The Home EV Charging Plan

What charging an electric car at home really costs: the energy counted at the wall, a mile priced at the hours and chargers you actually use, whether the cord that came with the car is enough for your nights, and what a Level 2 install or a home battery has to earn

BulBat's EV Charging Cost Calculator prices one charging session at one rate, and charging at home asks more than that. Your meter counts what the car draws, not what the battery keeps, and a 120 V cord loses more than a 240 V charger. On a time-of-use plan the hour you plug in sets the price. Public fast charging can cost several times the home rate per mile. And the biggest decision, whether to pay for a Level 2 install, turns on your nights, not on how fast an empty battery fills. This plan puts the site's tools in order for one household. It counts the daily kWh at the wall on each charger, prices a mile at your own rates and blends in the miles you charge away from home, checks the charger against the hours the car is parked and the off-peak window, divides an install quote by what it actually saves, and prices the wear on a home battery with the Energy Storage and Battery Lifespan Calculators. In the worked example, 40 miles a day at 3.5 miles per kWh: the Level 1 cord puts the day back in 9 h 21 min, inside a 13-hour night; 15% of the miles on fast chargers are 46% of the cost; a $1,800 Level 2 quote pays back in 10.3 years on the cheaper hours alone; and a car charged through a $12,000 home battery pays $0.37 a kWh against $0.10 straight from the off-peak window. Every figure is computed by the site's own calculators; the household, every rate, price and quote are invented examples, and the charging losses and continuous-load sizing are named assumptions. It recommends no car, charger, battery, installer or plan, and counts no incentive: tariffs, incentives and tax credits change, so check your utility and current incentives. Any 240 V circuit or charger install is work for a licensed electrician, to code; never charge a car through an extension cord; and the lithium-ion battery fire basics are in it. Included: 23 printable pages with 7 steps, a charging week log, a charger decision sheet, a rate card, a miles-per-hour reference, and a personalised sheet worked from the numbers you enter in the calculators.

Look inside

Two full pages from the plan, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• The Wall Rule: your daily miles counted in kWh at the wall, with the loss on a 120 V Level 1 cord and on 240 V Level 2
• The Bill Rule: a mile priced at your own rate for the hours you charge, flat rate against a time-of-use plan
• The Blend Rule: the miles you charge away from home, and why a few fast-charge miles carry a large share of the cost
• The Night Rule: whether the Level 1 cord puts your ordinary and your long days back while the car is parked
• The Window Rule: fitting the charge into the off-peak window, and pricing the kWh that spill out of it
• The Payback Rule: an install quote divided by what Level 2 saves a year, with the electrician, permit and panel check
• The Wear Rule: the home battery a night's charge needs, its life capped at the calendar, and the wear on every kWh
• Three working pages: a charging week log, a charger decision sheet and a dated rate card
• A miles-per-hour reference by charger and car efficiency, with the circuit each charger needs
• A personalised sheet worked from the figures you enter in the EV charging and battery lifespan calculators

The plan picks up where the free EV Charging Cost Calculator leaves off. The calculator prices one session at one rate; the plan counts the energy at the wall on a Level 1 cord and on Level 2, prices a mile at the hours you actually charge and at the public chargers you use, checks whether your nights need a Level 2 install and how long one takes to pay back, and uses the Energy Storage Calculator and the Battery Lifespan Calculator to price the wear on a home battery. It recommends no car, charger, battery or installer. Any 240 V circuit or charger install is work for a licensed electrician, to code; never charge a car through an extension cord. Rates and incentives change: check your utility and current incentives. The worked figures are examples.