This month we were home and we had the LEAF for the whole month. But it seems there is always something unusual going on that creates anomalies in the data! I was gone to Florida for 3 weeks. While I was gone, our neighbors had an accident with their Tesla and needed to borrow the LEAF while it was being repaired. Bruce flies as a charter pilot with a private airline in Truckee, which is a 35-mile drive up I-80 from Reno. He used the car from June 12-16, making four round trips totaling about 280 miles. While he was at the airport, he plugged the car into the 110-volt outlet in the hangar. We don’t have readings for how many kWh were added during those charges, so figures are again a little off on the LEAF Charging History graph.

The other thing I discovered this month was the Billing Period graph on the SolarEdge monitor, which is set to our NV Energy billing period, give or take a day or two. This should get us closer to what the NV Energy bills shows under kWhGenerated, give or take margin of error between the two monitors.

And we just got this link from SolarEdge that will allow you to look at our solar system live as it produces power! It lets you look at our power generation and also shows really cool things, like the pounds of CO2 emissions saved and the equivalent number of trees planted over the life of the system. Check it out!

https://monitoringpublic.solaredge.com/solaredge-web/p/site/public?name=Ashurst%20Solar#/dashboard

Here’s the data:

Interpretation:

The system generated approximately 1.2 megawatts of power. We used 1/2 megawatt, we banked approximately 700 kilowatts. Same as last month!

From the NV Energy bill:

kWhGenerated = 1193

kWhReceived = 960 (difference 1193-960=233 used directly off solar system)

kWhDelivered = 331

kWhAccumulated = 696 (960-321=639) X $.08 = $48.46 credit banked

The $48.46 calculated above is added to the previous month’s Excess Energy Credit ($79.77), less some minor credits applied to current charges ($1.98), for a total carryover of $126.25. At $.09 per kWh retail electricity rate, this equals 1,403 stored kilowatts to date ($126.25/$.09).

Total usage = 331 (kWhD) + 233 (directly used off solar system) or 564 kWh. This is right in there with our usual usage without a vacation.

Shockingly, our little LEAF, even with Bruce’s 4 days of commuting to Truckee, used less than we had anticipated, only 141 kWh! We’re going to call her little miss Sippy. (She’s also zippy, so what’s not to love? Sippy and zippy!)

But it was interesting to note that Bruce’s commute used an average of 11.5 kWh per day, very close to the 12 kWh per day Travis built in to our system. We just don’t drive that much. We also learned the difference between using our SolarEdge charger vs. the 110-volt charger Bruce used in Truckee. The SolarEdge adds about 30% of battery (approx. 30 miles) per hour of charging and the 110-volt charger only adds 5% of battery (approx. 5 miles) per hour of charging! This discovery shows that you definitely want to add a 220-volt charger to your home if you are planning on having an EV.

Just for grins, let’s do the math on what it would cost an average commuter to power an EV for a month directly off the grid (if you didn’t have a solar system):

12 kWh/day (approx. 36 miles, more in town) X 30 days in a month = 360 kWh

Multiply this by the $.09 retail electricity rate (BTW, you can get better rates at night) and you get $32.40 total monthly cost of commuting with an EV.

Now let’s look at the average gas-powered (ICE) vehicle:

Average MPG = 25. Divide that into 36 average miles/day = 36/25=1.44 gallons/day

Multiply by national average cost per gallon: $3 X 1.44 gallons/day = $4.32/day total cost of gas.

Multiply by 30 days in the month ($4.32 X 30)=$129.60 or $130

The difference is $130 gas – $32 electric = $98 in savings per month! Plus 0 emissions, great speed, lower repair costs. If you can live with the range restrictions (which are expanding all the time), an EV is an awesome transportation option.

This is the month we added the LEAF! Even though we got the LEAF in April, we only charged it a few times on the April bill because we were gone for 2 weeks. May is the first whole month of data on charging our new EV! But because the NV Energy Billing Cycle is mid-month to mid-month, it includes part of our vacation and the SolarEdge/LEAF Charging data does not. Stay tuned next month for a clearer picture of our monthly usage.

Here’s the data:

Interpretation:

The system generated approximately 1.2 megawatts of power. We used 1/2 megawatt, we banked approximately 700 kilowatts.

From the NV Energy bill:

kWhGenerated = 1195

kWhReceived = 975 (difference 1195-975=220 used directly off solar system)

kWhDelivered = 279

kWhAccumulated = 696 (975-279=696) X $.08 = $52.78 credit banked

The $52.78 calculated above is added to the previous month’s Excess Energy Credit ($28.71), less some minor credits applied to current charges ($1.72), for a total carryover of $79.77. At $.09 per kWh retail electricity rate, this equals 886 stored kilowatts to date ($79.77/$.09).

Total usage = 279 (kWhD) + 220 (directly used off solar system) or 499 kWh. A little lower than last month due to our vacation in April, which was included partly in the NV Energy billing period.

The LEAF used quite a bit less than we had anticipated, only 116 kWh! Incredible! Travis built about 360 kWh into the system for the EV, which equals the 12 kWh/day used by the average commuter. We wonder if this is our normal usage or if it will change with time? We are retired so maybe the difference is we don’t drive as much as the average commuter? Stay tuned to find out…

We officially connected to the grid in mid-February. We learned how to use the SolarEdge app to monitor our system and marveled that even on cloudy days or when the panels were partly obstructed by snow, we still generated power.

We received our first power bill with the new system in March, but it included two months of data before and after the installation, and was very difficult to figure out. We thought we’d spare you that and start with our first clean bill in April.

Ok, let’s walk through the data. First thing to notice is NV Energy uses different dates than SolarEdge (our solar system monitor), so figures are not an exact match. NV Energy bills from mid-month to mid-month and dates are constantly adjusted, depending on when the billing period ends. SolarEdge uses a calendar month. There is also about a 5% margin of error between the two metering systems.

The total solar production SolarEdge shows for April is 1.18 MWh (approximately 1 megawatt). You can see the daily production on the graph and how it fluctuates depending on the weather.

Now let’s walk through the NV Energy bill, starting with Page 1, Meter Information table, Usage column:

kWhD=kilowatt hours delivered from the grid to us (usually at night)= 327

kWhR=kilowatt hours received into the grid from our solar system = 734

kWhA=kilowatt hours accumulated is the difference between what was
received (kWhR) and delivered (kWhD): 734-327=407. This is the amount of kWh banked this month.

kWhN=kilowatt hours net would be the kilowatt hours we would be billed if we didn’t generate enough electricity (or have enough in our bank) to meet our needs. This is 0 because we generated excess power.

kWhG=kilowatt hours generated = 946 (approximately 1 megawatt). This is about the same as the SolarEdge graph shows, given the two different time frames used by the meters and the margin of error.

On Page 2 of the NV Energy bill, there is the Excess Energy Credit calculation. This is a little confusing because there was a rate increase mid-period, so there are two different rates on this bill. Add 192 + 215 = 407 (which equals the kWhA from Page 1).

The 407 is multiplied by $.08 (rounded) = $30.73 ($14.42+$16.31) Excess Energy Credit earned. (This shows up on Page 1 above the Meter Information table.)

The $.08 rate used to calculate this credit equals the retail electricity rate ($.09/kWh) less the 12% tariff ($.01/kWh). The tariff is what NV Energy charges for banking excess energy for us. This credit is rolled forward each month and can be used to pay for electricity in months when we may not generate enough of our own power. The cool thing is the banked credits never expire as long as we own our home. The idea behind our system is to break even over the course of the year so we are only paying the $16 for connection to the grid that all NV Energy customers pay. (See Electric Charges on Page 1.)

Going back to Page 1, notice that NV Energy lets us use about $2 of the credit towards our current charges and the rest is a carryover into the next month. You will see this on Page 1 of the May bill.

One other figure I want to explain is the difference between the kWhG figure and the kWhR figure (946-734=212). This represents the electricity we used during the day directly off the solar panels. These kWh never leave our house and are not added to the grid.

So the total amount of electricity we used during the billing period was 212+327=539.

Bottom line:

We generated about 1 megawatt of power in April 2019, exactly what Travis modeled.

We used a little over 1/2 megawatt and banked a little under 1/2 megawatt.

Now let’s see what happens when we add the EV in May 2019.

NOTE: We actually got the LEAF in April, but only charged it a couple of times on the April bill, because we left town for 2 weeks only a few days after we brought her home.

It was always a dream of ours, turns out even before we were together. This year we finally did it. Here’s our story…

It was November 2018 when we started exploring going solar. I was curious about what it would cost, so I was playing around with an online calculator when Travis at Great Basin Solar popped in on my screen and asked if he could answer some questions. In the end we decided it was best if he came out and talk with us, looked at our home and modeled a possible system. He assured me he was no pressure and would respect our desire to wait. He did let us know that waiting might mean lower rebates, tax incentives, and a higher grid storage tariff with NV Energy.

We sat down with him on November 29th. He had already passed by the house and worked out a tentative design for our south-facing roof. He’d been in touch with Scott and put one year of our electric bills into his model. We told him we’d eventually like to add an Electric Vehicle (EV) and asked him to include that in his design.

Here is his model for what our solar system would generate (orange) laid over one year of our historical electricity use from our bills + projected needs for an Electric Vehicle (blue):

This model assumes we use about 19 kWh (kilowatt hours) per day of electricity on average in our home + an average EV usage of 12 kWh per day factored in. At 31 kWh per day, we’d need to generate 950 kWh or approximately 1 megawatt per month.

Travis is very bright and easy to follow. He and his team are all highly certified with 35+ years of experience in the solar field. He explained, in just enough detail, his proposal and how the system would provide our electricity. Any excess storage would go back into the grid and NV Energy would credit us for it, less a 12% tariff. We could tap into that storage in the months we would not generate enough of our own electricity. He went over all the rebates and incentives that would bring down the cost. He suggested we go with 22 panels and a SolarEdge Inverter with an EV charger attached directly to the inverter. Total bottom line price: $15,000.

I remember asking, “Excuse me, did I hear you right? Did you say 15 or 50 thousand dollars?” He assured me he’d said 15. He also told us that adding a solar system, increases a home’s value by an average of 3%. After he left, Scott and I talked it over. We looked at each other and said, “Well that’s a no-brainer. Let’s do it!” Neither of us could believe how inexpensive the system was going to be, and it would be virtually paid for by the value it added to our home as soon as it was installed! We couldn’t think of a reason to wait and there were several reasons not to. Those reasons included declines in rebates over time and that the NV Energy tariff for storage goes up as the number of installed solar systems increase. So we called Travis and told him to book us in.

In January, his team of two installers came to our home. They were wonderful to work with, plus they played great 80’s music! Scott has most of a degree in Electrical Engineering and takes great pride in the electrical system he has installed in our home. He is VERY PARTICULAR about what goes on with this system, and he was super impressed with these guys and their work. It’s clean, safe, efficient and well designed. They completed the job in two days!

We can’t say enough good things about working with Great Basin Solar and Travis and his team! These guys know what they are doing. We referred several of our friends to them and they are equally impressed. Most of them are moving forward with their own installations. Though his business is new, he and his team have more certifications and experience than most solar companies in Nevada. He is a local guy and plans to stay in Reno for a long time. He guarantees his work and the panels for 25 years! You can find out more at: https://www.greatbasinsolar.com/.

Here’s our panels after they were installed (from our neighbors’ 2nd story):

Then came the wait for NV Energy to hook us into the grid. That took about a month. On February 19, 2019 we went LIVE! It’s been fun watching our power production with the SolarEdge (SE) apps and maybe a little less fun figuring out the NV Energy bills… In the next entries, I’ll put in copies of our NV Energy bill and the SE stats on what our system has generated so you can follow along with a live example of solar power at work!

The Cars

Along with always wanting solar, we have also been interested in reducing our carbon footprint by getting more fuel efficient cars. When our neighbor got a LEAF and then a Tesla, we watched with curiosity, took rides, and fantasized. One day in the future, we would drive an EV, maybe first we’d get a hybrid.

In fall 2018 we started to notice that Scott’s 2002 Toyota 4-Runner with 175,000 miles was developing a serious vibration when going downhill and braking. We decided it was time to get a new SUV to tow our teardrop trailer before our 2019 camping season began. Scott was interested in the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, which one of his friends had. We started checking prices online and realized that used Highlanders are about as expensive as new ones. We also discovered the best day to buy a new car is New Years Eve. So after lunch on December 31, 2019 we went down to Dolan Toyota to look at Hybrid Highlanders.

2019 Toyota Highlander Limited

When we walked on the lot, we were greeted by a young man named Weston who announced that the dealership was in the last hours of vying for an important award from Toyota for being among the top 60 dealers in the nation for 2018. This is a BIG deal for little Reno and they had succeeded the year before. No one thought they could do it again, but they were in the running. Toyota would not tell them how close and they were. Turns out the advice we received online about New Year’s Eve was right on!

We told Weston we wanted a white Toyota Highlander Hybrid, not too fancy and we could wait. Understandably, he wasn’t too excited about this. He didn’t have any of those on the lot. But he did have a Limited model, would we like to look at it? We told him there was no way we could afford it, but he could take us for a drive if he wanted to. So he did.

WOW!!! What an amazing ride! Luxurious, quiet, smooth and very fast. It was my first experience in a V-6 hybrid with AWD. It has one electric motor to drive each axle (front and rear) and a gasoline engine, along with a battery. The battery is recharged by both the gasoline engine and braking. When first accelerating, coasting or braking, the batteries provide power to the electric motors. When accelerating harder, the engine takes over. It has a continuous transmission that makes gear shifting almost imperceptible. We both drove it and were so impressed!

Here’s a great little video and explanation of how a hybrid Toyota works:
https://www.markjacobsontoyota.com/toyota-hybrid-faqs.html .

But it wasn’t in our price range. Weston said, “Let me talk to my manager and see what we can do for you today.” Somehow they managed to get us into this beautiful car for a price we could afford! And we were among the last 5 cars that put Dolan Toyota over the top for their award! We figured, in the end, we all won. We can definitely recommend Dolan Toyota in Reno if you are looking to buy a Toyota.

As of this writing, we’ve had the car for 6 months and we love it! It gets about 30 MPG, double the 4-Runner. So we’ve cut our emissions by about half, along with our gas bill. What’s not to love? It’s more powerful, faster and smoother than the 4-Runner and way more comfortable with all the modern features, including heated and air conditioned front seats and seamless links with our iPhones. In addition it sports a host of safety features including: lane departure and blind spot alerts, automatic 3-car-length adjustment on the cruise control, and a great backup camera that flashes if there is someone behind you. This results in it being the same cost to insure as the old 4-Runner! We use about a tank of gas a month and it is a perfect car for road trips (no gas stops, since it goes 450 miles between fills and our behinds can’t last longer than that). We are excited about using it to tow our teardrop this summer! Stay tuned for how that goes…

We also understand that it will require less maintenance than a regular ICE (internal combustion engine vehicle). And since we always drove old vehicles with 100,000+ miles on them, it will be a lot less than what we are used to!

What we used to pay on average per month: $75 for repairs and maintenance/$100 for gas. Total $175.

What we expect to pay with our new Hybrid: $50 for repairs and maintenance/$50 for gas. Total: $100

Savings per month: $75

I’ll put up a blog post annually to keep you updated on how it actually turns out! And keep you updated on our Teardrop Travels.

2016 Nissan LEAF SV

In March, we took my 2012 Subaru Forester in to check an exhaust smell in the cabin. The muffler shop called us back a few hours later and said, bad news the muffler and catalytic converter are shot, it’ll cost you $1800 to fix it! The car had nearly 140,000 miles on it and we just couldn’t see spending that kind of money to fix it.

Add to that the fact that on some days we were generating 50 kWh of solar power on our roof and it was only March! We use about 19 kWh per day on average in our home, so it was very clear to us that we were generating way more electricity than we would ever use.

Maybe it was time to get an electric vehicle (EV) sooner rather than later… We had thought about a Tesla, but that was out of the question after the Highlander. So we started exploring other options and discovered that used Nissan LEAFs are INCREDIBLY CHEAP!

This is a fun read on that subject: https://jalopnik.com/holy-crap-used-nissan-leafs-are-incredibly-cheap-1743475298.

Bottom line is the older models don’t have the range of the newer models and with EV’s, it’s all about range. But there is this cool sweet spot in the 2016 and 17 LEAFs, which have a higher capacity battery giving around 100 miles of range. We decided we wanted a white 2016-17 SL or SV LEAF. (LEAF is an acronym for Leading Environmentally-friendly Affordable Family-vehicle. It is the top selling EV in the world.)

Ok, I admit I got totally obsessed with it! I HAD to have a LEAF. So I hunted online using CarGurus looking for a Great Deal (that’s how they label them), and I found one. A pretty 2016 SV with only 23,000 miles for $13,000! I could not believe it. The bummer was it was in the Bay Area. After vetting the car the best we could long distance, we flew down to pick it up on April 3, 2019.

It took us 8 hours to make the 4-hour drive back to Reno. Because we were EV newbies with a major care of Range Anxiety, we stopped to charge 4 times for about 30 minutes each. That was an interesting experience!

We used quick chargers from an app on the iPhone called Drive The Arc. Most of them were in grocery store parking lots or Walmarts. We learned the LEAF sucks lots of energy going uphill with the headlights and heat on–all of which take electricity. The total cost for the trip was about $35. What we didn’t know is that when you do that many quick charges in an 8-hour period, the battery heats up! We drove the last leg home from Truckee in the red zone and tried not to worry. Fortunately, we made it back without a problem and the battery cooled down overnight. Ok, it’s definitely not a road car.

Turns out it is an awesome in-town car. It is super fast and silent–makes a cool spaceship-like sound during acceleration and softly pings when you back up. The acceleration is exhilarating! There is no transmission in the LEAF so it is pure power to the wheels. The battery sits in the center of the vehicle, giving a low center of gravity so it handles like a sports car. It is the size of small sedan and amazingly comfortable. It includes heated seats and steering wheel and the ability to link to our iPhones, though that link is not as sophisticated as the Highlander’s. It also has a backup camera and a deep, roomy trunk. It costs about the same to insure as my old Subaru. I always wanted a VW Bug and the LEAF reminds me of that design. I think she’s adorable! Ok, so I’m in total love with our new car! And the best part is she is powered by Nevada sunshine and has zero emissions.

The charger is attached to the solar inverter in our garage, so we plug her in like a cell phone. We get about 100 miles out of a full charge, but usually keep her at 30%-80% to save wear on the battery. For our normal in-town use, we plug in about every 2-3 days for a couple of hours.

We hear that EV’s require even less maintenance than a hybrid, maybe 1/3 of the cost, since there is no engine or transmission, and a lot less fluids. This assumes we will get another EV rather than replace the battery, which is guaranteed for 100,000 miles, but can last a lot longer than that.

For the Subaru, we used to pay on average per month: $75 for repairs and maintenance/$85 for gas. Total $160.

What we expect to pay for the LEAF: $25 for repairs and maintenance/$0 for gas. Total: $25.

Savings per month: $135

I’ll add the stats on the electricity the LEAF uses monthly and put up a blog post annually on the maintenance costs to keep you updated on how it actually turns out!

Savings Expected from Going Solar, Hybrid and EV

Savings per month from Hybrid: $75

Savings per month from LEAF: $135

Savings for electricity: 19 kWh average per day X $.09/kWh = $51

Total Savings: $261/month

Savings Related Directly to Solar System & EV: $186

Estimated time until we get our money back on solar system & EV: ($15,000+$13,000-$4,000 for Subaru)/$186/12=10.75 years. (Of course, in reality we got the money back immediately for the solar system in increased home value.)

Honestly, for us the breakeven point is less important than knowing we are doing something kind for mother nature at a time when She desperately needs it. The extra bonus is how fun it is to drive the cars of the future!