Posted on 02/26/2026 9:36:58 AM PST by Signalman
When we teach "decolonisation" rather than basic physics, this is what we get: ridiculous ideas that should have been consigned to the dustbin of history at birth. The Net Zero Mind Virus is indeed very crippling...
It 100% depends on the use case scenario and how much homework you put into it to make sure it's best for you. Having an EV like my wife and I have is not the best for everybody. The same with our decentralized solar. However, if you live in a somewhat sunny climate like we do (Alabama), are home during much of the day like we are, and also drive tons of miles for the gas savings of an EV to be worth it like we do, then it might be worth doing the math to see if it'd save you as much as it does us.
To date, the solar/home energy improvement/EV project has saved us $8K more in our cash flow than it cost us. (Think of it as $8K more sitting in our Roth IRAs growing tax free. So it's really helped us by more than $8K.) I used a loan (fixed interest at 3.8%) to pay for most of the home improvement (solar, insulation, replaced appliances with more efficient ones) and the extra costs of an EV (car payment of the EV minus what I was about to pay for a gas car, plus extra cost of insurance of EV vs gas car). Also fixed EV costs like installing two chargers. Each month, the loan payment + tiny power bill I pay is less than would I would pay in power + gasoline + natural gas (if I still had natural gas appliances). And the loan is being paid down, which makes the minimum loan payment go down too (though I still pay the same amount so my budget is the same). All while for the most part the energy costs I avoid goes up. (Again, it keeps my budget pretty steady as far as energy costs goes, if you have to pull only 20% of your power from the grid throughout the year.)
But we drive 18K miles per year on home charged miles alone (not counting what we still spend in gas for the gas pickup we drive every now and then). Call it 1,500 miles per month. And most of our driving errands are done by noon (home to charge while the sun is out). That's part of why our power bills average $70/month (more in the winter, practically nothing in the 8 warmer months). If you don't drive a lot, an EV isn't worth it (from a cost savings perspective).
And if you do the homework and decide to get decentralized solar like I do, follow my lead and try it with a small system for a year. This helps you make sure you get the throughput you expect, particularly with whatever your regular power consumption habits are, before you put more money into it. (The idea is to not change your habits -- keep the thermostat set to what you want and get in the hot tub as often as you want. But that means solar might be efficient for some people's habits and not for other people's habits.) I tried a small system for a year, converted my two natural gas appliances to high efficiency electric ones and went through a winter to see what the power consumption with electric heat was like, then upgraded the solar at the same time we had to replace one of our gas cars anyway (and got the EV, thus charging the EV was part of the math on how much to increase my solar capacity and inverter capacity and home battery capacity).
Another point about EV and home solar is that you can charge your EV on a sunny day for free and it probably last you a couple of rainy days without having to charge it (rainy day charging means pulling from the grid and adding to the power bill). Why? When I charge mine to 80% the range for local driving is about 230 miles. We usually drive our about 50 miles per day. When we come home we have 2 chargers to choose from: one that's constantly powered and one that's intermittently powered (only when power is free because the home solar batteries are charged to power the home through the night without pulling from the grid). If the EV already has way more than enough range for the next day, we plug it to the intermittent charger (not always charging, but always free). If we're down to 100 miles or less range, we plug it into the constantly powered charger (definitely get charged, but maybe not for free).
So the EV saves us gas for our driving habits. And the solar system saves us power for our home power consumption habits. But, like a well engineered system, the two work together better than the sum of their parts. Much like the variable speed heat pump saves me energy on cooling and heating the house. And they hybrid water heater (all electric, but with a built in heat pump for efficiency, and heat strips if I have company over) also saves me energy. But because during the summer months I duct the cold air byproduct of the water heater into an air receiver of the HVAC (so that my home heat pump can stay in low power mode a couple of extra hours a day), the two work together better than the sum of their parts.
But don't do this unless you're serious about weaning yourself off of the over-regulated energy market that the Dims manipulate to satisfy their global warming doomsday cult. How serious do you have to be? Enough to do tons of homework to make sure it's efficient for your particular use case.
That’s one way to make sure all meetings November to February end no later than 3:30 pm!
The author has a very valid point. In my experience with solar cells, they make terrific sources of energy for small mobiles, toys, electronics, et al. but are useless for anything major.
That’s true.
I wasn’t suggesting that the gas supply for 10 years be bought all at once. And as far as inedible supplies go I’d rather have ammunition if civilization collapsed.
Thanks for the really detailed analysis! As you said it depends on your circumstances. We’re kind of spread out with family in the mid Atlantic region (children +grandchildren) we’re just north of Atlanta and we have a residence in south Florida so we do many marathon drives each year 650 miles south and 750 north. I don’t commute because I’m retired, but I occasionally go to the track and see how quick a lap I can do though I haven’t been for over a year. The payback period from a solar setup for me would likely be longer than my remaining lifespan. But if it works for you then great. I’m all for consumer CHOICE not MANDATED selection.
Horses get their energy from solar-grown food...
What exactly does “taudry” mean ?
My bad LOL
So that car doesn’t get a lot of use & I would think you’d have to ask yourself in a couple years what it would be worth as a trade-in. I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole, but I can’t afford one anyway. I’m just of the opinion that these EVs won’t be in much demand as used cars. I guess your best bet would be to get the use of it as long as possible before you have to spend some real money on it.
All these Leftist trying to get us to use Solar Power when we’ve been using it from the beginning to power our very bones!
Needs more surface area....so have fold out panels that also shade the interior of the car so it’s not so hot when you get in.
Where there is a will some engineer will find a way.
Course you could buy the commercial version of it as well.
https://www.core77.com/posts/133240/GoSuns-EV-Solar-Charger-Unfolds-From-Your-Cars-Roof#
Tandem cells are busting the upper limits for conversion rates 43% is in reach.
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/china-jinkosolar-perovskite-solar-cell-efficiency
“If a person would only keep their EV battery topped off, and seldomly or never discharge it down to 15% or less, won’t the battery develop “memory” in a bad way and no longer be able to hold and discharge fully? Or has that issue been solved”
Bro what year are you living in. “Memory effect”
That’s 5 generations of battery tech ago. NIcads had that issue in the 1970s, nickel metal hydride eliminated that in the late 80s. Then lithium ion polymer cells,NMC,LFP,lithium titanium,sodium ion none of the modern cell chemistry have any memory effects they have operating windows measured in SOC and cycle lifetimes measured in SOH. Lithium cells’m like to be 80-20% SOC window, LFP can do 100% to 5% , sodium ion does 100-0 and can be held at zero unlike lithium which would brick it. Aluminum Graphene cells , calcium and magnesium are on the horizon or in use with the DOD in the case of Al-Gr type cells.
Thank you for the update.
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