By Ben Holsen, Holsen Solar & Electrical
This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Part 1 covers how I evaluated and switched to Xcel's Time-of-Day rate — and how I found $544/year in savings just by setting a charge schedule on my Rivian.
Switching to a Time-of-Day electric rate and setting my EV to charge overnight was the easy win. But once I started watching my home's circuit-level data, I couldn't stop asking questions. What else was happening that I couldn't see from the utility bill alone?
The answer turned out to be more interesting than I expected.
The Dryer Marathon I Never Knew Happened
When I looked for my highest single on-peak consumption day, I expected to find a day when the Rivian charged during the afternoon. Instead it was Tuesday, March 3rd — 44 kWh on-peak. No EV charging at all that day.
It was the dryer.
Looking hour by hour, the dryer ran almost continuously from 10AM to 8PM with only a short break in the afternoon. Multiple loads, back to back, all day. Right in the middle of peak pricing. The 6PM hour spiked hardest — 7.2 kWh — because the dryer and the mini-split were both running simultaneously.
This is exactly the kind of thing that's invisible without circuit-level data. The utility bill just shows a total. The Emporia shows you why.
The Mini-Split Cold Snap
March 16–17 showed the highest mini-split consumption of any days in my dataset: 27 and 32 kWh respectively. Looking at the hourly data for March 17, the unit ran at roughly 3 kWh per hour continuously from midnight through 7AM — clearly heating mode during a cold snap — then shut off during the day, then ramped back up in the evening.
That's normal behavior. But what I wouldn't have known without the data is that those two nights alone accounted for nearly 60 kWh of mini-split usage — more than most appliances use in a month. On the upside, most of that was off-peak (overnight), so the rate impact was minimal. The data confirmed the system was behaving sensibly even if the consumption looked alarming at first glance.
That's an important distinction: alarming numbers aren't always a problem. Sometimes the data just confirms you're doing the right thing. You don't know which until you look.
Does a Battery Actually Pencil Out?
This is the question I get asked constantly, and it's the one I most wanted to answer with real data instead of assumptions.
The honest answer for my house: it depends heavily on size and cost.
After shifting the EV to off-peak charging, my remaining on-peak load averages about 27 kWh per weekday in summer and 19 kWh in winter. A battery sized to cover that load — charged overnight at off-peak rates, discharged during the day — generates meaningful savings. But the rate delta in winter (about 9.4¢/kWh) is far less compelling than summer (about 13.6¢/kWh). Annual savings for a properly sized system land in the $600–700 range from load shifting alone, before factoring in rate escalation.
With Xcel's recent 12.92% rate increase — and knowing that ND residential rates have been climbing steadily — the 10-year picture looks significantly better than the year-one math suggests. Rates that escalate 5% annually turn a marginal project into a solid one by year five.
The right answer for any individual home isn't something you can calculate from a rule of thumb. It comes from knowing what's actually running, when it's running, and what your specific rate structure penalizes.
What This Means Beyond My House
My situation is a single-family home in Fargo with an EV, a mini-split, and normal appliances. But the same analytical approach applies — and the stakes get much higher — in commercial and agricultural settings.
Farmers on demand-rate tariffs aren't paying per kWh in the same way. They're paying for their peak 15-minute demand interval for the entire month. One grain dryer, one irrigation pivot, one large motor kicking on at the wrong time can set a demand charge that echoes through the bill for 30 days. The question of whether a battery, a load controller, or a solar array pencils out is answerable — but only if you have the circuit-level data to know what's setting that peak and when.
The same is true for commercial buildings, municipal facilities, and any operation with complex load profiles. The utility bill tells you what you spent. The monitoring data tells you why — and what to do about it.
The Takeaway
I got into solar and electrical work because I believe in giving people real, honest answers about their energy. Not every home needs a battery. Not every farm needs solar. But everyone with a significant electric bill deserves to know what's actually driving it.
The data exists. Monitors like the Emporia Vue are affordable and surprisingly powerful. And the analysis that used to require an engineering degree can now be done by exporting your data and asking the right questions.
If you're curious what your data might show — whether you're a homeowner, a farmer, or a business owner — that's a conversation worth having.
Ben Holsen is the owner of Holsen Solar & Electrical, a licensed electrical contracting company based in Fargo, ND, specializing in solar installations, battery storage, and electrical work for residential, agricultural, and commercial customers.