Cost to Charge at Home

Basically, divide your total bill by the number of KWH used—that’s your true cost per KWH. The 7 to 9 cents per hour that everyone quotes is misleading since it doesn’t reflect the cost of being hooked up and supplied by the grid. I have solar but still pay a monthly fee imposed for being connected to our utility plus the distribution fees associated with my acquisition of electrons above and beyond what my panels produce.

 

I am no CPA, but in my view you are most certainly correct to divide the total bill by the number of KWH consumed by the Clarity to find out his actual total cost of power applied to the Clarity. However, if Ben is primarily interested in the marginal cost of the electricity (i.e., new power consumption exclusively for the PHEV), I think for that purpose he would be correct in his view that it is 7.53 cents times the KWH applied to the Clarity. This would be true as long as any and all other fees he is charged by the utility are flat fees he pays monthly anyway (i.e., sunk costs). However, if any of the other fees are in fact also charged by the KWH consumed (not just flat fees/sunk costs), then he would have to include those costs in his calculation. So, you both may be right in this case!

 

I searched for Maryland electric rates and the price seems to include distribution. Do you have link to the plan you signed up for?
https://www.chooseenergy.com/shop/residential/electricity/MD/21042/baltimore-gas-electric-co-md-electricity/

It seems like electricity is cheaper in the South like Texas and Arkansas. In Texas, companies advertise as low as 7.5 cents for a 6 month contract. And looking at the fine print, it's 3.4 cents/kWh plus a distribution fee of $3.49 monthly plus 3.8 cents/kWh. Some areas in Texas has co-op which is usually more expensive. Some have free nights and weekends but they will charge triple the flat rate during the day.

 

That's precisely what I did. Including taxes and all other fees, our cost per kwh is about $0.10. At that price, in the summer, it costs less than 1/6 as much as our Subaru Outback to drive around (local gas prices about $3.13/gallon). That ratio will become less favorable in the winter but still somewhere between 1/4 and 1/5. Gas at $10.00/gallon? No problem.

 

I'm with something called SMECO, looks like our rate actually dropped a bit in September to 7.42. I probably won't really know if that's the entire marginal rate or not until I see a bill!

https://www.smeco.coop/customer-choice/standard-offer-service

And sure, it's only the marginal rates that concern me. Obviously any fixed charges I'm paying anyhow for power to my house; for calculating savings purposes all I want to know is how much more I'm paying to recharge the car vs how much less I'm paying for gas not bought.

And actually, I AM a CPA--or at least, was one in a prior life!

 

Including part of the monthly billing, delivery charge, and energy used, I figure a bit over 8 cents a KWh to charge my PHEV.

Our municipal power company charges $4.50 a month for billing/connection fee, .045351 KWh for energy, and a delivery charge of .034435 KWh.

 

I don't see any hidden distribution charges so you'll pay around 7.4 to 7.8 cents per kWh year round.

 

For Southern California Edison, it looks like my average total charge per kWh is 23 cents. Although I could sign up for an ev charging rate, the cost to upgrade the electrical system plus the high electricity use ( we live in Palm Springs, california area) doesn’t Make it worth it. Overall, compared to cost of running car on gas, it’s still a bit cheaper to drive on electricity..

 

Yeah, I don't think we have tiers or night rates or anything like that, we just pay what we pay. I'm on autopay so I literally never even look at the bill except to peek at the total before I toss it into the trash; I never even pull it out of the envelope. I will this time though just to see what its composed of--I know there's more to it than simply meter readings and hours times rate, but I have a feeling all the other stuff is fixed.

 

Helped a lot. Thanks David.