Here in California we are being asked to save electricity during peak hours.

It has been interesting to see the misleading headlines that people are sharing that state that California does not want you charging your EV. The headlines do not tell the whole story. They just want you to charge at the right times of the day. Today we were in a Flex Alert, which meant that we were asked to reduce electricity use from 5 to 9 PM.

These are usually the hours where electricity use is the highest in California and the grid is under the most stress. This is the time when people are getting home from work and start cooling down their home, doing chores and lights are being turned on.

We get sent e-mails from the power companies that are similar to this one. Do you really need to have your house cold enough to hang meat? Do you need all the lights on if they are not needed.

I have been cooling the house off early in the day and then shut everything up so as the heat rises during the day I do not have to use the AC as much in the late afternoon.

Of course, turning lights out is ingrained in me as we were always told to turn off lights when we left a room and they were not needed.

Not using big appliances from 5 to 9 is not a big deal. Electricity costs more during this time anyway so I always run things in the morning or later at night. The sound of the dryer can lull you to sleep.

Now for the big one that gets the headlines. The majority of EV owners are going to charge overnight anyway, and most have settings so that you can schedule charging in off-peak hours. The exceptions would be if they have an independent solar system that is not connected to the grid. You can’t charge at night, unless you also have a battery system that stores the solar power during daylight. Most solar systems are directly tied to the grid and send the power out and you pull electricity back from the grid to power your home.

Laptops, tablets and phones don’t use much energy, but it is still good to use them unplugged during a Flex Alert. You can charge them after 9.

There are incentives for using less electricity in peak hours. Don’t you want to save money anyway?

Steven