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$0.41/kWh is a good price. I pay at least $0.50/kWh and I have family in the exurbs paying as much as $0.91/kWh in San Diego county. That doesn't include the fi

$0.41/kWh is a good price. I pay at least $0.50/kWh and I have family in the exurbs paying as much as $0.91/kWh in San Diego county. That doesn't include the fixed hook up costs that are constantly going up. We have plans that charge a lot less over night ($0.10-0.20/kWh) to charge EVs though.

Spivak 3y ago
Genuinely, I'm so sorry. I can't even imagine my electric bill being 5x let alone 15x. Do y'all just have to conserve like crazy or is your electric bill like a $1000+/mo and that's just normal.
- throwup238 3y ago
  The extreme rise in prices is relatively recent, mostly due to the court decision post the Camp fire that said the power companies are liable for the fires. Through the 2010s power was around $0.15-0.30/kWh iirc but after the decision the power companies had to replace all their aging infrastructure all at once and pass the cost on to consumers. The rise coincided with the large drop in solar and battery prices, so most people just have solar now. Before installing solar and batteries my family in the exurbs did conserve very well and paid under $100/mo. I don't conserve very well and pay $125-200/mo. Worst bill I've ever had a few years ago was $700 but I was running indoor grow lights and had doors open for animals while running AC during a heatwave (it was ridiculously dumb and the cost is why I don't do it anymore).
nothercastle 3y ago
Is it cheaper to run a gas generator at some point?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- gregschlom 3y ago
  Actually yes, I did the math a few months ago and if you have a gas generator such as [1], you can produce electricity from PG&E's gas for cheaper than PG&E's own electrical rates. Details: The generator linked below can produce 17 kWh of electricity by burning 307 cubic feet of natural gas. That translates to 3.07 therms of gas, and looking at my bill PG&E charges around $2.3 / therm, so the generator would produce electricity at a marginal cost of $0.41/kWh, cheaper than what I pay. Of course this ignores maintenance costs and the upfront cost of the generator itself ($6,000), not to mention environmental costs. [1] https://www.generac.com/generaccorporate/media/library/content/all-products/generators/home-generators/guardian-series/20kva/generac-guardian-75c2ea99594107929e5ef958b3e021df-(3).pdf https://www.generac.com/generaccorporate/media/library/conte...
  - more_corn 3y ago
    I hate to be that guy, but instead of running a generator why not deploy rooftop solar? If we’re already ignoring upfront costs it generates your electricity for zero dollars.
    - readthenotes1 3y ago
      And then buy the generator for nights. Last I checked, batteries were prohibitively expensive.
      - rickydroll 3y ago
        You can get 30 kW (EG4-LifePower4) for $9000. Depending on your handyman skills, you can assemble most of the system yourself and have an electrician check it over, tie it into your electrical service, and sign off on the project. If I were doing solar and batteries today, I would not try to feed any power to the grid except as part of a virtual power plant that pays me peak rates.
    - talldatethrow 3y ago
      You can also use a plugin hybrid as a quiet generator and battery bank. My Chevy volt kicks out 2kw into the 12v system bus when on, and then you just need an inverter. Once you use up the available 10kwh battery pack, the gas engine will just turn on and it makes about 10kwh per gallon.
- throwup238 3y ago
  Yes and a lot of people around here already have propane generators because SDGE kept turning off power once or twice a week during the day for the infrastructure upgrades that took years.
  - nothercastle 3y ago
    Cali is trying hard to ban gas generators too
- talldatethrow 3y ago
  You could just run a plugin hybrid vehicle with an inverter and power a house for around around 50 cents a kwh, at $5.00 a gallon gas. So soon yes I think people may start just using cheap gasoline generator, or their plugin hybrids, to power their houses if electric companies go crazy. It's already common for people to not want to pay for electric hookup when building new developments. Solar, batteries, and generators are cheaper by a wide margin.

Spivak 3y ago

Genuinely, I'm so sorry. I can't even imagine my electric bill being 5x let alone 15x. Do y'all just have to conserve like crazy or is your electric bill like a $1000+/mo and that's just normal.

throwup238 3y ago
The extreme rise in prices is relatively recent, mostly due to the court decision post the Camp fire that said the power companies are liable for the fires. Through the 2010s power was around $0.15-0.30/kWh iirc but after the decision the power companies had to replace all their aging infrastructure all at once and pass the cost on to consumers. The rise coincided with the large drop in solar and battery prices, so most people just have solar now. Before installing solar and batteries my family in the exurbs did conserve very well and paid under $100/mo. I don't conserve very well and pay $125-200/mo. Worst bill I've ever had a few years ago was $700 but I was running indoor grow lights and had doors open for animals while running AC during a heatwave (it was ridiculously dumb and the cost is why I don't do it anymore).

nothercastle 3y ago

Is it cheaper to run a gas generator at some point?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
gregschlom 3y ago
Actually yes, I did the math a few months ago and if you have a gas generator such as [1], you can produce electricity from PG&E's gas for cheaper than PG&E's own electrical rates. Details: The generator linked below can produce 17 kWh of electricity by burning 307 cubic feet of natural gas. That translates to 3.07 therms of gas, and looking at my bill PG&E charges around $2.3 / therm, so the generator would produce electricity at a marginal cost of $0.41/kWh, cheaper than what I pay. Of course this ignores maintenance costs and the upfront cost of the generator itself ($6,000), not to mention environmental costs. [1] https://www.generac.com/generaccorporate/media/library/content/all-products/generators/home-generators/guardian-series/20kva/generac-guardian-75c2ea99594107929e5ef958b3e021df-(3).pdf https://www.generac.com/generaccorporate/media/library/conte...
- more_corn 3y ago
  I hate to be that guy, but instead of running a generator why not deploy rooftop solar? If we’re already ignoring upfront costs it generates your electricity for zero dollars.
  - readthenotes1 3y ago
    And then buy the generator for nights. Last I checked, batteries were prohibitively expensive.
    - rickydroll 3y ago
      You can get 30 kW (EG4-LifePower4) for $9000. Depending on your handyman skills, you can assemble most of the system yourself and have an electrician check it over, tie it into your electrical service, and sign off on the project. If I were doing solar and batteries today, I would not try to feed any power to the grid except as part of a virtual power plant that pays me peak rates.
  - talldatethrow 3y ago
    You can also use a plugin hybrid as a quiet generator and battery bank. My Chevy volt kicks out 2kw into the 12v system bus when on, and then you just need an inverter. Once you use up the available 10kwh battery pack, the gas engine will just turn on and it makes about 10kwh per gallon.
throwup238 3y ago
Yes and a lot of people around here already have propane generators because SDGE kept turning off power once or twice a week during the day for the infrastructure upgrades that took years.
- nothercastle 3y ago
  Cali is trying hard to ban gas generators too
talldatethrow 3y ago
You could just run a plugin hybrid vehicle with an inverter and power a house for around around 50 cents a kwh, at $5.00 a gallon gas. So soon yes I think people may start just using cheap gasoline generator, or their plugin hybrids, to power their houses if electric companies go crazy. It's already common for people to not want to pay for electric hookup when building new developments. Solar, batteries, and generators are cheaper by a wide margin.