I purchased a Nissan Leaf on May 12th; so what does it cost me in electricity?
Like most people I have an electric bill and I have tier billing. These are the tiers from Austin Energy:
| Tier 1 first 500 kWh at $0.018 per kWh | $9.00 | |
| Tier 2 next 500 kWh at $0.056 per kWh | $28.00 | |
| Tier 3 next 500 kWh at $0.072 per kWh | $36.00 | |
| Tier 4 next 1,000 kWh at $0.084 per kWh | $84.00 |
The Measure:
To measure how much power my charger consumes; I use a device called a Kill-o-Watt. It plugs in between the wall and the car charger.
Here are 2 average samples:
From a full charge I drove 31 miles and used 12.8 kWh.
From a full charge I drove 64.4 miles and used 25.72 kWH
My average is right around 35 miles a day and I only use this car for work, so 20 days a month. Last month was 715 miles.
The Math:
So from these two samples I can say 95.4 miles will use 38.52 kWH
Mathematically that works to be 100 Miles at 40.37 kWH or 1 mile = .4037 kWH
So depending on what tier I am in when charging the Leaf the price will vary.
I general get through all 4 tiers by the end of the month.
Tier 1 would be 179 miles at 0.4037kWH per mile = 72.161 kWH total * $0.018 = $1.29
Tier 2 would be 179 miles at 0.4037kWH per mile = 72.161 kWH total * $0.056 = $4.04
Tier 3 would be 179 miles at 0.4037kWH per mile = 72.161 kWH total * $0.072 = $5.20
Tier 4 would be 179 miles at 0.4037kWH per mile = 72.161 kWH total * $0.084 = $6.06
The Result:
So my drive to work of 715 miles cost me roughly $16.59 a month.
My Leaf: The 2 blue lights on the dashboard show the charge level. There are 3 lights total.
Kill-a-watt: This measure usage for anything you plugin to it.
