Emerballs' Chevy Volt

EmersonHart13

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So here is my tracking spreadsheet for energy monitoring for my house.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GcJyIymwpCq4fBkUEBOhFeP-n7_8p9A6h8GotNhsUHs/edit?usp=sharing

EM is energy Monitor. Energy is KWH. Power is Watts being used when the snapshot was taken.

Comed is my Rainforest Eagle Gateway which is linked to the meter as I have a smart meter.
https://rainforestautomation.com/rfa-z114-eagle-200/

Whole House is a clamp meter on the top of my main box
Hot Tub is attached to that subpanel
Air Conditioner is on that breaker

Garage is attached to that subpanel
Welder is is in the garage subpanel and is what the Volt plugs into
Its called Welder because it is a 6-50r which is the outlet commonly used for welding

You will notice the whole house clamp meter and the gateway tied to the meter don't agree. I think it is a delay in reporting coupled with the fact that clamp meters are not 100% accurate. Honestly I don't need it to be perfect as I am not chasing individual watts.

There are a bunch of other columns of stuff I track to the right. This spreadsheet gets an entry every minute. I just look for a wattage spike in the power column of welder and then find the difference in the energy column to see how many kwh I used for the charge. So this morning to charge the car it was 1.3kwh... We didn't use it much yesterday.

The best days to look at will be Wednesday and Friday morning as Tuesdays and Thursdays I drive the car to Itasca and the whole battery is used. I wish there was a better way to track daily electric miles so I could compute mileage easier. I'm going to have to start logging that for comparison.

PS Hot tubs use a bunch of power.
 

CMNTMXR57

GM, Holden & Chrysler Mini-Van nut swinger
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edit:

My buddy has a Pacifica hybrid and comed sent him a notice in december that his bill was up 75%. This was also his first year installing christmas lights.

/mikekwannabepost

Is that just the quarterly notice they send you in general? We get it too and it tells us that we're the devil and that we use some stupid percentage more than our neighbors. I bet that they're getting the same thing saying they use 600% more electricity than we do. Or some other absurd amount...

I just laugh and run it through the electric shredder.
 

EmersonHart13

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Is that just the quarterly notice they send you in general? We get it too and it tells us that we're the devil and that we use some stupid percentage more than our neighbors. I bet that they're getting the same thing saying they use 600% more electricity than we do. Or some other absurd amount...

I just laugh and run it through the electric shredder.

Yes, that thing is hilarious
 

CMNTMXR57

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That and the Peak Time Savings thing they run in the summer crack me up.

I signed up the other house for that. There is nothing running there other than lights on a timer at night and unless utterly necessary, A/C. Even then I set it fairly high as I don't want it running constantly. So I signed up for that figuring I'd reap the savings being so conservative and using very little electricity there.

I think I saved. $.30 in total last summer. Hold me back...
 

EmersonHart13

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Hey [MENTION=19]Yaj Yak[/MENTION]

So the car took 10.738 kwh to charge this morning, DIC said I used 11.0 kwh. So I'm pretty happy with my meters tracking kwh.

Yesterday I drove 39.6 miles on the electric above and 23.6 miles on .59 gallons of gas per the DIC.

This was after a trip to the gym in the AM which warmed the car up which I plugged back in and topped off (thanks level 2 evse) before the day so the car was warm and the weather was warm which is good as I don't park the volt in the garage.

https://www.bsaelectronics.com/ Is where I purchased from and I recommend taking a look. The gave me a nice long 35' cord and a plug perfect for my application 5-60r.
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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so my most recent bill at new house is like .157 /kwh

so that'd be $1.69 to charge plus the gas which was .59 gallons * 3.29 a gallon = $1.94

1.69+1.94 = 3.63 for 39.6 miles = just under 10 cents per mile.


so just for a totally apples to squirrels comparison.

bmw gets 25 mpg premium 3.29 39.6 miles /25 = 1.584 * 3.29 = 5.21 / 39.6 = .13 per mile.
 

EmersonHart13

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[MENTION=85]EmersonHart13[/MENTION] do you do the billing where you buy power at certain hours to reduce costs?


i think i may do this with the side by side.

No, but my buddy with the Pacifica Hybrid is right now. He calculated he would save but he has noticed some weird cases where prices have skyrocketed.

If you are really considering it I can get you on an email with him. He is really analytical like me and did a bunch of work to vett it.


I am not for one major reason, my hot tub
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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No, but my buddy with the Pacifica Hybrid is right now. He calculated he would save but he has noticed some weird cases where prices have skyrocketed.

If you are really considering it I can get you on an email with him. He is really analytical like me and did a bunch of work to vett it.


I am not for one major reason, my hot tub

my most recent comed bills i can see where i have spikes and what days/hours of course...

and it's when i plug in the side by side :rofl: of course.
 

EmersonHart13

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my most recent comed bills i can see where i have spikes and what days/hours of course...

and it's when i plug in the side by side :rofl: of course.

Which is why I don't do it. My Hot Tub has to run every 12 hours... And I usually time one of those runs with when I am in it. So tub runs 8-10 am and pm which isn't when rates are super low, in the middle of the night.

I also charge my car based on departure so it peaks right before I leave. That way the battery is naturally warm and it has a head charge. So again not exactly the lowest rates
 

EmersonHart13

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Update:

So far this car has been attacked by Fullers car wash which scratched and dented the roof. $1k bucks and Fullers says it wasn't them. I claimed it on comp, paid my deductible, and the insurance is going after them.

New tires... ECO tires are not as cheap as I would have expected, yes I went with the OEM goodyears as it was a sudden need. I had a tire failure and needed to replace last minute.

Somehow a connection in the fuse box became loose and codes galore. Dealer had to call Detroit to figure it out. Free thanks to warranty

Wednesday it goes in to the dealer because I don't get heat when in EV mode. From what I have read online it is probably the pump or the valve that directs heat as I get heat when the ICE is on and it appears based on the energy use gauge that the electric heater is kicking on. Ive been driving the car in HOLD mode which forces it to use the ICE as much as possible but still get cold blasts between ICE sessions. Hopefully free because warranty.

So far so good.... :bowrofl:



Slightly more interesting I have put 653 kwh of electricity into the car at my house which is about $75. I didn't really keep track of how much gas I bought as that would have made the number more meaningful... I guess I could figure it out based on credit card statements... hrm...
 

Eagle

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So $75 / 1000mi is a good estimate? If a gasser got 30mpg and ran on 87 @ say, $2.89/gal that mileage would cost

1000mi / 30mpg = 33.333

33.333 * 2.89/gal = $96.34

Average person puts on 14,000mi / year, savings would be ~$298.62 annually.

Which is what, about 22% reduction in cost? Not too shabby I suppose. Assuming payments and maintenance for the vehicle itself are similar to the gasser there is a bit of savings there.
 

EmersonHart13

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Thats how I calced it out too except it uses premium. Rated for 38 miles on electric and thats about 10.5kwh and 37mpg on gas. Included in that is a trip to Wisc dells using all gas and my commute to Itasca 1-2 times per week is 60 miles with no charging at work so basically half gas and half electric so that hurts my numbers a bit.

Also in cold weather this thing runs the ICE when its below 36 to assist making heat so numbers should get better if winter ever ends.
 

Gone_2022

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Sep 4, 2013
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Thats how I calced it out too except it uses premium. Rated for 38 miles on electric and thats about 10.5kwh and 37mpg on gas. Included in that is a trip to Wisc dells using all gas and my commute to Itasca 1-2 times per week is 60 miles with no charging at work so basically half gas and half electric so that hurts my numbers a bit.

Also in cold weather this thing runs the ICE when its below 36 to assist making heat so numbers should get better if winter ever ends.



You can change the temp when the ice kicks on. If you go into climate settings there should be one where the engine kicks on in “cold” temps or “very cold” temps. Dropping the kick on point to 25 degress
 

Gone_2022

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Update:

So far this car has been attacked by Fullers car wash which scratched and dented the roof. $1k bucks and Fullers says it wasn't them. I claimed it on comp, paid my deductible, and the insurance is going after them.

New tires... ECO tires are not as cheap as I would have expected, yes I went with the OEM goodyears as it was a sudden need. I had a tire failure and needed to replace last minute.

Somehow a connection in the fuse box became loose and codes galore. Dealer had to call Detroit to figure it out. Free thanks to warranty

Wednesday it goes in to the dealer because I don't get heat when in EV mode. From what I have read online it is probably the pump or the valve that directs heat as I get heat when the ICE is on and it appears based on the energy use gauge that the electric heater is kicking on. Ive been driving the car in HOLD mode which forces it to use the ICE as much as possible but still get cold blasts between ICE sessions. Hopefully free because warranty.

So far so good.... :bowrofl:



Slightly more interesting I have put 653 kwh of electricity into the car at my house which is about $75. I didn't really keep track of how much gas I bought as that would have made the number more meaningful... I guess I could figure it out based on credit card statements... hrm...



I had that heat issue on my volt. I actually fixed it myself. Because chevys infotainment system is garbage, it glitches or froze some how and was not commanding the heat to come on.

I pulled the fuse on the left side of the drivers compartment. It reset everything and boom I had heat again when in EV mode.

You may want to check that out first. That heat crap is not covered under anything but base warranty.
 

EmersonHart13

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You can change the temp when the ice kicks on. If you go into climate settings there should be one where the engine kicks on in “cold” temps or “very cold” temps. Dropping the kick on point to 25 degress

I just leave it there as I like when my heat works well. The wife was not happy Saturday night when we discovered this issue...

I had that heat issue on my volt. I actually fixed it myself. Because chevys infotainment system is garbage, it glitches or froze some how and was not commanding the heat to come on.

I pulled the fuse on the left side of the drivers compartment. It reset everything and boom I had heat again when in EV mode.

You may want to check that out first. That heat crap is not covered under anything but base warranty.

I have the 12 month CPO bumper to bumper so it should be covered..? I'm cool with trying to fix it though as Its annoying bringing it in. I kept running into bad pump online. I originally thought of a bad fuse but I looked and didn't see any that looked like they had popped.

http://www.autogenius.info/chevrolet-volt-2013-fuse-box-diagram/

Happen to remember which one it is? 13? 37?
 

Gone_2022

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I believe I pulled the F5 fuse. It didn’t pop, but pulling it reset the hvac system in the infotainment screen. The pump is a common issue and yours may have it. I just know the fuse truck
Fixed mine.

For me, even when I had the heat on, the little icon for it showed the heat was “Off” on the climate screen. As soon as I reset the system this changed to ON
 

EmersonHart13

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I believe I pulled the F5 fuse. It didn’t pop, but pulling it reset the hvac system in the infotainment screen. The pump is a common issue and yours may have it. I just know the fuse truck
Fixed mine.

For me, even when I had the heat on, the little icon for it showed the heat was “Off” on the climate screen. As soon as I reset the system this changed to ON



I'll give that a whirl. Searching F5 shows that is a popular fix. LOL

Edit: Tried it and its the same. The car is trying to do the right thing I believe. When I set the heat to full auto and high it goes up to 5-6 kwh and the heat icon turns on. Then as it warms up the kwhs steadily drop and the blower ramps up but its stilll ice cold. Eventually the heat indicator tuns off and it is pulling 1-.5 kwh and still blasting the fan because its cold.

So to me this means the heater works and it appears the bran works its just the heat isn't getting where it needs to be so valve or pump. I agree the pump seems to be a way more common issue so it is probably that.
 

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