22MYDGrey

It got to Dale with 33 miles on the odometer.  A 90% charge looks like it will take range to 299-300 which implies a "drive it til it wont go no mo" range will be about 330 miles.  That is about the same as 18M3DP when it was new.  Now, with about 75k miles, 18M3DP has a 90% range of about 250 miles.

The photographed "window sticker" seems to reflect current pricing.  Since I ordered the car in January or so, prices have gone up.  I paid a total of about $72k with a sales tax bill of about $5k not yet paid.  The car is currently worth about $10k more than I paid.  FSD went up from $10k to $12k.

I believe it has 2170 cells rather than the new 4680s (or whatever).  The VIN MAY indicate for sure.  I will try to get the new cells on 22MYDWhite which is due for delivery near the end of the year.

I haven't figured out how to access the trailer hitch receiver.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tTtDsneau2mBzDeZ7

I just took 22MYDGrey on it's first short trip to gauge SuperCharge costs.  About 50 miles to the Flatonia SuperCharger and 50 back.  GFD!  It cost very near $.10/mile!  More than $.09.  $100 per 1000 miles!  My home charging costs me between $.03/kwh and $.10/kwh depending on what meter and when.  That is about $.01/mile to $.03/mile.  I don't think I'm going to be comfortable taking that car on long trips.

10/3/2020

With less than 4k miles on the odometer, the 90% charge range seems to be down to 275-280.

ERCOT grid power alert

 This afternoon, July 11, we are at risk of having insufficient electric power.  Due to heat peak of around 110 deg.  I wonder if Bluebonnet will take my power contributions in consideration when they decide how to do rolling blackouts?  I doubt it.

In the winter of 2020-2021, I was subject to rolling blackouts.  It did not make much difference since PV production was low due both to cloud cover and snow cover of panels.

This time of year, I produce up to about 900 kwh/day; that can be enough to power up to about 20 of my neighbors.  Cutting me off the grid would only worsen things.

Stupid (or dishonest) politicians.

 

https://youtu.be/UduPjk9gonw

GM should be famous for their successful efforts to postpone the EV revolution.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_encumbrance_of_large_automotive_NiMH_batteries

The early part of the story is well told through the documentary video:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car%3F

The main weakness of the documentary is that the players are not well explained.  Though the above wikipedia article does well describe the players.  It may be best to have the wikipedia article before you when viewing the video.  I maintain a stock of the DVDs; ask, if you wish to view.

A synopsis:

Under California government pressure, GM introduced a very good EV, the "EV1".  They, and other automakers, successfully brought change in the California "zero emission" rules which resulted in GM taking back all leased EV1s and crushing them.  MUCH more egregious was GM's suppression of the NiMH cell chemistry for EV use.  The EV revolution was postponed for about 10 years due to that chemistry being unavailable for EV use.

The REAL story, as opposed to the Biden's version:

The EV revolution, now well underway, was brought about SOLELY by Tesla with much opposition from the major automakers.  Until only very recently, the majors seemed not to realize that they are headed toward bankruptcy.   The EV/Tesla opposition has been insidious and aided by mainstream media which takes every opportunity to "muddy the water", misrepresent, obscure and prevaricate.  The clear (to me) bias is almost certainly due to the big advertising dollars that both automakers and big oil spend while Tesla spends ZERO on advertising. 

This story offers quite a bit of support to my view:

https://www.teslarati.com/gms-invest-1b-evs-mexico/

Similar vintage from Inside EVs:

https://insideevs.com/news/563883/biden-ignores-tesla-musk-responds/

PV Panel Cleaning

 I found a window washing guy that is willing to clean panels and enlisted him to do all panels associated with my house meter.  Cost for about 300 ground mount plus 26 roof top was just under $800.  Per unit cost was about $2 per panel of ground mount and about $5 for roof top.

The really big question right now is:  "Is cleaning cost effective?"  "Will the cleaning justify it's cost with increased income?" Right now, the prospects of cost effectiveness seem poor.  This time of year, that meter has been producing peaks of about 200kwh of surplus energy on very good days.  Since the cleaning, we have not yet had a very good day but the production on poor days seems about the same as before the cleaning.  More here after we see some good days.

My revenue on good days has been about 200 x $.06 = $12.  The benefit of the cleaning is expected to last no longer than a year.  So, to break even, I'm looking for increased sales of about $2/day on average.

The higher the value of the energy, the more return on cleaning cost.  Those Bluebonnet customers that offset only some or all of their use see a value of about $.10/kwh while my value is $.06 since I sell essentially all of my production.

My window cleaner:

https://ktswindowcleaning.com/

The following directed to the window cleaner, Kevin:

This is all stuff posted earlier in the blog but which is now difficult to find.

Due to many considerations, I currently think my ground mount "two faced" rails are the most attractive ground mount panel configuration.  Typically, most of my rails are made from three joints of 2 3/8" used oil well pipe sitting on top of five posts, also 2 3/8".  Total material for a 90-100' rail is slightly more than four joints; typical length of a joint is 30-33 feet.  Cost per joint is around $25.  The ~100 foot rail will support up to about 28 east facing panels plus an equal number that face west.   The pipe material cost per panel is around $2.  Most other schemes for ground mounts cost around $100 while roof top mounting might cost $400/panel.  The ~100' rails can be serviced with a single run of 10ga wire on a 30 amp breaker.  This takes advantage of the fact that east and west panels will not produce well at the same time; the wire needs to be big enough only for either one side or the other.  It may also be attractive to share a single inverter for one east panel and one west panel.

I've recently found that Fayette Electric Coop has some disincentives for customer PV production which, in my case, would reduce my income by 30+%.  Bluebonnet Electric Coop seems to be the very best of nearby utilities in support of customer production.

7/10/2022

The verdict is in!  Yesterday was a good sun day and any improved production due to cleaning should have been evident.  There was no noticeable improvement.

Before the 7/2 or 7/3 cleaning, a good sales day was 190-200 kwh.  Yesterday (July 9), I sold 192.7 kwh.

So, I will not be doing any more panel cleaning.