Saturday, February 26, 2011

San Diego Pacific Magazine


A few weeks ago Pacific San Diego Magazine came by with a photog and did a shoot with the Mini-E and the home.

The idea is simple. Power your home and your transportation by that big bright star that we all circle around.

The reasons are even more simple. Cleaner air and environment, cheaper energy, wealth building for an individual and a nation. The wine part is a little missing but the 400 bottles refers to our vineyard and estate wine production.


Cheers!

Peder

Friday, February 18, 2011

A mysterious countdown has appeared on the BMW Project I website


Project I is a future mobility think tank of the BMW Group.

They have just posted a countdown clock.

http://www.project-i.com/countdown/

Anyone care to venture a guess on what's about to appear?

BMW ActiveE?
BMW Megacity?
BMW Scooter?
BMW Flying car?
Anti Gravity Machine?

Sunday, February 6, 2011

True Up - True Dat!







This year was a relatively poor year for solar PV.
We were overcast for nearly the entire summer along the coast in So-Cal. Not that I am complaining.

In January we received our annual true-up from SDG&E. This is the bill for the entire year for our electricity usage for the home and car. In summer we generate far more than we use, in winter it is the reverse, so the true up is what’s left at the end of the year.

This past year to power our home and our Mini-E 16,000 miles, our bill was $410. In addition to that we have a $260 gas bill for our natural gas usage. Again it was not the best year for solar. Last year our bill was $185 for the year.

Our home is a net zero energy home. How can that be if we have a bill for $670 this year for gas and electric? Because the home also supplies the electricity to drive a car 16,000 miles. This offsets what would be a fuel purchase of 640 gallons of gas at a real world 25 miles per gallon. At the current rate of $3.49 a gallon this is an offset or savings of $2,233.

If we did not have the Mini-E, thus not using 4500kwhs from the home to power the car, our utility bill including gas and electric would be below zero for the year.

A similar 4500 foot house/guesthouse (I will not apologize for living in an estate home) with a temp controlled 450 sq. ft. cellar and similar amenities to our home would have a monthly gas and electric bill of $500 or $6000 a year, and a 25mpg car using $2,233 of gasoline for a combined home utility and car gas bill or $8,233 a year.

$8000 a year or $400 a year, it’s your choice America.

We are in year three of our solar pv world and year two of our electric car world. At the above savings, after 5 years total (we're more than half way) our total cost for home energy efficiencies (8k) and solar pv (30k) will be paid off in full simply by using the same money we are not paying the utility company and Opec.
After another 2.5 years, it’s free energy for the home and our electric car for the rest of our life.

True Dat!

Cheers
Peder