New Volt owner question. What does 12 volt battery run and how costly elect bills?

[oneborch]

Hello again. Just got my new Volt yesterday. A couple of questions. What does the 12 volt battery run. Is it just for starting or any lights, radio, or ???? Also my elect co rate is about 11 cents klw so how do I figure how much it cost per night or month? I know GM said about $1.50 per night. x 30 that adds up to $45 per month. divided by $3.85 per gal of prem gas. that would be like 11.6 gals. Does that sound right? That still would bring me down to 100 mpg which is still better than the 17mpg I was getting. Anybody tried offpeak elect.? I'm sure these questions are in the forum someplace, but not sure how to find them. Just went over to Home Depot 14 miles round trip and only used 8 elect miles. Did some coasting when there was no traffic and kept it at below 55 so I think I did good.

[solar_dave]

Basically the 12 volt battery runs all the accessories it is recharged off the main battery via a DC to DC converter.

It takes about 3.3 kWh of charge to drive 10 miles. SO a full 40 mile charge takes 13 kWh ish X $0.11 will get your total.
Yes off peak if available is great for charging and other loads you can shift to off peak. Several people here did just that and found out their bill still went down even with the Volt being charged.

[flmark]

Yes, a number of threads on the various topics you ask about; just do searches with phrases that make sense. One thing to consider is that you may alter your own electrical demand enough to ENTIRELY pay for the new usage of your vehicle. I made one such post last year:
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread....for-two-months
I am sure others will also provide similar input. Good luck!

[bonaire]

Yes, you can definitely make changes to the power usage in a home to benefit cutting electric costs - which in turn can make the Volt almost a zero-sum addition to the power bill. Changing some bulbs from incandescent to CFL or LED is one big way. Also, if you need a new TV, go LED versus LCD or Plasma - big difference there. Put things like DVRs on electronic timers to cut overnight consumption. Lots of ways to conserve. Once you "get into" energy reviews and how the Volt teaches you how to manage resources, you probably will look back at prior electric bills and utility usage and laugh at how much you were spending. In other words - driving an EV makes you "think".

[DonC]

Congrats on your new car!

You're on exactly the right track with your calculations. At eleven cents a kWh you're paying about three and a half cens a mile. If you had an ICE vehicle, and gas was $4/gallon, that would be like getting 115 MPG. Assuming you drive 1000 miles a month, and use 31 kWh per 100 miles, you're looking at increasing your electric bill by $34/month. (The GM number assumes you're going 40 miles a day which is more than 1000 miles per month).

But as others have pointed out, you should be able to make a pretty big dent in that number, small as it is, by paying attention to your electrical usage. When we put in solar we cut our consumption by 24% without doing anything major. The fact is that if you're like most people (including me), before you get a Volt or solar or something you just don't pay attention to your electric bill.

EDIT: On the 12v battery, I'd say it does everything it does in a regular ICE vehicle plus is provides power for the charger (which is in the car) during charges.

[KyleH]

Congrats on your new car.

The general agreement from people using kilowat meters is that it takes 13kwh to charge up the 10kwh battery in the volt. This kind of make sense, that there is energy loss in the transfer into the battery. At $0.11/kw, it is about $1.43/full charge.

For some, their commute does not require a full charge each day. Another way to measure the cost, is to look at your onscreen power consumption. It will tell you how many kw you used to get the eMiles. I generally take that number, multiply by 30% to adjust for the energy loss, then multiply by $0.11. For instance, 1kw x 30% = 1.3 x $0.11 = $0.14. This way, you probably can measure you smaller trips (such as to Home Depot) by looking at the onboard computer.

Now, here is where the Volt gets a little crazy from everyone that contributed here on the forums. If you read long enough, you will see that people driving 30-35mph actually gets furhter distances than those driving faster. On a single charge, you probably can get about 35 miles to drive on the highway at 60-70mph. However, if you take that same path and drive 32mph with cruise control, you can get close to 50-55miles. If you are interested in maximizing miles, you can read through the forums. Otherwise, drive it like a normal car, and get about 35-40mpg, and 35-40miles on that overnight charge.

-KyleH

[scottf200]

Hello again. Just got my new Volt yesterday. A couple of questions. What does the 12 volt battery run. Is it just for starting or any lights, radio, or ????

We just had this thread discussion a few days back:
What-exactly-does-the-12V-battery-do
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread....12V-battery-do

[Cord]

When I drive in town to the store 5 miles away 20 to 40 MPH ( 10 stop lights) I use 0.9 to 1.0 Kwh and about the same to return ( NO A/C -windows open)