Home EV charging

[aja8888]

I received my $250.00 rebate check from Entergy yesterday for the $400.00 Emporia charger I bought (thank you Entergy!). Now all that's left is to claim the charger cost on my federal income taxes for an additional 30% credit.

Plus, I haven't been to a gas station since I bought the Bolt about two months ago. Somehow, I have put 2,080 miles on the car in those two months.

 

[explanade]

Supposedly hard wiring is more efficient, though being able to swap the EVSE or take it with you if you move seems like a good advantage.

A couple of years ago, I got a couple of estimates. They were all over the place. I guess some try to decide how much I'd be willing to pay.

My panel is at the opposite wall from the garage door so it would be best to install there. One guy quoted me hundreds or maybe even over a thousand more to run it towards the garage door.

I guess EVs haven't standardized on where you plug in.

Might require EVSE with long enough cord for the plug.

I'm tempted to get a GM for the free charger install but my lease runs another year.

Plus, all manufacturers seem to be standardizing on NACS so probably better to wait -- I don't anticipate getting a Tesla.

 

[explanade]

As @Midpack said, charging at home is almost always much cheaper than using Superchargers or other public networks. I was quite PO’d when I realized Superchargers cost about 3x my home charger. It will be even worse when my solar array goes online…

Yeah, superchargers are much more expensive than charging at home, but they are expensive to build out and install. Something has to pay for the infrastructure to let us travel long distances cross country. I don’t mind 2.5x to 3x on the road, I never expected it to be cheap. I only pay for this a few weeks out of the year, so no big deal.

Plus supercharging stresses the battery more.

Should mostly be done for long road trips, not for regular charging.

 

[REWahoo]

I received my $250.00 rebate check from Entergy yesterday for the $400.00 Emporia charger I bought (thank you Entergy!). Now all that's left is to claim the charger cost on my federal income taxes for an additional 30% credit.

Plus, I haven't been to a gas station since I bought the Bolt about two months ago. Somehow, I have put 2,080 miles on the car in those two months.

No rebate here from my local utility on my Emporia charger but I will be taking that 30% credit on my Fed taxes next February.

I've averaged 750 miles/month in the Bolt over the past year and, other than two short road trips, ended up taking the ICE vehicle to a gas station only once or twice a quarter. A couple of those trips were only to fill the gas can for the lawn mower.

 

[joesxm3]

What is the deal with this 30% credit on federal tax. Can I claim the $500 buying my Tesla wall connector and the $1100 installation charge?

 

[REWahoo]

What is the deal with this 30% credit on federal tax. Can I claim the $500 buying my Tesla wall connector and the $1100 installation charge?

Here's one of a boatload of articles on the subject: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/ev-charger-tax-credit/

 

[joesxm3]

Thanks. After I posted I did a google. I just asked my electrician for an invoice. I had just written him a check at the time.

Lucky for me this was brought up.

 

[RetMD21]

Although 12 amp charging at 110 V worked for local driving sometimes I had a 200 mile day followed by a 120 mile day and needed to supercharge. I got the Tesla Wall Charger on a 60 amp breaker. It's nice to be all charged up in the morning. I am thinking of going with a "nighttime savers" rate plan. Does anybody think this rate structure looks attractive. My alternative is 15.9 cents all day.

 

[yakers]

Takes a good understanding of your electric usage to decide, not obvious from the rates. When I got my first electric car my utility offered a very low night rate for two years then went to low at night but HIGHER in the day WHY? Just give the lower off peak rate and I will seek it out. No need to add a penalty for other usage.
New EV and don't care about getting a timed meter, don't drive enough in our case.

 

[Alan]

I’ve been using our overnight rates for over a year now and it works great. We get charged no more than 7.5p for 6 hours overnight (the rate varies by the half hour and is usually less), and 27p during the day. When we get our monthly bill, pdf, it is over 70 pages long but the first couple of pages gives a summary showing the average usage rate and our average rate is never more than about 8.5p/kWh, including during the winter months. We have solar panels with batteries so I have the inverter set to fully charge the batteries overnight and even during the winter they usually power the house all day. We are at latitude 55N.

I leave the batteries charging overnight even during the summer because that means we export more and we get paid a little more to export during the day than it costs overnight.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

I've been using time based billing but it doesn't save me much. -$5-7/mo. If I had an EV and used it regularly it would be much more significant charging at night. I'm a hot sleeper and run the A/C hard at night and coast through the day with a high thermostat point. I also have my W/H on a timer and it provides all the hot water I need heating it up at the cheap rates.


My utility allows me to compare my cost based off usage on either billing structure online based.

 

[Zathras]

No sharing, our charger circuit goes directly to the breaker panel.

And here

That said, I have heard of a few people using a dedicated switcher that prevents any other outlet from activating when the car is charging.

As you said, resale value would probably be better with a direct circuit. Personally I would trust a direct circuit more as well

And congratulations!

 

[Alan]

And here

That said, I have heard of a few people using a dedicated switcher that prevents any other outlet from activating when the car is charging.

As you said, resale value would probably be better with a direct circuit. Personally I would trust a direct circuit more as well

And congratulations!

We have a dedicated circuit and there is a CT Clamp on the mains coming into the house to be sure that the total current to the house stays below 60A. The charger will ramp back if the total load gets too high. Our daughter has the same arrangement in her garage for her EV charger.

 

[REWahoo]

Although 12 amp charging at 110 V worked for local driving sometimes I had a 200 mile day followed by a 120 mile day and needed to supercharge. I got the Tesla Wall Charger on a 60 amp breaker. It's nice to be all charged up in the morning. I am thinking of going with a "nighttime savers" rate plan. Does anybody think this rate structure looks attractive. My alternative is 15.9 cents all day.

RetMD, I am on a time-based usage rate plan, similar to the winter rates you show. Like your plan, there isn't a big savings between the winter "super off-peak" rate and the other rate periods, or in your 15.9 flat rate option. I am curious to know what the rate plan looks like for the summer as during those four months is where I see significant savings.

Specifically, the difference between my peak rate and nighttime rate during Oct through May is only 2 cents but Jun through Sept the savings is 10 cents. My calculations show little if any savings for me under my winter rate structure but an nice savings during the four months of summer rates.

 

[skyking1]

I'll put a 50 amp NEMA socket in the carport on the new house. I use welders and other things that plug in, besides a possible EV charger. No EV yet but this will future proof with the desired result. I'll run a dedicated 20 amp circuit next to it.

 

[RetMD21]

RetMD, I am on a time-based usage rate plan, similar to the winter rates you show. Like your plan, there isn't a big savings between the winter "super off-peak" rate and the other rate periods, or in your 15.9 flat rate option. I am curious to know what the rate plan looks like for the summer as during those four months is where I see significant savings.

Specifically, the difference between my peak rate and nighttime rate during Oct through May is only 2 cents but Jun through Sept the savings is 10 cents. My calculations show little if any savings for me under my winter rate structure but an nice savings during the four months of summer rates.

I wish my utility would show what my actual numbers are each way. When I assume 1/3 of electrical use is for the EV and base load overnight is half of that during the day I get no savings at all in winter. The situation is similar for the summer. This is the rate structure for summer. The other alternative has a similar peak rate and 16.7 for off peak.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I wish my utility would show what my actual numbers are each way.

Mine is kind enough to tell me what I would have paid if I did not have time-of-service billing. It was never a giant difference, but it used to be a bigger difference when I was w*rking. I am still on the right side of the line, so I will continue with the cheaper nighttme rates and higher daytime rates for now.

 

[Midpack]

My local utility doesn’t even offer peak/off-peak rates, same rate 24/7 though there’s a summer rate and a winter rate. Our rate structure actually encourages higher usage Seems wasteful to me. I charge off peak anyway…

 

[Fermion]

I'll put a 50 amp NEMA socket in the carport on the new house. I use welders and other things that plug in, besides a possible EV charger. No EV yet but this will future proof with the desired result. I'll run a dedicated 20 amp circuit next to it.

Sky, we did the exact same thing. We put in a 50 amp socket on the new house just in case we ever get a EV. Pretty cheap and easy to do when you are working on house wiring anyway.

 

[REWahoo]

I wish my utility would show what my actual numbers are each way.

Mine is kind enough to tell me what I would have paid if I did not have time-of-service billing.

This discussion prompted me to put together a spreadsheet so that I can plug in the monthly kWh billed to each tier and it will do the calculations for me. The total savings for the two bills I've received this year (for Dec and Jan usage) is $35.33, so the annual amount isn't going to be a big number.

I'm curious to see the numbers when summer rates (June through September) kick in.

 

[RetMD21]

My local utility doesn’t even offer peak/off-peak rates, same rate 24/7 though there’s a summer rate and a winter rate. Our rate structure actually encourages higher usage Seems wasteful to me. I charge off peak anyway…

Since I got level 2 I have been charging off peak for convenience but it would be nice to get some financial benefit

 

[Route246]

Just had a dedicated 50A circuit and a 20A 120V circuit at the same time, just to have it around. Total cost was high, $2700 for the electrician. The charger was 1000 because I wanted a 40' cord which is very thick and very heavy.

 

[Koolau]

Which (if any) EVs or PHEVs can be charged using an extension cord from a 110/115 outlet? IIRC DIL was able to hook her Kia EV up this way.

We have 110/115 outlet available in our parking structure (for hooking up a vacuum cleaner.) I actually used it once to charge my 12v car battery when it got low (fan belt issue.) If no one complained (DIL's building manager threatened her!) I could use it at night to charge an EV. I wouldn't need a lot of miles, so it just could w*rk. BUT I don't know if there is a way to do it with just a 110/115 line (without hard wired specialized attachment.) Any experience with this?? Thanks.

 

[RetMD21]

You should be able to charge any of them with 110. I did it for months with my Tesla but it could take a couple of days to get back to baseline after a 200 mile drive. Something like the Prius prime should"fill up" overnight.

A 20 amp circuit like Route246 got would be nice but I just had 15 amps.

 

[REWahoo]

Which (if any) EVs or PHEVs can be charged using an extension cord from a 110/115 outlet? IIRC DIL was able to hook her Kia EV up this way.

As RetMD said, yes you can charge with 110v but it will be very slow. 110/115v charging adds only 3 to 4 miles of range per hour of charge.