actually, in a hotter climate it should be on very early in the morning to cool the house down and use less AC in the mid to late morning with a lower baseline.
I’m not sure where you live, but if it smelled so bad outside that you can’t open the windows or use a whole house fan that might be another issue that needs to be addressed.
If you live in California- you’re just effed all around for energy sources unless you invested in solar and on-prem energy storage.
You are totally correct. We have a really big solar array and with a fairly large house and pool it is still tough to break even.
I’m on SDG&E as well on TOU-DR1-Residential. Looking at my bill (delivery + generation):
There’s still a pretty good chunk of the day where I’d be cheaper than fast charging:
Thank you. Finally someone realizes this, that the EV plan isn’t necessarily cheaper, and home charging is way too expensive.
I did the math, and for me, it’s still cheaper (accounting for 20 years on ROI), to get a smaller solar array, no batteries, and run things like the pool pump and charge my EV at super off-peak on TOU-5. This is with NEM 3.0 pricing, which basically encourages “just use what you produce”. My plan is to still run the pool pump and charge the EV at $0.15/kw, but run the AC during the day on solar.
Solar installers are still pretty busy with their NEM 2.0 projects for people that applied before the deadline. I’m going to wait until the winter or spring to see if prices come down.
Yeah one (of many) deceptive things that PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E do is how they communicate energy prices when they speak to the press.
IIRC about 40% of energy rate payers in California are under the CARE/FERA programs where they get discounted energy. And, coming out of COVID there were millions of homeowners that were simply not paying their energy bills. While the IOUs received relief from the federal/state money trough to pay back some of the delinquent bills, there was still a lot of exposure left in terms of energy someone used but did not pay the normal retail rate.
So, that means for any homeowner who is making at least lower/middle wages, they’re paying for the subsidies to all the other delinquent and low-income homeowners. So while California may boast “only” a $31.22 per kWh electricity cost, most homeowners are going to pay much more.
And to your point, the EV2-A and EVB PG&E rate plans to help EV owners save money with cheaper overnight rates end up pounding the homeowner with insane shoulder and peak costs. Most homeowners who lack on-premises home energy storage will actually see their electricity costs increase under the EV plans. You’d have to charge 2 BEVs and drive like 15,000 miles a year to get the EV rate plans to tilt in your favor. But PG&E never tells people this lol.
And some people think LH forum users discussing leases on BMWs and MBs (and Hydrogen Toyotas) are paying $0.15 per kWh? Hah. We installed home energy storage, so we only take energy from PG&E at the low off-peak times. During shoulder and peak time, home loads (excluding EV charging) are covered by the on-prem batteries.
For me, if I switched to the EV plan and only charged HALF the time (and the other half at office or public etc) , I would end up paying more overall under the EV plan. I just charged at my local target with free unliminted charging, and biked 3 miles every day
You can install some Enphase Encharge, Tesla Powerwalls (although then you’re feeding money to that a-hole Elon), Sonnen, Sunpower, etc batteries and still keep your NEM 2.0. The batteries will let you avoid taking energy from the grid during shoulder/peak. And, with the VPP programs available you can export energy during peak time to generate NEM credits.
It’s a way to bolster the value of your solar while buffering yourself from the IOU shenanigans around TOU rates.
We don’t generate enough energy with our solar to cover total annual kWh consumption, but with the batteries exporting at peak to generate NEM credits we’re still net-zero on the full year true-up under NEM 2.0.
I’m not paying $0.80/kWh to cool my home during the hottest part of the day, on the days I spend the most time indoors at home.
I feel ya man… the TOU rates are absurd. $0.80 makes PG&E look pretty good haha.
PG&E sent fliers out telling people to not cook on electric, stop watching TV, never do chores, and of course not run the AC during peak time to help curtail their household energy costs. They recommended people go to a community pool and jump in the water.
So if a homeowner who sees high costs calls PG&E to complain about their electricity bill, PG&E will ask the home if they jumped in a community pool to cool off during 5pm. If the homeowners responds “no” then PG&E will claim “see that’s your fault, you’re the reason to blame for your own high energy costs”
BTW, this is a real billboard meant to encourage people to save energy from 4 to 9pm in California.
Hey folks, I’m looking to get an EV right now, and was considering pulling the trigger on the ID.4.
Wanted your take - I am able to get the ID.4 Pro S AWD and a ~50% loaded Mercedes EQB 300 for around the same price (~$575 effective monthly).
Which should I get?
I get the sense that the ID.4 is the better “electric car” whereas the merc is going to be more comfortable / cushy.
EQB cushy? 
If you can fine a 2023 Q4 Etron P+, you should be able to get it down to around $575/mo effective as well.
The ID4 AWD is getting more power next year so it might be worth waiting for. I personally would not get an ID4 AWD now knowing that it’s getting more power and a better, more reliable infotainment/EV controls system.
The EQB is a GLB with an electric motor and 100kw charging speeds. It’s fine as a grocery getter and running the kids around, but with only 100kw charging speeds, your use cases will be limited.
This is very helpful! Our use case is a 20 mile commute (each way) + a trip every other weekend or so (think 1-2 hour drive). It sounds like the EQB might struggle on the longer trips.
We don’t have a car right now so we’re trying to get something sooner rather than later. Open to thoughts on whether we should get something else if you think another vehicle has more “value” right now.
Re: the Q4 e-tron, I unfortunately do not have Costco 
. Could I pull off the $575 effective without costco or by using a relative’s membership somehow?
That might be doable with an EQB. I had a Kona with a 77kw charging. On a typical 300 mile round trip, I would drive pretty close to the speed limit, and stop to charge for 20 minutes on the way home, and then plug in. But for ski trips, you’re probably going to sit there for an hour charging your car. There’s a broker advertising a Subaru Solterra for ~$330/mo with $1700 drive-offs, but it also has the same problem of slow fast charging. The Solterra is the Subaru version of the Toyota BRZ, so although not the best in terms of being an EV, it’s an nice SUV.
As far as your options if you don’t have Costco:
Look in the marketplace to see to broker and dealer deals which are pretty fair, and much lower than what will be offered if you just walk into a dealership.
Are you me? Seriously, I did a double take reading your post to make sure that it really wasn’t me who posted that!
What does this have to do with what I said in CA with PG&E? The rates you listed have nothing to do with reality, PG&E and CA.
TheAvia7or posted rates from SDG&E … which is subjectively a worse IOU than PG&E.
But both are in California… which was the state being discussed.
