Our utility notified us that due to EVs they are instituting "Time of Day" rates making the hours of 3pm to 7 pm more expensive for everyone. During the four months of summer the rates go up 35% for that time period. The other eight months of the year it is around 8% more expensive.
What do you guys that already have this billing do to reduce your usage during those times?
We have had them for a long time. It isn't much of an issue for us. We do electrical power intensive activities like running the clothes dryer off peak in the mornings. It spreads laundry out over a few days, but the septic is probably happier for it as well.
The car is programmed for the TOU rates, so we plug it in, and it will charge only on the off peak times unless specifically instructed, which is never.
SE Michigan. There are the basic things, like programming the AC to stay off during those hours. I'm curious about how far most people go to cut usage and what methods there are for turning off dumb devices.
We have solar, and as the hours for TOU peak rates shifted, due in part to more solar being installed and damping some of the TOU demand load, the amount of solar in the "peak" window has dropped. We added batteries a couple of years ago, so we use no peak power year round, and are basically 100% self powered for eight months of the year.
Some folks near us have the ability to charge during off peak and export during peak. We don't at the moment due to the tax implications. Whether it is worth the wear and tear on their battery systems is a TBD. My personal bet is not, as the usage is full throttle in and full throttle out, which aren't kind to batteries.
We go ahead and use the AC (rarely), when needed, as AC use is a tiny fraction of our annual power load. It isn't worth it to us to precool the house, etc. as we are usually running it due to air quality more than temperature. I could add a timer to reprogram the well pump to be off peak only, but it is already 90+% off peak anyway, so the marginal benefit is small. (Laundry in the mornings, irrigation in the early, early mornings, etc.)
TOU affects different people differently. For acquaintances that live in suburbia in central California, where the afternoon temperatures can be well over 100F, in relatively poorly insulated homes, they have very little ability to time shift their electrical usage, and they get hit hard. $500/mo electrical bills are not uncommon. That makes the ROI on solar and batteries very short.
Our local power company has gone as far as running an ad campaign asking customers to routinely have sandwiches for dinner and to turn off TVs and computers in the evening to save energy. To say that they were widely ridiculed is an understatement.
I think a lot of it comes down to a) can you time shift energy intensive activities easily, b) do you have solar, c) what happens to excess solar power (some folks get zero credit for exports to the grid), and d) how much solar do you have (and can you have) relative to the amount you use. Here, we are limited to solar power production no more than 110% of existing use. Adding electric heat pumps or EVs significantly increases the load. My $0.02 is that if you are considering solar, you should go big, even if you think that you won't have an EV. Solar systems have a 20+ year lifespan. I think that batteries are a more complicated question as there seems to be an emerging trend of more EVs supporting vehicle to home power or vehicle to grid power from the vehicle batteries, and that could (will?) dramatically shift the effective cost and relative advantages of home batteries compared to an EV that does home backup.
All the best,
Peter
