The scooter, Part 2: The electric bill

In the first couple weeks I owned the scooter, I started to wonder, how much will using this add to my electric bill? Every mile on the scooter is a mile not on the car, which (even though I don't drive it that much) sucks down gasoline at the rate of at least $50/month.

Turns out, not much. After charging it a few times, including once all the way from totally drained, I noticed that it takes about four hours to charge. I can tell it's done charging when the light on the side stops blinking and stays on steady. The specs say it draws 600 watts during the charge cycle. Simple math, 600 watts x 4 hours = 2,400 watt-hours, or 2.4 kilowatt-hours. At the current residential rate of about 10 cents per kWh, one charge thus equals 24 cents. Since this machine goes 30 miles on a charge, that means I'm spending under one cent per mile to operate it. My car, in fuel alone, cost about an order of magnitude more to operate, per mile, than the scooter.

How much does this compare with other electrical appliances around the house? My oven and range use gas, but an electric oven typically draws 2 kW, so baking a casserole for an hour would be comparable. So too is an electric clothes dryer, 1,500 watts for 45 minutes, is in the same ballpark. Leave a 100-watt incandescent light bulb running for 24 hours, same. The kicker: Your A/C window unit will burn through that 2.4 kWh in only a couple hours, even less with a whole house heat pump, which often draws 3 kW when it's running. 

So in terms of those common devices, charging the scooter every couple days, or even daily, is an incremental increase, not a major hit. Twenty charges a month at 25 cents a charge, amounts to $5. Compared to $50/month in gasoline? It's not even close! Want another example? Put $5 of gasoline in your car and see how far into a 500-mile trip you get.

Yet to inquire: How much does it take to recharge a Tesla car?

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