Home Solar & EV charging Experience

[Daryl75]

I am about two weeks into owing my 2022 pre-owned Lucid AGT and I am still learning the vehicle and getting used to it.

I am reaching to see if anyone on here has home solar and what is their experience with their electric bill.

My home is equipped with Tesla solar (paid in full), and my current local electrical bill is under $8 monthly. I am wondering because I do my charging at night should I expect to see any increase in my bill? If anyone have similar situation, please let me know what to expect.

 

[terrycs]

Congratulations on your new car ...

There are many variables to consider. I am in CA and had my Tesla solar installed about 5 years ago in anticipation of eventually getting a BEV. SCE continues to pay me every year so I only use the free DC fast charging on road trips.

 

[Daryl75]

Congratulations on your new car ...

There are many variables to consider. I am in CA and had my Tesla solar installed about 5 years ago in anticipation of eventually getting a BEV. SCE continues to pay me every year so I only use the free DC fast charging on road trips.

Thanks Terrycs

 

[thepolock]

There are all so many variables here. You are really really referring to TOD (time of day) rate charges and you would have to investigate with ur local power company about that. Generally speaking, most utilities have a discount for off hours use (like 8PM thru 6am or so, specifics are with ur utility). There are also what the utility credits you for your excess generation (some have net-metering (which pays you a rate for each KWH you generate in excess of your use) others some variant of that).

In my case (I live in Arizona) I am grandfathered in to net-metering. I can generate near 8KW per hour in full sun. In practical use, I generate on average about 45KW hours per day. When I added my vehicle to my household I immediately saw a large increase in use. This offset my generation and placed me in to deficit use in the last two months of my year charges. I do NOT use time of day rates. There was no benefit for me to do so. Having a lower off peak use did not help my day time use charges.

All in all, I'm about breaking even now, When I charge my Turing I use about 80KW of charge per plug in.

Good luck

Walt

 

[scal_air]

Hello and Welcome Daryl75,

As others have stated - it depends
Is the $8/month for electrical use or fees/administrative costs. Is your cost rate variable with time of day? Charging at night would be great if your rate is lowest at that time. If you are overproducing electricity during the day and receiving little to nothing from running it back onto the grid, maybe you should charge during the day or consider adding a battery back up.

Assuming you are close to producing what you use, I would expect a modest increase in you electric bill. How much depends on your rate at night and how much driving you do. Happily, it will be less than what you would have spent on gasoline that month.

 

[Daryl75]

Hello and Welcome Daryl75,

As others have stated - it depends
Is the $8/month for electrical use or fees/administrative costs. Is your cost rate variable with time of day? Charging at night would be great if your rate is lowest at that time. If you are overproducing electricity during the day and receiving little to nothing from running it back onto the grid, maybe you should charge during the day or consider adding a battery back up.

Assuming you are close to producing what you use, I would expect a modest increase in you electric bill. How much depends on your rate at night and how much driving you do. Happily, it will be less than what you would have spent on gasoline that month.

Thanks,
The $8 is administrative fees. I produced 114% energy last year, more than needed. I do drive about 100 miles a day (5 days a week). I will charge on the weekend during the day, but that's hard to do during the week because it gets dark sooner.

 

[Uncle_Scary]

Take your mileage per day and divide by your efficiency: 100 miles per day / 3 miles per kilowatt hour = 33 kWh per day (I'm using 3 miles/kWh, what you get will depend on how you drive). Your electricity bill will go up by approximately 33 kWh x your electricity rate (per day).