Charging an e-bike battery may not cost as much as you might think. To find the cost you need to know the specifics for your battery and the cost per kilowatt hour from your electric power provider. In my case, my battery is 48 Volts with a 17.5 Amp hour capacity and the cost of a kilowatt hour from my local electric power provider is about 12 cents. Here are the three easy steps used to calculate the cost of charging my battery.
- Determine Battery Watt Hours Sometimes the battery watt hours are labeled on the battery. In my case it is labeled 840 Wh. However, if I didn’t know the watt hours I could calculate it by multiplying the volts by the amp hours. I have a 48 volt battery with a 17.5 amp hours capacity which equals 840 watt hours.
- Convert Battery Watt Hours to Kilowatt Hours A kilowatt hour is a measure of electrical energy equivalent to a power consumption of 1,000 watts for 1 hour. So, 840 watt hours is equal to .840 kilowatt hours or 840 divided by 1,000.
- Determine the Cost of a Full Charge Take the cost of a kilowatt hours from your electric power provider and multiply the kilowatt hours of the your battery. In my case, a kilowatt hour cost about $0.12 multiplied by .840 kilowatt hours battery equals about 10 cents to fully charge a flat battery.
For those who prefer to just plug and chug the numbers into a formula:
It is good to know that I am only consuming a few pennies worth of electric energy each time I ride my e-bike.