Ouch!! First Electric Bill since getting the Lightning….yikes!

[TaxmanHog]

Well it’s been a scorcher of a summer so the AC deserves some blame…..

but opening up my first electric bill since taking delivery of my Lightning was a bit “shocking “!

and I don’t even have the Charge Station Pro yet.
So this is all off the Stove plug, and the standard wall outlet.

anyone else gotten whacked yet on their first electric bill ?

Compared to last years daily consumption rate, looks like the trucks impact is around $156 on the total bill.

 

[FirstF150InCasco]

Did you expect a decrease?

Not sure the purpose of those post.

You switched from paying for gas at the pump to electricity at home.

Let us know the cost to drive the miles for your current gas rates compared to your current electricity rate.

That's what I did: Compared the cost per mile with gas vs. the cost per mile with electric. That's the only metric that maters (not the size of my electric bill.)

 

[FirstF150InCasco]

I hear ya 100%

I was being a bit tongue in cheek.

And I didn’t mean to come off as if I was not happy with the truck or that I was complaining about the electric bill.
Just getting used to the new math here with EV’s.

and definitely understand that there are plenty out there that want to make the case against EV’s with the argument that you just end up paying for it through the electric bill.

Ideally I’d get solar….but just don’t get enough sunlight the way my roof is surrounded by trees.

Lots to learn for me on all this stuff

but love waving at the gas stations as we drive by them. They do come in handy for bathrooms and gum still I suppose

The only math that matters is the cost per mile (whether it is gas or electric.) Keep it simple.

 

[FirstF150InCasco]

and, as a note, and as a former Mayor of my small town, where we had our OWN Electric Power Utility, and billing to customers, I saw many folks try to 'compare' a current monthly bill to one from last month, or last year - it's just not possible or reasonable to try to make that comparison - the weather is NOT the same month to month or year to year - NEVER. Your usage is also NEVER the exact same, or sometimes even CLOSE to the same, from year to year. Don't get caught up in simply looking at the bottom 'You Owe this much' number - compare the actual TRUE usage difference, IF you can even make those calculations, which is VERY difficult without separate METERS on each device, appliance, or EV charger. Everything else is pure guessing and speculation.

Yes, the only comparision that matters is the cost per mile for your EV lightnijng (vs what the cost per mile would be with non-EV 2022 F150.)

 

[Labs4Lightning]

Wow you guys pay a lot for electricity. I pay $0.12/kWh including all fees (I run a farm so my power bill is already $550/month due to using about 9000kWh/month.)
Where I am, we are paying $1.95/litre right now (a month ago it was $2.3/litre). After USD conversion that $1.95 is $5.75/gallon (a month ago it was $6.80/gallon).
I am estimating going from the 2008 f150 5.4L that I am driving now to the lighting it will cost about 1/8 the amount per km.

I am surprised that in high power cost areas there is a lot of uptake in EV vehicles right now as the price difference wouldn't make sense for the little amount that gets saved.

I am also surprised that there are people out there that don't realize how much it actually costs to charge an EV and are shocked when they get the bill. An advantage to EV is your "fuel" cost doesn't change like gasoline does.

Have you not seen the California guys who at least 31 and some higher? Ouch
im 13¢ with taxes. they offer a nice 3.5¢ overnight charging rate. I don’t qualify because I have net metering with my solar. Plenty of saving when gas 4 & 5 $ /gallon.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

My rate is $0.15/KWh.

To simplify things, my past experience has been....
1 EV = 1 House running on electric everything but heat.

For just my house I was utilizing ~10MWh/year.
Add on a Model S + Model X and I'm utilizing ~30MWh/year

Each car drives ~15,000-20,000/year.

Hope that helps for the folks who don't want to do math.

================

For those that do...
My average gas was ~$200-$250/car/month
My average electricity was ~$125/mo
Total Monthly Expense: ~$625/mo.

After buying 2 EVs.
My average electricity was ~$375/mo
Sub-Total Monthly Savings: ~$250/mo

Cost of buying and financing solar over a 10 year period, covering the expenses above was $645/mo after federal incentives.

Sub-Total Monthly Expense: ~$395/mo

State incentives of ~$200/MWh generated =
Average Income of $750/mo

Net Monthly Income: ~$355/mo

That's a swing from paying $625/mo to making $355/mo. for a total budget impact of $980/mo. That's a free F150L XLT SR over a 5 year span.

Each state is different, but sometimes it makes sense to keep going and leverage/double up on the incentives.

 

[jefro]

https://www.eversource.com/clp/vpp/vppqa.aspx#:~:text=What are time of use,other hours of the week.

My time of use charging drops at night. Anyone with an EV should see if they can charge at off peak times. Your electric may call it time of use or exactly an EV discount so you have to ask for both.

$160 month for a truck isn't squat. Still have to use mpg-e and guess it is at least half gas cost. No oil changes and such.

 

[Regular150]

OP - Energy Engineer here. I've done a detailed analysis and I figure a daily-driver Lightning will about double my home energy consumption. Your bill seems to be about in line with what I expect for my circumstances anyway.

DB, (love the screen name), what do you estimate the Lightning using kwh per year and your miles per year? Thx

 

[DadBald]

Thanks

I don't have my worksheet in front of me, but it was approximately 10,000mi/year, assuming 0.5 kWh/mi makes 5,000 kWh annual charging usage (very roughly).

Electric rate tariffs make a huge difference in costs though. Get on a nighttime savers rate if you can.

 

[vandy1981]

I know this wasn't the OP's intent, but the the title of this thread could be one of those "Scary EV" memes that pop up on Facebook.

 

[Amps]

I did a ground array though.

Did you do a pole mount? How many panels on it? I'm not sure why different companies are trying to tell me I want rooftop instead.

 

[Ruination]

Did you do a pole mount? How many panels on it? I'm not sure why different companies are trying to tell me I want rooftop instead.

Rack mount I suppose, 24. You get the perfect angle. You don't have bolts in your roof.

Why companies push roof? It's faster and requires less equipment for them. But it is cheaper.

 

[Slohry]

Here in CA a $500 electric bill is low during the summer. The lightning will put people into the overuse rate if they are still on the tiered rate. Putting a 15.2kw system on my house as soon as the solar company can get their stuff together and install it. 44 panels. Like pulling teeth to get them to follow any kind of timeline.

I feel your pain. My monthly bill was over $800 in the summer. (Riverside County)
It took me over a year to get it installed and operational and that was before covid.

 

[hturnerfamily]

Ford's window sticker show a 'average Fuel Cost' of $950 for the Lightning PRO, or about $75 monthly... I would assume they are using 'at home' charging cost, but who knows how they would come up with that number. I assess mine to be about $56 monthly if I'm driving 1,000 miles per month.

(edit) Ford uses 15,000 miles per year at .13cents per kwh for their calculation, per their foot note,

 

[IdeaOfTheDayCom]

Well it’s been a scorcher of a summer so the AC deserves some blame…..

but opening up my first electric bill since taking delivery of my Lightning was a bit “shocking “!

and I don’t even have the Charge Station Pro yet.
So this is all off the Stove plug, and the standard wall outlet.

anyone else gotten whacked yet on their first electric bill ?

You should reach out to your energy company to see what kinds of savings programs they have for EV owners.

In my case, I use Con-Edison’s “Time of Day” based billing which drops the price per KWh to a fraction of the price between midnight and 8am, so most of my charging is at a deep discount.

My energy company also has a rewards program that gives me a rebate each month for any charging done in the NYC area. As it turns out, the rebate right now is even larger than my energy used. Last month I used $42 in electric, but got $62 back in rebates, sent directly to me via PayPal.