Our Online SolarEdge Panel. Click to see what we are producing with our rooftop solar array!

Reflections on our Second Year of Going Solar & Driving the Cars of the Future

I won’t repeat here all I said in my first annual report, so if you want to read that one, click this link: https://rhondaashurst.com/2020/02/03/1st-annual-solar-report-for-2019/. This post gives information on our initial set up and the purchase of our EV and Hybrid vehicles.

IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER! We continue to enjoy the thrill of driving the cars of the future, greatly decreasing our carbon footprint, using the sun to power more of our home and transportation, and watching the savings pile up. Of all our home improvements, going solar has been our best decision.

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!

Here’s the summary for this year with cumulative data:

We produced about 13 megawatts of electricity in 2020, about 1 megawatt more than originally estimated. We saved almost $3,000 between our utility bills and the lower costs of driving electric and hybrid vehicles. At this rate, we will recover our costs in 2.5 more years. We also saved over 22,000 pounds of CO2 from entering our atmosphere, and a total of nearly 45,000 pounds over the 2 years since we installed the system!

This year I added in our CO2 savings from burning less natural gas in our home, due to using electric zone heaters during the winter. Next year we plan to replace our aging water heater and air conditioning unit with super-efficient electric heat pump models. The A/C unit will include a heater that extracts heat from the air to warm our home in the cooler months, reducing even further our use of the gas furnace. It will be fun to see how much more gas we will save in the coming years by making those two simple changes that we need to make anyway.

It is definitely driving the cars of the future that saves the most. For a fun read on what you can save by driving electric or hybrid vs. gas-powered vehicles, check this out: Article on cost and climate savings of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles. It includes information from MIT on a variety of different cars–the cost of driving them and their carbon emissions.

THE DATA

Electricity Production and Accumulated Credits

Our panels produced 12.9 megawatts, almost 1 megawatt over what Travis estimated when he built our system. We only slightly increased our banked electricity with NV Energy to 2.66 megawatts from 2.60, so we used almost all the electricity we generated this year. The difference was caused by (1) using electric zone heaters in the winter to reduce our gas usage, (2) plugging in a second refrigerator for most of the year due to stocking up to weather the pandemic and keep our parents supplied with groceries, and (3) running more A/C at night in the summer.

Averaging our 2017 and 2018 utility bills, we paid $1269 annually for electricity and gas. This year we paid only $614 for a savings of $654! We decided to look at our total utility bill, since we are now using electric heaters to lower our use of natural gas to heat our home in the winter. Next year we expect to use even less gas when we install the new heat pump systems.

The Natural Gas Log is a record of our gas usage in therms. It went down 18% in 2020 for a savings of 110 therms and 1320 pounds of CO2. We are excited to see how much it will change when the new systems are installed!

Above are the SolarEdge graphs showing our total production in 2020 and the comparison of 2019 and 2020. Our system didn’t go online until February 19, 2019. 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.

This is our December NV Energy bill showing our banked credit of $212.71 (line right above Meter Information). Divided by the 8 cents per kWh charge, the bank equals 2.66 megawatts of stored power. We used less electricity this December than last December, because we switched from incandescent to LED Christmas lights for the exterior of our house. We couldn’t believe it when we learned that 1 incandescent bulb uses the equivalent of 2 STRINGS of LED lights! OUCH! So, we ought to use a lot less electricity for the 6 weeks of Christmas lights.

The changes we made this year saved natural gas and used more of our solar power. Once the new systems are installed in 2021, we may start tapping into our bank. We’ve decided to monitor our electric use for a year and if we need to, we will install more solar panels.

2016 Nissan LEAF

We are still loving driving our LEAF! We used BeeBee even more than the Highlander this year, since we didn’t travel long distances as much due to the pandemic. However, the total miles driven (6084) was about the same as last year. We used 1.5 megawatts of electricity to power her. If we didn’t have solar panels, it would’ve only cost us $123! That is a savings of around $713 over my old Subaru! (So, it pays to have an EV whether you have solar or not.) But, because we have solar panels, our savings is actually $836! Plus we saved 5800 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere (290 gallons X 20 lbs/gallon of gas).

We also saved money on repairs and maintenance. I have driven 100,000+ ICE vehicles for most of my life and they have high R&M bills, about $900 per year on average. This year the LEAF had her 30,000 mile check up, which is a big one, but it only cost $410. So the LEAF cost $490 less to maintain than my old vehicles. This brings the total savings of driving the LEAF for a year to $1,323! (NOTE: This will decrease as the car ages and the R&M bills get higher.) In future years, I will keep a running total of savings so you can see how owning an EV plays out over time. Most EV’s cost about 1/3 of an ICE to maintain due to not having engines and transmissions, and saving the brakes with regenerative braking.

We did lose one bar on the battery indicator this year, meaning that the battery pack is beginning to degrade. This is a normal occurrence and actually I’m surprised we haven’t lost more than one bar given that the car is now 4 years old. We have not noticed any change in our range, so that’s the most important thing. Nissan says to expect 10 years of battery life or 100,000 miles. Our LEAF has only about 34,000, so we should be good to go for long time!

The best part for us has been the pure joy of driving this car and knowing we are powering it with Nevada sunshine and emitting zero carbon and no pollution. We use it most of the time, saving the Highlander for when we need two cars or will be traveling out of the LEAF’s 100-mile range, which wasn’t much this year as you’ll see below.

2019 Toyota Highlander Hybrid

We also still love our Highlander–what a luxurious and smooth ride with lots of fun bells and whistles! We drove 4526 miles during 2020, significantly less than 2019, because we didn’t do long trips and used the LEAF more around Reno. We used only 159 gallons of gas, a savings of 124 gallons and $356 over the 4-Runner for the same mileage, and 3180 pounds of carbon emissions (159 gallons X 20 lbs/gallon). This savings does not take into account the fact that we drove less this year because of the pandemic. So, technically there was even more savings than the formulas above show. I think that was true for most of us. I loved all the data coming out this year that showed how much better our air quality was and how much less carbon we produced worldwide. It gave me hope that we can change our habits and have a healthier planet, which in turn makes us (and everything else living on Earth) healthier too.

The Highlander was still on its 2-year free maintenance contract with Dolan Toyota, so we saved the $590 average, inflation-adjusted cost we used to spend maintaining the 4-Runner. This brings the total savings of driving the Highlander to $947! Hybrids cost about 2/3 as much to maintain as regular ICE vehicles, due to the use electric motors and regenerative braking. We will see how this averages out over time.

This is our all-around vehicle and it continues to do everything we need it to. It is way more comfortable and pleasurable to drive than our old 4-Runner. The combo of the Highlander and the LEAF is perfect for us. We saved $2,273 and nearly 9,000 pounds of carbon from entering our atmosphere. We are thrilled with our decision to replace our old internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with the cars of the future!

Stay tuned for updates when we add in our hybrid heat pump systems this year!

Our Online SolarEdge Panel. Click to see what we are producing with our rooftop solar array!

Reflections on our First Year of Going Solar & Driving the Cars of the Future

WOW! THIS IS AMAZING!! AND IT FEELS SO GOOD!!

Truly, what a joy it has been to experience driving the cars of the future, and fueling one of them and all our electricity needs with our solar panels. The cars are a hoot! They are a pleasure to drive and so much better than our old ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles. It has felt so good to know we are using way less gas than we used to, which means less carbon emissions going into the atmosphere. We are also thrilled to know we are harnessing the Nevada sunshine to power our home and the LEAF. Scott and I share a deep love for our little, blue planet and a mutual concern about human impact on the environment. I would say that was the main reason driving our decision to go solar, EV (electric vehicle) and hybrid.

It’s an extra-added bonus to reflect on that decision one year later and see that not only is it good for Mother Nature and more fun for us, it also saves a lot of money! And who doesn’t like to save a lot of money while doing something good at the same time?

Ok, I figure you want me to get down to the nitty gritty, so here it is:

Travis estimated the system would generate approximately 12 megawatts over the course of the year. We actually produced 12.6! NOTE: Our solar system was put into service on February 19, 2019. I figured we have enough data as of this writing to do an annual entry, so I have projected 2/3 of the months of January and February based on the 1/3 of these months for which I have data as of this writing (see below for more details).

We saved $3,570 total, which I’ll break down with more explanation below for those of you who are interested. And, best of all, we saved 22,329 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted into Earth’s atmosphere!

I know some of you would like to know about cost recovery. We had run our old ICE vehicles into the ground and had to buy newer vehicles anyway, so we decided to go Hybrid and EV. The LEAF was $11,000–$15,000 less the sale of the Forester for $4,000. (Did I say that used LEAFs are ridiculously cheap?) The Highlander was $47,000. (These figures include sales tax.) So, these cars didn’t cost us any more than we would have spent to replace our old vehicles with ICE models. They cost, interestingly, the same to insure due to much better safety features. Both the EV and the Hybrid are cheaper to maintain than our old ICE’s, in addition to using a lot less gas. Because we had to buy newer vehicles anyway, we don’t consider the cost of the cars as part of our Going Solar expenses. It is interesting to note that it is driving the cars of the future that saves you the most money!

The total cost of the solar panels, EV charger, and installation, net of rebates and tax savings: $14,222. If we average $3,500 per year savings, we will recover this cost in about 4 years. However, keep in mind that installing solar panels and EV chargers increases the value of your home 3%. So, in reality, our panels were paid for the day they were installed!

We again want to express our gratitude to Travis and the guys at Great Basin Solar for the awesome job they did designing and installing our system! They were a dream to work with and convinced us this dream of ours was possible and could be done now and not later. I’m so glad we decided to go ahead! You can find out more about Great Basin Solar at: https://www.greatbasinsolar.com/ .

THE DATA

Electricity Production and Accumulated Credits

Our panels produced 12.6 megawatts, a little over what Travis estimated when he built our system (including projections explained below). We used less than he’d estimated, because we drive the LEAF about 1/2 of average. This resulted in a $233.66 credit with NV Energy for the electricity we produced but did not use. At 9 cents per kilowatt, we have 2.6 megawatts of banked electricity, about 20% of our total production!

Averaging our 2017 and 2018 utility bills, we paid $1269 annually for electricity and gas. This year we paid only $648 for a savings of $621! We decided to look at our total utility bill, since we are now using electric heaters to lower our use of natural gas to heat our home in the winter. This has reduced our gas usage by 20%! The main heater in our house now only comes on in the morning to bring the house up to temperature, then our Ben Franklin gas stove and EdenPure heater take over for the rest of the day. (See below for more information.)

We’d originally estimated we would save $50 per month on electricity use, or $600 per year. We were right in there with our actual savings of $621. Interestingly, gas prices have gone up 17% this year, so even though we are using 20% less, the bill is about the same. However, I suspect that gas prices will continue to rise so the savings will increase over time from lowering our gas use. Electricity costs, probably due to increasing use of renewables in Nevada, have remained steady.

The above two graphs off our SolarEdge show our production over the life of the system, which went into service on February 19, 2019. The 2019 graph is missing 2/3 of February and all of January. I used these two graphs to project the missing data as follows: 700 for January 750 for February. In the 2019 graph above, February shows 250 kilowatts for 1/3 of the month, so 500 kilowatts are missing in addition to the 700 for January, for a total of 1200 kilowatts. Add that to the 11.36 megawatts shown on the graph and you get 12.56 or 12.6 megawatts.

Our December power bill shows the dramatic increase in our use that happens in December and January when we have our Christmas lights on, plug in an extra refrigerator for holiday parties and use electric heaters to zone heat our home. The latter is new idea we had when we realized how much electricity we’d banked and that natural gas costs went up 17% over last year! Looking at the bill, you can see that we finally used some of our bank: $77.97.

We added an EdenPure infrared, copper heater to our dining room/kitchen this winter. Scott had it in storage, so we decided to put it to good use! It is keeping the area where I work much warmer, and our kitchen. This is an efficient heater (uses 1-1.5 kilowatts per hour). It has a nice, quiet hum and doesn’t get hot to the touch. Scott also uses a small Lasko electric heater in the bedroom in the mornings, while he is reading and sipping coffee. These electric heaters have reduced the amount of natural gas we are using with our gas heaters by 20%! It is now much toastier in the areas where we hang out, without needing to heat unused areas of our home.

Overall, we are thrilled with how the net metering with NV Energy works. It looks like we will be able to continue to provide all the electricity we need with our solar panels, while reducing our use of natural gas. We will know more, of course, as the years go by and you’ll get to watch that unfold when I do the annual entries in this blog!

2016 Nissan LEAF

I LOVE our little LEAF! I’ve nicknamed her “BeeBee”, ’cause she’s so darned cute! She’s also fast, handles well, and uses less electricity than we’d expected. To top it off she’s way more spacious and comfortable than I’d imagined. Our parents can even get in and out of her with ease, which I never thought would be possible! The instant heat and A/C is lovely, especially being able to turn it on with our cell phones before we go out to the car. Heated front seats and steering wheel are wonderful in winter. The trunk is deep and spacious and seats are easy to lay down for carrying longer loads. She is also super quiet, since she doesn’t have an engine.

We never had range issues for in town use and even took the LEAF to Incline Village and Carson City without having to plug her in for a recharge. Our LEAF has a range of 100 miles with a full charge, so it easily accommodates all of our in town travel, and I love not ever going to a gas station! She plugs in like a cell phone through her cute little nose in the garage–how easy is that? One of my secret pleasures with the LEAF is the instant response of the electric motors when you hit the accelerator. I can burn rubber and leave muscle cars in the dust! (Not that I do that often… Really…)

The spreadsheet above gives the first year stats with some projections for the months of January, February and March, since we got the car in April. Averaging out our normal use, we expect to drive the LEAF about 6000 miles per year and use 1.6 megawatts of electricity. If we didn’t have solar panels, it would only cost us $144 per year to power her! That is a savings of around $800 over my old Subaru! (So, it pays to have an EV whether you have solar or not.) But, because we have solar panels, our savings is actually $950! Plus we saved 5700 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere (286 gallons X 20 lbs/gallon of gas).

We also saved money on repairs and maintenance. I have driven 100,000+ ICE vehicles for most of my life and they have high R&M bills, about $900 per year on average. The LEAF only had one minor repair to tighten front axle bolts for $151, for a savings of $749. This brings the total savings of driving the LEAF for a year to $1,700! (NOTE: This will decrease as the car ages and the R&M bills get higher.) In future years, I will keep a running total of savings so you can see how owning an EV plays out over time. Most EV’s cost about 1/3 of an ICE to maintain due to not having engines and transmissions, and saving the brakes with regenerative braking.

The best part for us has been the pure joy of driving this car and knowing we are powering it with Nevada sunshine and emitting zero carbon and no pollution. We use it most of the time, saving the Highlander for when we need two cars or will be traveling out of the LEAF’s 100-mile range.

2019 Toyota Highlander Hybrid

The Highlander Hybrid is a dream to drive–smooth, comfortable, spacious and luxurious! Really an awesome deal for the price! The hybrid system and continuous variable transmission are engineering miracles in our opinion. The Highlander cruises on the electric motors as much as it can and when it needs the V-6 engine, the engagement is seamless and barely noticeable. It has incredible power for such a large vehicle, yet it is 40% more efficient than the 4-Runner. The continuous variable transmission provides smooth, quick acceleration even when you romp on the accelerator or are pulling Pearl (our teardrop trailer) up a steep hill. Combined with a sophisticated cruise control, you can often set your speed and forget it and the car will adjust itself to accommodate to slower vehicles in front of it, keeping 3 car lengths behind.

It has comfortable captains chairs and front and back and 3 seats in the far back, giving it the capacity to carry 7 passengers. When you fold down all the back seats, you have a cargo area even larger than the 4-Runner’s! The heating and A/C systems keep the cabin comfortable front and back. The front seats can be heated or cooled. The Highlander comes with a tow package installed which easily pulls Pearl for camping trips. You can’t even tell she’s back there! We could tow a trailer 3X her size with the Highlander’s tow capacity of 3500 pounds.

This vehicle is also equipped with a ton of safety features like: lane departure alerts, alarms if a car is coming at you from the side, blind spot alerts, alarms if you get to close to something when parking, and a great backup camera with alarms if something is coming up behind you while you are backing out. Because of all these safety features, it actually costs LESS to insure than the old 4-Runner!

We drove 7676 miles during 2019 and used only 279 gallons of gas, a savings of 200 gallons and $670 over the 4-Runner, and 4000 pounds of carbon emissions (200 gallons X 20 lbs/gallon). Another nice benefit of this is that we only fuel the Highlander once a month instead of twice, and we rarely have to stop for fuel when traveling longer distances. We can go over 400 miles on one tank.

The Highlander is also expected to be cheaper to maintain than the 4-Runner due to the hybrid system and the lower cost of maintaining the two electric motors driving the AWD system. It also uses regenerative braking to store power in its batteries, similar to the LEAF, which reduces wear on the brakes. Hybrids cost about 2/3 as much to maintain as regular ICE vehicles. We will see how this works out over time. This year we saved a lot on R&M because we had been paying about $900/month to maintain the old 4-Runner and the Highlander is covered for 2 years as part of our purchase agreement. However, we decided it was best to use the average R&M over the life of the 4-Runner as a comparison (I’ll adjust that up by 2% per year to factor in inflation over time), so this year the savings added up to $579. It will be interesting to see how it averages out over time…

Our total savings driving the Highlander in 2019 was $1249! And the driving experience was incredible in comparison to the old 4-Runner which had a much stiffer truck suspension, rough gear shifting (especially uphill), scary downhill braking vibrations, a lot more cabin noise, and much less comfortable seating. It was also becoming impossible for our parents to get in and out of its higher seats. We use the Highlander as our travel vehicle for longer road trips and camping adventures with Pearl, for transporting larger items and lumber, and when we need a second car for getting around town. It is an awesome all-around vehicle! The combo of our two vehicles of the future is perfect for us and we are so happy we took the plunge this year and made a long-time dream come true!

December 2019 Data

I never did a blog post for December, as I decided to wait and just do an annual post instead. But here is the December data for those of you who have been following along monthly:

We are excited about 2020 and having a whole year of data to share with you next year, plus more stories about going solar and driving the cars of the future!

Our Online SolarEdge Panel. Click to see what we are producing with our rooftop solar array!

Summary

Wow I’m late posting this month! Got caught up in the Christmas season and never got to it… I am happy to say I did keep my Retreat Days and that helped sustain me. Retreat Days are kind of like storing our solar electricity in the grid. When you need to draw on reserves, they are there for you. As of mid-November we started heading down in our kWh produced, but we still produced nearly 1 megawatt and accumulated 128 kilowatts from mid-October to mid-November. Now we will begin tapping into our reserves as we head towards the darkest days of the year.

The Data

We used the LEAF less in November than October and our efficiency in miles/kWh was lower. We did use the heater more and the temperatures dropped, so it will be interesting to watch what happens as the winter comes on. This month we went from 4.26 to 3.48 miles/kWh.

Our Online SolarEdge Panel. Click to see what we are producing with our rooftop solar array!

The Summary

We still produced over 1 megawatt of power in October, though the sunlight hours are lessening with the onset of fall. But, along with that, we stopped using A/C, so only used 549 kilowatts total. We banked 477 kilowatts, nearly the same as last month.

The Data

We used the LEAF more in October, as we were home the whole month. We put on over 300 miles more than in September! Our efficiency in miles/kWh was better due to using less A/C, just like in the house. We went from 3.84 to 4.26. It will be interesting to see what happens when we start to use heat as the temperatures drop in the winter.

Our Online SolarEdge Panel. Click to see what we are producing with our rooftop solar array!

The Summary

It was another strong month of production. Our solar system generated approximately 1.3 megawatts of power. We used 654 kilowatts. We banked 485 kilowatts.

The Data

We had a light month of use on the LEAF, as we were on our teardrop trip for the first two weeks of September.

We received a notice about a recall from Nissan on the bonding plates which hold the battery in place. The original plates apparently were easily corroded by salt on icy roadways (an issue in Reno). I just took her in for this service and within a few hours had her back free of charge! They even threw in checking the brakes, which are perfect! Given our average mileage, it’s unlikely she will need anything until her 30,000 mile service sometime in 2020.

So far, the promise of low maintenance costs has been true!

Our Online SolarEdge Panel. Click to see what we are producing with our rooftop solar array!

In August, we had another month of strong solar production. Again, there were a few cloudy days, which you see in this graph:

Here is the NV Energy Bill for the month:

Interpretation:

The system generated approximately 1.3 megawatts of power. We used 700 kilowatts (finally turned on the A/C). We banked approximately 600 kilowatts.

From the NV Energy bill (page 1 Usage Column):

kWhGenerated = 1330 What our system generated.

kWhReceived = 990 Electricity NV Energy Received from our system.

The difference (1330-990=340) is what we used directly off our system.

kWhDelivered = 361 Electricity NV Energy Delivered to us, usually at night.

kWhAccumulated = 629 Electricity accumulated over the month. This figure is calculated as the difference between kWhR 990 – kWhD 361= 629. Then it is multiplied by $.08 (our storage rate): 792 X $.08 = $48.95 credit banked (see page 2 of NV Energy bill).

The $48.95 calculated above is added on Page 1 to the previous month’s Excess Energy Credit ($185.49), less some minor credits applied to current charges ($2.23), for a total carryover of $232.21. At $.09 per kWh retail electricity rate, this equals 2,580 stored kilowatts to date ($232.21/$.09).

Total usage = 361 (kWhD) + 340 (directly used off solar system) or 701 kWh. We used more this month, because it was finally hot enough to start using A/C!

We also had another economical month with the LEAF:

Little Miss Sippy used 143 kWh and traveled 555 miles this month. We were out camping again for about 5 days mid-month. The LEAF averaged 3.88 miles per kilowatt hour in August.

We took a drive up to Incline and back and still had 25% of our battery charge left when we got home! (We charged her up to 100% before we left). She uses a lot of power to go uphill, but then gets it back from regenerative braking and coasting on the way back down. It was great fun driving the LEAF down Mount Rose, which is a steep and curvy mountain road. The Braking Mode (B-Mode) worked awesome for slowing the car down without having to use much braking. This mode increases the regenerative braking the car does when your foot isn’t on the accelerator. It’s similar to being in a lower gear in an ICE vehicle, but much smoother and quieter. Because of the LEAF’s lower center of gravity due to the battery, she handles curves like a dream!

The other fun thing we did this month was get the NissanConnect EV app on our iphones (Scott was the technical genius who set it up). What a great app! It tells you how much juice the battery has and how far you can drive. It has a car finder if you misplace your LEAF in a parking lot. But the coolest thing is that you can start the climate control in the car with your iphone! So, say you are having lunch with a friend for a couple of hours. Your car is parked in the hot midday sun and you want it cool when you get in. A few minutes before you get ready to leave, you turn on the climate control, and presto you have a cool car waiting for you! (Alternatively, you can turn the heat on in the winter.) The app also offers an option to turn off the climate control if, for example, your departure gets delayed.

Our Online SolarEdge Panel. Click to see what we are producing with our rooftop solar array!

In July, we had another month of strong solar production. There were a few cloudy days, which you see in this graph:

Here is the NV Energy Bill for the month:

Interpretation:

The system generated approximately 1.3 megawatts of power. We used 1/2 megawatt. We banked approximately 800 kilowatts.

From the NV Energy bill (page 1 Usage Column):

kWhGenerated = 1307 What our system generated.

kWhReceived = 1064 Electricity NV Energy Received from our system.

The difference (1307-1064=243) is what we used directly off our system.

kWhDelivered = 272 Electricity NV Energy Delivered to us, usually at night.

kWhAccumulated = 792 Electricity accumulated over the month. This figure is calculated as the difference between kWhR 1064 – kWhD 272 = 792. Then it is multiplied by $.08 (our storage rate): 792 X $.08 = $60.92 credit banked.

The $60.92 calculated above is added on Page 1 to the previous month’s Excess Energy Credit ($126.25), less some minor credits applied to current charges ($1.68), for a total carryover of $185.49. At $.09 per kWh retail electricity rate, this equals 2,061 stored kilowatts to date ($185.49/$.09).

Total usage = 272 (kWhD) + 243 (directly used off solar system) or 515 kWh. This seems to be our average power usage, about 1/2 megawatt.

We also had another economical month with the LEAF:

Little Miss Sippy only used 145 kWh! We were out camping for about 6 days mid-month, but it is interesting we still used about the same as last month when Scott was driving the LEAF and Bruce was borrowing it to commute to Truckee. The LEAF averaged 3.74 miles per kilowatt hour in July.

Fun Discoveries about EV’s

They don’t need to warm up! What this means in practical terms is that you have instant A/C in the hot weather and instant heat in cold weather. It finally got hot enough in July that we really noticed how quickly the LEAF cools off the cabin.

Scott also discovered that you can leave the LEAF running with the climate control on Auto while you are running quick errands. You can lock the car and when you return it is cool as a cucumber!

Another interesting discovery, via a friend with a Tesla, is that you can hit a deer head-on at highway speeds and keep on driving! No engine, no radiator, no problem (well, at least mechanically speaking…)

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

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

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

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

Here’s the data:

Interpretation:

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

From the NV Energy bill:

kWhGenerated = 1193

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

kWhDelivered = 331

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s the data:

Interpretation:

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

From the NV Energy bill:

kWhGenerated = 1195

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

kWhDelivered = 279

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bottom line:

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

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

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

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