Last summer we bought a DIY Perfect Aire 12,000 BTU mini-split which Scott installed in June in our bedroom. We used to be able to keep our windows open at night and not use A/C in the summer, but then the traffic and drag racing on McCarran (the ring road near our house) got so loud we had to close our windows and use the main A/C unit to stay cool. This resulted in our using about 750 kWh more electricity in the summer months, plus we could still hear some of the really loud cars through the closed window! We decided to try a mini-split heat pump system for just our bedroom and see if it would keep us cool and provide some soft, white noise.
Success! We are happy to report that we stayed nice and cool during the heat of the summer and couldn’t hear the McCarran Motor Speedway! We also saved 500 kWh of electricity due to the efficiency of this little mini-split and not having to use our main A/C unit at night. And it’s cute!
Mini-splits are heat pumps and here’s how they work:
Installation
Scott found the Perfect Aire very easy to install and just needed a little help from an electrician friend to hook it up to our electrical panel. Here’ s some photos of the installation process:
Installing the bracket that holds the unit in place.Fishing the line sets through the walls. The condenser is around the corner on the side of the house. The bottom line set was pulled through the crawl space under the house.Connecting the line sets.The finished look with the line set cover installed.The condenser unit on the side of the house.Video of the mini-split in action. You may have to turn up the sound to hear it, it’s so quiet! It does provide the soft, white noise we were wanting.Heat pump alley–mini-split condenser in the foreground and the Trane heat pump in the background behind the wheelbarrow. We’re happy we can place all our condensers out of site on the side of the house.
We use the Trane to air condition the house during the day (77 degrees) and the mini-split to cool our bedroom at night. To accomplish this, we turn the Trane’s thermostat up to 82 degrees at night and crack our bedroom door so we can keep the cool in our bedroom. Then we set the mini-split to 77 degrees. The Trane never comes on at night anymore, which is what saves the 500 kWh of electricity. There’s no need to cool the whole house when we are only in one room. We are finding that using zone cooling and heating is saving both electricity and gas.
Cost
Because it was a Do-It-Yourself installation with help from an electrician friend of Scott’s, it was not that expensive. We were happy to get a 30% federal tax credit for installing this energy efficient unit!
A dream comes true–two kickass EV’s to go with our solar panels!
It was June 8th in the afternoon when the call came in from Nissan, “Your platinum white Ariya just arrived, want to come drive it?” Absolutely! It was our first glimpse in person of the blue Nappa leather seats with blue suede accents on the dash and doors. Wow! What a gorgeous color! We were a bit disappointed that they replaced the bronze hubcaps with grey, but we can order those later.
We hopped in and drover her up part of the Mount Rose highway. Way more power then the FWD version! The AWD e4ORCE makes a big difference and we look forward to seeing how she handles in snow. The Ariya is higher clearance by nearly 2 inches over the Ioniq. Scott loves sitting higher up and immediately set up his seat and steering wheel position just as he wanted. It’s great to have adjustments in all directions. He looked completely at home instantly. When I asked him how it felt he said, “Like the Highlander only just my size.”
We pulled into a trailhead parking area and played with buttons and features, checked out the awesome turn radius. It’s much easier to learn the Ariya after mastering the Ioniq. They have many of the same options and thoughtful, innovative design. But the Ariya is much more Scott and I found it thrilling to watch him get excited about his new car!
We went back to the dealership and said we wanted it. As always seems the case, it was not good timing as our nephew was visiting from NYC. We asked if we could wait a few days to do the paperwork. The manager at United Nissan Reno said no problem, as long as we put down a $500 deposit. When we returned home we realized that we had committed to the car at 6:30 p.m., the exact time one year ago when we last said “good night” to Scott’s father. He passed that night. Wide-eyed, we wondered if he’d pulled some magic strings for Scott to get this Ariya months before we thought it would arrive. We toasted him and said a “thank you” to his spirit.
We returned to United Nissan a few days later and completed the transaction. Everything about the process was easy and relaxed. They now have a price set by Nissan and a small margin of profit included for them. There is no negotiating, no gouging, no pressure. We traded in our 2016 Nissan LEAF and they gave us a decent price for it. It was a great little starter EV and I’m sure it will still be for its next owner.
I had originally intended for Scott to have the Inoiq for his 60th Birthday. But it wasn’t a good fit for him and he gave it to me, taking the LEAF instead. I think I always felt guilty about trading his beautiful Highlander for my Ioniq. How fitting that his Ariya, which truly does fit him better than the Highlander, should come in time for his 61st!
The Numbers
The MSRP on the Platinum Ariya is $63,715. The tradein for the LEAF was $6,500. Typically there are about 10% of additional fees and taxes (in NV) added on to the purchase.
The most comparable gas car to the Ariya is the Murano, which has an MSRP of $51,640. I wanted to do a comparison for this blog of what it would cost to own the ICE vs. the EV and I will use these numbers in my annual blogs to see how long the savings of driving the EV will take to make up the price difference. EVs are 50-65% cheaper to maintain over their lives than ICEs.
2023 Platinum Nissan Ariya
MSRP $63,715
Plus 10% fees and taxes $6,372
Total Cost: $70,087
2023Platinum Nissan Murano
MSRP $51,640
Plus 10% fees and taxes $5,164
Total Cost: $56,804
Difference Between EV and ICE $13,283
NOTE: Sadly, the new Inflation Reduction Act removed the tax credit for the Nissan Ariya as of August 17, 2022 because final assembly is still in Japan. Nissan plans to move final assembly to the USA to qualify for the credit in 2026.
Video Tours of the Inside
Check out the beautiful blue leather interior!Some cool features we really liked.
Cargo Area
Not as big as the Ioniq’s, but more than adequate for our needs, especially with seats down.
What Scott Loves About the Ariya
It’s solid and it has great acceleration. I don’t have to charge it all the time like the LEAF. It’s comfortable and easy to drive, not too overwhelming.
Is There Anything You Don’t Like?
I can’t think of anything, other than I wish it had a little less shiny black on the exterior.
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!
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!
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!
We finally did it! After years of dreaming about driving zero emission vehicles, we traded in our Toyota Highlander, sold our little teardrop trailer and bought a 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5. Here she is…
We bought her in July, so we’ve had her for 4 months now and what fun it has been! At first we thought Scott would drive her, since he was driving the Highlander and that’s what we traded in. Quickly he decided that he’d rather drive the Nissan LEAF. He pointed out that his father had passed in June and so he wasn’t driving as much, but I was driving more to take my mother to appointments and check in on her, so I should drive the Ioniq. I was so thrilled! I haven’t been this in love with a car since my Chevy Malibu when I was 16.
She is a dream to drive–supersonic fast, responsive, intelligent, comfortable, with a great Bose sound system and a huge panoramic glass roof that has a cool automatic shade if you need it. Our Limited is also an AWD vehicle with motors on the front and rear axles and a high capacity 77 kWh battery. The design of this car is very thoughtful with a futuristic-retro flair I appreciate. For example, the whole cabin is designed to feel like a living room on wheels. Hyundai used the Palisade wheel base, which is their longest SUV, so there’s a ton of leg room in the back seats and they recline. They don’t go as far back as the front seats, which can go all the way to zero gravity! My seat even has a leg rest that goes up, like a recliner! It’s super comfy for when you want to rest while charging on the road. You can turn on your favorite tunes, kick back and stare out the pano roof.
The AWD Ioniq has a range of 256 miles and we charge her in our garage off our solar panels. I often drive for about a week around Reno before needing to charge. We have done several road trips with her and been impressed with her comfort and the ability to get charges when we need them. We can get to many of the local places we like and back home on one charge, like Lake Tahoe, Graeagle and Minden/Gardnerville. On longer road trips using freeways, we can comfortably go about 175 miles before needing a charge, leaving 15% in the battery (less than this gives us range anxiety). What we’ve noticed is our range is less than hers! At about 150 miles, we want to stop, stretch our legs and rest anyway. Hyundai gives 2 years of free charging on Electrify America and so far we’ve been impressed by these stations and their rate of charge. There are a number of them along major interstate highways. The Ioniq can handle a 220 kW charge and is supposed to be able to go from 20-80% in 20 minutes. We have found it takes more like 25-30 minutes, depending on how low the battery is, the temperature, and how many other cars are using the chargers. For example, when two cars are charging at a 350 kW charger, the charge is split or balanced between the two cars. To maximize battery life, we try to keep ours charged between 20-80% most of the time, but before road trips we will top her up to 100%. We try to avoid draining the battery below 10%, and prefer to stop at 15% or higher. While it takes a little more planning to do a road trip in an EV, we haven’t found that it has changed our style much at all and we are loving note paying for gas right now! Most Electrify America chargers are near restaurants and shopping centers, so you can eat, shop and use the bathroom.
Charging in our garage off the solar panel inverter
More Design Features
The dash has two side-by-side screens that are a nice size. The left screen gives you all your driving information like speed, charge left in the battery and estimated miles remaining, whether you are using energy or generating it, if there are other vehicles around you, and a neat feature that shows your blind spot when you signal a lane change. It also shows you the adaptive cruise control and lane keeping features that are active while driving. The right screen is for infotainment and navigation. You can see EV status, control EV features like charging, set navigation points, access the map, change settings, adjust the climate (heat, A/C, heated seats and steering wheel), access Apple CarPlay, see what music or radio stations are playing, and put the car in Valet Mode which locks the screen so no one can access your personal information.
Did I mention she also holds my Bubba drinking bottle perfectly? The console slides back and forth, so you can have it where you want it or you can slide out the opposite door if you needed to.
On the retro side, Hyundai still gives you buttons for standard features both on the dash under the screens and also on the steering wheel. All the cruise control is handled on the steering wheel, which includes adaptive features like lane keeping and adjusting your speed to the vehicle in front of you. I tested it out and she will drive herself with your hands lightly on the steering wheel most of the time while in this mode. She can get confused if the lines on the road are not clear and she can’t quite handle a sharp curve in the road. She is teaching me to be a better driver, because she will beep at me if I change lanes without signaling or am too close to another car. She’ll also alert me if I’m coming up too fast on another vehicle or if one is approaching from behind quickly. I must say I find her care of us to be very comforting!
Speaking of that, she has awesome parking cameras that give you a 360-degree view, and you can spin it in the display to see all sides of the car before turning her off! I’m finding this an incredibly helpful feature, especially for tight places and parallel parking. She does have the ability to park herself, but it is slow with lots of adjustments. One nice feature, if you end up in a tight parking space, is the ability to have her drive forwards or backwards by the push of a button on the FOB. She is sensitive about getting too close to things and has three levels of alarms–slow beep, fast beep, continuous beep–to let you know how she’s feeling. Sometimes, she’s way more sensitive about her space than I am. I must admit that I do use her complaints to help me park–when she goes into that continuous beep I know I’m far enough into our garage. In my mom’s, I can stop once the fast beep starts. So far I haven’t hit anything. Once she thought I was going to run my neighbor over, who was standing behind her and a little to the side, so she stopped dead in her tracks and wouldn’t move! I had to ask my neighbor to step back a bit :-).
The Ioniq 5 has the ability to connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth or a USB cable and is Apple CarPlay enabled. I usually rest my iPhone on the charging pad in the console or leave it in my purse. I can activate Siri by pressing a button on the steering wheel and then ask her to text, call or play my music. The sound system is awesome!
Another feature I really like is the heads up display at eye level in the windshield. It shows my speed, the current speed limit and driving directions given by the navigation system. The navigation system also speaks softly to me through the driver side speaker. Between the two, I don’t have to take my eyes off the road to check where I’m headed next.
I’m also enjoying Bluelink, which connects me to the Ioniq via satellite. I can check the car’s status, turn on climate control, locate the vehicle, control valet mode, check the vehicle health and schedule maintenance appointments. It also automatically updates my maps and other vehicle systems.
One of the big selling points of the Ioniq for us was its large cargo area. You can fold down the rear seats and you have an incredible amount of space back there, plus the auto-lift rear hatch is very nice. Here’s a photo of us helping my aunt and uncle move out of their Truckee house. We fit so much in that they were able to take the rest in their vehicle. There is ample space for us to take half our house to vacation rentals, which is a habit of ours…
We decided to go with the Limited trim so we could have the nice leather seats which are fully adjustable in front. Our car came with white and so far I’m liking it and not finding it hard to keep clean with a little Simple Green. We also wanted the nice pano roof, the driving and parking assistance and the really cool wheels! The other feature we love is the 110-volt plug in the back seat that draws power off the battery without needing an adaptor. Check out this video of plugging our garage frig into it in case of a power outage:
We also have an inverter for our LEAF so that we can run things off her battery as well. Between the two cars we have over 100 kWh of storage, the equivalent of 8 Tesla Powerwalls. A Powerwall costs $11,500. Eight Powerwalls would cost more than both of our vehicles combined! Their capacity can hold us for several days in the event of a long power outage, which is very rare in our area.
Did you see the cool blue lighting in that video? It’s around the speakers and in the armrests. It creates beautiful interior lighting at night. By the way, the mirror in the video is folded in, which is a nice feature for tucking into our garage. The door handles also pop out when you need to get in the car, but pull in flush for good aerodynamics while driving.
Buying the Ioniq 5
That was quite the experience! I knew I wanted this car when I watched YouTube videos of the test drives and listened to the comparisons with other EV’s. I was sold when it swept the World Car Awards this year, winning Car of the Year, EV of the Year and Design of the Year. It also won Car and Driver’s EV of the year, Consumer Guides Best Buy and the Insurance Institute’s top safety award for crash integrity. Needless to say, that also made it a hot item and difficult to get.
One day, looking at Hyundai’s inventory, I saw that a white Limited was scheduled for delivery in Reno, but was not yet claimed. I knew that was the color and trim I wanted. On a whim, I called and asked about it. Ryan told me it was available, but if I wanted it, I needed to act quickly. I told him I at least wanted to see one before I bought it unseen. He said he had one on the lot that was still in plastic and we could sit in it and have a look, but we couldn’t drive it, since it already belonged to someone. Scott and I went down and had a look. We both decided it was definitely a great car. Ryan said we needed to start the paperwork that day if we wanted it. I had a really busy day, so Ryan told me we could do it all over the phone and he’d bring the paperwork by for me to sign later that afternoon at our house. I didn’t believe he could do that, but he did! He said the car would probably come in 2 weeks, but he never knew for sure when a truck would pull up. He called me later in the afternoon and said, “You aren’t going to believe this, but your car just arrived.” I was blown away! We picked it up the next day. I still cannot believe how lucky we got. I can’t say enough good things about Ryan and the crew over at Reno Hyundai, they really bent over backwards to make this deal work, including letting us “borrow” our Highlander for an additional two weeks to tow a trailer of larger furniture for my aunt and uncle to California. They took it as a trade-in and then put Loaner plates on it and let us keep it until we were done with it–unbelievable! He also took time to show us the features of the car and set it up with our iPhones.
Hyundai offers one of the best warranties of any major manufacturer: 5 years/60,000 miles new vehicle, bumper to bumper and 10 years/100,000 miles on the powertrain/battery. They also provide 3 years of complimentary maintenance and 5 years of complimentary road assistance. Impressive!
The Numbers
Ok, so you all want to know what this costs. The MSRP on the Limited Ioniq 5 is $57,500, which in my mind is a bargain when I considered all that was included and the $7,500 federal tax rebate, which brought it down to $50,000. They also gave us $39,000 for the Highlander. Typically there are about 10% of additional fees and taxes (in NV) added on to the purchase.
I also asked Ryan which of Hyundai’s gas cars was the most comparable to the Ioniq and he told me the Tucson, which has an MSRP of $39,500. I wanted to do a comparison for this blog of what it would cost to own the ICE vs. the EV and I will use these numbers in my annual solar blogs to see how long the savings of driving the EV will take to make up the price difference. With these gas prices, I’m guessing not long! Plus EVs are 50-65% cheaper to maintain over their lives than ICEs.
2022 Ioniq 5
MSRP $57,500
Plus 10% fees and taxes $5,750
Less Federal Tax Rebate $7,500
Total Cost: $55,750
2022 Tucson Limited
MSRP $39,500
Plus 10% fees and taxes $3,950
Total Cost: $35,550
Difference Between EV and ICE $20,200
NOTE: Sadly, the new Inflation Reduction Act removed the tax credit for the Ioniq 5 as of August 17th because final assembly is still in South Korea. Hyundai has broken ground on a new plant in Georgia and hopes to begin production of 300,000 vehicles per year in 2025. At that point, the $7,500 rebate will be reinstated.
Summing it Up
It’s been fun to reflect on 4 months of going all EV and share the adventure with you. One thing I notice is we no longer struggle with who is going to get to drive the EV today, so we could save on gas. Overall the experience has been a joy and I must say I LOVE THIS CAR! We have no regrets about our decision, in fact, it feels great to know that we are finally driving zero emission vehicles which are mostly powered by our solar panels. A long-time dream of ours has finally come true!
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, including the 8 new panels we added this year.
Our New Quest to Reduce Our Carbon Footprint
In the summer of 2021 we lived through two months of skies darkened and polluted by wildfire smoke, while we watched the effects of climate change rippling across the world. It was heartbreaking. We can no longer deny that this is happening, nor can we wait for someone else to fix it. Scott and I decided we must decrease our carbon footprint as much and as quickly as we can. We will share our experience here in hopes that we might inspire others to join us in the quest. When all of us do what we can, we create a tidal wave of change! 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.
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, heat pump systems and electric vehicles, 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?
Here is the calculation of our Carbon Footprint and how it has changed since we began this journey:
To convert pounds to metric tons, divide by 2000
We were thrilled to see that we have already cut our total footprint by 48%, and we cut our primary footprint by 70%! We were surprised we had already come so far in our quest. Now let’s see how much lower we can go!
Reflections on our Third Year of Going Solar, Greening our Home & Driving the Cars of the Future
This is kind of like trying to eat one potato chip, once you get going you can’t stop! It seems that we are always finding new ways to reduce our carbon footprint. I can’t express how wonderful it feels to see a long-time dream of ours coming true–living in a green home and driving green vehicles. It has helped us both to feel less helpless about climate change and more hopeful about what is possible in our collective future.
I always thought it would be expensive and require a lot of sacrifice to realize this dream. We haven’t had to sacrifice any of our usual modern comforts to make this change. We live in a standard home built in 1999 with extra insulation and efficient windows. It turns out for the cost of a kitchen remodel, you can go solar and green a home like ours. Plus it increases the value of your home so much that it pays for itself almost immediately. This year a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that homes with solar panels sold at a 4% premium. Studies are also showing that homes with solar and other energy-efficient improvements are selling faster and at even higher premiums. Buyers know that they are buying savings when they purchase these upgrades with a home. You get even more for a home that is equipped with a fast charger for electric vehicles, which runs off the panels. This adds the additional savings on gas plus the convenience of in-home charging, and it is so much fun to drive an EV!
Summary of 2021
In 2021, we used our stimulus money to add 8 more panels to our roof and replace our broken old gas water heater with a new hybrid heat pump model (see the April 25, 2021 post). We also decided to cut down the big pine tree and smaller maple that were shading our panels. They were too close to the house and sitting on top of water and electrical lines. Not a good planting decision on our part… It’s looking like we might get a 10%+ bump in our production as a result! We tried to add a heat pump HVAC system, but unfortunately the supply chain problems kept us from securing a unit this year. We will keep trying in 2022.
Here’s the summary for this year with cumulative data:
To convert pounds to metric tons, divide by 2000
We produced about 13 megawatts of power this year, about 300 kilowatts more than last year. We are hoping that the 8 new panels will get us closer to 17 megawatts next year. We saved $737 on our utility bills, which was improved by installing the new electric water heater. It will use about 1 megawatt of electricity per year and it dropped our gas use another 20%! The biggest savings comes from driving one electric car and one hybrid.
We are still loving our cars and saving money driving them instead of our old gas-powered vehicles. This year they both required some maintenance–a 15,000 mile service for the Highlander and new tires and a door handle repair on the LEAF. This reduced our savings from previous years, but we saved more on gas due to the higher price per gallon. We saved a total of $1855 for the year!
We added the cost of the new hot water heater over and above what it would have cost us to replace it with a gas model. We also added the 8 additional solar panels to our costs, less the 26% federal tax rebate. We now have a total of about $20,000 invested in greening our home. We have recovered about $9,000 in just the first three years!
We didn’t include the cost of our vehicles, since they cost about the same as we would have spent on gas powered cars. I actually just discovered that a 2016 Nissan Juke, which is the ICE most comparable to the 2016 LEAF was actually selling at $6,500 more! We got such a good deal on the Toyota Highlander that it was only about $1,000 more than the same ICE model. So, even though I haven’t counted the cost of the cars, we actually saved about $5,000 on the pair because the LEAF was so cheap.
What we are most excited about is saving 26,000 pounds of carbon from entering our atmosphere this year! Over the last three years we have saved nearly 71,000 pounds of carbon! The savings come from a combination of generating solar power for our own home and the local grid, and reducing our use of natural gas and gasoline. Note: Carbon footprint and carbon savings are different calculations, so the numbers shown in the two tables differ.
2022 Plans
In 2022 we will add the heat pump HVAC system to further reduce our use of natural gas. It will by a hybrid system, which uses our high efficiency natural gas furnace to back up the heat pump when temperatures fall below freezing. We are also planning to go all EV! It is our hope to trade the Highlander for an all electric SUV later in the year. The ranges and charging stations are finally at a point that we think it’s time to take the plunge. That will be another big adventure for us. We’ve also decided it is time to let go of our beloved little teardrop trailer, Pearl. We have enjoyed her for 7 years but aren’t using her very much anymore. We purchased the Highlander primarily as a tow vehicle for Pearl. Without the need to tow a trailer, we can get a regular size SUV which will use less electricity to power.
THE DATA FOR MY FELLOW NERDS:
Electricity Production and Accumulated Credits
We produced 13.2 megawatts, about 300 kilowatts more than last year. We installed the 8 new panels in September and saw a jump in our production that month. But then there was a stormy fall and December, so it leveled out for the rest of the year. It will be interesting to see what happens next year, especially now that we have taken out those trees. That seems to have boosted our output by at least 10%.
Our banked power with NV Energy went from 2.5 to 2.0 megawatts, so that means we used about 800 kilowatts more power this year than last. This is about right for powering the new electric water heater and the extra miles we drove the LEAF in 2021.
We saved a $736.18 on our utility bills by reducing our natural gas usage in addition to generating our electricity!
We saved 211 therms over our old average. Now we are using about 35% less gas than we did before. We also saved 2500 pounds of carbon!
These are the graphs from our SolarEdge inverter showing the production of electricity off our roof. You can see the jump in September when we added the new panels. Then how it leveled off with a stormy fall, but is now up in 2022. (February data was only for about 2/3 of a month.)
You can see that our lowest production months are November-January, 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 megawatts (Bank of $184.79 divided by price per kilowatt of .09325)Check out the reduction in gas use since the water heater was installed in April!
2016 Nissan LEAF
We drove the LEAF more this year since we are now my mom’s sole source of transportation. She stopped driving in April 2021. So, we save even more carbon and money having one less car in the family, plus we don’t have to pay for gas to use the LEAF! The average cost of gas went up over $1/gallon, so we saved even more using the EV. Our gas savings was nearly $1200. Plus we saved nearly 6000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering our atmosphere (299 gallons X 20 lbs/gallon of gas). It took 1.6 megawatts to power BeeBee, which would have cost $148 for the year if we didn’t have solar panels. This represents a savings of over $1034 over a gas powered vehicle.
BeeBee required a little more maintenance this year–new tires and a front door handle repair. However, new tires are about the most expensive thing you have to buy for an EV, so I expect this will average out over time to significant savings in maintenance on the LEAF.
We are noticing about a 20% decline in the LEAF’s range at the 5-year mark. A full charge gets you closer to 90 miles now vs. the 110 she used to get. However, that is still well within our range limit of 50 miles, which easily gets us around town more than once. We expect she will meet our needs for another 5 years.
2019 Toyota Highlander Hybrid
We did some road trips in the Highlander this year, increasing our mileage by about 3000 miles. This used about 100 gallons more gas than last year, but about 200 gallons less than the 4-Runner would have used. This saved $858 and 4,000 pound of carbon emissions.
The Highlander came off its two-year maintenance contract in 2021 and had its 15,000 mile service, which was $577. This is an expensive service, so closer to the old 4-Runners average R&M cost of $602. If we kept the car, this would average out over time. Most hybrids cost about 2/3 as much to maintain as an ICE.
We love our Highlander and it is truly a pleasure to drive, but with our new quest to reduce our carbon footprint, we feel compelled to go all EV in 2022. We bought this car primarily to tow Pearl (our teardrop) and go on road trips. We are finding we rarely use Pearl now–only once a year for a group camping trip. It makes more sense to us to sell Pearl and rent an RV, which allows us to drive a smaller SUV. Our plan is to trade the Highlander for a new EV that qualifies for the federal tax credit. So stay tuned for another exciting year of greening our life and going all EV!
We took the plunge and put 8 more panels on our roof!
Looking at our anticipated use of electricity with our new systems and our ultimate
dream of driving 2 electric cars, we decided to go for it and fill out our
bottom row of panels now instead of waiting. They were installed over two days
in September and went live on the 8th, right before the Great Reno
Balloon Race. We couldn’t resist taking this photo from our neighbor’s second
story window showing the panels with balloons floating in the background!
Looking at the data from the SolarEdge inverter, it shows we are producing an
average of about 60 kWh per day now vs. the 40 kWh we were generating before
the new panels were installed (early September data). The newer panels are
generating more power than their 2.5-year-old predecessors.
Cost of 8 Additional Solar Panels
$6,600 ($825 per panel, installed)
-$1716 Less 26% Federal Tax Rebate
=$4,884 Total Net Cost ($610 per panel,
installed)
Another big thank you to Great Basin Solar for making this so easy! I called on a Monday and they were installed and operational 8 days later! You guys are amazing! (https://greatbasinsolar.com/)
We are excited to see how all of this year’s changes will
affect our energy use vs. generation. Our ultimate goal is to produce enough
electricity to power most of the systems in our home, two electric vehicles,
and offset our limited natural gas use. Let’s see how we do! Next up is the
installation of a new heat pump heater and air conditioning system. We are
having some trouble with ordering the unit to go with our high efficiency
Bryant natural gas heater. But we are hoping to have it in before winter. Luckily,
our 22-year-old A/C condenser has made it through another hot Reno summer,
giving us time to make this switch.
I compared our mid-April to mid-May NV Energy bills for 2019, 2020 and 2021 to get an idea of how our new hot water heater affected our energy use. The good news is that we used 59% less natural gas! We used an average of 34 therms in 2019 and 2020, and only 14 in 2021! So, it made a huge difference in our natural gas use.
Our use of electricity was up about 130 kWh from this time last year. The new hot water heater likely made up about 80 kWh of the increase. The other 50 kWh was likely due to a colder May this year and increased travel in our LEAF. It was about 9 degrees colder in May, 2021 than in May, 2020, so we used more of our booster electric heaters this year. Our parents are needing more help these days, so we are traveling more in the LEAF to assist them.
We are loving this new hot water heater! We’ve pretty much left it on the Heat Pump Only setting, which is the most efficient. This gives us the same hot water we are used to having with our old system. It works fine for the two of us, as long as we don’t take back-to-back showers, which we don’t usually do. If we have a higher use day, or have guests, we can set it to Hybrid or Electric mode. If we set it in Electric mode, it will automatically revert to Heat Pump Only in 12 hours.
An extra added bonus as we get into the warmer months is it keeps the garage cooler, because it takes the warm air from the garage to heat the water, expelling cold air out of the tank. It does make a bit of noise when it is in operation, so I can see that you may not want it inside your house. It works great in the garage. So far we haven’t noticed any condensation coming out of the unit in our dry climate.
Our next adventure will be adding a heat pump heater and A/C unit, so stay tuned!
Isn’t she a beauty? What? You don’t think water heaters are sexy? Oh, but she is hot and super-efficient! I bet you’re wondering what is a “hybrid heat pump water heater”?
A hybrid water heater, or heat pump water heater, uses heat from outside air drawn into the appliance’s evaporator coil. The evaporator coil contains refrigerant, allowing it to absorb heat from the air. Finally, a heat exchanger heats water within the tank to the desired temperature before it passes from the heater tank into your home’s showers, faucets, and large appliances.
This electric water heater uses heat from outside air drawn into the
appliance’s evaporator coil. The evaporator coil contains refrigerant, allowing
it to absorb heat from the air. Finally, a heat exchanger heats water within
the tank to the desired temperature before it passes from the heater tank into
your home’s showers, faucets, and large appliances. It’s helpful to think about
this process as being like that of your refrigerator, but in reverse. Instead
of expelling hot air to cool the contents of a refrigerator or freezer, a heat
pump water heater pulls hot air in to heat the water. Because it moves heat, it
is over 50% more efficient than a standard electric water heater.
Our water heater is a Bradford White Model #RE2H50S10. It has three
settings: heat pump only, hybrid, and electric. The most efficient setting is
the heat pump only, which works when the ambient temperature is higher and hot
water demand is lower. The hybrid mode will use the heat pump and when it can’t
find enough heat to move, it will create heat through heating elements (like a
standard electric water heater). That is why it is called a hybrid. The
electric mode is useful if you have a lot of people taking showers at one time.
This mode uses the heating elements to keep up with the demand. Afterwards, you
can reset it to hybrid or heat pump only, or it will default back to hybrid
within 12 hours if you forget to reset it. It is expected to use 958 kWh per
year of electricity.
Did you know that your water heater is one of the most energy intensive
systems in your home? According to the EPA, “If every residential electric
water heater in the country were replaced with a heat-pump water heater, 140
billion pounds of annual greenhouse gas emissions would be prevented,
equivalent to the emissions from more than 13 million vehicles.” Here’s a good
article on the subject if you want to learn more: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/plumbing/21015567/all-about-heat-pump-water-heaters.
We chose this water heater so we could use more of our solar power and less
natural gas to heat our water. This meant replacing our old natural gas system
with an electric one. We were waiting until our 20-year-old gas water blew up,
which it did over the winter. Fortunately, Scott had a backup on hand to get us
through until our hybrid could be produced and shipped to us (took about a
month due to Covid, but you can get one from another manufacturer at Home Depot
or Lowes immediately). Thankfully, Scott was able to install the 220-volt
circuit himself and our friend, Brad helped with the installation of the tank. So,
our labor costs are less than normal for making this switch.
Brad and Scott celebrating a successful installation Bruce and Peggy joining us for a toast This baby is so efficient, she falls off the bottom of the range!
Here are the costs:
$1,428 Bradford White Model #RE2H50S10
+$600 Labor for Installation
=$2,028 Total
-$700 Less Cost to replace with a new gas water heater
-$300 Less Federal Tax Rebate
=$1,028 Additional cost of switching to a hybrid electric water heater
We will add this to our solar installation costs and see how long it takes
us to recover our investment. However, our main reason for choosing this system
is to reduce our carbon footprint by burning less natural gas to heat our
water.
You might be wondering what a heat pump water heater can save your household. For a family
of four, the Energy Star website estimates you would save around $330 a year on your electric
bill, which adds up to a savings of around $3,400 over the life of a typical heat pump water
heater. An average new electric hot water heater costs between $300 and $600. If
you already have an electric hot water heater, the additional cost (less the
federal tax rebate) is only $500-$800 more. This would be paid for by
your savings within 1.5-3 years. Plus, it’s so much better for the environment!
Next month, when we get our utility bill, I’ll post our gas savings from
making this change.
Additional Information About Our Hot Water System
We are lucky to have a circulation pump system in our home, which helps us
use less water. This system gives us instant hot water, so we don’t have to run
a lot of cold water through the pipes, waiting for it to get hot. In our desert
climate, where water is so precious, it is nice to have. Depending on your
home’s construction, it can be added, but it is easier to do during new home
construction. If you are building a new home, this is something worth
considering.
Here’s Scott’s explanation and diagrams on how this works:
Traditional Plumbing Diagram
This is our house if we had a traditional hot
water system. The hot water heater (HWH) is in the garage and there would
be plumbing that extends, one way, from the HWH to wherever hot water is
needed. In our case, the master bathroom and the kitchen. (For simplicity
forget that we have a laundry room and a guest bathroom.) If we turn the
hot water on in either of these locations after not using it for an hour or
two, the water coming out is cold, so we have to run the hot water for a minute
or two before it becomes warm then hot.
Circulation Pump Plumbing Diagram
This is how our house was built. There is
an extra hot water line (in yellow) that runs from the Master to the
Kitchen. This creates a hot water loop. There is a hot water circulation
pump next to the HWH (red device in this “Circulation Pump” picture):
Our Circulation Pump
It continuously circulates the hot water
through the loop and then through the HWH. Anytime we turn the hot water
on in the Master or Kitchen, the hot water is piping hot. We do not have
to wait. This system is good in deserts like Nevada where water is not
abundant. We do not want people to let precious water run down the drain
waiting for it to get hot.
Scott has the timer set so the pump is off at
night when we are not using hot water.
