We got our Clarity about a month ago (2018 plug-in hybrid). Our electric bill this month is roughly $200 more than last month and the same month last year. Is this normal?? I did not expect this at all. It's been a hot month (so probably using more energy to run A/C in the house), but not THAT hot. We use the regular 120v plug and usually have to fully charge it each night. We're charging during non-peek hours though (night).
Sky high electric bill
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Did you switch rate plans since last year or were you already on the same time of use plan? Time of use plans save money for any charging done during off-peak, but not as much as you might expect because in most states many of the tariffs are charged based on kWh, in other words the electric usage part of your bill gets the lower rate during off-peak but many of the tariffs are at the same rate regardless of what time of day it is.
Also most time of use plans have a pretty steep penalty for any electrical use during weekdays during the summer, so if you use house A/C at all during the day it can offset much of the savings you get from charging at night.
Doing some rough "ballpark" arithmetic: Clarity has a 17kW battery - charging from empty to full every night for 30 nights is 510kW. That would come to about 40 cents/kW - which is higher than Hawaii's rate and Hawaii has the most expensive electricity in the nation at 32.45 cents/kW. So I'm guessing there are a number of things contributing to the rise in your bill.
My utility just installed "smart" meters on houses - and we all saw a rise in our bill. The utility says it's because the new meters are more accurate...
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I've had this happen twice in the last two years - new meters => higher electric bills.
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I have had my Clarity about 12 months and have 16,000 miles on it. My electric bill is about $35 higher than prior to having the Clarity. Electric rate are $.06 per kwh in the winter and $.12 per kwh in the summer.
Clarity only uses about 14 kWh of the battery so that would work out to about 47 cents/kWh.
I assume your rate plan also changed to time of use? If so that's likely where you are seeing the difference. TOU plans don't always save money it depends on how much electricity you are able to shift away from peak.
In Georgia the standard rate including taxes is 11 cents/kWh. Although during the summer any amount over 650 kWh is 16 cents and since I am usually already over 650 then basically 16 cents is the rate I was paying for charging during summer, 11 cents the rest of the year.
I now have a time of use plan and I pay only 5 cents / kWh including taxes from 11:00 pm to 7:00 am. So I limit all of my charging to those hours. I also run my house A/C pretty heavy from 3:00 am to 7:00 am to suck any remaining heat out of the house while it is very cheap to do so.
Outside of those hours the rate is essentially the standard rate, but with one big catch, during the summer from 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm Mon-Fri the rate including taxes is 33 cents which is basically triple the standard rate. If I were to run A/C during those hours it would be a huge hit on my bill. But since I cool the house down to 71 in the early morning hours and then maintain 74 up until 2:00 pm, I can completely shut off AC from 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm and even on the hottest days it only gets to about 78 by 8:00 pm, then I turn A/C back on.
Not everyone will do what I am doing, but if someone runs AC during peak hours on a time of use plan they may not realize how much that afternoon/early evening AC is costing them.
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I have had my Clarity for 12 months and 16,000 miles. About 90% of my miles are electric and I can charge at work twice a week. My electric rates are $.06 in the winter and $.12 in the summer per kwh. My average bill is about $35 higher than before the Clarity. Obviously your experience will be different depending on how you drive and how many of your miles are electric vs gas.
We've been driving an average of about 900 miles a month on electricity for 6 years (Fit EV, Clarity Electric). Our bill is about $25/mo for the electricity used to charge the car. We are not on TOU, and our incremental electricity cost is ~$.11 with taxes, fees, etc.
Nope - we have one rate all day.
My Nest thermostat knows when I'm home - when I leave it allows the temp to rise or fall to a predetermined level: 80 in cooling season, 60 in heating season.
Mystery solved! There was an error at the electric company that resulted in them sending out a bunch of inaccurate emails with incorrect balances! What a terrible coincidence that it happened the first month we had the Clarity. Thank you all for your responses, which are still very helpful for a new Clarity owner.
That's great news,
and what a weird coincidence. Here in Iowa my rate is 10.5 cents and I figure about .80 - $1.00 per charge. We've noticed about a $25-30 increase each month in our electric bill...which helped us decide to add solar panels to our garage so all of that increase will now be paid for with the solar. (Even tho there's enough electricity produced by wind turbines in Iowa now to cover 40% of all electric usage in the state.)
and what a weird coincidence. Here in Iowa my rate is 10.5 cents and I figure about .80 - $1.00 per charge. We've noticed about a $25-30 increase each month in our electric bill...which helped us decide to add solar panels to our garage so all of that increase will now be paid for with the solar. (Even tho there's enough electricity produced by wind turbines in Iowa now to cover 40% of all electric usage in the state.)
Figuring Out Cost of Electric Bill for Clarity
A few thoughts on this thread...unless you hook the clarity charging station up to a separate meter for billing purposes, I think it will be very challenging to ever determine the exact impact on your electric bill. Oh sure, you can ballpark it by doing the math yourself knowing the electric rates, the average amount of charge you perform each night, etc.; but that’s not the point. When everything is coming through one meter variables such as weather, family activities, etc., are always going to impact the bill from month to month. These variables, including the amount of charging time of the Clarity make using the electric bill a poor decider of what the Clarity’s cost of ownership is. What is missing in this discussion and so often forgotten is that in addition to the cost savings of electric over gasoline as a fuel source in the Clarity (and other electric powered vehicles like it) have an overall cost of ownership that is generally much, much lower than ICE vehicles — due primarily to the fact they have fewer moving parts and need service at far fewer intervals. This is actually THE REASON the Chevrolet Volt was discontinued by GM. The dealers stopped ordering them from GM because they weren’t making any money on them in their service bays. We all know dealers don’t make money in the showroom or on the lot. Instead they make their money on the service after the sale; and the Volt did not require much service. So, I say look at the big picture and put everything in context. Yes, the savings on electric over gasoline is a great thing and it is good for the environment. But long term, it is the cost savings you may see from not having to see the dealer over the life of ownership that often is going to really add up too.
A few thoughts on this thread...unless you hook the clarity charging station up to a separate meter for billing purposes, I think it will be very challenging to ever determine the exact impact on your electric bill. Oh sure, you can ballpark it by doing the math yourself knowing the electric rates, the average amount of charge you perform each night, etc.; but that’s not the point. When everything is coming through one meter variables such as weather, family activities, etc., are always going to impact the bill from month to month. These variables, including the amount of charging time of the Clarity make using the electric bill a poor decider of what the Clarity’s cost of ownership is. What is missing in this discussion and so often forgotten is that in addition to the cost savings of electric over gasoline as a fuel source in the Clarity (and other electric powered vehicles like it) have an overall cost of ownership that is generally much, much lower than ICE vehicles — due primarily to the fact they have fewer moving parts and need service at far fewer intervals. This is actually THE REASON the Chevrolet Volt was discontinued by GM. The dealers stopped ordering them from GM because they weren’t making any money on them in their service bays. We all know dealers don’t make money in the showroom or on the lot. Instead they make their money on the service after the sale; and the Volt did not require much service. So, I say look at the big picture and put everything in context. Yes, the savings on electric over gasoline is a great thing and it is good for the environment. But long term, it is the cost savings you may see from not having to see the dealer over the life of ownership that often is going to really add up too.
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Since I'm not on a TOS charge system I was able to do this calculation for my Volt. I started with the $120 a month gas cost for my Cruze ECO MT with a lifetime combined 42.5 MPG. I also track my utilities (holdover from US Air Force Variable Housing Allowance annual reporting) so I knew what my electric bill averaged over a year. Bottom line, my electric bill went up at most $30 a month and my Volt averaged about $10 a month on gas over the same time period. Driving patterns and mileage were nearly identical between the first year of Volt ownership and final year of Cruze ownership. So $120 a month for Cruze gas - $30 for Volt electricity - $10 for Volt gas is a savings of $80 a month, or $960 per year. Throw in three and a half oil changes I was averaging each year on the Cruze due to mileage and I've just saved another $210 bringing the Volt operating savings up to $1,170 per year. The Volt is $60 more expensive per year to insure, so in the first year my Volt saved me (rounded) $1,100 in operating and insurance costs.
The Clarity PHEV will have a similar calculation, but you have to have the baseline numbers to be able to do the computation.
I was wondering about this. Of course the Clarity has an ICE engine in the car. I'm sure the dealer will have regular maintenance suggested on that engine as if I was driving a 100% ICE car.
Will my maintenance costs go down? I am wondering what the real world experience is of a Volt owner.
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My Volt will go two years between oil changes before the oil life monitor will trigger. The Clarity PHEV appears goes one year between oil changes as my wife's maintenance minder is flagging next April for the next item. This is probably the biggest difference between the two cars. Both cars will periodically perform engine maintenance if you haven't run the ICE and I'm assuming the Clarity will burn out old fuel after a year or so. Tires are probably the biggest per mile operating expense for either car.
Bottom line is get familiar with Honda's idiot light based maintenance minder and use it. Don't depend on dealerships for this information.
I guess it all depends upon how the car monitors itself: If it monitors how long the ICE runs service reminders will be more accurate than it if triggers by overall mileage...
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The Volt monitors both calendar time and ICE usage - 24 months or 10,000 ICE miles, whichever comes first.
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