Time to stop charging my PiP?

I was surprised when I first saw it, but there are still a lot of bicycle-riders here, no-matter the weather.

 

Yeah. What u r feeling I'd important ! I'm on the line of economic sense. My gen 3 already paid me back with the fuel mileage it provided and long country trips with the family especially spending less time searching for cheap gas.

My solar makes money two fold, one is it sells back to the grid and the other is the srec market that dirty companies.have to invest in. PiP calculations are kicking a normal vehicles butt. and with solar it's saVing against my regular prius as well.... I calculate everything lol

 

Gotcha. It didn't sound that way at first. Especially because I'm still paying $2.60+ per gallon.

I took this picture for you this morning just to illustrate your point about inefficiency of EVs at high speeds (70-75mph) and heater use. From my morning uphill commute (150ft. to 1,200ft) with 0.6kWh hours used to pre-heat the car twice. Horrific lol

 

In Texas, the state utility commission offers this service: Power To Choose | Home From that site, I found this provider that specializes in renewables: Beyond Power | Your 100% Renewable Energy Provider

 

With the elevation change the gas mileage won't be too good either.
The question is what's F8L's MPGe coming back home?

[Edit: 150 ft in 18 miles isn't that steep. Yeah, the heating takes its toll]

 

That is why I'm skipping that incentive by not selling my credits. I want my own house to run clean.

 

It's around 950'.

I deleted all of the pictures from my phone the other day so I'll have to wait until I get home to get the miles per kWh for the return commute but it is much much more efficient obviously. This is what the commute used to look like going home. Now I don't have to drive the entire 49 miles so just picture the graph ending at 18 miles. I live right off the freeway. But yes, heat played a big role today. I usually end up using 7.0-7.8kWh of energy for the uphill commute with temps in the 40s-60s without the heater but may use the defrost occasionally.

 

I didn't have my PIP for this commute specifically. I.e. the PIP had to do the entire 49 mile commute. However, going up this portion of the commute I regularly saw my iMPG sit at 40-45iMPG for the "flatter" section from Roseville to the start of the steep hill at which point it sat at 28-30iMPG until I got to Auburn (the end of the commute). So I think the overall average would have been in the mid to high 40s without EV use. I have no clue what it would have been with EV because my speeds are so high that I'd be in blended mode the whole time. The MPG would have been very high on the way home as I've tested an alternate route with the PIP and routinely observed 80-99mpg but not at speeds above 55mph. So I can't really answer your question with regards to the PIP. Only how it related to the Gen2.

Here is a copy/paste from a post back in 2009 when I had my Gen2 and lived on the other side of the freeway but 5 miles shorter commute. Same hills though.

"I agree mostly Shawn. I have a short 13mile commute starting at approx. 200ft elevation and I drive less than 1 mile to the freeway and only 3/4 of a mile off the freeway till I get to work which is at approx 1,220ft. elevation. I watch my Scangauge and on cold days (40deg or less) I do not reach full operating temperature till I'm nearly at work (70mph avg.).

On the way home I try to coast as much as possible while maintaining 70mph avg. and I find that the car doesn't reach operating temperature until I'm back off the freeway and go through a couple stop lights but then I'm home. lol

Like you stated though, I never recover the mileage I lost from going uphill. I tested this the other day get about 55-60mpg downhill and about 25-28mpg uphill (27deg uphill, 38deg downhill). I'll test this out in the really hot summer months since this will add about 60-70deg to ambient temperature."

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Yes... it's like peer to peer. My generation or overy generation goes somewhere. I could in fact get green energy to my house from the grid. Now the srec concept is making money off of dirty energy, yes. I'm not 100% renewable but perhaps there will be kits in the future to be.

However, I do use more energy than I produce in the winter. And...the more solar houses go up grid tied the more green energy to distribute the less an srec is worth. It's peer to peer, I think it's worth it as a community. Otherwise u do it yourself in your own batteries and when u over generate where does it go?

 

This is exactly what OPEC (Saudi Arabia) wants you to do. Do you like being manipulated by them? At break even plus or minus 10-15% I'd still keep using EV. But my costs are $0.13/kwh (winter) and $0.11 (summer) and I mostly charge for free at work...so gas would need to drop to less than $1.50 before I'd really think about not plugging in at home.

Mike

 

So, OPEC is to blame for cheap gas?

 

There are many factors. Probably the biggest factor is the increased production of US shale and fracking (a many year trend). But given this OPEC could have dropped production to try and keep prices higher, (in the short term) but intentionally didn't.

There are a number of reasons (see some of the hundreds of articles from numerous sources)... it could be one or more of: punish (hurt economies) in Russia, Iran, etc. (both need oil >>$100 to balance their budgets), hurt alternative energy and marginal oil projects (tar sands, US shale, etc), hurt EV companies and/or slow their acceptance, etc etc.

Mike

 

ah, you're finally seeing the light.

 

As he already replied, there are many factors.

But certain OPEC members are in much better position than most other oil producers to withstand an extended period of low prices. And I believe they have chosen to use this temporary outbreak of low prices to further their strategic interests.

Some of those interests align with mine (e.g. hurting Putin & Iran), so don't (e.g. delaying alternative energies). Continuing to minimize fossil carbon use still makes better sense for my goals.

 

Really? By my calculation, even with no subsidies, my payback is less than eight years.

Tier 3 and Tier 4 SCE rates make solar a very reasonable investment, at least in Southern California. My "bachelor pad" before marriage averaged less than 400 kWh/mo; my current (larger) home's "basal" consumption (even with all LED lighting) seems to be about 750kWh/mo, and that's with no A/C. There's no way to stay in Tiers 1-2 (e.g., < $.20/kWh) without solar. Every solar generated kWh will "pay back" at $.28-$.35/kWh.