Change Starts At Home

Here we go again, fuel prices are over $4.00 per gallon, due to arbitrary world market speculative pricing. Every day, our country spends a BILLION dollars on foreign oil. We have seemingly no control over gasoline prices, heating costs and electricity rates. We're stuck in a cyclic rut, at the mercy of big oil, big utilities and foreign countries who don't like us.

What if we could change the status quo? Wouldn't that be worth considering? The definition of insanity is repeating the same actions and expecting a different result. Isn't that what we are doing when it comes to our energy usage? Why not try something different? Yes, change is scary, but if you look around, you'll see neighbors who have made a change. Neighbors that have installed solar power on their roofs, even some who are driving electric cars. We have two neighbors who went solar in part due to our efforts promoting solar in our neighborhood. Our street has two Nissan Leaf EV's. Friends of ours bought a Nissan Leaf in part due to our doing it first.

Sure, many people will tell you that "solar power isn't practical", "EV's aren't a viable transportation solution", "solar is expensive"(PV panel costs have gone down about 50% in the past few years, zero dollar down leases are very popular), "EV's are too expensive and run on coal"(Nissan Leaf costs the same as an average ICE car after incentives, and can be leased for not much more than the monthly cost of gas, California uses coal for a small percentage of its power, solar is clean), "range is limited"(current EV's have enough range for the majority of people for normal daily driving). There are always exceptions that prove the rule.

Here's what we have proven to ourselves:

Solar power works, it's clean, almost maintenance free, lasts for 30 years, saves money everyday and our neighbors get to use our clean power as well.

EV's, even these early models, work for most people. We have over 10,000 miles of clean, FREE solar fueled miles. Our EV is our primary car for my wife's commute and for our evening and weekend driving. Maintenance costs less. In a few years, EV prices will be lower, range will be higher. Every mile is smog free.

A single year of solar power and EV driving saves us $4,000.00 in gas and electricity!

Yes, change is scary, but so is NOT making a change. We really can't afford the status quo. With solar and EV's, YOU have the Power!

Solar Year 4--This Time PG&E Owes Us!

Our annual "True-Up" period with PG&E just occured, and for the first time in four years since going solar, we ended up being -$8.54 for electricity usage for the entire year! Not bad for people who used to pay $2664.00 per year just for our electric power. This milestone occurred even while charging our Nissan Leaf EV every night since late April!

So, in addition to our lights, electric appliances, computers, printers, LCD TV's, home theater projection system with multi-channel sound, battery chargers, garage door opener, electric barbecue, and electric boat, we have driven 6,000 miles in our EV for FREE! That's a savings of $1000.00 in gasoline, compared to the internal combustion engine car we traded in for the Leaf, in a little over 5 months of EV ownership!

The combination of solar power and electric vehicle commuting saves us around $400 per month. The PV array has cost us nothing in maintenance, and we expect the EV to have very low maintenance costs compared to ICE cars.

The best part of all is that these savings come while lowering our carbon footprint substantially at our home and on the road. Just being more aware of how we use power and how we drive has literally paid dividends and will continue to do so for many years to come.