A Tesla in the Garage + Home Solar Power = Energy Freedom

Chalkie · June 27, 2022

1 hour ago, RV_ said:

I asked only, Gary, what brand EV does your SIL have?

YOLO. Gary you must think what you drive or RV or whatever is at the center of my attention like I apparently am at the center of your attention. Flattering? Nah. I have under 50 actual friends here I know of. How about enjoying your own life. I am having a blast with mine. You obviously don't like that. I will be patient with you. Have a great day!

I didn't say because I did not want to hear more about Tesla being top of the line. I thought I was being complimentary in that you had found something that excites you.

durangodon · June 27, 2022

2 hours ago, RV_ said:

Model Y costs about the average price paid for cars today.

I'm going to assume that you meant the average price for a "new" car, which is probably a little over $45,000 (that's the most recent number I could find, late 2021). Keep in mind that many, many people don't buy new cars at all. That number does not include dealer or manufacturer's rebates, which would make the number a little smaller. The absolute cheapest, bottom of the line, base Tesla Model Y is $66,000.

I'm a big Tesla and EV fan. I don't own one because I can't justify having two vehicles and I need my truck to haul my RV. However, it will be a long while before Tesla builds an EV for the average person, if ever. They at one time intended to, but they can't keep up with orders for their more expensive models, so it wouldn't make sense to build and sell one with a lower price and less profit.

In some areas of the U.S., Nissan Leafs are available and after tax credits are affordable at under $30,000. That's no Tesla, though.

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/average-new-car-costs-price-increase/

https://www.tesla.com/modely/design#overview

sandsys · June 27, 2022

8 hours ago, Chalkie said:

Without enormous changes on the backend in electrical generation and transmission it is going to take a long time before all electric living is a reality.

My grandparents lived in an all-electric home back in the 1950s. They had to move out when we had an ice storm.

RV_ · June 27, 2022

1 hour ago, Chalkie said:

I didn't say because I did not want to hear more about Tesla being top of the line. I thought I was being complimentary in that you had found something that excites you.

:rolleyes:

RV_ · June 27, 2022

57 minutes ago, durangodon said:

I'm going to assume that you meant the average price for a "new" car, which is probably a little over $45,000 (that's the most recent number I could find, late 2021). Keep in mind that many, many people don't buy new cars at all. That number does not include dealer or manufacturer's rebates, which would make the number a little smaller. The absolute cheapest, bottom of the line, base Tesla Model Y is $66,000.

I'm a big Tesla and EV fan. I don't own one because I can't justify having two vehicles and I need my truck to haul my RV. However, it will be a long while before Tesla builds an EV for the average person, if ever. They at one time intended to, but they can't keep up with orders for their more expensive models, so it wouldn't make sense to build and sell one with a lower price and less profit.

In some areas of the U.S., Nissan Leafs are available and after tax credits are affordable at under $30,000. That's no Tesla, though.

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/average-new-car-costs-price-increase/

https://www.tesla.com/modely/design#overview

Yes I do mean a new car. They'd going up more than I realized. Rivian did an aborted price increase on their people who reserved them and then decided they wanted to keep faith so my Rivian is locked in at the price I ordered it at in 2021 According to Consumer reports Don it was $37k average when I bought my Tesla. They are $66k now but when comparing to ICE vehicles you have to take off the local rebates and tax incentives. Colorado paid me over $4k rebate but the Tesla federal Tax credit that was gone is now back up to $7500. However whenever my Rivian comes in, these are the state rebates and federal tax incentives.

https://electrek.co/2022/05/27/which-electric-vehicles-still-qualify-for-us-federal-tax-credit/

Amazingly folks will pay retail and more for instant gratification for my MSRP $49,999.00 2020. Last year a Denver dealer paid $58k to a buddy here locally for his used Model Y identical to mine but with 20 or 30k miles on his, mine has less than 4K miles on it. He ordered and received his Model S Plaid replacement Tesla in 2021. That's the one I went for a crazy demo ride in. $125 k I believe. I am not selling mine so I have no idea today but I would imagine more.

You're right the new car average price according to Consumer reports six months ago in Jan 2022 was $47k:

"For the first time ever, the average price of a new car has edged past $47,000, according to a new report from Kelley Blue Book and data from TrueCar, a CR partner that provides market analysis and an online marketplace for cars." https://www.consumerreports.org/car-pricing-negotiation/average-new-car-price-all-time-high-a4060089312/

The price of the average EV is $10k higher than gas.

From Jalopnik 7 hours ago: "The Average Cost of an Electric Car Is Now $54,000" In That report there is some carefully worded/misworded statements but the article for you and me deserves a close read of the whole article. lots of news there. The fun wording was this, bold and italics/underlining mine.

"In fact, Bloomberg reports that the Ioniq 5 from Hyundai and the EV6 from Kia were two of the best-selling electric vehicles in the US for the first five months of 2022. The two new EVs outsold everything from the Ford Mustang Mach-E to the Chevrolet Bolt and Nissan Leaf. According to Bloomberg:

“Earlier this year, the South Korean carmakers rolled out two new battery-powered cars — the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and its sibling, the Kia EV6 — which promptly tore up the sales charts, passing the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Bolt and every other electric vehicle on the market not made by Tesla. In the US this year through May, Hyundai and Kia sold 21,467 of these two machines, besting even the white-hot Ford Mustang Mach-E, which was snapped up by 15,718 drivers.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/the-average-cost-of-an-electric-car-is-now-54000/ar-AAYVeOt?ocid=uxbndlbing

Don, I know exactly what you mean. Harley did a big support our US service members drive delivering overseas at cut rate prices compared to stateside prices. I bought a States Blue 1996 Harley Electra Glide Classic while stationed in Germany for 7 years 1990-Jan 1997, which was the first brand new Vehicle I ever bought. I kept it a year and rode it in San Antonio then we bought the Ram 1 Ton Diesel dually and the HitchHiker fiver and there was no way to carry or take that heavy Harley with us so I had to sell it. I actually made a profit on it after a year of riding it. We had lots of bikes and scooters. previously and since had a Honda Helix.

All that to say I had to not have a Full dress motorcycle while full time for seven years. can't have extra vehicles while full-time RVing I completely understand. Like another said with an HDT he'd have an EV if it would fit sideways behind his tractor cab like his Smart.

By the time you have to stop RVing they may have FSD perfected and you can have your Tesla and independence too.

RV_ · June 28, 2022

2 hours ago, sandsys said:

My grandparents lived in an all-electric home back in the 1950s. They had to move out when we had an ice storm.

Hey Linda!

Yep I would not have an electric home without a backup generator. Heck we had gas forced air heat and electric A/C and neither worked during a power outage because the furnace had to run the fan. That's why we had a 25KW Natural Gas Generator with auto switch when we were in Louisiana. We typically had power outages monthly or at least every two months until they fixed the substation that served us and then we only had them every few months or and before and after we had power outages with every storm.

Houses don't have batteries.

In three years we have had maybe three outages and all but one were an hour or less and the long one was five hours.

My EV can run every day for a week so long as I don't go more than ~ 200 miles because It does not need charging but about twice a month as little miles as I drive. Lynda drives about three times more because she does the grocery shopping and her own entertainment: just plain shopping. 😉 All our docs and unreal shopping are within a few miles of us in the Powers Corridor. Every big box store and the regular ones seen in malls are within ~5 miles or less of our home.

Right now I have an APC Back-UPS 650VA Battery Backup & Surge Protector 7-Outlets 1 USB to back up only our Internet router/gateway/modem. It can run it for several hours and we have an inverter that uses our 60Volt Lawnmower batteries to back it up. The router is the only thing hooked up to it. That way we can watch local TV on our USB tuners and streaming news and weather on our Surface Pro 7 and Go2 m3 Ultra book/tablets. Those are for longer issues as out battery phones can also connect with the battery backed up Internet all in one Router gateway modem.

We won't again buy a house with overhead lines. Here the underground lines protect against most of the downed lines outages. Texans and other Southern states with power issues might think about backup generators too. We are already seeing problems already and we haven't even hit the hottest part of summer yet.

sandsys · June 28, 2022

18 hours ago, RV_ said:

Houses don't have batteries.

They do if they have solar or wind systems. At least, our daughter's house did.

That's the same house is where she learned that, if you hang laundry outside in the winter in Minnesota, don't bring it in if it is stiff. The stiffness is ice which will melt when brought inside and leave everything wet again. You have to wait for the ice to dissipate before bringing in the clothes.

I have learned a lot from her over the years.

Linda

RV_ · July 1, 2022

On 6/28/2022 at 1:14 PM, sandsys said:

They do if they have solar or wind systems. At least, our daughter's house did.

That's the same house is where she learned that, if you hang laundry outside in the winter in Minnesota, don't bring it in if it is stiff. The stiffness is ice which will melt when brought inside and leave everything wet again. You have to wait for the ice to dissipate before bringing in the clothes.

I have learned a lot from her over the years.

Linda

Excuse me! I was answering about your all electric house in the 50s you commented about. "My grandparents lived in an all-electric home back in the 1950s. They had to move out when we had an ice storm. "

I should have had to say houses in the 50s??

Linda this thread is about how I want to do what is in the article I posted to start this thread as OP, AND said several times that when we finally move we will have that systems AND add Tesla Powerwalls to be able to do it all when the sun goes down.

Now let's go to your statement they do have batteries if they have solar or wind. The folks in the article have solar and no batteries. Here is the last question and answer in that article I posted:

"Do you also have battery storage at home?

We do not. Since PG&E still has 1:1 net metering, we just use the grid as a massive battery pack. In our area, we have an outage like once every few years for under an hour, as it doesn’t make sense to spend all that money on something we’ll actually use a few times in the batteries lifetime."

Source: The article at the beginning of this thread.

😉

Edited July 1, 2022 by RV_

sandsys · July 2, 2022

My bad. I did not go back and reread the article. I was just writing from my personal knowledge. Sorry.

Linda

Vladimir · July 5, 2022

On 7/1/2022 at 3:50 PM, RV_ said:

................................... we finally move we will have that systems AND add Tesla Powerwalls to be able to do it all when the sun goes down...........................

😉

Good luck with adding Tesla Powerwalls.

I tried to add them to my system. No go.

Asked to talked to the owner........No go.

The problem with solar, these days, is that NO ONE wants to deal with a "legacy" system. They want you to rip out your panels, inverters, charge controllers and batteries and replace them with "THEIR" system for $50,000 dollars.

It gets REALLY EXPENSIVE spending 50,000 dollars every ten to fifteen years.

This might change in the future, but I doubt it.

RV_ · July 9, 2022

Vlad our system will be all new. Everything gets expensive but only if they do fail after their ten year warranty. I looked at other systems and no one has longer warranties that I have seen. If you know of any please post the links here. I have a Dell 2720 computer All in one that I just retired that I bought refurbished in 2013 from Woot and had the Dell one year Warranty. It got replaced two under warranty and the is still running strong nine years later. We are still trying to find the right state to move to and it looks like next spring at the earliest as we are selling pretty much everything and moving light. Then we will see about solar and batteries. If we do and it lasts 10 years we will be 81 years old. Then we will re-evaluate our lives and lifestyles and bank accounts. We are spending our kids inheritance! We can live on our pensions just fine. I would be very proud of your DIY system If I had put an early one together too. Sorry you've been disappointed. I don't have 20 years to wait so I will buy or not as soon as we are settled again. I hope you get what you want.

RV_ · July 9, 2022

On 7/2/2022 at 5:11 PM, sandsys said:

My bad. I did not go back and reread the article. I was just writing from my personal knowledge. Sorry.

Linda

Linda, don't sweat the small stuff. No problem. I do not need batteries if I have a good local grid and underground electric service. In Louisiana it was the overhead rural lines that got knocked down by trees falling that made a back up generator a must buy for us because of the heat and humidity. Things change so we will see what we do.