My experience with the new to me FFE so far...

[EVA]

I am new to the EV world and we are looking at leasing a new '16 FFE. I have never leased and it seems counterintuitive, but apparently the FFE is only good for about 3 or 4 years (?). I would buy one, but I don't want a car that is unusable after 4 years (the range diminishes to less than 40 mi). So, in this case, I guess leasing makes sense. IDK. Help!!

So you started your own thread - we will keep the answers over there. No need to cross post multiple times, people here will see your posts.

 

[merkurmaniac]

Well, that thread kind of got off in the weeds...

Here is my update with my FFE. I bought it with 22,500 miles on it in January. It now has about 28,500, as of the end of June. Zero problems. No strandings. My 16 Y.O. daughter is quite used to it and has just about no range anxiety. I drive it on the weekends and evenings, since its so nice to drive. I also drive it to work whenever my daughter won't need it. I love it. It feels fast. Its quiet, and I have my DAD SD card with 32 gigs of stereo mcs, billy idol, supreme beings of leisure, dire straits, etc... The blue tooth phone works great. The Nav sucks real bad. I mean ...real real bad.

My wife, who didn't want it, of course, remarked the other day how its been a while since she drove her minivan, since in the summer, the electric is usually available to the wife and daughter to take, and they do. Odometer mileage on the minivan and my Acura are definitely a bit lower than they would have been, without the electric. I calculate that it cost me about $0.035 per mile for the FFE, and about $.095 for the Acura, just counting gas and oil changes. I am just trying to figure out how to get a second EV for me. I may hopefully not buy another gas car...

Oh, and we are confident enough with the charging that we are now doing value charging, set to charge between 1am and 5am. I live about 5 miles from the largest coal burning powerplant in Texas. A friend of mine who works there, tells me that "wind is kicking our butt , and we have to turn off the coal each night." Music to my ears. I am now load shifting my EV charge load to peak wind times. Now, I can feel even better about my EV, as its most likely wind powered. Awesome.

 

[Elektra]

Oh, and we are confident enough with the charging that we are now doing value charging, set to charge between 1am and 5am. I live about 5 miles from the largest coal burning powerplant in Texas. A friend of mine who works there, tells me that "wind is kicking our butt , and we have to turn off the coal each night." Music to my ears. I am now load shifting my EV charge load to peak wind times. Now, I can feel even better about my EV, as its most likely wind powered. Awesome.

I'm surprised you are using value charging in Texas. Unless you have that free nights/weekend promotion. It's not really that good of a deal since peak is triple what others charge. I really miss the awesome electric deals in Texas where I was paying 2-4 cents per kWhr. Now it's closer to 7 cents per kWhr.

 

[merkurmaniac]

I don't have a nights and weekends promotion, or anything like that. Straight linear pricing.

I am doing it for environmental reasons. If I come home and plug in at 5 pm, and start charging, I am adding to the peak load in the afternoon in Houston. This means my EV charging load is added to the "pile" and drive up usage, which may result in an inefficient "peaker" plant that costs more to run coming online. If I instead charge the car at 1am, its in the "dead zone", when the wind power is really rolling, but nobody is using electricity. If the demand is low and the wind power produced is high, its a better chance that my power may actually be produced further west and shipped east.

Giant disclaimer: I DO know that my electricity usage as a single, inconsequential customer makes no real difference, but I feel that it makes my footprint smaller. I also don't like the idea that perhaps my car is coal powered, if I charge it at 5pm, instead of 3am. I also run my pool pump as much as possible at night versus the day. I load shift as much as is permissible.

 

[EVA]

I don't have a nights and weekends promotion, or anything like that. Straight linear pricing.

I am doing it for environmental reasons. If I come home and plug in at 5 pm, and start charging, I am adding to the peak load in the afternoon in Houston. This means my EV charging load is added to the "pile" and drive up usage, which may result in an inefficient "peaker" plant that costs more to run coming online. If I instead charge the car at 1am, its in the "dead zone", when the wind power is really rolling, but nobody is using electricity. If the demand is low and the wind power produced is high, its a better chance that my power may actually be produced further west and shipped east.

Giant disclaimer: I DO know that my electricity usage as a single, inconsequential customer makes no real difference, but I feel that it makes my footprint smaller. I also don't like the idea that perhaps my car is coal powered, if I charge it at 5pm, instead of 3am. I also run my pool pump as much as possible at night versus the day. I load shift as much as is permissible.

Great explanation. You're right to do what you are doing. It isn't always about money. Some things are for the greater global good.

It is no different than that campaign a while ago, getting rid of vampire drain from AC adapters and devices that shouldn't draw electricity when you are not using them. Every little bit helps. Switching to LED lamps barely makes economic sense, given cost of the lamps and the small cost of electricity you save. But it makes a massive world of difference overall.

And as I'm reminded from my old job, saving $0.001 on billions of something ends up being real money. Saving small amounts here and there multiplied by big numbers is something. And there I go devolving that to money - the analogy was small efficiencies by a lot of people can make a big difference.

 

[jmueller065]

And as I'm reminded from my old job, saving $0.001 on billions of something ends up being real money. Saving small amounts here and there multiplied by big numbers is something. And there I go devolving that to money - the analogy was small efficiencies by a lot of people can make a big difference.

Right but sometimes being more efficient also comes with a cost savings.

 

[Twinstangs]

We had a contract to install a solar array on the house already when we picked up our used FFE. We added a few extra panels to compensate for the extra electricity. Last month, our electric bill was -$4.83. We put energy into the grid during the day, charge the car evenings and nights.

 

[merkurmaniac]

I am kind of hosed on solar from two fronts. First, my roofline is no good for solar, according to Google. But, I also have a crazy electric plan, where I have a base rate, and if I consume more than 1,000 kWh in a month, I get a bill credit of $75. SO, if I use right around 1,000, my bill gets stupid cheap. Tough for solar to compete with really, really cheap. Therefore, I take some of the money I save and invest it in a wind power company that pays a good dividend (PEGI, pattern energy.) This way, I am still supporting wind power and I feel better about not having an array on my roof. My sister lives in Boxboro MA and has solar which competes with her crazy expensive power, I think much more than 20 cents per kWhr. Mine is about a third as expensive.
In January, 1,307 kWhr consumed therefore averaged at 5.8 cents per hour
Feb 5.5 cents per hour
Mar 6.4
Apr 6.7
May 6.9
Jun 8.8 (using a lot for A/C.)

If Feb, mar, and April, I would not have gotten the $75 if I did not have the extra consumption of the FFE, so it saved me $225 in electricity so far.