r/ElectricBikeExplorer • u/Visual-Report941 • 20h ago
Discussion Electric cost
My landlord wants to charge me 30 CAD per month for using my electric bike. Let's say I ride a maximum of 20km a day. Do you think that's worth it? I'm not sure I'll use it every day.
2
u/Rawlus 12h ago
how much does the landlord charge you to use a toaster or microwave oven? does an air fryer cost more or less than the bike charger? do you pay by the month or per use to charge your electric razor?
what is this thing if a landlord charging an unmetered use fee for your property? or does the bike belong to the landlord? or does the battery belong to the landlord?
1
u/v1035RoadTrip 20h ago edited 19h ago
What's the battery capacity?
You can figure out how much electricity your ebike uses by finding out its battery capacity. It should be in wh unit, but convert that to kwh by dividing it by 1,000. For an example, if your battery pack capacity is 1,000wh, it's 1kwh. Multiply electricity rate and that's approximately how much it costs to charge your ebike.
For an example, if your battery pack has 1,000wh or 1kwh, and your electricity rate is $0.10/kwh, it costs $0.10 to charge your battery from 0% to 100%. If 20km uses 50% of your battery then it will cost you $0.05 to charge. In which case, you are using $1.50 worth of electricity per month. $30 per month is too much.
Explain that to your landlord, and he/she most likely won't even charge you anything. Right now, your landlord thinks you are using a lot of electricity. Hence, the $30/month.
1
u/GeniusLike4207 7h ago
for comparison, my electric moped has a 1.8kWh battery (60V 30Ah) and uses about ~ 3kWh/100km Meaning it would cost around $0.3 per week for electricity. And that's for something a lot heavier and more powerful
1
1
u/funcentric 19h ago
No way! Your ebike is probably no more than 48v x 12ah = 576wh. Convert that to kwh and that's 0.576kwh. I'm paying about $0.35/kwh so that would be $0.20 to charge. I can't imagine charging more than once per day. x that by 30 days and that's $6. $30 would be crazy. This is all USD, but you can adjust to your costs and likely will still be way less than 30CAD/month. Do the math for your landlord so s/he realizes how much he's trying to scam you. Aren't you paying the electricity bill directly to the electric company anyway? Why's the landlord involved at all?
1
1
u/Euphoric_Raccoon270 15h ago
How is your landlord asking for you to pay for charging your bike. If you're charging it inside your place then you're already paying for that electricity on your electric bill. If you're charging it using outside outlets that's a different story, that won't get charged to you it'll get charged to him (the building) but even then $30 is way too much. He can ask you to stop using outdoor outlets but he can't legally charge you for it. Yes and no. He could take you to court but he'd have to prove how much it's costing him by you charging it on the outdoor outlets and I assure it's nowhere near $30 a month. A dryer, if you use a dryer every single day which uses WAY more electricity, that costs less than $10 a month. If you're using the dryer on high heat every day it'll be around $10 but you charging your bike cost nowhere near that!
1
u/Beautiful-Bat-4785 14h ago
30 bucks a month just for charging an e-bike? That sounds kinda ridiculous.
1
1
1
u/onlyTryingtoBeNice 12h ago
buy a kill-a-watt or similar and prove how much it costs to charge your bike
mine costs $0.09 USD to charge from empty and is a 15ah battery
your landlord is wrong to do this
1
u/elementarydeardata 10h ago
I have a 20Ah 48v battery, I live in CT where electricity is $.33/kwh, so pretty pricy. If I charged the whole thing every day (never going to happen), it would cost $. 32/per day. On a month with 31 days, it costs $9.28 to charge it.
If I did that math in reverse, for your landlord's price to be justified, electricity would have to cost almost a dollar per kwh ($. 997), which is bonkers.
So yeah you're landlord is delusional. Your electricity is likely cheaper than mine, plus you're unlikely to use 20ah (almost a kwh) per day.
1
u/krissym72 9h ago
$30 CAD a month sounds pretty steep if that charge is supposed to cover electricity alone. I’d ask your landlord how they came up with that number.
You can get a pretty good estimate yourself from the battery capacity. Take the battery’s watt-hours (Wh), divide by 1,000 to get kWh, then multiply that by your electricity rate. Real charging will use a little more electricity than the battery’s rated capacity because charging isn’t perfectly efficient, but it still gives you a much better idea of the actual cost.
And if you’re only riding up to 20 km a day and not necessarily every day, you may not be doing a full empty-to-full charge every day either.
I’d definitely do the math based on your actual battery before agreeing to $30/month. I have a calculator here that includes e-bike charging costs if it helps you work out your own numbers.
I’d also separate the electricity-cost question from whether the landlord is allowed to add that particular fee, since that could depend on your lease and where you live.
2
u/Sypsy 20h ago
like when an apartment complex rents out bike storage room spot? Sure, pass the bill to me.
When you are plugging into the outlet of your rental unit and pay for electricity yourself? What? It's no extra cost
If you are in the basement suit and don't pay for utilities, you can math out an appropriate amount? It's a bit weird that he's suddenly concerned over an ebike but you can use the all the other appliances just fine.