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To: rktman
Nope. Gotta get someplace so gotta go. No EV either. All anyone can do is whine about it. Or build your own backyard refinery.

Which is why I seriously love decentralized solar and my wife and I do most of our driving in our EV car. Solar and/or an EV doesn't fit for all climates, driving habits, and home energy consumption habits. But since I can't build my own refinery (or for that matter produce my own natural gas), I went with solar because I can use it to produce my own power.

It works for our climate and our situation. There's something wonderful about having to pull only 20% of our power from the grid...for an all electric house ... and driving about 18K miles per year on home charged miles alone (not counting the miles we put on our gas pickup or the miles we drive on trips and have to pay for gas or charge). Our past 12 power bills averaged $72/month, driving 1,500 miles per month on home charged miles.

I think much like you think. If I hadn't experimented with a small solar system for a year to see how well it works, there's no way I would have thought about getting an EV (the year my wife's gas crossover needed replacing anyway). For me it's not an EV vs gas car argument. It's a matter of figuring out what kind of energy I can produce on my own and how best I can utilize it. I did other energy improvements to the home (i.e. when I replaced the gas furnace I also replaced my A/C unit and now cool and heat my home with a variable speed heat pump, supplemented by heat strips when the outside temp is too cold for the heat pump), to best utilized my homemade power. Likewise, getting the EV utilizes the homemade power out onto the road (for local driving, and the first 250 miles of a long trip if we decide to take the EV).

36 posted on 05/18/2026 7:53:50 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Tell It Right

Glad it works well for you guys. But, as we know, circumstances. Your mileage may vary. 😂👍


57 posted on 05/18/2026 8:46:22 AM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? On hold! Enlisted USN 1967 proudly. 🚫💉! 🇮🇱🙏! Winning currently!)
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