<VV> Electric costs for electric cars?

Frank DuVal corvairduval at cox.net
Wed Nov 30 00:06:17 EST 2011


Some quick math:

A 120 volt standard receptacle is 15 amp rated. So, the most power one 
can pull from the standard home outlet is 15 A X 120 volts = 1800 
volt-amps, which we will call watts and ignore the reactance part of AC 
circuits. I said simple math...

1800 watts for one hour of charging time is 1.8 kw hours. IF you pay 
$0.10per kwh, you will pay $0.18 per hour of charging at maximum pull 
from a standard receptacle. Overnight charging would cost $.18 x 8 
hours, or $1.44 per night. Sounds cheap, so what can change? Maybe it 
takes longer than 8 hours to charge your car. Your kwh rate may be much 
larger than $.010.

If you opt for the quicker charge by installing a 240 volt receptacle, then:

20 amp circuit could be 20 x 240 = 4800 watts maximum. I say maximum in 
both these cases, as usually you design an appliance to draw only 80% of 
the  circuit rating.  4.8 kh for an hour is 4.8 kwh, or (@ $.10 per 
kwh)  $0.48 per hour of charging. Some thing I read say these chargers 
will recharge the car in 5 hours or less. So, $2.50 or less per night.

I guess the real math is to figure the kwh used by the car, therefore 
the real cost of recharging can be calculated. Too much for this discussion.

Frank DuVal

On 11/29/2011 11:06 PM, John Beck wrote:
> I haven't done the math myself but the figures you see tossed around are in the single digit cents/mile.  For electric cars to really make sense (at least until their numbers become to big to matter) the utilities need to provide incentives to charge them during way off peak hours.  In most places, he electricity we use in the middle of the night in the summer costs the power company almost nothing.  Might as well charge some cars.  Peak demands for electricity at 5pm in the middle of summer are very expensive to cover.  --J.B.
>
>
> ---- Charles Lee<chaz at properproper.com>  wrote:
>> While the "electric car" commercials show the great gas mileage, has anyone
>> seen what their electric bill was for the same period, adjusted for increase
>> due to charging batteries ?
>>
>> In SoCal, air conditioners can easily quadruple electric costs, (anywhere
>> from 8 to 33 cents per KwHr, whereas upstate NY may be 1/3 of that), so what
>> does having to feed an electric car add to that cost?
>>
>> Just curious, since they seem to ignore it in their commercials.
>>
>> Charlie
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
>> [mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of jvhroberts at aol.com
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 1:10 PM
>> To: dpleau at wavecable.com; virtualvairs at corvair.org
>> Subject: Re:<VV>  Is the Volt the new Corvair?
>>
>>
>>
>>   Another hate piece by the anti car Nazis. Not to worry. The Corvair was
>> unique. The Volt is the first of what is going to be a whole herd of
>> extended range electric cars. There's already a Prius flavor due out any
>> time now. And with the invention of reliable lithium-ion batteries, which
>> are only getting better all the time, these are technically quite practical,
>> and soon will also be economically practical.
>> This is THE first serious attempt to power a car, even partially, by
>> something other than a petroleum distillate and/or product.
>>
>>
>>
>> John Roberts
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dennis Pleau<dpleau at wavecable.com>
>> To: virtualvairs<virtualvairs at corvair.org>
>> Sent: Tue, Nov 29, 2011 3:37 pm
>> Subject:<VV>  Is the Volt the new Corvair?
>>
>>
>> http://news.yahoo.com/chevy-volt-corvair-193700844.html
>>
>>
>>
>> Have fun.
>>
>>
>>
>> dp
>>
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