EV

[Spud_Monkey]

I warn people all the time that bring up wanting to do whole back feeding into the grid and getting paid. They sell it as this golden egg just as they sell the property out here like you can just be wild and free running anywhere that you are sticking it to the man.
Look at California, yeah it was profitable until they hooked enough and flipped the tables now it's profitable to them and not you, same will happen to every state that allows getting paid from solar back feeding into the grid. Hook enough customers and flip the table around.
Here is a perfect example of real estate:
Cows are ran on that BLM land you go hunting or shooting on it and you are going to have a mad rancher chasing your arse! You aren't riding your ATV on it either due to fence line and it's not allowed.

 

[Delmer]

Where I live natural gas works that way. About 20% of my gas bill is gas, delivery charges make up the most of it.

Similar here, which is why the ban on natural gas in new construction isn't really that big a deal for places like Seattle or NYC, any new building can easily be heat neutral, that is, need just as much ventilation and AC through the year as it needs heat. And if you build that tight a building, you don't want open combustion inside your living space, and then why go to the expense of running gas to every unit if they only need a small amount of electricity. LED's, microwaves, and induction cooktops will make 200A services look like dinosaurs.

Now, I think it's stupid to be closing coal power plants and making the grid unreliable before working out the smart grid (signals to people to shut off their water heater, etc. for a couple hours). But a lot of the EV and natural gas bans are no big deal. Again, it is stupid to think you're saving the planet by burning natural gas in a generator to produce electricity that then heats water or space, even with a heat pump, but a new construction building can easily save the expense of a gas hookup, and the monthly fees.

 

[terex herder]

My gas company has to sell gas at cost. All money for operations, maintenance, profit have to come from the monthly service charge, which is about $56/month, regardless of usage.

 

[92U 3406]

I'm just curious as to how people like me would be expected to heat their homes if natural gas was banned. It would be safe to assume woodstoves would also be banned if natural gas was banned.

It gets to -35 here in winter, what other options are there? Electricity? That'd cost huge $$$$.

 

[Truck Shop]

When I'm done using the oven on bake--I leave the door open a crack to use the
left over heat. cheapster.

 

[Birken Vogt]

Me too. Learned it from my family. The great depression never ended in our family.

 

[Spud_Monkey]

Unless you have direct vent oven the heat will eventually dissipate into the room, just speeding up the process is all. Still will have same effect of warming the place up, negligible.

 

[John C.]

Wood is a renewable resource. The greenies apparently feel it would be OK to strip the forests bare.

 

[Birken Vogt]

Unless you have direct vent oven the heat will eventually dissipate into the room, just speeding up the process is all. Still will have same effect of warming the place up, negligible.

Mine has a hood fan over the stove direct to the outdoors, most of the heat and any smoke goes up that by design under normal conditions. So that's where the heat goes if you don't open the door.

Wife and I like "active cooking" that is put the fire to the food so the hood fan is a necessity. Don't know how some people live without them. Sometimes we set up an auxiliary box fan in the window because residential hoods are not very good.

 

[92U 3406]

Wood is a renewable resource. The greenies apparently feel it would be OK to strip the forests bare.

Modern woodstoves burn pretty clean compared to woodstoves from 30 years ago too.

 

[cfherrman]

Ex co-worker got bad news so is selling EVERYTHING he has owned in and around Mexico or Auxvasse MO(Pronounce Awe Vaus), he had a solar system added to his city house, was "gonna get paid for his excess electric" never metered that well, his Net bill decreased about 30% is all it ever made. His small farm site has a Game Room Barn as well the old house, had a massive solar on stilts set up there, almost made 50% of use so a net negative there as well. He finally admitted I was correct as to payback being over 20 years for what he spent starting three years ago.

Well all that is water over that dam, poor diet and poorer still habits have left him at 35% heart function at 60 years old(Retired at 57). He just underwent a Heart Tissue Ablation surgery which netted only 5% recovered additionally. His wife has spells where just passes out lost driver's license, not figured that out either where these two are already bought into a GM Duramax power Crew Cab Dually 4x4, and a 40' rolling shathouse, gonna live in it and run around the country. All I could think was gonna be bad when he dies on the road and she cannot drive the damn thing back on her own. Have two boys, one is buying the old farmstead, will still base there for time being.

Solar systems have to be designed correctly or they cost you more. They are designed with a 20 year life and if the cost per kw is not under what you buy it at you don't build that solar. Lots of easy traps to fall into. Every system needs to be grid tie, you can do net metering but it's hard to save money that way and you can never plan on making money from the electric company.

EVs in general will have less cost of ownership over a gas/diesel as there is less parts and a electric motor is super reliable. Batteries are the hang up and when that gets figured out the cost of ownership will be way lower.

I did not think of off road driving with EVs, lol I doubt engineers tonight of that.

 

[DMiller]

With battery Fires, any and all road salt deicer can cause compromise of the battery containers, sad but until come up with a different solution than Lithium not buying.

 

[92U 3406]

Ran some rough math, it'd actually cost me MORE over 20 years to have solar installed than to just stay connected to the grid with no solar.

Realistically I wouldn't be able to fully disconnect from the grid as there are times of the year where we get very little sun. I would need to supplement the solar to some degree. The fixed costs of staying connected to the grid, even using ZERO power negate any cost benefit of doing solar. YMMV.

 

[cuttin edge]

Canada sits on the largest natural gas reserves in the world. Both Germany, and Japan wanted to partner to develop it and buy it, but that guy in Ottawa said no.

 

[DMiller]

92U, did the math just to get a payback system here, cannot achieve in my lifespan!!! Would have to survive to mid 80s with no Grid costs increases.

 

[92U 3406]

92U, did the math just to get a payback system here, cannot achieve in my lifespan!!! Would have to survive to mid 80s with no Grid costs increases.

Its hard to sell folks on green energy if it costs more than what we use now.

 

[Birken Vogt]

With battery Fires, any and all road salt deicer can cause compromise of the battery containers, sad but until come up with a different solution than Lithium not buying.

Does not matter what they come up with, any energy storage of any kind will have the potential for release of energy (fire) when things go wrong, no way around it.

 

[terex herder]

Capitalism sucks, but its still better than any alternative that has been tried. The dollar cost of a system, amortized over its lifetime, is the absolute best way to compare the efficiency of systems. The cheapest way is the currently most efficient way at current valuations of all resources.

 

[DMiller]

Is hard to beat a 2Billion dollar nuke generating power for $.06kwh, company wholesales to grid at .08xxkwh as to REA or small towns, they get to mark up to $.14 or better, plant paid for original loans at 30 years, then refinance and get upgrades, updates and more finance to work an old machine with, per kwh went to $.067. 1200mw/hr Day in Day out hard to make a stand alone solar work that cheap.

 

[Birken Vogt]

Capitalism sucks, but its still better than any alternative that has been tried. The dollar cost of a system, amortized over its lifetime, is the absolute best way to compare the efficiency of systems. The cheapest way is the currently most efficient way at current valuations of all resources.

Capitalism is a description of what just naturally is. Any other systems are an attempt to force capitalism to do something, have some outcome that is desired by some party.

We don't have capitalism in this country as such. We have something more like facism lite, where the government gets to make rules and pick winners and losers as they go. If we had capitalism, we would not have engines dying for lack of ECMs and such nonsense.