An alert to newbies regarding charging...

[notaguru]

When we bought our Volt we had not properly studied the opportunities and subsidies for hardware and energy, and our dealer was ignorant of every number that didn't have a dollar sign in front of it. Yesterday I talked with another dealer and discovered no improvement in dealer knowledge, so (1) provided this information to that dealer's sales manager and (2) decided to post it here. It's all about money and energy...

Our experience is specific to San Diego, but the principles apply to varying degrees in many other areas of the country.

CHARGER
Our 240V BLINK charger was subsidized, to our immense satisfaction. The $1,335 bill was offset by that subsidy and our total out of pocket was $135. Our point of contact for the contractor that did the work and the subsidy was SPX. (The clueless dealer had mentioned a "240 amp cable at Lowes...")

ENERGY RATE
Pre-Volt, our household energy was billed on a tier basis, and the highest tier was 33c per kWh. Our average bill was $175 per month. Once we showed our local power company that we had a plug-in hybrid, we were permitted to select Time-Of-Use billing - which affected the overall house usage rates. The new cap was 25c per kWh for the entire house, with no tiers for energy use but different rates depending on when the energy is used. Peak, for example, is noon to 6 - that's at the 25c max rate. Super off-peak is midnight to 5AM, which is of course when the Volt charges - and the rate during that period is 14c.

OUR COST OF OPERATION
Thanks to the new billing rate (and a new refrigerator), our overall household bill - INCLUDING THE VOLT - has dropped from a 2011 average of $175 to $136. At 14c per kWh and a typical nightly charge of 13kWh, that's $1.82. I finally learned how to get 44 miles per charge (and it's improving), so that would be 4.1c per mile. However, considering the new 25c/kWh peak rate vs the former 33c, we really drive... (wait for it... drum roll...) ... FREE.

[bobka.ev]

Thanks for such a great summary!
I wish we had similar subsidies here in Ontario, Canada.
For now I charge at the parking lot in downtown Toronto for free (paying only for parking) and making 80+km/charge which is more than enough for my daily commute.

[2013 Volt]

Im also in San Diego and got the SPX Blink Charger installed in May, 2012 - they installed our charger for around $375 with a free 240v charger and $1200 in install costs. Whats cool is that SPX allowed us to get the charger with just an order number - I'm still waiting for our 2013 Volt. SPX had to install a sub-panel so thats why I had to pay some install costs.

Hurry up if you have not ordered a free charger, the SPX Study program ends April 2013 and from other threads on this site, some Volt owners are reporting that SPX has ended the free chargers in some areas as of last week.

[Fulgerite]

I live in Los Angeles and I had my ChargePoint charger installed by SPX for FREE. I had no out of pocket costs whatsoever. It was a particularly difficult job due to the fact my home is in a Condo complex and I needed a separate TOU meter installed for the charger. SPX got the job done. (It took a while to work out the permits and pass inspections.) But in my case it was FREE.

[DCFusor]

No subsidies here. Installed my own SPX charger for about $500 out of pocket and about another $20 for some solid state relays to switch power to it - I'm off the grid, so I needed a way to not let the car run the house batteries down when the sun isn't pumping.
The first SPX charger cord failed at the connector in about a week. They provided (after some customer service learning issues - now they have a rep on this board that should make that lots better) a new one, free, and that's been good since (4-5 months). The system works great! The 120v cord stays in the "trunk" these days.

As it's a cloudy day today, the power to the car is being switched on and off every few minutes, and it will report an interruption of charge when I get in next, but it will be fully charged pretty soon anyway - the system warns, but works fine in switched input mode.

[larry4pyro]

Not everyone has been happy with the free EVSE installation program. It appears that some of the electricians contracted to do the work have been greedy and have been demanding additional and unnecessary work that has jacked-up the cost on the "free" EVSEs to considerably more than buying a Voltec charger from SPX and contracting with an electrician independently to have it installed. So I suggest you new folks cost out both the "free" and out-of-pocket approaches.

[AZ EV Driver]

The clueless dealer had mentioned a "240 amp cable at Lowes..."

So how big should the wiring be to hook up to 240 amp? I need to get me one of those. Should charge up the flux capacitor nicely.

[DCFusor]

I use 00 or 000 here - really fat stuff. But only for my house batteries in the solar system. My flux cap is high voltage, low charge current...Maxwell brand, 120 uf, 10kv - 6 kJ.

[BAZINGA]

Must be nice, there are no incentives of us folks living in Illinois, I can see why a dealer here wouldn't have a clue. And when I called AmerenIP my utility company I was told they don't offer or have any programs either.

Many Volt owners aren't as fortuante as other's. Bummer but congrats to you for being able to get these reductions.

[CarZin]

No subsidies here. Installed my own SPX charger for about $500 out of pocket and about another $20 for some solid state relays to switch power to it - I'm off the grid, so I needed a way to not let the car run the house batteries down when the sun isn't pumping.
The first SPX charger cord failed at the connector in about a week. They provided (after some customer service learning issues - now they have a rep on this board that should make that lots better) a new one, free, and that's been good since (4-5 months). The system works great! The 120v cord stays in the "trunk" these days.

As it's a cloudy day today, the power to the car is being switched on and off every few minutes, and it will report an interruption of charge when I get in next, but it will be fully charged pretty soon anyway - the system warns, but works fine in switched input mode.

You should do a video tour of your setup and post it on youtube. I think I'd learn a lot through it, as would others.