yeah, we had a lot of work done to our house last year for a new HVAC system install so we were forced to upgrade to 200A, but that was only $1,200.00.
 
I get a report of how much KwH it takes to fully recharge the Clarity. From my experiences it took about 12% more KwH to recharge with the Honda provided 120V EVSE, than it did with the Siemens 32 Amp 240V EVSE. If the 32Amp EVSE is 92% efficient, another 12% more KwH to recharge would make the 120V EVSE about 80% efficient. I think the reason for this inefficiency was that I was charging the car in a hot garage, and the Clarity had to turn on the cooling fans a lot longer while the car was charging.
 
What would prevent someone from resetting at the wrong time or setting the wrong $/KW rate? I don’t think they will go for it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top