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Is 44 cents per kilowatt hour expensive?
- Thread starter andycole
- Start date
Again, I’d check what you’re paying for home consumption and that should give you an idea of what residential power costs are.
If you look at the in-car map (and even in the app), it will show what rates are during specific times for supercharger locations.
IMO, $0.44/kWh is not too terrible, especially if you’re on a road trip and need it fast (the I-5 stretch between LA-SF is around this price range). But for daily use, you’ll probably want to find something more economical. Good luck!
DesmoDog
Member
Don't forget that the app will show you what the prices are for all the different times you might arrive.
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Typhoon43
Member
Well THAT makes me happy. Just got my MSP yesterday. My house is 16 cents/Kw and for giggles, I topped off at a Supercharger at the local grocery mart for 37 cents/Kw today. Us "Florida Mans" seem to have some good rates, but I'm also considering moving out to Oregon, so I like what I'm reading here
As you've seen from other replies, yes, that is not cheap. However, there are many SC's out there charging that rate, at least during part of the day. Then too, you get to some remote town and the only gas station in town charges a lot more than the ones on the interstates.
Depends on the battery. If you have an LFP, charge to 100%. Otherwise don't do it unless you need the range and use that charge pretty quickly. Don't let it sit for long over 80%. (Yes, 80.)
Rates vary around the state. Our electric provider is a non profit organization, so rates are low. There are 40 Electric providers in Oregon, and the rates vary from 7.8 K/w to 18.4 K/w. My home rates are less as we have a grid tied solar system. All of that could/may change as the amount of rain and the amount of water in rivers has gone down, climate change at work. Over %50 or our electricity is produced by Bonneville Dam, another % 18 by solar and wind.Well THAT makes me happy. Just got my MSP yesterday. My house is 16 cents/Kw and for giggles, I topped off at a Supercharger at the local grocery mart for 37 cents/Kw today. Us "Florida Mans" seem to have some good rates, but I'm also considering moving out to Oregon, so I like what I'm reading here
It depends on the location / state. Where I am, the two closest Superchargers have tiered pricing (per the time of day). The cheapest one (about 2 miles from where I live) is $0.22 per kWH from midnight to 2 PM the following day, then $.36 the rest of the time.
In FL also and paying around 16 cents/kW @ home and 33-36 cents at FL superchargers. To preserve the battery, I charge to 100% only when needed for travel.
I'm not aware of Tesla recommending to keeping the battery charged to 80%. It is however noted on the app recommended not to charge past 80% for daily driving.
What is going on out there with gas prices? That's almost double NH ($3.50); even more than avgas nearby ($5.86).Yeah, expensive is all relative… I’m in San Diego right now actually, renting a Model Y from Hertz. Just supercharged it for 50 cents/kwh, but the gas station across the street here in La Jolla is $6.49…
For the most part, superchargers are $0.42/kWh 24/7 in New England. There are some in MA that are time-of-use (Framingham, Lexington). I'm on a TOU plan that's $0.105/kWh at night. With solar and batteries, I never draw from the grid during the day, so I ignore the daytime prices.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
Not exactly like that, no. It's not dynamic in the sense of real-time adjustment based on how many are charging. But many stations do have different rates for different times, often to match time of use rates that are passed on by the utilities, and the lower demand / overnight times are cheapest. But a station won't just drop to a cheap rate in the middle of the afternoon because there's only one person there.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
Gas in SD is nearly $7/gal right now, so the electricity is still cheaper somehow
zoomer0056
Active Member
Did you really see such a dynamic and fluctuating price based on how many people are there?
@andycole:
So, here's the straight skinny:
When Tesla puts in a Supercharger, Somebody has to pay for the electricity; has to pay for the maintenance; and, given that we're trying to electrify America here, pay for new Superchargers. Before Tesla started playing around with Time of Day rates, the general idea was that the amount one would pay at a Supercharger was roughly 3X the amount one would pay at home.
So: If you've got a way to charge at home, that's what you should be doing. Here in New Jersey home electric rates are roughly $0.18/kW-hr; rates at the SC's, at least during the day time, are around three times that, $0.46/kW-hr. Or a bit higher.
Now, Tesla has realized that the Superchargers are flat-out abandoned in the off-hours, say, between midnight at 4 a.m.. If you want to find out what the local superchargers charge, you can do this one of two ways:
- Go to the car. Look at the NAV screen. On the right, there's a little icon that looks like a lightning bolt. Tap that. All the Superchargers that are around you will light up with red dots or something. Tap any of those and you'll get a little informative panel telling you if there's any food there and so on, along with information on how much it costs (if it's fixed) or a little plot with time of day on the X axis and cost on the Y axis.
- Grab the app. Go to the Location tab. Swipe up. You'll get a list of nearby chargers and how many free stalls are there. If I tap the one around me for, say, Woodbridge Township, I'll get a little plot. Between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. it's $0.13/kW-hr; $0.48/kW-hr between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.; $0.43/kW-hr between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m., and $0.36/kW-hr between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m., Different SC's got different rates.
Tap on Navigate in the Location tab. Put in Boca Raton. Shows a path from here to there. Hit the "X" and cancel the navigation; but it'll end up centered on Boca Raton, and there's a spot at Deerfield Beach. $0.19/kW-hr from midnight to 4 a.m.; $0.38/kW-hr from 4 a.m. to 12 p.m.; $0.41 from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.; and $0.37/kW-hr from 7 p.m. to midnight.
As I said in the first place: If you're bombing around home, you really oughta be using some kind of home charging solution. The "mainstream" solution (there's lots of funky options) is to get a Tesla Wall Connector for around $450 and get some electrician to install it for somewhere between $500 and $1000, depending upon whether your electrical panel has the amperage and you've got a place on the outside of your home or condo that you can put the thing.
And now that I've finished reading through the thread: Yep, you're going for home charging, that's the ticket. Suggest you get bids from at least a couple-three electricians. MAKE SURE THAT THEY'RE LICENSED AND NOT FLY BY NIGHTS. Further, if you go to Tesla.com and look up charging, there's a spot in there where there's a list of electricians that they feel relatively confident about; you can sort by area. Doesn't mean that one of them can't screw up (there's an infinite number of screw-ups in the human race), but you might want to pick one or two out of there.
More words of wisdom/warning: First, figure out how much current your car can do at 240 VAC. If you've got a Standard Range car (you can tell since the advertised range will be less than 290 miles or so), the maximum current that the car can accept will be 32A. If you've got one with a range greater than 300 miles, you've got a Long Range or Performance, and both of those can accept 48A. Keep this number in mind for what comes next.
Ideally, since the difference in install cost is minimal between a low-amperage connection and a high-amperage connection, you generally want All The Current That You Can Get. 48A will get you a charge rate of around 45 miles of charge per hour; 32A will get you around 30 miles of charge per hour.
Next: NEC code says that if you want an amperage of Yea Much Current, then the Circuit (that is: The breaker in the breaker panel, the wire in the wall, and the socket (if you use one)/wall connector, must be rated so Yea Much Current = Circuit Rating * 80%. So, if you want 48A, you need a 60A circuit. You want 32A, you need a 40A circuit. Note that this rule is Real and Not To Be Violated by, say, trying to run 48A on a 50A circuit: That way lies random breaker trips and, more importantly, especially as FL is Hot in the summer, the very real possibility of getting the wire in the wall so hot it catches afire. That is not a joke, and I am not kidding.
So, when the electrician shows up, there's two things said electrician has to do:
In NJ, we got our building codes. And, as it happens, putting something in like a Wall Connector calls for an after-the-fact inspection of the work by the local code enforcement guys. Dunno how that works in FL; but another pair of eyes, if it is required, is a Right Good Idea, and worth the loose change from the back of the couch. Besides, Society As A Whole has Decided That Burning Houses Down is a Bad Idea, and that building inspector is society's way of making sure of that. The inspector is on your side, as much as $RANDOM_ELECTRICIAN might grumble.
Good luck!
More words of wisdom/warning: First, figure out how much current your car can do at 240 VAC. If you've got a Standard Range car (you can tell since the advertised range will be less than 290 miles or so), the maximum current that the car can accept will be 32A. If you've got one with a range greater than 300 miles, you've got a Long Range or Performance, and both of those can accept 48A. Keep this number in mind for what comes next.
Ideally, since the difference in install cost is minimal between a low-amperage connection and a high-amperage connection, you generally want All The Current That You Can Get. 48A will get you a charge rate of around 45 miles of charge per hour; 32A will get you around 30 miles of charge per hour.
Next: NEC code says that if you want an amperage of Yea Much Current, then the Circuit (that is: The breaker in the breaker panel, the wire in the wall, and the socket (if you use one)/wall connector, must be rated so Yea Much Current = Circuit Rating * 80%. So, if you want 48A, you need a 60A circuit. You want 32A, you need a 40A circuit. Note that this rule is Real and Not To Be Violated by, say, trying to run 48A on a 50A circuit: That way lies random breaker trips and, more importantly, especially as FL is Hot in the summer, the very real possibility of getting the wire in the wall so hot it catches afire. That is not a joke, and I am not kidding.
So, when the electrician shows up, there's two things said electrician has to do:
- Run a Load Analysis. It's a more-or-less standard form. Inputs are the square footage of the house (lighting and that), the amperage of all the major appliances (microwave, fridge, HVAC, stove, if it's electric) and so on. When it's done, the electrician will have a max nominal amperage for your overall house. He'll then look at your breaker panel. Say you got a 150A panel; but the current for your house, by the load analysis, is 80A or something. Difference is 70A: And, therefore, you can put in a 60A breaker for the Tesla wall connector.
- If there's flat-out no room, then either you need a bigger breaker panel, a bigger drop from the power pole, or both.
- If there's some headroom (say, 40A), then you jigger the Wall Connector to tell the Tesla that it's on a 40A circuit, then use 40A wire and a 40A breaker. The Tesla will be happy to run at the lower amperage, 32A. Which is still more than enough to charge the car overnight, when you're sleeping.
- If you hire the guy/gal, then they do the wiring. And here's the next, "Be careful about this and ask questions."
- Most garden variety electricians wire houses for various loads all the time. They tend to run down to the equivalent of Home Depot and get ROMEX, a brand name of wire.
- That wire comes in different gauges, up to 6 GA or so. Which, on some charts, is rated for 65A or so. But that's not for ROMEX cable - it's for cable that's routed in a conduit, to provide for better heat dissipation. This is a snivvy that electricians often fail to notice. So, they put in ROMEX 6GA, which is only rated for 55A. Oops! And seven years from now, the house burns down, as the insulation on the wire fails from Getting Too Darned Hot.
- The cost difference between the right cable and the wrong stuff isn't all that much. So, Ask Picky Questions about the wire gauge selection, especially if you're going for a 60A circuit.
In NJ, we got our building codes. And, as it happens, putting something in like a Wall Connector calls for an after-the-fact inspection of the work by the local code enforcement guys. Dunno how that works in FL; but another pair of eyes, if it is required, is a Right Good Idea, and worth the loose change from the back of the couch. Besides, Society As A Whole has Decided That Burning Houses Down is a Bad Idea, and that building inspector is society's way of making sure of that. The inspector is on your side, as much as $RANDOM_ELECTRICIAN might grumble.
Good luck!
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