I agree wholeheartedly. And I'm thinking of buying an EV. But that's with me thinking decentralized overall in green energy. Time to think outside the box in the whole EV vs gas debate.
Think libertarian with green energy, not exactly a prepper, but not exactly wanting my long term financial plan to be derailed by Dims jacking up energy costs like they're talking about doing. And this is all from a voluntary perspective of EV's, not them being forced on us like the Dims are trying to do. Again, think libertarian, not Dim, when it comes to things like EV's and solar power.
I have a ton of solar on my house and about half of the year I have excess power that my solar panels make that I'm currently not using. When the time comes for me to have to replace my old used gas pickup I may spend the extra cash to get a new EV truck for $40K to $50K instead of buying another used gas truck for $8K to $10K. My wife will still have a gas car and we'd have the best of both worlds.
By my estimation, if I keep driving ~200 miles per week my solar system will provide about 10% of the power the EV needs (roughly 20% from late spring to early fall, and virtually nothing the other half of the year). After I've had the EV for a year and study the throughput of both the EV and the solar system, particularly how they work together, I may decide to upgrade part of the solar system. Just eyeballing the numbers (I have hard data for my solar system, but making estimations on a couple of EV trucks that caught my eye), it just might be feasible to upgrade my solar system to the point where I'm about 75% to 80% independent for both the house and an EV. Even if I don't upgrade my solar system, I'd be pulling less from the grid even with an EV than I was pulling before I put a solar system on the house.
So far my solar system has provided over half the power I need for my all-electric two-story house. Admittedly that's been about 40% since we got into winter, and more in other months. The current system will pay for itself in about a decade.
If I get an EV like the F-150 Lightning for $50K in the fall of 2024, pay about $90 extra monthly in insurance for having a new car (vs the liability only insurance I've had for years for old used trucks), plus car payments for 63 months, at 1.9% interest, no gas, but buy extra power, using $2.90 per gallon gas vs. the 12.9-13.5 cents per kWh that I'm paying (it's different rates throughout the year), assuming 1.8 miles per kWh vs the current 15 mpg I get now (and I'd get if I keep buying used pickups like I've done for decades), $60 for an oil change every 5,000 miles if I keep gas trucks but $0 if I go EV, not buying another used pickup for $10K every 7 years, but buying a new battery for the EV for $10K ever 10 years, all other repairs being equal (keeping an old used truck means repairs more often, but a new EV would be costly the few times it needs repairs, would that be roughly equal?) .... all of that would make the EV pay for itself in late 2031 early 2032. And that's without assuming any of the EV miles would come for "free" on the days I have excess solar power. That's about the year my solar system would pay for itself without an EV. And all of that assumes a reasonable 3% inflation rate for all costs (electricity, gasoline, and the natural gas I'm avoiding by having converted my house to all-electric last year). (My house consumes on average 48 kWh per day, with me buying 19 kWh per day from the power company, so even adding 20 kWh per day for an EV would be me pulling 39 kWh from the grid instead of the 48 kWh I pulled before going solar.)
Obviously if the radical Dims keep jacking up energy costs my system will pay for itself a lot sooner. Which is the whole point of me even thinking about getting an EV, and the reason I got a solar system. Basically right now I'm not crying country songs about being broke while Brandon makes natural gas cost literally twice what it did this time last year (at least the Henry Hub price on the commodities market is twice what it was, I don't know what my local natural gas utility charges now that I'm no longer a customer of theirs). And I grumble about power costs about half as much as I used to.
“I have a ton of solar on my house and about half of the year I have excess power that my solar panels make that I’m currently not using.”
I’m not challenging you, what you have done is great, but how many square feet are you air conditioning?
Thanks for taking the time to put all those details out there. Much appreciated....
“Think libertarian with green energy, not exactly a prepper, but not exactly wanting my long term financial plan to be derailed by Dims jacking up energy costs like they’re talking about doing.”
I totally agree with one exception.... I would never call it ‘green’.
Regardless, your thinking and approach seems to be totally sound, I agree wholeheartedly... and I wish I was as far along with that as you. You are way ahead of me with where you are at but I’m getting there. My starting point was that I’ve been taking the view that the folks who establish energy policy (and/or are in charge in some way of my energy needs) are nuts and wildly off-base... and for this reason, I think that everyone should be taking the approach of going off-grid for no other reason than to put it back into one’s own control... if not totally (and most people can’t), at least as far as they can go with it. The nut cases making decisions are basing them around idealistic concepts.... not practical considerations and that means big trouble down the road. And the only way to avoid the problems is by taking matters into one’s own hands. Instead of living one’s life with the assumption that one can depend on others to take care of certain things, one has to live under the assumption that others won’t... and that means self-sufficiency and backup plans.
At the same time if you only drive your truck 200 miles a week you should be able to run a gas truck for many years unless you have the rust problem we have here in New England. I don't know the expected lifetime of the new electric trucks, but if they last for 10 years the truck alone costs almost $96 per week before any energy or maintenance. If you can keep a vehicle running for 20 years, which in your case is 200,000 miles then your per week cost is about $50.00 less. That increased life would pay for your gas bill at $3.00 per gallon and 200 miles per week at 15 mpg.
What you need is an electric truck that will last for 20 years, so you can get 200K or more miles out of it.
But realistically rust is your biggest enemy if you want a long useful life for a truck.