what on earth does electricity cost near you?

[ultrarunner]

I take the $$ I pay the electric company and divide that by the KWH I use and that is what I pay for the juice. All fairy-tales and taxes in. Last months' bill; $208.86/752.5674kwh= $0.27/kwh

It's the only way I do it... we have some sub-meters that record use and I arrive at the cost per kW the same way...

 

[CADplans]

I take the $$ I pay the electric company and divide that by the KWH I use and that is what I pay for the juice. All fairy-tales and taxes in. Last months' bill; $208.86/752.5674kwh= $0.27/kwh

It's the only way I do it... we have some sub-meters that record use and I arrive at the cost per kW the same way...

I agree with you, but, obviously, there are other ways,,,:confused2:

I have been trying to get people to understand this is EXACTLY the only way to look at car gas mileage,,,
but, everyone wants to use the antiquated measurement of miles per gallon,,
MPG tells you nothing,,, but, like $/KWH, $$/mile tells you everything.

My Honda currently costs me $0.07/mile to operate, my Silverado costs $0.15/mile.
Quickly, we know the fun of driving the truck results in double the cost per mile.

What is the value of going from 32MPG to 42MPG??? I do not know,,,,
(NOTE: if you calculate it, you will find it is almost nothing!!:thumbsup

The typical car buyer thinks it is a lot,, and pays BIG for that feature.

 

[Bird]

I agree with you, but, obviously, there are other ways,,,:confused2:

I have been trying to get people to understand this is EXACTLY the only way to look at car gas mileage,,,
but, everyone wants to use the antiquated measurement of miles per gallon,,
MPG tells you nothing,,, but, like $/KWH, $$/mile tells you everything.

My Honda currently costs me $0.07/mile to operate, my Silverado costs $0.15/mile.
Quickly, we know the fun of driving the truck results in double the cost per mile.

What is the value of going from 32MPG to 42MPG??? I do not know,,,,
(NOTE: if you calculate it, you will find it is almost nothing!!:thumbsup

The typical car buyer thinks it is a lot,, and pays BIG for that feature.

Fleet management having been part of my job years ago, I do the same thing. BUT, I find your numbers for your Honda and Silverado to just be incredible. NO ONE that I ever knew or heard of has ever operated a motor vehicle that cheaply. For the actual cost, you have to include everything; fuel, oil, repairs, tires, insurance, wash jobs, in addition to initial cost, annual registration fees, etc. Then of course, you deduct the residual value of the vehicle. I bought a new 1993 Ford Escort station wagon to tow behind a motorhome when we were full time RVers. It had 121243.6 miles on it when we got rid of it, but we had towed it 15138.7 miles. And the final calculation was $0.1855 per mile. I've never personally known of anyone to beat that. In the mid-80s, our police squad cars were costing us $0.50 a mile.

 

[ultrarunner]

The only way I have gotten costs low is buying second hand.

Drove the $800 Valiant I bought in High School for 21 years... only breakdown was $40 in parts for a timing chain... of course I did buy tires, brake pads/shoes, battery and a water pump...

I've turned down $2500 for it and probably should take it as it is out back sitting.

 

[NoTrespassing]

Fleet management having been part of my job years ago, I do the same thing. BUT, I find your numbers for your Honda and Silverado to just be incredible. NO ONE that I ever knew or heard of has ever operated a motor vehicle that cheaply. For the actual cost, you have to include everything; fuel, oil, repairs, tires, insurance, wash jobs, in addition to initial cost, annual registration fees, etc. Then of course, you deduct the residual value of the vehicle. I bought a new 1993 Ford Escort station wagon to tow behind a motorhome when we were full time RVers. It had 121243.6 miles on it when we got rid of it, but we had towed it 15138.7 miles. And the final calculation was $0.1855 per mile. I've never personally known of anyone to beat that. In the mid-80s, our police squad cars were costing us $0.50 a mile.

We're way off topic but I'll chime in anyway. My Hyundai Accent (bought new for $12,500) has cost be about 17 cents per mile to run if I can still get $2,000 out of it which I think I can. That includes purchase price plus tax, title, license, tires, oil, repairs, gasoline, yearly registration, and insurance divided by 175,000 miles over 8 years. Did I miss anything?

Kevin

 

[Bird]

That sounds good, Kevin. USUALLY, the more miles you put on a vehicle, the less it costs per mile over its lifetime. So far, I've not kept a vehicle long enough to put more than 125k miles on it, and usually much, much less than that.

And as ultrarunner said, buying used can certainly lower your costs. I think I've owned 35 cars or trucks in my lifetime, of which 14 were bought new, the rest used, some used only very little, some worn plumb out when I got them.:laughing:

 

[CADplans]

Fleet management having been part of my job years ago, I do the same thing. BUT, I find your numbers for your Honda and Silverado to just be incredible. NO ONE that I ever knew or heard of has ever operated a motor vehicle that cheaply.

I was comparing $/KWH to $/mile for electricity,,, and gasoline purchase only.

I did not include new roof shingles, replacement windows,,, or,,, oil changes and tires.

I was just noting the method of evaluating energy consumption, home, or car.

 

[buickanddeere]

Many years ago, that was right. But since deregulation, it's a bit different, and has been for a long time now. The poles, lines, transformers (the delivery system, in other words) is owned by one company, but we have numerous companies trying to sell us electricity at widely varying prices. And within each of those many, many companies there are various "plans" in which the price you actually pay for electricity varies tremendously. In my own case, I'm on a plan they call "Energy Smart Deal 12", a 12 month plan that will expire in June. Last June, when the plan I was on was about to expire, they sent me a letter reminding me that it was about to expire and "recommending" a certain plan at almost exactly double what I had been paying. So I called the company and told the guy if that was the best they could do, I'd be changing companies (electricity providers). He very promptly offered me this deal for 12 months. But if anyone doesn't keep up with it, they'll be paying twice as much. Now you can look at the company's website to see their available plans, but the cheaper plan I have is not listed. You have to call to get it.

The utility used to be vertically integrated with transmission and various generation types from low cost baseload to higher priced peaking and seasonal generation. Now being split up the various divisions can not support each other .
The net result has been ontario going from the industrial heartland with low priced ppwer to having the highest priced power in North America. Industry and jobs have fled south and east.

 

[buickanddeere]

Do you heat with electricity, or gas?

Only gas here is propane, no bargain. Off peak power and LP are about a draw so installing a LP furnace will never break even let alone pay.
We have a high efficiency fan forced wood burning insert in the fireplace, works great with lots of heat from a modest amount of wood. The novelty of snow covered firewood , bark , dirt , smoke, dirty floors , cold blowing into the house while tossing the wood in and having to keep throwing a couple of sticks of sood in every couple of hours is wearing thin.

 

[Looking4new]

Our choices are about the same. Propane is no bargain, I heat with wood. For backup and days when the house is empty, the oil furnace kicks on at 55F.