Charging during the day with solar or wait until after 9pm?

[xrdv8]

Hi there, when I bought my R1T i was told to wait until after 9pm to charge it as the rates are lower. Made sense until I thought that that I have solar and produce more during the day and less at night. Here in California PG&E takes your excess into the grid at a much lower rate than they charge you. So has anyone done the math to see if you are actually better off charging during the day with your excess solar or waiting until after 9pm for off peak rates?

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[Polar]

You are the only one who knows your power rates and TOU times/rates and solar buy back rate.

You gotta do this math yourself. Too many variables.

Personally - no TOU and my Solar Net Metering is 1:1 so I charge whenever. My math was super easy.

 

[iansriv]

Sounds quite simple to me. What is the >9pm rate vs. buy back rate? If the BB rate is cheaper then you just use the excess solar to charge. All the best.

 

[fireroasted]

Like above it totally depends on what you pay when. providers, I have SDGE, all have a different set of plans. Mine worked best to change to an EV plan, where everything was way way cheaper in the evening, and expensive during the day, but I had only some solar. Enough to run the house during the day mostly. Then at night super cheap to charge the EVs. 12 cents kWh I believe.

Now my situation has changed, I still have the same plan, but I have a 96kW house battery, and no visible roof left that isn't panel'd, so now during the day make more sense. Our habits haven't changed, and I am trying to get to what @Polar mentioned about, where when just doens't matter for my wife. Who isn't big on rules and details about this stuff.

FInd out what all plans are available to you, and then find out how much you are drawing from the grid the last few months. You'll need that info to make a decision on plans.

 

[Kylechoffman]

I am also on the SDGE EV plan. I charge everything overnight due to 12 cents after midnight vs 40 cents during the day. Simple example of charging 75 KWH overnight would cost $9 vs during the day $30. As others mentioned, run your numbers and see what pencils out.

 

[SANZC02]

Hi there, when I bought my R1T i was told to wait until after 9pm to charge it as the rates are lower. Made sense until I thought that that I have solar and produce more during the day and less at night. Here in California PG&E takes your excess into the grid at a much lower rate than they charge you. So has anyone done the math to see if you are actually better off charging during the day with your excess solar or waiting until after 9pm for off peak rates?

Depends on your TOU plan.

SCE is actually 4 cents cheaper between 8am and 4 pm than the 9pm to 8am rate for winter rates, summer rates are the same in those time frames.

 

[bigsky]

Hi there, when I bought my R1T i was told to wait until after 9pm to charge it as the rates are lower. Made sense until I thought that that I have solar and produce more during the day and less at night. Here in California PG&E takes your excess into the grid at a much lower rate than they charge you. So has anyone done the math to see if you are actually better off charging during the day with your excess solar or waiting until after 9pm for off peak rates?

In my old neck of the woods, I had a solar array. Local utility refused to allow me get into TOU rates because of it. That said, the vast majority of my time I charged my EVs off my solar electricity and/or the excess electricity for which the utility company paid me a pittance.

I had so learned to take advantage of my solar array that I knew the total output at any time. It was less than the 11.5 kWh my Tesla charger put out, so I derated the charging on my Teslas to match exactly the output of my solar array. This way, I hardly ever took one single electron from the grid. And the price was right. Gratis!

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