The High Cost of Cheap Oil

Loving the Mini-E, every mile of it.

Driving with electrons prompted me to write a little about our energy rate structure and the comparison between gas and electric.

Our rate program with SDG&E is ev-tou2. This rate structure is around 16 cents kwh between midnight and 7am and then during the peak periods of the day it's 32 cents kwh.

What that means for us is that for every kilowatt of energy I generate during the day I get to use two in the early morning hours for the same price to fuel the Mini-E

If the car needs 10kwh to charge at night, I need to generate just 5kwh during the day to be cost neutral.

My experience to date (515 miles in #183) is about 3.25 miles per kwh. 8kwh gives me a range of 26 miles, about the same that a regular mini would get real world out of a gallon of gas.

A 1.1kwh solar p.v. system generates 1850 peak KWH . This generation would equal the cost for the 3700kw off peak usage of the Mini-E on an annual 12,000 mile basis.

If I am conservative and expect just 25 years of life for the solar P.V., the math looks like this:

Gas Mini,

12,000 miles 26mpg at $3,50 a gallon of gas= $1650 per year
25 years of driving, $41,250 (assumes zero price change)
with 8% annual escalator $120,613

Yearly average $4824 for gas

-----------------------------------

Electric powered Mini-E.

12,000 miles, 3.25 kwh per mile is 3700 kwhs @.16cents = $592
25 years of driving, $14,800 (assumes zero price change)
with 8% annual escalator $ $43,256

Yearly average $1730 for electricity

------------------------------------

Solar electric powered Mini-E

12,000 miles, 3.25kw per mile you need to generate 1850 kwhs annually at peak hours to pay for 3700kwhs used at off peak. This is a 1.1 kwh solar pv system at a cost of $5500.
25 years of driving, $5,500 (guarentees no price change)
no escalation as the sun does not raise it's prices

Yearly average $220 for Solar P.V electricity

______________________________________

Conclusion,

Cost of fuel over 25 years:

Gas is 300% as expensive as utility purchased electricity

Homeowner generated solar is less than 5% of the cost of Gas.

Most of us will be driving for at least 25 years.

A 1.1. kw Solar P.V. system purchase cost is the equivilent to purchasing gas for$3.50 per gallon for 3.25 years

Cheers
Peder

EV + PV = :)

Some of the 21 Sunpower 215 watt panels


The rock wall has a parapet roof and the 4.4 kwh solar is on top of that roof as well as integrated into other areas of the roof.

Today was 80 miles round trip in the morning down to the folks house in S.D. Mostly freeway at 70mph (15 miles left) and then a short trip to the beach with the gem car. The gem car has room for four, a large cooler, two beach cairs, and a soccer ball :)

We do have a gas car and that is a Ford Escape. Can't wait until that model grows a plug.

Getting ready for a nice dinner in Del Mar this evening with the Mini-E.

Cheers

Peder

Dear Mini-E gods that watch over me,

Dear Mini-E gods that watch over me, I promise to drive slower one day :)

Driving on Sunshine Mini #183
Week one.

The tires struggle to maintain their thin connection to asphalt as you mash the pedal to the floor, racing down the freeway onramp from 20mph to 80mph in a knats breath of time. BMW/Mini has detuned the drive train so as not to let their drivers do something really stupid, or break the test mule that is the Mini Cooper. The car is on the perpetual edge of control, tires sounding off, steering wheel twitching as there is so much power and torque in that speed range.

The car is ultra responsive letting you get a little out of line but not to far as BMW has the Dynamic Stability Control permanently on (smart move on their part.) You are not driving a typical small car and the sooner you realize that you have a beast underneath you that requires your full attention as if on a race track, the better off you are.

Cruising the freeway at 60 you turn off the stereo so you can hear the quiet. You decide to pass a truck. Damn! That is the first thought that comes to mind as in ‘torque now” and loads of it as the car aggressively assumes the spot in front of the truck.

Before I go any farther, I should clarify that it is very easy to drive the Mini-E like a regular car, really no different than a gas car, (except no gas, brake pads, rotors, oil changes, transmission work ….) and you don’t need what it can give you in spades to simple cruise from point A to point B. Why would you drive like that? OK now that the “car is normal” disclaimer is over, back to the fun world!

Driving as an enthusiast the car gets about 90 miles per charge with 10 miles in reserve. Driving freeway speeds 65 to 75, the car gets 110 miles per charge and in the city about 130 to 140. Charging at home is an hour to a couple of hours typical as I plug the car in a 50% or lower state of charge. A quick 30 minute top off gives me an additional 25 miles.

I have range anxiety!

In my G35 I drove about 18 mile a day, In My Mini-E I drive about 80 miles a day, I am anxious that I may never be able to drive the short range of 18 miles again. It’s a trip to Space Mountain only ten times better every morning as I simply must sneak in a 20 minute drive around the lagoon on twisty roads while the wife is in the bath preparing for her work day. Driving around the lagoon which is located on the Pacific Flyway migratory bird route, you literally hear the birds! It is an unreal experience to drive on a fun twisty road with windows down and hear the birds! OK it sounds corny but when you drive full electric new experiences come to your senses and you notice them immediately.

I’m driving on sunshine, sunshine that powers my home and provides the sun fuel for my Mini-E. Try that in a gas car!

I am liberated, dependent no longer on the mandatory drug of oil from foreign land. I invite you to join me. For more info on the car and home, www.heronshouse.com


Cheers
Peder

Driving on Sunshine #183 Delivery June 10th 2009

Let me simply say that living in a solar powered home and driving a car powered by sunshine is a dream come true for Julie and I. We have enjoyed the limited funtionality of the 2007 Gem car but #187 is a quantum leap from that car.

I have seen the future and the sky is bright blue :)

A driving blog post is in the near future, for now suffice to say I am having a blast, discovering a new world, and participating in the most significant change in motive power since we shifted from steam to internal combustion.

80 miles yesterday, 120 miles today, mostly enthusiastic driving.

Thank you Mini E team. Hue, Thanks a million!

Good to go!

Wall box, installed,

Cable, installed

City Inspection, passed

Great day at Herons' House.

The gents from Sunpower were awesome and quick. The little box is an appliance timer which I will set to take advantage of my SDG&E EVTOU2 super off peak rate that allows me to charge between midnight and 7 am for less than 1/2 the cost during the day.

Really enjoy and want to thank the other Mini-E bloggers that are posting data about their drives and experiances.

Thanks to the city of Carlsbad for expediting the inspection.

Next post is the car in the driveway!

Cheers

peder

Mini-E, my drive, my take.

As a fan for years, and future driver of the Mini-E, I have read and re-read media accounts of driving the Mini-E, I’ve scoured the youtube/mytube/ourtube/blogsphere and anywhere else for video snippets of the car being driven.

I want to learn, to know all about it, I want it to be here, I want to live in the future. I’m a guy, I love cars!

Driving up to Irvine Ca in my 2006 300hp G35 for today’s test drive, I wondered how those media accounts would stack up against my own lay persons test drive, against my own G35, against the gas Mini that I am familiar with?

Would it be alien requiring a steep learning curve of new driving techniques? Would it be lethargic and an environmental compromise making me desire to get the hell out of the car and back into a real car. Would it be normal? Abnormal?

I drove the Mini-E today. My impressions were mostly different than what the magazine and news guys have said.

I’ll begin with the biggest impression for me. It was getting back in my G35 and driving home after driving the Mini-E and the sudden feeling of how old, cumbersome and incredibly complicated the car I was driving in and all that supports it was. I stopped to get gas on the way home, a mandatory monthly plan for me of $120 a month (at $2.60 a gallon) requiring three trips to the “convenience” station each month for a reload of the gas.

I thought about the extraction of the fuel from the ground from thousands of miles away, the pipeline to carry it to the port, to carry it to the tanker, to carry it across oceans to the refinery, to carry it to the fuel truck, to carry it to the station, to carry it to the pump, to carry it to my car.
A conveyance system of several thousand miles, several world and regional wars, a conveyance system of our planet to our next generation that is more polluted, more toxic and more barren of natural resources.

It stands against everything I wish to give to my child and those that follow.

Pumping the gas, I thought about the Mini-E soon to be in my garage, about the sun, carrying its rays to the solar panels, to the house, to the car. A conveyance system of millions of miles, of approximately 20 feet, distributed wealth creation for generations, a natural resource for trillions of years that billions of people could not exhaust even as gross consumers. Exhale……

The Mini-E is a friggin hoot to drive! Friggen is a highly technical term that the German engineers use. Sort of like Farfugnugen!

50mph onto the bending onramp, stay on the accelerator,. I get a little chirpy at the apex and coming out of the turn :) Torque steer is there, very strong, and the car pushes a bit, but hey, we will save that driving for the track and for a more controlled enviroment than the O.C. roads. Freeway speeds 75mph+ on Hwy 5, car cruises like a regular Mini. The overall feeling of the drive was how compatible the car was with normal driving, cruising parking lots at 10mph, city driving, freeway driving and enthusiastic driving. Very pleased with the regen, and how that was programmed. After about 30 seconds you get used to it, you can coast if you want by a lazy foot on the accelerator or lift and the regen brakes you in a similar manor to shifting down to second gear approaching a stop. It is effortless and at your calling. For ten minutes I touched the brake pedal exactly two times, once leaving the lot, once to avoid a driver gawking at the car and drifting into my lane.

I had to think about the gear selection. P,F,R, that’s all there is folks! It takes a bit for the mind to adjust to that. No slapping the tiptronic over and up and down like on my G35. I have owned some nice cars, a twin turbo Mazda Rx7 third generation, a Volvo S60R among others. I have never felt a car go from 40mph to 70mph like the Mini-E, It's a slingshot.

I have not had a ticket for 27 years, I am fearful that that my long distinguished career of lawfulness is about to be tarnished history!

The second biggest impression of the test drive was that I wanted a longer test drive. I am afraid a one year test drive will not be long enough, Hurry up and make a car like this that I can buy.
Please.

Cheers
Peder

Problems Today, Test Drive Tomorrow, It's all good!

Just a quick progress report from Carlsbad Ca.

It's been an interesting few days here with our utility. At issue is that we were one of the first neighborhoods to underground our utilities in the early 70's. The process back then was called direct burial and the cable was called sita. The expected life of the cable was 30 years or around the year 2000.

Well they quickly found out that it was wrong way to do things and beginning in the late 70's they started to do under grounding of the utilities by putting a 4" pipe or conduit under the road which would allow them to "fish" new service through the conduit instead of having to trench open the whole road to get to the transformer on the other side of the street.

So back to our house, the utility said sure you can have the car and charging station, all you need to do is trench across the road and upgrade our direct burial sita (past its life expectency) to conduit. And don't worry the cost with traffic control and all included would be around 25k.

After they picked me up off the floor and put the heart defibrillator away, I regained consciousness and started to have a reasoned conversation with them. Their concern of course is that the cable would not handle the extra amperage. I asked them to look at my usage the past 18 months and their response was classic! Sir, you have no usage just the minimum bill, $3.85 for a meter and .17 a day for the service.

So the utility is fine with my car, and realizes I am on an SDG&E ev2TOU rate structure and Net metering :) which means I will be charging at night between 12am and 6am when the juice is super off peak and 1/2 the cost. During the day our strain on the sita cable is in the reverse direction supplying power to them at more than double the cost compared to night.

So my story ends well thanks to solar and an efficient home and a utility that was willing to work with their customer. Contracts are signed and installation of the wall box is around the corner.

It does illuminate an issue with electric cars and that is the fragile and often antiquated infrastructure that in many case cannot handle 220volt 40 amp service.

For mass adoption, this will need to be figured out. I think the utilities are looking at the electric car as their next big customer so hopefully both sides, the car companies and the utilities, can ease the transition for the homeowner so we can do no less than change our motive power to electric in our transportation system.

Tomorrow, I get to drive the Mini-E for the first time! I am very excited and looking forward to how the actual experience compares to the countless reviews I have read.

The fruit is always out on the end of the limb, the important decision is which limb is strong enough to climb out on!

Thanks BMW/Mini for blazing the trail. Tomorrow is going to be a blast.

Peder