Zero Cost of Energy and Gasoline for a Year.

How we use our BMW i3 Frunk. Champagne and Shrimp on ice!

We're popping the first bottle of champagne as we have now documented a whole year with no cost of energy and no cost of gasoline to power a home and drive two EV's a collective 20,000 (actual 24,350) miles a year.

We're not done yet as we still have four months to go on our effort to get to Net Zero energy, as well as zero cost. More on that at the end of this post.

Today, we affirmatively answer this question: Can we harvest endless sunshine from a small portion of a roof to provide 100% of the energy needed to power a home and two cars with zero utility cost, and zero gasoline cost for 12 months.

YES!

It's possible that this feat has been accomplished before. We are not aware of any documented effort by any household in the world, where from a small portion of a roof, sunshine is harvested to provide 100% of the energy needed to power a home and two cars with zero utility cost and zero gasoline.

We believe, we are unmistakably on a transitional path to renewably energy and electric transportation, a path as predictable and reliable as the sun rising from the east, racing though the heavens, and setting in the west.

We are living at a time of one of the biggest changes in the history of humans on earth and we are all active participants in this evolutionary change towards renewables for energy and transportation. A change that brings with it; healthier air, cleaner water, richer families and communities, energy equity and a premium quality of life.  Driving is faster, quicker, quieter, less jerky, more enjoyable, and yes, it puts a big fat grin on your face every time you do a 0-60, 6.5 second sprint in the BMW i3.

Think about it for a second, the "future is today" whereby we can provide the energy for our cars  and our homes by harvesting sunshine on our roof.

It is indeed a new day, and to borrow the words from BMWi: Hello Future...

Harvesting coastal breezes to cool our home, partnering with nature. 

The three foundational pillars in our Drive to Net Zero are: 

1. Building a very efficient home. Harvesting passive solar for heat, wind for cooling, rain for growing both drink and food.

2. Our two BMW i3's, the most energy efficient car sold in the USA at 124 mpge.

3. Harvesting the sunshine falling on our rooftop  to power our home and cars. 

On January 19th 2015, we received our "Annual True-Up" bill from our utility, SDG&E.  

We had a $434.57 credit at the end of the year

This bill will be common in many states in just a few short years.

Highlights from our annual bill.

Our annual electricity cost for our home and cars, $-36.68
Our credit for unused electricity, $-434.57
Our annual gasoline cost for two cars, 24,350 miles, $0.00
Our natural gas cost, $279.89

Our total cost of energy for the year $-191.36

Interesting Tidbits:

We had anticipated getting to zero cost in May of 2015. However the efficiency of the BMW i3’s reduced our energy use far more than we thought, so we accomplished the goal five months early. For the first five months of the year, we were driving a BMW ActiveE EV and a Honda Fit EV. The i3's were delivered in late May.

Our two BMW i3's use 6000 kWh of electricity annually, an average of 3000 kWh for 12,000 miles each, 24,350 mile total. We have had no gasoline cars during the year.

Our home uses 7500 kWh per year. Our home consist of a main house of 3300 sq. ft. occupied by three, and a guest house of 1200 sq. ft. occupied by two. It's essentially two homes with two families on one utility meter.

Our solar 8.5kw PV system, installed in 2007, was paid off in April of 2012 with the utility and gasoline avoidance savings.

Our annual savings on utility cost and gasoline cost is $8,500

We have reduced our CO2 emissions by 30 tons annually.

Future goals.

To have zero carbon footprint.

We have reduced our household carbon footprint to 2 tons per year according the EPA carbon calculator; the remaining carbon is due mostly to our small natural gas use. The national average is 40 tons per household.

To offset our generation of carbon, we have donated a brand new 9kw solar PV system to our local lagoon foundation. This solar PV system offsets approximately 13 tons of carbon a year. We are net carbon neutral.

The next four months:

Four months to go, can we get to negative kWh?

We began this "Drive to Net Zero"  in May of 2015 with two goals. The first and largest one was to zero cost.  The second and perhaps harder to attain, to be net zero energy. We have four more months to go, are we going to make it?

It looks to be close.  Next month we will add a couple of hundred more kWh to the total and then the following three months we will reduce the total.

What makes this challenge interesting, is that it is real world with a real family, not some theoretical exercise, on some "super house" on a university campus with a non existent family, substituted with a computer tabulation of static energy use over a year, including one compliance car which you can no longer buy or lease.

Life is not static, it's dynamic, wonderful and ever changing.  

In our case we have had a few unplanned for events over the past eight months that have added a few thousand kWh to our "normal living" usage.

1. We're hosting a 17 year old French Rotary exchange student for the year.  You should see her hair!  Anyone care to calculate how many kWh per year 20 minutes of blowdrying 7 days a week uses? Not to mention lights, computers TV and more. We love her and she is having a great experience in the USA.

2. It's my year as Chairman of the San Diego County Planning Commission. What was  typically 3-4 long drives a month is this year 12-15 long drives a month as chair.

3. Family illness and the loss of a loved one.  We said goodbye to a family member and another had a major surgery a month before.    This created many many long trips to the hospital and to my siblings over the course of a few months.    The family is strong and it was a blessing.  Getting back to cars, the BMW i3 did great handling all the unexpected and longer trips and we made use of the DC fast chargers at Fashion Valley and downtown San Diego during this time.

We are putting on about 5000 miles extra on our i3's over what we planned for and what is typical for us.

I think were going to be plus or minus around 500 kWh for the year.

About that BMW i8...

Owning a "First Vintage" of both the BMW i3 and the BMW i8, is a scrapbook of a personal journey of our several year relationship with BMW from the "Mini-E and a dream for the future," to today with both cars, a BMW i3 and BMW i8, a reality.

Our plan is to keep the BMW i8 as a very low miles collectable car and we will keep both of the BMW i3's as our daily drivers.   It's sort of our own version of a flexible mobility program.

With two BMW i3's  we would borrow or rent a long haul gasoline car once or twice a year for a trip to Napa, now we'll take the i8.  It's also going to be a great out to dinner car driving electric only to our local restaurants.

We plan to remain a two EV family, with our own flexible mobility plan. Yes, I'll lose my EV purity card :)

it takes six to eight solar panels to power a car 12,000 miles a year for 30 years

Thanks for reading, and if you can remember one thing and one thing only, remember this:

Sunshine is a transportation fuel.

Cheers
Peder

(Past "Driving To Net Zero" articles)

• Energy Challenge Introductory Article

• Update Month 1

• Update Month 2

• Update Month 3
• Update Month 4
• Update Month 5
• Update Month 6
• Update Month 7

Editor’s Note, Peder is the Chairman of the San Diego County Planning Commission. His wife Julie is Director of Curriculum and Instruction at the Solana Beach School District. They have been Field Trial drivers for BMW for five years. Together since 2009, they have driven more than 100,000 EV miles powered from roof top solar.

I’m Buying a BMW i8. Why?

Before I attempt to rationalize the decision, let me say there is no rational reason. It’s purely emotional, sentimental, and a dream.

As a young car loving boy, I sword fought with sections of Hot Wheels track, my Matchbox cars had gull wing doors, I built cars out of Lego bricks that had gull wing doors and big rear wings, slot cars were great…especially if they had gull wing doors.

The BMW i8 is expensive absolutely, but what price is worth living a priceless dream?

There is an interesting story here, one that I think is worthy of telling, of why there is such a strong attachment and compulsion for myself and for others who drive EV’s and PHEV's. Why our love for these cars is so strong.

We’re called Electronauts, Fan Boys, Leafers,  Voltheads,  Teslamaniacs and worse.  We are fiercely loyal to our cars, brands and electric mobility.  We EVangelize (obsessively) and appreciate all supporters of electric mobility, their various reasons and brands.  Why so much passion and devotion?  

I won’t do this justice but let me try…

One of the greatest needs that we have as humans is diverse meaningful human relationships.  It’s why our penal system is based around various and increasing degrees of removal from our relationships, from warnings, to citations, to incarceration, all the way down to solitary confinement and in some countries, death, the ultimate removal of any relationships.  Money pales in comparison to the value of meaningful relationships.

The opposite of that penal system is freedom.

No greater tool has existed for us to connect and have relations to each other and to explore that freedom, than the automobile.   Pictures, texting, social networking are great, but seeing a distant dear friend in person or sharing a trip to the Grand Canyon with family are experiences, that can never be replicated by a photo, text or phone call.  It’s such a strong connection, and so important to us, that in many cities we are willing to turn over 50% of our land mass to a mechanical device that allows us to connect face to face. 

But there is a huge downside; pollution, congestion, climate change, world conflict over the scarce resource needed to fuel the car, and so forth.  Car companies heretofore have been suppliers of both freedom and increasingly, suppliers of problems. 

I profoundly believe that today, car companies like BMW, driven by citizens and regulators as well as by innovation, are now transitioning and becoming suppliers of freedom and suppliers of answers that will lead us to a cleaner, healthier, more just and more equitable world.   

A world where the car has zero emission,  the fuel for the car is zero carbon and made on the rooftop, where family and civic budgets are strengthened with lower cost of fuel and utilities.  Where the air and water are clean. Where resources are plentiful and equitable.  Where multiple modes of transit are possible and where more land is set aside for people and human relationships, not devices.

This is what I desire and what I work for.  This is why I have such passion and value alignment for BMW and their efforts.

Of course BMW needs to manage this transition from a few million gasoline cars annually to electric cars, and that does not happen with a flip of the switch, but the transition is unmistakably happening and BMW is seriously investing and planning for the electric future. The go-pedal is firmly planted on the CFRP firewall of electric mobility.

I love the two diverse approaches from the first BMW i 2014 vintage.

1. The BMW i3.

Make the most efficient car on the planet, then double down the bet and make it a  slot car for adults imbuing the car with the DNA, performance, technology and amenities of a BMW. 

BMW has forever broken the nexus of efficiency and lethargy. The BMW i3 is the car of the future.

2. The BMW i8

Make a plug in hybrid supercar and use the electric drive to augment torque lags, provide all wheel drive, all at the efficiency of a Toyota Prius.   Take a 3 piston car and make it perform like a  8, 10 or 12 piston car, then double down and give it a stealth mode with electric only driving as well.   

Yes, it uses gasoline and I’ll lose my "EV purity card,"  but a dream is soon to be realized. The BMW i8 is the car of my dreams and the dreams of future generations.

I remember my first test drive of the crazy fun but rudimentary BMW Mini-E in early 2009.   From that moment on, it’s been a very thrilling and personal "journey to the future" riding shotgun with BMW, a road-trip that I would encourage all to undertake.

Having a "First Vintage" of both the BMW i3 and the BMW i8,  is a scrapbook of that personal journey for Julie and I, and just might be a solid investment.

That's rational thinking. Right?

Cheers!