I'm In The News

We'll I'll be!  My solar panels and electric truck made the news on Fox 13.

Here's a link showing the clip.

How Fun!  

EV Charging Stations

I recently read an article about the electric vehicle charging stations opening up in Salt Lake City.  They are free (for now) to the public to use for charging their electric cars.
While I applaud the city of Salt Lake for their forward thinking, a large portion of the public opinion is against such things.  They feel strongly that tax payer dollars (or pennies rather) should not be spent to pay for a portion of a few driver's transportation costs.
I was recently near Liberty park where one of these charging stations resides.  While I had sufficient battery capacity to drive back home to Kaysville, I wanted to try one out so I knew what to expect in case the situation arose where I needed to plug in for a quick battery re-charge. 

It was a first class thrill to have a guaranteed parking spot that refueled my truck while I played at the park.  After 20 minutes and at the cost of 3 cents to the tax payers, I was back on the road.
By providing EV charging stations, the State of Utah is qualifying as a place where electric cars can be sold commercially on a much larger scale. 
It's a chicken or the egg scenario.  Commercial all-electric cars won't be sold in markets (like Utah) that don't have adequate charging stations.  But nobody wants to support charging stations in Utah because there are not many electric cars here to utilize them. 

Retail Businesses Can Help

A few weeks ago, I was driving home from work in my electric truck when I realized the old extension cord that I used earlier that day to re-charge my truck was faulty and my batteries weren't as full as planned.  I found myself pulling off of the freeway 5 miles before my normal exit.  I needed an extra 7 cents worth of electricity if I was to make it all the way home.  Oh well, I need to buy a new extension cord at Home Depot anyway. 

After receiving permission from the Home Depot store manager to plug in for an hour, I bought a new cord, plugged in and began re-charging the batteries.  At 120 volts, it takes about 1 hour to build back an extra 5-miles.  Three miles from the 1KWH of electricity and another 2 miles by just allowing the batteries to sit a while, rejuvenating them. 
Hmm, what else do I need at Home Depot?  It was during this hour of window shopping that I realized an invaluable, retail business, money-making principle.  I am a captive audience and there is no such thing as a free lunch.  Home Depot may be giving me 7 cents worth of electricity but they received much more from me.  Not only am I that much more loyal and grateful to Home Depot for their service and hospitality, but I ended up spending an additional $50 on other stuff that I needed while I was waiting for my truck to re-charge. 

Businesses that provide free EV charging stations will increase sales and make more money.  This free service will in turn satisfy the charging infrastructure requirements for future EV markets.   This is a Win-Win-Win situation for businesses, electric vehicles and the environment. 

Bring on the Charging Stations!

Stay tuned for my post about the first ever All Electric road-trip to Antelope Island, Utah.
Also upcoming: One way distance records and longest all-electric distance record traveled in one day.

Solar Panels 1 Year Later: Happy Panelversary!!!

Anyone wanting to get solar panels, my advice to you is to buy them ASAP.  Now!  If you live in the state of Utah, now is the best time in the history of the state to buy solar.  If someone said to you, "Buy these solar panels for $22,000 and I'll pay you back $25,000, would you do it?  Well this is exactly what is going on in Utah right now.  Not only will you receive a 30% federal tax credit and $2000 state tax rebate, you can also qualify for up to 25% state energy rebate.  If you have Rocky Mountain power, you will also qualify for up to a $2/watt rebate.  With all these programs added together, you would actually end up with free solar panels and money in your pocket.   It's up to you. 
~~~~~~
It has been 1 year since I first installed solar panels on the house and tied them to the electric grid. In one year’s time, the panels have produced 8600 Kilowatt-hours or about $850 worth of electricity. Even though that is about 1000KWH less than what I estimated my panels would produce in a year, this energy production has been more than sufficient to supply my entire house with all of its electricity needs.

Until recently, I had a 2 month credit built up with the power company of excess energy that my solar panels generated and fed back into the grid. In September, I started exclusively driving my newly converted all-electric pickup truck. With my 40 mile commute requiring 12-14KWH of electrical energy, my credit with the power company was depleted 1 month later.


1 year ago, today, the power meter on the house was installed and set to 000000 KWH. Today, 1 year later it reads 000980 KWH. I was hoping to have it roll all the way back to 000000 by this date. I attribute the excess consumption to the electric truck, and an unusually wet and cloudy weather this year that prevented the solar energy yield from being as high.

I am driving the truck more than I thought I would. I love driving it so much, I find myself volunteering for errands that normally my wife would be doing in her minivan.  Having driven the truck over 2100 miles so far, an extra 682KWH of energy has been extracted from my solar panels and the grid. If the cost of never having to pay for gas again is being unable to zero out the power meter each year then so be it.

Still, I would like to make my house and electric vehicle even more efficient so that my family can maintain our current standard of living and still zero out the meter. How cool would that be?

House consumption could be further reduced with additional insulation in the basement, attic and additional summer shading on all south facing windows.

Truck consumption could be further reduced by making the truck lighter and more aerodynamic.

Here is an example of an aero-cap; something I have yet to do on my own truck. 

In a few years when my heavy, cheap lead-acid battery pack reaches the end of its life, I want to replace it with a lithium-ion pack. This will reduce the weight of the truck by nearly 800lbs. My 40 mile commute would only require 8KWH instead of 12KWH. The truck would also have better acceleration and extended range.