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.
I participated in this event, sponsored by BoneSmart, on May 4th, 2019. BoneSmart is the largest joint replacement forum in the world and is one of the online resources I used for support before and after my surgeries. It is a repository of a wealth of information on all types of joint replacements and includes user forums for support.
I was honored to be asked to create a short video of my experience for this event and to participate via a live Internet feed on a panel. I just received this link to the videos capturing the whole day and wanted to pass it along for those of you following my blog. There are a number of surgeons presenting all the latest information on joint replacements, as well as patient testimonials.
My testimonial, including a nice video montage of what I can do now, appears in Session 10 at about the 1/2 way point. The patient panel I participated in live is recorded in Session 11.
I would encourage those of you getting ready for joint replacement to have a look at the videos. In the upper right you will see a menu option for accessing the 2018 JRAD videos.
I think it’s fun that this link was sent to me right before my one-year anniversary: October 31st. That was the day I had my cerclage cable removed in 2018 and when my recovery really took off. I’m happy to say that I am back to my normal self at last! I had a really great rest of my summer camping and hiking (reasonably), having learned from my earlier over-exuberance!
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
I decided it would be easier to understand the interpretation of the data if I just wrote it on the bill. Hopefully, you can read my chicken scratch handwriting!
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!
We are back from another magical adventure to Northern California and the Oregon coast! This trip has become a fall tradition of ours, usually the last trip of the year, where we recharge our souls with the stunning natural beauty. This year we ventured further up the coast and tried out some of the Oregon State Parks with Pearl, and we recommend them as fine campgrounds to stay in along the way.
We started out the trip at one of our favorite places, Burney Falls. We had never stayed at the campground. It had spacious sites, nice facilities and easy access to the Falls trail.
Burney Falls from bottom of the trailTop of the falls next morning–beautiful light!
The next major sight on our journey was Crater Lake. The stunning blue of the water never fails to take our breath away! The Mazama campground inside the park is another great place to stay.
Look what I finally figured out how to do–put a video directly into the blog!
Phantom Ship — one of the oldest parts remaining of the old caldera
From Crater Lake, we headed out to the coast to Florence, Oregon which is home to famous sand dunes which stretch for miles along the shore. We stayed in the Jessie M. Honeyman campground and had a private site, well protected by bushes and a large tree.
Florence DunesBoarding the dunes!Historic Bridge into FlorenceScott enjoying some BBQ Oysters (yuck!)Heceta Lighthouse
From Florence, we drove down the coast to Bandon and stayed at Bullard’s Beach campground. It was here that the rain caught up with us, so we put Pearl under her rain tent.
Good thing we set up the tent! It rained solid for about 24 hours!
But, luckily the rain parted enough for us to enjoy these gorgeous walks among Bandon’s stunning sea stacks. I think this is one of the prettiest beaches to walk in Oregon.
There was even a wedding overlooking the seaThe town of BandonCool oceanfront house that looked like a shipPlaying in the sea stacks!
The next day, the clouds parted and we enjoyed this beautiful sight just outside of Brookings, Oregon:
Next stop was one of our favorite places on Earth–Jedidiah Smith Redwood State Park. This was our 3rd consecutive year here among the giants.
I’m always amazed we get to camp right in the middle of them!This year our camp was near a nice little beach along the Smith River where I did Tai Chi in the morning. One morning, I watched two river otters playing in the green water.We had to do our usual lunch at the Chart Room on the harbor, overlooking the sea lions and the lighthouse. Boy were they noisy and boisterous!
Afterwards, we hiked the Boy Scout Tree Trail, one of the longer and more challenging trails in the area. What a magical place! It rained on us a little in the beginning, but overall was a lovely hike through this amazing old growth forest.
Video of the Boy Scout Tree:
Fern Falls at the end of the Boy Scout Tree TrailBack to the beginning, 5.6 miles later!
I was so happy to be able to do this trail this year. Last year I couldn’t manage it because I still had that nasty cable around my right femur. It’s hard to imagine a year ago I was limping through my hikes, and this year I was pain free! That being said, the last mile or so was tough. Both Scott and I agreed that our hiking sweet spot is about 3-4 miles. But it was worth it to see that big old tree! Luckily, I had no ill effects from this hike, like I did the one to Smith Lake in July.
Our last stop of the trip was Ashland to see a couple of plays and visit our friends, Michelle and Drew. We saw How to Catch Creation and Between Two Knees. Both were excellent–grappling with difficult topics, but interjecting humor and heart, which made the painful things bearable (isn’t that how life is?) Then we enjoyed a great bottle of award-winning Viognier at Trium Winery with Michelle and Drew. It’s always great to catch up with them when we are in town.
We stayed again at Emigrant Lake campground where we enjoyed the full moon and wine overlooking the lake:
It was an awesome trip and we came home soul-filled and relaxed, ready for the fall harvest and the coming of winter in the Sierras.
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.
It feels like it is time for a hip update. I’m now almost 2 years out from my right hip replacement, 1 1/4 years from my left, and 10 months post-cable-removal from my right femur.
I finally feel healed! I can do all the things I really want to do now, without pain and struggle. It seems like a miracle when I look back at where I was 2 years ago–in agony and barely able to walk.
This summer I did my first real hiking in three years. It was such a pleasure to get out on mountain trails again and to be able to enjoy the experience without pain and disability.
My first big hike since my dual THR’s
Of course, I overdid my first big hike. Didn’t mean to, it just happened. The sign said: Smith Lake 2 miles. That seemed easily doable. It turned out to be 3 miles straight up and straight down on loose rock and I’d left my hiking poles at our campsite. Looking back, I don’t know why I kept going when it was clear that it was too much and I wasn’t having fun. Within the first mile, I was already questioning how I was going to get back down over all that loose rock on fatigued legs with no hiking poles. NOTE TO SELF: When you are feeling this way, it is time to stop and go back.
I ask myself now why I pushed it? Part of it was to prove I could do it, and I did. Part of it was not wanting to disappoint Scott. Turns out he wasn’t having fun either and would have welcomed the idea of returning to camp and choosing a less strenuous trail. We have since agreed that should we ever find ourselves on such a trail again, we will do exactly that and not worry about who we might disappoint! After that first hike, we did more moderate trails around beautiful mountain lakes which was much for enjoyable.
After that first round of hikes, I didn’t seem to have any ill effects, other than the usual soreness and muscle fatigue for a few days. Then, about 10 days afterwards, a really weird thing happened. I started feeling wobbly on my legs again, not trusting them under me, feeling weak. I was getting scary familiar twinges in my groin and around my trochanter on the sides of my hips. My left hip (which was my stronger one) seemed worse than my right, which was freaking me out. I started to fear dislocation. I had the old sensation that I could just walk right out of my hips. I considered calling my surgeon to request moving up my annual visit and getting some x-rays.
As I shared this with my hip friends, they wondered if I’d overdone it and just needed to take it easier, get my massages, sit in an epsom bath, do restorative/yin yoga. Basically, chill out!
This week, I’ve done exactly that and what a miracle cure! All the strange sensations and twinges disappeared. I could feel my legs strong and steady under me. I’ve been pondering what caused such a transformative change.
What I’ve come up with is that I made a commitment to my body not to push it beyond its edge, and I broke that commitment. In yoga, we “work our edge.” We come into a pose and find the edge of our comfort zone, our range. Then we back off a bit, breathe into it and explore opening further into the pose. This exploration is gentle, respecting the limits of our particular body in the moment. It seems I often have to be reminded of this practice, as my natural tendency is to extend myself beyond my limits. I have noticed that my hips tend to be my own personal alarm system, alerting me that I’ve gone too far. When something is so hard that I am tense and afraid and struggling, like that first hike, I need to back off and not push myself to keep going. Why do I seem to have to relearn that lesson over and over?
As I worked with my body in restorative/yin yoga poses, it came to me that I have also over-extended myself in other areas of my life this summer. Quakers have a lovely way of testing this by asking the question, “Am I keeping my life simple and avoiding commitments beyond my strength and Light?” I love this query! I promised myself that I would use it before making commitments and that I would honor my own limits. I know if I don’t take care of myself, my ability to be patiently and lovingly present for others is hampered. This is another lesson I seem to need to repeat, and another commitment to myself I have broken this summer.
I’ve found the best way to hold myself accountable is to share my struggles and ask for help from those who know and love me. This post is partly about doing that and enlisting your help in reminding me of these commitments. It is also about sharing honestly the ups and downs of recovery from hip replacements. I just saw a post on BoneSmart from a hip friend of mine expressing some of this same distrust of her new hips. Maybe we all experience this in our own ways and for our own reasons. I appreciated her bringing it up at the exact time that I was having the same struggle. It helped me look deeper and wonder, ask hard questions, be willing to revisit my old lessons and then talk about it honestly.
This week of resting, restoring, reflecting and renewing my commitments has been wonderful! It reminds me how important it is. Now my wish is to weave this way of being into the fabric of my daily life. I seemed to do this better when I was in hip recovery. Now that I am recovered from my surgeries, it’s time to recover my life from my over-do-it ways, and be kinder and easier with myself.
In July, we had another month of strong solar production. There were a few cloudy days, which you see in this graph:
SolarEdge Graph For July 2019
Here is the NV Energy Bill for the month:
Add these two amounts to get $60.92 Excess Energy Credit Earned on Page 1
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…)
Tesla drives away from a head-on with a deer. Then drives from Reno back to San Francisco for repairs.
We just got back from our first trip out in Pearl in 2019! Can’t believe it took this long… We got to try out our new tow vehicle:
Pearl with her new chariot–Toyota Highlander Hybrid Check out new solar panels on our roof (and our neighbor’s)!
We were so impressed with the Highlander’s smooth, continuous transmission that pulled Pearl easily up hills without the lurching shifts of the old 4-Runner. Scott could even put her in cruise control and let the car handle everything, including keeping a safe distance between us and the vehicle ahead. The Highlander got 25 MPG, down from her regular 30 MPG, but way better than the 4-Runner’s 15 MPG. The ride is so much more comfortable and smooth, plus, don’t they look like they were made for each other?
We returned to Graeagle, California to a new campground that we loved! Here’s our beautiful, spacious campsite in the Ponderosa pines:
Love these new rocker camping chairs–they rock!Pearl snuggled into her spot; Scott snuggled into Happy Hour
I was determined to try out my new hips on some challenging trails. We thought we’d try out a 2-mile hike to a lake right out of our campground on the first morning. It turned out to be a 3-mile hike straight up and straight down! Not only did it have steep inclines most of the way, but lots of loose rock. I remember thinking I should have brought my hiking poles. Fortunately, I made it without falling by being very mindful about where I put my feet!
My first major hike after two hip replacements!Scott takes a rest on a rockPretty mountain view along the way
When we finally made it to the lake, we discovered it was down in a hole and decided we weren’t going down there and back up again!
View of Smith Lake from the top What a hike for the first day out!
When we finally made it back down in one piece, we took ibuprofen, drank a bottle of wine and decided that just because we can do 6 miles of a steep, challenging trail, doesn’t mean we have to ever do it again. I’ve decided this is the beauty of the wisdom one gains with age.
Luckily there were no ill effects the next day other than a little soreness and fatigued muscles. What a difference from last year when I was still struggling with the cable around my right femur biting me in the butt every step of the way!
On the second day, we returned to lovely Madora Lake to do the 1-1/2 mile loop through the pines and around the lake:
An easier hike around Madora Lake on the second day
That evening, we dined at the Grizzly Grill. Scott had the lamb and I had the gorgonzola chicken. Both were excellent! Nice way to spoil yourself while camping…
Champagne and a Manhattan at the Grizzly Grill
On the third day, we hiked the Upper Salmon Lake trail. It was the right level of challenge for us both and the scenery was stunning! We hiked along the ridge above the lake and then headed over to Horse Lake, which was surrounded by lots of pretty wild flowers and butterflies.
Upper Salmon LakeUpper Salmon Lake
After this hike, we headed over to Frazier Falls which is a short 1/2 mile hike along a paved path that is completely accessible. It is well worth seeing if you are in the area.
Frazier Falls
It was a lovely trip and we will return again. Graeagle is only about 1-1/2 hours from our house, so an easily accessible spot with great camping, hiking and eating opportunities. It felt great to finally be out in the woods again, and this time, with strong legs under me and no pain! I am so very grateful.
Today is the 4th Anniversary of our Commitment Ceremony. It was a lovely day, just like today, when we had the joy of sharing these commitments with our beloved friends and family, right here in our backyard at Rancho San Rafael Park.
We started this morning by reading our vows to each other again, a tradition of ours. We were heartened to notice how we live these vows and how much easier it has been than we anticipated. We are both so grateful for each other and the chance, at last, to share this life together.
We also celebrate 6 years and 8 months of being together as a couple and 31 years of friendship!
Scott had dinner with an old friend he has not seen in many years last night. He asked a fun question part of the way into the night, “Wait a minute, is this Rhonda that you are talking so much about and with whom you share your life, the same one you couldn’t stop talking about 30 years ago?”
Here’s to us my sweet love and many more happy years together!
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!
Page 1 of June 2019 NV Energy Bill Page 2 of June 2019 NV Energy Bill June 2019 SolarEdge Graph using Billing Period
LEAF Charging History June 2019
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.
