We like the boonies and often seek out remote getaways. On this trip we headed to a favorite spot in the Trinity Alps. We wondered what it would be like and how would charging work? We checked out one of our favorite off-the-beaten-path routes and found that it was outside our 175-mile safe range (nearly 200 miles and mostly pine trees). We decided that would give us the range willies for sure!
So, we charted out a safer route along I-80 and I-5, which have ample Electrify Americas. Along the way we stopped at Auburn Toyota and checked out a BZ4X for Scott (see this post: https://rhondaashurst.com/2023/05/09/the-search-for-our-next-ev/). We traveled 378 miles to Trinity and stopped at Auburn and Anderson to charge. With the test drive, which took at least 30 minutes and two charging stops of 30 minutes each, the trip took just over 8 hours. The nice thing about all those stops is we felt better physically when we arrived, and we also missed the afternoon rainstorm! We did stretch our range limit a bit between Auburn and Anderson (181 vs 175 miles), plus we stopped at a 95% charge at Auburn (it takes forever to get that last 5%). By the time we got to Anderson, we had only 11% left in the battery. We decided we’d charge at Dunnigan if we take this route in the future!
Photo of the Ioniq at an Electrify America Charging Station
We had permission to charge the car at our cabin, so when we arrived, we pulled out the 110-volt charger and plugged her in. It said it would take 53 hours to go from 28%-100%! Luckily, we had the time as we were staying several days.
While we were there, we took a trip up the pass on a steep and curvy road to snowshoe on the Pacific Crest Trail. What a thrill to drive up a road like that in the Ioniq! It was the first time I’d driven her up and down one of California’s crazy switchback passes and it was a scream! Smooth and effortless sailing all the way up and then coming down, I used Level 3 e-braking. I only had to brake on hairpin turns, which was amazing! The other cool thing is it took 12% of the battery to get up there and we gained 1% coming back!
Here’s a couple of photos of the road and the beautiful waterfall we stopped at:
On the way home we took a different route through Chico. Wow, was that pretty! We took I-5 to highway 99, stopping for lunch at a pretty rest stop south of Redding. We drove through farmland and orchards and arrived in Chico with 51% left in the battery. We charged for 30 minutes and strolled the nearby Chico campus—charming! We left with 97% and headed towards the foothill towns of Grass Valley and Nevada City. The drive from there through the Sierra’s is lovely. We arrived in Reno with 21% left. This will definitely be our preferred route up to Trinity in the future. It took us 7 hours with two 30 minute stops for lunch and charging. We traveled a total of 311 miles on the way home.
Here’s the road trip log:
We noticed we used more energy going up to Trinity than coming back, since there was more uphill and 67 more miles. In the future, we will stop in Chico on the way up and back to charge. If we had driven the Hyundai Tucson (gas comparison car), it would have cost us $100 in gas. Because our charging on Electrify America is free, we saved $100 taking the Ioniq! If we had to pay for our charging, it would have cost $59, so a 40% savings over the Tucson. At 20 pounds of CO2 per gallon for 23 gallons of gas, we saved 460 pounds of CO2 from entering our atmosphere by driving the EV.
We were relieved to see that you can take the Ioniq into the boonies and do just fine with finding charging, as long as you plan out your route ahead of time. We look forward to our next trip to Trinity!
Lately, it has become clear that we need a second longer-range EV. The LEAF works well in town, but is down to about 90 miles of range, which in reality is about 68 miles. (My rule of thumb is to take about 25% off an EV’s range at 100% and that’s your real-world mileage, which accounts for climate control, terrain, temperature, and leaving about 15% in the battery.) We are realizing that in the near future we may both need to drive to the Bay Area to see family, and that won’t work with the LEAF.
So, we’ve been checking out new EV’s! Always one of my favorite activities, not so much Scott’s. We initially thought we’d go with a Tesla Model Y so we could have access to the Tesla Supercharger network. A friend of ours brought over his Model Y and took Scott for a test drive. When he came back, I asked him how it went. He said, “I could live with it.” Not exactly the response I was hoping for.
Next, we visited Nissan and found a Premium Nissan Ariya in the showroom. Wow! What a beautiful car! Scott slid into the driver’s seat and started playing with buttons (embedded in the wood veneer trim with haptic feedback when you press them) and the next thing I saw was a big grin. Ok, now we’re talking! Meanwhile, I’m styling over in the passenger seat, feeling very comfortable and thinking, this is as nice as my car. (I don’t usually have thoughts like that as I am totally in love with my Ioniq 5 and I don’t cheat on her.) Then we took the Ariya out for a test drive, and we were sold! What a comfortable and quiet ride, like the Ioniq. We were in a FWD model, so it didn’t have the power of the AWD, which is still coming off the production line as I write. We hope that one will be available soon for us to test drive, but looking at the YouTube test drives, it sounds like they did an awesome job with the e-4orce AWD model.
Other things we love: roomy and spacious cabin, very comfy and adjustable seats, the blue Nappa leather is beautiful, rear seats are comfortable and can be heated, there’s lots of leg and head room, the HVAC system in the back is better than the Ioniq’s, the panoramic sunroof can be opened above the front seats, the automatic drawer comes out from below the dash and doubles as a storage compartment and a table for your iPad or laptop (the Ariya is billed as a driving lounge, and it is), the console between the front seats can be moved forward and back with the touch of a button, the car has haptic buttons built into wood veneer that disappear when the car is off, the screen is curved and sits low and long across the dash (not in your face like the Tesla), the heads up display is easy to see, it supports wireless Apple CarPlay, it has driver assists (ProPilot 2.0) and cameras that we are used to in the Ioniq, the ability to use the camera in the rear view mirror if you have the live view blocked by stuff (often the case on our road trips), and the whole overall look and design of the car. Scott particularly liked feeling more snuggled into the driver’s seat in the Ariya. The Ioniq is more open and spacious, which is my preference but not his. Although, I didn’t feel like I was at all constricted in the Ariya. He was also glad to see regular door handles and a less flashy look than the Ioniq.
The Nissan has a little more range than the Ioniq—267 vs. 256, but charges at about ½ the speed (10-80% in 40 minutes vs. 20 minutes). Taking 25% off the Nissan’s 267 advertised range (100% to 0%–who does that anyway?), it has a real-world range for us of about 200, which would leave 15% in the battery. It will be fun to compare these two to each other on road trips! We’ll have to spend more time at chargers with the Ariya, but that just means a longer walk for us and that’s ok. Nissan’s goal is to lengthen battery life, so that will be another interesting experiment over time.
Being human, we then began to second guess how easily this had come. Maybe we are missing something, we thought. We found a Car and Driver article that listed all the EV’s available in 2023. Scott looked through it and decided he’d also like to see a Mustang Mach-E and a Toyota BZ4X (he’s driven Toyotas for over 30 years).
We went over to the Ford dealer one day and found an ugly yellow Mach-E available for a test drive. We also sat in the high-end model sitting next to it. We instantly disliked the feel of this car. It was like sitting in a race car—low down in the seat which wraps around you more tightly than the Ariya (too much of a good thing for Scott), large center console that makes the leg room area feel boxed in, high and small windows, and challenging to get in and out of compared to the other EV’s we’d driven. We felt claustrophobic in this car. The trim was disappointing, and the screen was in your face like the Tesla, but not nearly as well designed. The drive was ok, and honestly, we can’t recall much because we were so turned off by that point. I imagine this car is a scream if you are on a racetrack or speeding around curvy roads. Oh, and it has a woofer in the back if you like to pump your base while you’re racing. So not our thing! And it was the most expensive car we looked at, plus on back order for about two years according to our salesman.
It took us awhile to find the Toyota BZ4X, which we finally found in Auburn on our way to the Trinity Alps. I had originally wanted this car but changed my mind once I saw it compared to the Ioniq on YouTube. So, I was curious to see it in person. What a disappointment. I liked it even less than I thought I would, but then I’ve been driving the Ioniq for 9 months and there’s really no comparison. But I reminded myself, this is not your car…
Meanwhile, Scott was taking in all the familiar Toyota buttons and finish that he is used to. (We were in a Limited.) He decided he liked the driving screen that sits high up above the steering wheel but didn’t like the way it had been designed. It is Toyota’s answer to heads up driving. The computer screen sits low and forward but had not been set up and was not functioning. This seemed odd to us, like it wasn’t really integrated with the car, but with your smartphone? The salesperson showed us how to adjust things like the driver assist features using buttons on the steering wheel and multiple menus. This should be in the screen. It felt smaller and tighter than the Ariya and had a solid center console, more like the Mach-E. It was not as claustrophobic to us, but definitely not as comfortable as the Ariya. The panoramic roof is split in the center and we couldn’t see why, as it doesn’t open, like the Ariya does. It did have a cover for the pano roof, which is a must in our hot climate (one of the things Scott didn’t like in the Tesla). The BZ4X has a lot of shiny black plastic surfaces inside and out. It throws off glare and I imagine would show dirt and fingerprints. Neither of us liked this. Scott likened the outside of the white car as “looking like a soccer ball.” Good analogy!
Then we took it out on the road. First off, not the kind of acceleration we are used to. Secondly, lots of road noise! Nothing like our Highlander, which was much quieter. This car reminded us of our Subaru Forester which was really noisy on the road. The Limited AWD also has only 222 miles of range, so taking the 25% off, about 167 miles realistically. It is also a slow charger, going from low range to 80% in about an hour. Well, scratch this one off the list. Toyota does hybrids well and I’ve heard good things about their plug-in hybrids. Clearly, this is the niche they are focused on and not the EV, at least not yet.
What We Learned
We are like a cross between the Princess and the Pea, and Goldilocks. We like our cars comfy, luxurious, and spacious and we want that just right feel. We seek a comfortable and quiet ride, stable handling, especially on snow and ice (hence why we are looking at only AWD’s). Speed is fun, but not the main attraction. We want lots of cargo space since we seem to take half our house with us on vacation. We like our driver assists and prefer buttons to screens, but we can work with a screen and prefer it for more advanced settings. We are tickled by cool and thoughtful design features. Our range is about 150 miles before we need to get out of a car and stretch our legs, but we like to have a little more available if necessary. We get range anxiety below 15%, plus it isn’t great on the battery, so we factor that in (included in the 25% we take off a car’s advertised range). We like big windows and panoramic roofs that can be closed in the hot summer months. We both think the Ariya’s split window with the ability to open over the front seats is very cool. Scott likes his car to be less flashy and more what he’s used to. He has come to terms with the reality that all modern cars have screens and are more helpful than he prefers, but he’s getting used to this after driving the Ioniq.
And The Winner Is…
Scott picked the Ariya. Frankly, he never really looked back once he sat in it for the first time. This car is his “just right.” So, we will keep an eye out for a white Platinum AWD e-4orce and see when it shows up.
The Runners Up
#2. Tesla Model Y. He liked the drive ok, but it “ran away with me.” He couldn’t gauge how fast he was going, and this bothered him. It lacks the luxury and ingenuity he likes in the interior. He didn’t like not being able to close off the pano roof. There’s too much screen and not enough buttons. He doesn’t want to drive a computer, or to have it drive him.
#3 Toyota BZ4X. A decent EV but lacks the pizzaz of the others and falls short in the range and charging department. He didn’t like the road noise or the exterior look.
#4 Mustang Mach-E. Claustrophobic interior was an instant turnoff. For Scott there is such a thing as too much snuggly, it turns out! This car is probably great fun if you’re into drag racing or performance driving, or you like the feel of what it must be like in a race car, or if you really must have a Mustang.
Be the change that you want to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi
Our 30 solar panels (minus the trees shadowing them), the 2022 Ioniq 5, and the 2016 Nissan LEAF
This is truly the year it has all come together after four years of working to make our green dreams a reality. We’ve reduced our carbon footprint 41% since 2018 and are now close to our 50% goal. We are finally driving only electric vehicles, which are so fun to drive! They are fast, comfortable, good in the snow and have lots of cargo space. We are thankful we don’t have to pay for gas, given the current prices. The EV’s are like big cell phones that we simply plug in to the charger in our garage, which is part of our solar panel inverter. They make the biggest difference in reducing our carbon footprint. We have produced enough electricity with our solar panels to power our home and two EV’s, while reducing our use of natural gas by 49%. We live comfortably, keeping our indoor temperature around 70 degrees in the winter (in the rooms we use) and 77 degrees in the summer. This is aided by zone heating in winter and we will add zone A/C to our bedroom in the summer of 2023. Our heat pump water heater and hybrid heating and A/C (HVAC) systems work on programmable thermostats, similar to our old systems. But they use a lot less natural gas and are more efficient because they move heat instead of creating it–what a brilliant idea! It has been fascinating and fun to experience these new, green technologies, which work more efficiently and emit far less carbon than what we were doing before. The extra bonus is that these changes have already paid for themselves and then some! We anticipate our savings to be about $5,000 per year, which will save us $100,000 over the next 20 years that we plan to live here! AMAZING!
We took some leaps forward this year in our quest to reduce our carbon footprint and live in a greener home. We traded our Toyota Highlander Hybrid for a Hyundai Ioniq 5 and became an all EV household! We also love knowing that when we drive, we are emitting zero emissions into the atmosphere. We’ve done some longer road trips in the Ioniq and have found it works the same for us as a gas fueled vehicle, because we like to stop and walk every 150 miles anyway. By the time we’re done stretching our legs, our baby is juiced up and ready to roll! If you want to know more about driving EV’s, see this theme in my blog: https://rhondaashurst.com/category/driving-electric-cars/. The other goal we achieved was adding a hybrid HVAC system. This system moves warm air from outside into our home in winter and out in summer. When it needs backup (temps below 40 degrees) it uses our high efficiency natural gas furnace in the winter. This system has further reduced our use of natural gas. To learn more about it, read this post: https://rhondaashurst.com/2023/03/03/our-new-hybrid-split-heat-pump-system/.
We were shocked to see that we are already beyond the breakeven point after only four years! I had neglected to add the increase in our home value due to these green improvements, even though I’d talked about it in the first year’s blog post. Studies are now showing that green homes sell for more and faster than other homes, because buyers want to live more sustainably and they know they are purchasing a valuable stream of savings (about $5,000 per year in our case). I added a modest 6% to the value of our home and I feel confident we could get that if we sold. But we are planning to stay for another 20+ years, so I thought it would be fun to look at how much we might save over that time and was shocked to find out it would be $100,000! We will likely save even more given the way energy and gasoline prices are going up. With this kind of savings, it would be worth taking out a home improvement loan and then paying it back out of the savings, especially with the new tax breaks and incentives.
How We Did It
I always say it’s like eating potato chips, once you get started it’s hard to stop! We began by adding 22 solar panels in early 2019 to take advantage of our big south-facing roof. In 2019, we also bought a hybrid Toyota Highlander and a Nissan LEAF. We learned quickly that the cars saved the most money and carbon.
In 2020 we added an EdenPURE high efficiency zone heater and another smaller electric heater in our bedroom. Between these heaters and our Lopi natural gas stove, we reduced our gas use by around 20%!
In 2021, we shifted our main focus to reducing our carbon footprint. We added 8 more solar panels (for a total of 30), cut down some trees that were shading the panels, and added a heat pump water heater. Our panels produce about 18 megawatts of electricity per year! The heat pump water heater made a huge difference. As of this writing, the heat pump saved another 40% of gas use over what we used in 2020!
In 2022, we added a heat pump HVAC system and traded the Highlander for a Hyundai Ioniq 5, going all EV at last! Again, it was the EV that made the biggest difference in saving both carbon and money. This time we splurged on a new EV. It has all the latest features and is a blast to drive! Our strategy has been to buy one lower-end, old technology EV (the 2016 Nissan LEAF) and one higher-end, new technology EV (the 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5). We use the LEAF for our in-town driving and the Ioniq for road trips. This combo works great and between the two, they cost only $13,700 more than their comparable ICE’s. I estimate they will save us $3,500/year to drive over those ICE’s, so will pay for themselves in four years. We don’t yet have enough data to know how well our heat pump HVAC is doing; we hope to have a good idea by summer.
In 2023, we plan to add a mini-split heat pump to our bedroom for zone cooling (and perhaps some heating). We’d like to keep our room cooler for sleeping in the summer, but leave the rest of the house in the 80’s. We’re hoping with this change, we will reduce our use of electricity and hopefully be able to generate all our required electricity off our panels. Plus, it’ll give us a chance to try out a mini-split! We’re curious about how it operates vs. our ducted heat pump HVAC.
In our case, this has been a long-term project where we look at the synergy between all the systems. They work together to save more money and carbon than they would by themselves. We are also lucky to live in NV with tons of sun and a big south-facing roof. Our house has extra insulation, double pane windows, and an attic fan which helps hold the temperature inside. Over time we have also switched to LED lighting; it especially helped to change out our old outdoor Christmas lights to LED’s.
We’d recommend you start with solar panels and increasing the efficiency of your home (insulation, windows, sealing cracks, attic fan, etc). The next thing to add would be an EV or two, as they will save you the most money and carbon. After that, the heat pump water heater is a great gas saver and super efficient. If you have electricity left over, then think about heat pump HVAC.
If you don’t have solar panels, electricity is more expensive than natural gas, but not as expensive as gasoline. So, an EV can be worth it, but the other systems might not be. If your electrical grid is mostly powered by fossil fuels (which most are), you are still burning carbon to run the systems. In many states, you can purchase renewable energy from your power company or you can buy “green tags”, see this site for more information: https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/articles/easy-way-use-renewables-buy-clean-electricity
Summary of 2022
This table has more detail on savings of both carbon and money, plus more cost detail. It also shows the history of the changes we’ve made since 2018 and how it builds over time.
Bottom Line: We’ve saved 52 tons of carbon from entering our atmosphere, while saving money (past breakeven after 4 years), increasing the value of our home and enjoying the pleasure of driving really fun EV’s!
NOTE: The heat pump systems were purchased at wholesale and installed by Scott, his brother and friends. This significantly reduced our costs. In the table, we are only looking at the additional costs of replacing our old units with heat pumps vs. older technology.
THE DATA FOR MY FELLOW NERDS:
The Quest to Reduce Our Carbon Footprint
Last year we began a new quest to reduce out carbon footprint. We are excited to see that we have reduced our carbon footprint by 41% since 2018! This year we used a new, more accurate carbon calculator on the Nature Conservancy’s site. Here’s the link if you want to try it yourself: https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator/. This calculator uses US data, while last year’s used UK data. It is best if you use a calculator that is based on your country’s carbon data.
According to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we have a limited time to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions before we reach a point of no return. They are asking us to cut our emissions 50% by 2030. When all of us do what we can, we create a tidal wave of change! What we have learned during this journey is that we can drastically reduce our carbon footprint without sacrificing a comfortable, modern lifestyle. There are great technologies out there to help like solar panels, electric vehicles, and heat pump systems which allow us to cut our emissions significantly. It is actually not that difficult to replace old systems with these technologies and it makes such a difference. It’s also easy to install these more efficient systems in newer homes. In Nevada we are lucky to have this amazing sun and a net metering power company that allows us to bank and use our excess solar energy. Did you know that the biggest part of our carbon footprint comes from the energy we use in our homes and vehicles?
Our gratitude to Travis and the guys at Great Basin Solar (https://www.greatbasinsolar.com/) for the awesome job they did designing and installing our system.
We produced 17.9 megawatts, 4.7 megawatts more than last year! We were thrilled to see what a difference it made to install 8 new panels in 2021 and take out the trees that had been shading some of the panels. We are hopeful that we can now produce enough electricity to power our EV’s and our home with the addition of the heat pump systems.
Our banked power with NV Energy went from 2.0 to 2.2 megawatts, so we have a little extra going into 2023. Both electricity and gas prices went up significantly in 2022, so we are now using our banked credits at a higher rate. It will be interesting to see how this all turns out next year…
Because of the increase in utility bills, we added 20% to our previous annual charges to account for inflation. With the reduction in our use of natural gas, we saved a $950.47 on our utility bills this year!
We saved 299 therms over our old average. Now we are using 49% less gas than we did before. We also saved 3600 pounds of carbon!From SolarEdge Monitoring SystemFrom SolarEdge Monitoring System
These are the graphs from our SolarEdge inverter showing the production of electricity off our roof. You can see that our lowest production months are November-February, which is when we are using the electric zone heaters and running Christmas lights. It’s during these months that we tap into our banked power with NV Energy. In the higher production months, we send more power into the grid, which is used by other households and increases our banked power.
Electricity Delivered from and Received by NV Energy shown on the bar chart Hand calculation is of our stored bank of 2.2 megawatts (Bank of $234.13 divided by price per kilowatt of .10637)
THE EV’s
This table shows the miles we drove in our EV’s (about 5.5 months in the Ioniq), the electricity we used and the miles per kWh. It’s interesting that we get about the same mileage on both our EV’s. If we had to pay for this electricity, it would have only cost $287 to power them. The next two tables show what it would have cost to drive the comparable gas cars–about $2100! The gas prices went up from an average of $4/gallon in 2021 to over $5/gallon in 2022. This really increased our savings in 2022, plus driving a second EV.
We were shocked when we asked our Nissan Tech how much it would have cost to do the 45,000 mile service on a Juke and he said an additional over $800! Ouch! We are definitely at the stage with our LEAF where there are big savings in the repairs and maintenance. The LEAF has become Scott’s ride (it’s amazing what he can fit in that car!). At over 45,000 miles and 7 years old, it still has a range of 85 miles when charged to 100%. This is only a loss of 25 miles or about 23% of what it could do originally. We are down to 7 out of 10 bars on our battery. The LEAF still has plenty of range for around town trips and has had no major mechanical or electrical issues.
The Ioniq is my ride and I LOVE her! Most awesome car I’ve ever driven! (You can read more in the Driving EV’s theme.) She is our road car, so we anticipate we will put more miles on her than our LEAF. So far road tripping has been comfortable and easy. We’ve been able to find chargers whenever we need them. We get two free years from Hyundai at Electrify America, so for now our charging on the road is free! The other thing we love about Electrify America is their power comes from renewable sources. It will be interesting to see how much we save driving the Ioniq for a whole year. We got her in July 2022, so this is only a little over 5 months of driving.
We said farewell to our Highlander when we traded her for the Ioniq in July. It was an awesome car when we needed a V-6 to tow Pearl. In July we also sold Pearl, our cute little teardrop trailer. If you’re in the market for a large SUV hybrid, the Highlander is a great choice and saved us a lot of money over our old 4-Runner. The above table shows the $800 we saved driving the Highlander for 1/2 a year.
Scott fueling up the Highlander one last time. Now we just plug in the charger in our garage.
EV’s powered by solar are one of the best ways to reduce both your transportation cost and carbon footprint. We recommend get solar and get EV’s–it’s worth it! If you don’t feel comfortable going all EV, plug-in hybrids are a next best choice, followed by regular hybrids. All these vehicles will save you money, while helping the environment. EV’s and plug-in hybrids assembled mostly in the USA are eligible for a $7,500 tax rebate when purchased new. Used EV’s can qualify for up to $4,000 in tax rebates as well. We like having one newer model and one older, used model. These cars cost $13,700 over their comparable gas cars. I estimate they will save us $3,500/year in gas and R&M. So we’d break even on the extra expense of buying the EV’s in 4 years.
If you made it this far, I’m impressed! Stay tuned for updates on driving EV’s, life with heat pumps, and the next adventure of installing and using a mini-split. See if we can actually meet all of our electricity needs off our roof. Yesterday I learned that Tesla is opening up its supercharging network to those of us who don’t own Teslas. We’re looking forward to trying that out and will let you know how it goes!
Our 30 solar panels (minus the trees shadowing them), the 2022 Ioniq 5, and the 2016 Nissan LEAF
This table shows the miles we drove in our EV’s (about 5.5 months in the Ioniq), the electricity we used and the miles per kWh. It’s interesting that we get about the same mileage on both our EV’s. If we had to pay for this electricity, it would have only cost $287 to power them. The next two tables show what it would have cost to drive the comparable gas cars–about $2100! The gas prices went up from an average of $4/gallon in 2021 to over $5/gallon in 2022. This really increased our savings in 2022, plus driving a second EV.
We were shocked when we asked our Nissan Tech how much it would have cost to do the 45,000 mile service on a Juke and he said an additional over $800! Ouch! We are definitely at the stage with our LEAF where there are big savings in the repairs and maintenance. The LEAF has become Scott’s ride (it’s amazing what he can fit in that car!). At over 45,000 miles and 7 years old, it still has a range of 85 miles when charged to 100%. This is only a loss of 25 miles or about 23% of what it could do originally. We are down to 7 out of 10 bars on our battery. The LEAF still has plenty of range for around town trips and has had no major mechanical or electrical issues.
The Ioniq is my ride and I LOVE her! Most awesome car I’ve ever driven. She is our road car, so we anticipate we will put more miles on her than our LEAF. So far road tripping has been comfortable and easy. We’ve been able to find chargers whenever we need them. We get two free years from Hyundai at Electrify America, so for now our charging on the road is free! The other thing we love about Electrify America is their power comes from renewable sources. It will be interesting to see how much we save driving the Ioniq for a whole year. We got her in July 2022, so this is only a little over 5 months of driving.
The Ioniq charging in our garage
EV’s powered by solar are one of the best ways to reduce both your transportation cost and carbon footprint. We recommend get solar and get EV’s–it’s worth it! If you don’t feel comfortable going all EV, plug-in hybrids are a next best choice, followed by regular hybrids. All these vehicles will save you money, while helping the environment. EV’s and plug-in hybrids assembled mostly in the USA are eligible for a $7,500 tax rebate when purchased new. Used EV’s can qualify for up to $4,000 in tax rebates as well. We like having one newer model and one older, used model. These cars cost $13,700 over their comparable gas cars. I estimate they will save us $3,500/year in gas and R&M. So we’d break even on the extra expense of buying the EV’s in 4 years.
After months of trying, we were finally able to get a Trane Heat Pump! Jimmy, Scott’s brother, is an HVAC guy and was able to get one for us wholesale.
Our Trane 5-ton Heat Pump
The proud brothers grinning after connecting the Trane heat pump to the high efficiency Bryant furnace
Our old A/C had been in use for 22 years and it was time to replace it. Jimmy and Scott had installed the Bryant high efficiency natural gas furnace in 2009 with the ability to support a heat pump, called a Hybrid Heat Split System. We were waiting until we had enough solar panels to power it, which happened in September 2021. Then we had to wait for the supply chain kinks to work out in order to secure a unit, which we got in winter 2022. Jimmy and Scott installed it in May and we used it for the first time in June 2022. As of this writing, we have been using the system for 8 months.
What is a Heat Pump?
A heat pump works differently than a conventional heat and A/C (HVAC) system. Instead of making hot air, it moves hot air–a brilliant idea that makes very efficient use of the electricity used to power the unit. It looks like this:
How a Heat Pump Works
In winter a heat pump moves warm air into your home and pulls cold air out; in summer the process reverses and warm air is pulled out while cool air moves in. The basic idea is that heat is attracted to cold, so the coolant in the system collects heat and then transfers it in or out depending on the season.
Then What is a Hybrid Heat Split System?
Unless you live in a moderate climate, a heat pump isn’t enough to provide all your heating needs. In the winter, it is usually backed up by a natural gas furnace in colder climates like ours here in Reno. We have set our thermostat to use the Bryant gas furnace when temperatures outside are lower than 40 degrees F. We tried setting it to 35 initially, but found out that was a very inefficient use of electricity after we used all our banked electricity and got a $200 power bill! It turns out that the heat pump has to work very hard to exract heat at temps below 40 and it uses too much electricity, so it’s best to use the gas furnace instead. NOTE: We have a ducted system which is less efficient than a ductless (mini-split) system. Next year we will add a mini-split to our bedroom and see how it does in the dead of winter.
When the outdoor temperature is under 40 degrees F, the Bryant gas furnace kicks in to heat our home.
During the warmer afternoons of winter and the shoulder seasons of fall and spring, the heat pump can take over heating our home.
When the outdoor temperature is above 40 degrees F, the Trane heat pump kicks into heat our home. In summer, the heat pump will reverse its process and cool our home.
What It Cost
Wholesale Cost of Trane 5-ton Heat Pump $5,317
Cost to run new line set, add new coil, and change refrigerant $2,000
Honeywell Thermostat $268
Trane Tech to Check System Function $284
Total Cost $7,869
Less Federal Tax Rebate: $200
Net Cost $7,659
Compare this to the cost of replacing our old A/C with a new one:
Cost of Average New A/C $2200
Cost to run new line set, add new coil, and change refrigerant $2,000
Total Cost: $4,200
Additional Cost of the Heat Pump: $7,659 – $4,200 = $3,459
NOTE: This system was purchased at wholesale by Scott’s brother and installed by them with some additional paid assistance. This significantly reduced our costs. We would have had to run new line set, add a new coil and change the refrigerant either way.
In general, these systems more than pay for themselves over the course of their lives because they reduce your overall energy bills. Our system is a little different because we produce our own electricity. For us, this system works in synergy with all our other systems to further reduce our use of natural gas and our carbon footprint. We will have to see if we generate enough electricity to cover the additional needs of our heat pumps, plus driving two electric cars. Stay tuned to find out!
How We Heat and Cool Our Home
Prior to 2013, our main source of heat was the Bryant high-efficiency gas furnace. Since then we’ve been tweaking our heating system by adding zone heating. Our first addition was a Lopi Ben Franklin style gas stove (below) that we added to our living room (also Scott’s office area). It keeps the front of our home toasty, really lovely for my morning practice and our evening time during chilly nights. It is very efficient and we keep it set at 70 when we are awake. During the day, this south-facing room is warmed by the sun (when it isn’t cloudy), so the Lopi gets a break. When we go to bed, we set both the main thermostat and the Lopi to 62. The front room where the Lopi is gets colder than the center of the house, so most nights it keeps the house warm enough that the main heating system doesn’t come on until about 5-5:30 a.m. In the mornings, the Lopi helps bring the temp up so the main heating system can shut down after taking the night chill off the house. This happens around 9:00 a.m. when we turn the main thermostat down to 65 and the Lopi and EdenPURE (see below) take over.
Lopi Natural Gas Stove
In 2019 we added an EdenPURE infrared, copper heater to our kitchen/dining room area (which is also my office area). When the temperature is below 40 degrees outside, we use this heater. Between it and the Lopi, the front part of the house where we hang out during the day is always around 70 degrees. We turn off the EdenPURE when the heat pump kicks on at 40 degrees during the warmer days in winter.
EdenPURE Electric Heater
In our bedroom, we have a Dyson electric heater for a little extra boost while reading in bed in the mornings and evenings. When we install the mini-split in our room this spring, we will see which one we end up using for heat. We also have a heated tile floor in the master bath which keeps our master bedroom warm (and our old cat). It also helps hold warmth in the bedroom when the Dyson isn’t on.
Between all these zone heaters, we are comfortable in the places where we spend time and our gas furnace gets a break. It usually only operates between 5-9 a.m. From 2019 to 2020, our gas use went down 22% just from adding electric zone heaters!
Our Bryant gas furnace starts to supplement the heat pump sometime in early November until late April. It works the hardest from late-November-February when it gets really cold. These are the months when we use the most natural gas to heat our home. At this point, its main function is to boost the temperature from 62-68 in the mornings. But it’s always available for backup to the heat pump and zone heaters if it gets really cold (near or below zero).
The Trane heat pump works well once the temp gets up to 40 degrees and above, which usually happens by afternoon in winter, except during the cold and stormy days. We’ve had a lot of those this winter, so it isn’t getting used much. During the shoulder seasons of spring and fall, the heat pump shines and is able to handle any heating or cooling needs we may have. Generally we don’t have to use much of anything from late April until about mid-June and then again from late September until about mid-October. In 2022, we used less electricity and gas from mid-September to mid-November using the heat pump, so it did it’s job. For example, in October we used 1/3 of the gas we used in 2021! (It was a very warm month, so that also contributed.) We are excited to see how the system performs this spring. Keep an eye out for a blog update this summer, after we’ve had the heat pump in place for a year.
To cool our home we use A/C from about mid-June-mid-September when temperatures are in the high 80’s to over 100 degrees F. We generally keep our thermostat at 77 degrees in the summer. We used to open our windows to enjoy the cool night air, but now the ring road close to our house has become a drag strip and we can’t sleep with the windows open anymore. Truly a bummer! This summer the new heat pump A/C kept us cool and was quieter than the old system. Comparing the electricity use this summer with last summer, the new sysem uses about the same amount, which is to be expected because it uses the same technology as the old A/C to cool. Scott has decided he would like our bedroom to be cooler in the hot summer nights, so this year we will add a mini-split heat pump to our bedroom, then we can keep the thermostat for the rest of the house set to 82 degrees during the night. This should save some electricity in the summer.
NOTE: We are lucky to have good insulation and efficient double-paned windows in our home, which helps us keep the heat and cool in. We also have an attic fan that helps to remove heat from our attic area and keep the house cooler in the summer.
Thinking About Your Own System?
If your old A/C condenser needs replacing, a heat pump is worth considering if you have solar panels to provide the electricity. It’s best to get the solar panels first, since electricity is more expensive than natural gas and most of our electrical grids are powered by fossil fuels anyhow. If you live in a moderate climate where temps rarely fall below 40 degrees, you may be able to use just the heat pump. If you live in a colder climate like we do, you will need either a hybrid system like ours or you can install a ground source heat pump. With this system the heat comes from the earth, so it is more consistent and really saves electricity. If you are building a home or have some acreage, this may be the system for you. If you have a smaller home with an open floor plan, a mini-split system may be the way to go. Mini-splits are more efficient at creating heat than our ducted system and some of them with a hyper mode can create heat at temperatures well below freezing. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 includes tax credits to help defray the costs of adding these systems (and solar panels) to your home. We hope to be able to save 30% on the purchase and installation of our mini-split thanks to this new legislation!
Recently we took a road trip to La Selva Beach, CA to see my aunt and uncle. It was our first longer trip and we wondered how it would go–could we find chargers available when we needed them; how far could we go really; and most importantly, would we make it to their house in time for happy hour? We charged the car to 100% before we left and she showed we had 260 miles of range. It’s good to remember that this assumes driving the car to 0%, which you do not want to do! It also assumes you are going to be driving the way you always drive. In my case that is a mix of highway and in town. In an EV you get better mileage with in town driving, because of the regenerative braking. When you’re on the road, it’s pure highway miles and that takes more juice. To protect an EV’s battery, you shouldn’t take it below 10% and we feel most comfortable not going below 15%.
We traveled about 300 miles each way and went to dinner one night, covering a total of 617 miles. We discovered the Ioniq can go further than we can before we want to stop! The longest we could stand being in the car was about 150 miles. The Ioniq is very comfortable and easy to drive with adaptive cruise control and driver assist–the issue is we get the antsies and have to get out to move! She can go about 175 miles before we start to get range anxiety.
Luckily, in California there’s an Electrify America at regular intervals on the Interstates. We explored some new ones on this trip, stopping at Rocklin on I-80 and Patterson on I-5 on the way down and Davis and Auburn on I-80 on the way home. Rocklin is in a mall parking lot near a Panera and Target, a little difficult to get into and the busiest. Patterson is at a Walmart and easy to access, no one there. We walked in some cute neighborhoods while she charged. Davis is at a Bank of America and in the middle of downtown and a food mecca! We had an amazing lunch. Auburn is at a Motel 6 and we didn’t need much to make it home from there. These stops worked well for us and kept us easily within our range comfort zone. We never went below 29%. So far we have never had a problem finding a charger at an Electrify America. It helps that the app shows you what chargers are available.
We learned that charging goes a lot faster when your battery is lower. Being curious about why, we Googled it while we waited. Turns out that batteries fill up like stadiums. It works like this: when the battery (stadium) is more empty, energy (people) can find a place faster. As the battery (stadium) fills, it takes longer to find a place to land. Who knew? If you want to get the advertised 20%-80% charge in 20 minutes, you need to be at 20% when you start. So it works better to let your battery get lower before you charge. We also learned that there isn’t a lot of difference between a 150 kW and 350 kW charger in the Ioniq. Her max draw is 220 kW, so either charger works, with a 350 being slightly faster. Your charging time can also be impacted by sharing a charger with another car and if the outside temperature is below 40 degrees.
Once we reached my aunt and uncle’s, we plugged in with the Level 1 (110 volt) charger that comes with the car (easily stored in the back under the cargo area). They have a handy outlet at the back of the garage, so we ran the cable under the garage door and plugged it in. It takes a long time to charge to 100% on a Level 1, about a day and a half from 54%. But we stayed for 4 days, so that was easy enough to do.
Both ways took about 7 hours with stops. The way there was longer in distance and we had some detours due to the flooding from the storms. But we did make it in time for happy hour! The way home was shorter, but we made an extra stop to visit Scott’s parents’ graves in Dixon, CA. We also had about an hour lunch stop at Davis.
What do you do when you’re charging? I notice most people seem to be checking emails and texts on their phones. We do that too. Sometimes we check out each others cars, which is really fun! Most of the time, we also use a bathroom in one of the nearby establishments. On the way we ate lunch in the car at Rocklin. We also like to walk when there’s an opportunity, like we did in Patterson. In Davis, we ate a great lunch at Cafe Bernardo. The 12 minutes we spent in Auburn to top up before heading home wasn’t much longer than a gas stop, so we just checked email and texts.
Comparing the Ioniq to the Tucson
So what would have happened if we had taken the Tucson, the Ioniq’s comparable gas car, instead?
Right now we are lucky. We have two years of free charging on the Electrify America network. So taking the Ioniq cost us $0. But what would we have had to pay? We used 142 kW of electricity which would have cost $0.43/kW or $61.
The Tucson gets 26 mpg on the highway. Dividing that into 617 miles, we would have used 24 gallons of gas. Checking gas prices along the way, they averaged $4.25/gallon. So the Tucson would have cost $102.
The difference is about $40 or 40% less to drive the Ioniq vs. the Tucson. If gas prices were at the $6.00 level they were at last time we did this trip, it would have cost $144, which is $83 or about 58% more.
At 20 pounds of CO2 per gallon for 24 gallons of gas, we saved 480 pounds of CO2 from entering our atmosphere by driving the EV. The Tucson gets about the same gas mileage as our old Toyota Highlander Hybrid (29 mpg), so it would have been about the same savings had we been driving it. We are glad we made the change and are loving our Ioniq 5!
If you think the normal mode packs a punch, try out this baby! Ok, I’m going to confess one of my guilty pleasures: pulling up to a muscle car at a light, shifting to Sport Mode and blowing them away when the light turns green. Then I listen to their engine and transmission grind while they try to catch up. I take my foot off the accelerator which immediately brakes and let them fly by while I wave and smile. Too much fun! It is also fun to give your friends a thrill. I look for a safe, stretch of road, tell them to hang on and punch it. What I have learned is that you probably don’t want to do this with some of your older friends, unless they are like my 87-year-old mom who loves it!
Caution: Have fun out there, but be careful and mindful of where you are and what’s around you when you play with this mode (and who you’re with).
Stats: The Ioniq 5 has been tested against a Tesla Model Y and can reach 0-60 in 4.86 seconds in normal mode and 4.75 in sport mode. Wanna see how it turned out? Here’s the scoop: https://insideevs.com/news/574490/tesla-modely-hyundai-ioniq5-acceleration-compared/.
This was a blog I wrote for Reno Friends Meeting (https://www.renofriends.org/) for the month of January.
Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. Lao Tzu
Lately I’ve been reflecting on contentment, curious about why I have been feeling increasingly content. January is usually when we resolve to change for the better, not a time to be content. I think what has changed for me this year is that I’m slowly dropping a lifelong habit of perfectionism; perfectionism and contentment do not make good bedfellows. In my practices of Qigong, Tai Chi, yoga and meditation, I’ve been focusing on being present and in complete acceptance with what is happening in the moment, what I can and cannot do. Perhaps after many years of practice, something is sinking in more deeply. Maybe it is part of aging and accepting of reality. Probably, it’s a combination of practices and life experience. There are blessings in getting older!
I’ve stopped trying to always be and do more. I recall watching a sci-fi film a few years back called “Cloud Atlas”. In this dystopian film, more is the disease that brings down civilization. Our culture encourages us to be dissatisfied, to do more, be more, buy more, promising that “more” will make us happy and loveable. I think if we keep following this path, we could end up in a Cloud Atlas future. What is enough?
I was inspired to delve more deeply into contentment by doing some reading on what various spiritual paths have to say. The Tao te Ching by Lao Tzu is filled with poems describing “The Way” or “The Tao”. It is one of my favorite spiritual texts to read before I settle into meditation. Lao Tzu often speaks of being content and accepting reality as it is. I chose the lead quote from this text. My favorite translation is by Stephen Mitchell.
Yoga from the Hindu tradition has many practices, like Santosha, to help one embody contentment, both on the mat and in the world. Santosha is about cultivating a feeling of contentment that is not dependent on the external world. Here is a beautiful article on Santosha: https://www.awakeningself.com/writing/making-peace-with-contentment-santosha/.
The Bible is filled with many references to contentment, like this quote: Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. Phillippians 4:11-12. This blog post is filled with Bible quotes on contentment: https://www.biblelyfe.com/blog/bible-verses-about-contentment.
Buddha was another big proponent of contentment. He said: Contentment is the greatest wealth. Buddha believed that resisting reality caused suffering and that only by accepting our experience in each moment could we find peace. Buddhism is actually a very sophisticated mind re-training system. Here is a good article/video on contentment by Phakchok Rinpoche: https://samyeinstitute.org/paths/holistic-living/contentment-and-mind/.
As I have explored these writings, it also occurred to me that contentment is a fruit of many of our Quaker testimonies. The felt experience of Simplicity is contentment. When we are content, we experience inner Peace. Integrity-telling the truth and living in alignment with our values-leads to contentment. Being part of a Community and loving and accepting ourselves and each other as we are, fosters contentment. When we see ourselves as Equal to others, neither better nor less than, we are content. Good Stewardship encourages us to live simply, be content with what we have, and tend to the Earth.
Looking back, I realize I’ve been soaking in teachings and doing practices that lead to contentment for a long time. I wonder why it has taken me so long to feel content? I suspect it goes back to perfectionism, to never feeling I’ve done enough or am enough. I am grateful to our dear Swami who shared this message during the Silence recently: God loves you just as you are. If you cannot love yourself as you are, then you know where your work is. That message hit me right in the heart. What if our biggest work is to love ourselves just as we are? This doesn’t mean that we become lazy and complacent. Rather, when we love ourselves and others as we are, we can let love lead us in our responses to unskillfulness, suffering and injustice. We can be content just as we are and trust we will be guided to the next right step. We are all learning as we go, and we are doing the best we can given where we are in the moment.
Queries:
What does contentment mean to you?
How do you foster contentment in your life?
When do you feel discontent?
If you feel discontent, how do you restore contentment?
We finally got enough snow to try it out! About four inches fell earlier this week on top of a sheet of ice. After breakfast, I got in the Ioniq, pushed the button for Snow Mode and off we went! She went right over the snow bank left by the plow at the bottom of our driveway–always the first test. Then I played around on the packed snow with black ice underneath and noticed that she stayed steady and straight even in a skid. The anti-lock braking worked well and pretty quickly brought me to a stop (I was on a flat street). Then I decided to cut up a bit in the 6-8 inches of snow bank left by the plow along our street after they plowed one lane for driving. I was impressed with the Ioniq’s ability to drive right through this level of snow without wavering. The heavy battery sits evenly across the chassis and the AWD powers all four wheels evenly, giving me a solid, unstoppable driving experience. I was impressed. As I drove the changing conditions throughout the day, I felt completely comfortable and confident.
I compared notes with Scott, who had recently been to Seattle to visit his sister and bake Christmas cookies. He landed in the middle of a snowstorm. His sister saw my Ioniq when I bought it in July and decided to get one of her own. It had arrived just before Scott’s visit. Sheila lives on a steep hill that was covered in ice and snow. Usually a treacherous drive that lands many a car against the curb at the bottom of the cul de sac, they found the Ioniq had no trouble navigating it. Sheila texted me, “I LOVE my car!” I totally agree! No more worries about winter driving. This is another great benefit of EV’s with some clearance and AWD–they are awesome in the snow!
Update January 10th
Last week we had a big storm that dumped rain on top of snow and created ice boulders and banks in and alongside the road. Some of them were pretty big. At one point I had to drive over a couple of ice boulders to merge onto another road and I heard them scrape the bottom of the car. I even dragged one for a few yards before it broke free. I winced before I remembered the bottom of the Ioniq is a smooth metal plate–no pipes, mufflers, oil pan to worry about! This is another great benefit of an EV. After that I confidently plowed over everything in my path and the Ioniq never wavered. I was able to get my mom all the things she needed and check on her, thank goodness!
Last summer we sold our beloved little teardrop. After seven years of fun with her, we noticed that the last couple of years we were using her rarely if at all. This was partly due to the difficulty getting camping spots after Covid came along and everyone decided to get an RV. Then we had the summer of the nonstop wildfires in 2021 where the forests were mostly closed. We also realized that we were favoring renting small cabins, condos or townhomes in out-of-the-way spots and venturing out from there. Dealing with the small space in Pearl, especially in inclement weather became a challenge and with our caregiving responsibilities, we didn’t have the flexibility to reschedule when weather or smoke required.
We sold her to a couple looking to downsize from their large RV. We found this particularly delightful, since we were often tucked in between behemoth RV’s when we stayed in RV parks! They said it had become too much work to set up and they wanted the freedom to drop the RV and take their vehicle off for day trips. We hope they enjoy her as much as we did.
We have made so many wonderful memories in her, even though we were ready to let go, I confessed I shed a few tears. Pearl, you will be missed.
