My BMW i3

Day 1 with the BMW i3

So...remember when I reviewed the BMW i3 with high hopes and thought that it wasn't going to work for me?  Yeah....so after blog post I went along my merry way.  But after the summer, I had taken note that we really didn't take the kids in the ole' Prius much.  Like, much at all.  And then came the day when we decided to turn the kids car seats around.  Oh...how much easier it is to get the little ones in and out of the car seats.

At that point, I decided that maybe I'll take a sneak peak at what's going on.  And then an opportunity came along at a local dealer with a certified pre-owned (CPO) i3 ReX.  It wasn't the PERFECT car I wanted (not all the bells-n-whistles), but you know what?  It was also going for $35k.  After talking them down on price and getting a good trade in value for the Prius (with 120k miles), I ended up getting it for $28k.  I'll take that versus the MSRP of $50k (call it $40k realistic after $7.5k tax credit).

Charging at the Light Rail Station

So, yup...I now have a BMW i3 ReX.  I have not used the ReX at all in about 1,000 miles.  The ReX has turned on twice for "maintenance mode" where it runs for a couple minutes.  But that's it.  I still have the same tank of gas in it when I got the car (just before Halloween 2015).

How does it work with the twins?  Great!  I was all worried about the stroller in my first review.  However, I've never loaded the stroller into the car since I've got it.  For that matter, the kids are almost NEVER in the stroller anyway.  They want to walk/run everywhere (the life of toddlers).  When i do I 'haul' them around, they are in the jogging stroller when I go running the neighborhood.  Or I pull them in the wagon if we just go for a walk.  And they now have scooters now, which they like to ride on.

As for the car seats...they are front facing now.  So when I put them in the car, I just lean the front seat forward and I have a ton of space to get them in.  Costco runs?  I took it last week to buy some pull-ups for the kids and I could put that stuff in the back just fine.  If we went for a 'major' visit it wouldn't work.  But I'd concede that to the Mazda5.   And the kids travel in the car just about every weekend trip (unless we have a planned 'big visit' where we need the Mz5).  Also they are in it every Wednesday when I drop them off at my in-laws.  No issues.

Car seats in the back seats

For about the first 2 months, I just charged using a 120V outlet.  That was SLOW, but it worked overnight.  And for the most part, I treat my car more like my cell phone than a gas vehicle.  I just charge it overnight whenever i need to.  Sometimes its every night.  Sometimes not.  I did just install a 240V charger, a Juicebox Pro 40amp.  The EVSE cost me about $600 while the install was $2,100.  Yes, $2,100 is expensive, but my breaker box is far away and it was completely FULL...so I needed a new 100 amp service box.   And I decided to put in a central location in case my wife gets an electric vehicle someday.  That was only $300 more to do, but I wanted to 'think ahead'.  Note that I get a 30% tax credit for the installation, so I'll get ~$800 back.

My JuiceBox Pro 40amp charger

I will say the 'Preconditioning feature' is quite nice on these cold winter days.  I've a scrooge with the heat because I (intentionally) want to maximize my miles/kWh.  Its a game to me.  When the kids/wife are in the car, I'll turn on the heat/cooling.  But when it's myself I get stingey.

I still haven't done a major trip with the car.  I did try to push the car over a week where I got to about 90 miles on all-electric.  And I still had another dozen miles on the car.   Someday I'll try it for a trip to Raleigh (180 miles) or Asheville (140 miles).   That trip just needs to come up and I'll try it out for the 'long haul'.

A view of the trip computer for one trip.  

  So how much energy have I been using?  Below is the data from my JuiceBox since I installed it.  Yes, a couple of those 14 kWh days adds a lot to my energy load (I'm assuming you've read any of my other posts), but at the same time: electricity is equivalent to about $1.14/gallon of gas.  So even at the ridiculously low gas prices these days (I saw $1.55 in SC the other day), its still cheaper.  So yeah, nothing wrong with saving a little money while I'm at it, right?

 

I'm a Slacker....here's a Recap from April...

Per the title...I've been a HUGE slacker.  I haven't updated my blog since April...yes, that's APRIL.  I could easily blame this on the kids (any takers?), but in reality it only takes me 30 min to write a blog post so I really have no good excuse.  Please forgive me...

So...now that I've got that out of the way...here's a recap of what has happened since April 2015.

1)  Generally speaking my electricity usage has stayed within my new 'Normal' Range.  I've had my ups and downs...seasonally mostly, but there has been some hiccups, such as when my water heater decided broke again and needed new temperature sensors.    I posted a table below.  Yes, May to June looks bad, but Summer 'came early'.   Compare that to December where is was a crazy 70F over Christmas.   And from Halloween on, there's Energy associated with car charging included.

2)  My electricity usage will be higher from late October on because I bit the bullet and bought myself an electric car:  a BMW i3.  A separate blog will detail that.

3)  I will be installing a Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV).  Getting back from a short vacation, the air is soooo stale.  And I keep getting these bad allergies in the late fall/early winter which I've never gotten before.  Looking back at my last energy audit my house is very tight....like way below ASHRAE standards for needing mechanical ventilation.  So I'm going to remedy that and that'll hopefully significantly improve IAQ (indoor air quality).

4)  If I were to look forward at my future projects...they will be these two:

      a)  Replace my doors.  It is a chilly 16F this AM and I know that all my doors leak air.  They are just old.  And no matter how often I change out the door sweeps (which get destroyed in <1 year probably because they are made for modern doors and not these), I can still feel cold air.  Shoot my patio door threshold had FROST on it this AM.  At a minimum I'll replace 3 doors:  Patio door to the screened in porch; Door to the Deck; and Door to the Garage.  My front door is my least 'offender'.  And I think I can just install a good sealing Storm Door to minimize that further.  

    b)  Replace my windows.  I know a couple leak.  Shoot, I shrink wrapped my Master Bathroom window as a test and the other day, while it was windy, I watched the shrink wrap expand and contrast with the wind.  So, yeah, that window leaks.  I'll most likely try to do this systematically.  I just have to figure out if I'm going to do this myself or 'farm it out'.  I just had a poor experience with a window sales company that I'll save you from hearing (key point:  LISTEN to your customer.  If you do this...you'll look less like pushy sales people).  And replacing a window really isn't all that hard...at least that's what Youtube seems to show.   I'm going to choose a window that is pretty easy to get to first and then replace that window myself this Spring to determine how tough it is.  And then I'll figure it out form there.

Anyhow, below is a table of my energy usage data since April 2015.

  

Bill Period	Bill Date	kWh Used	kWh/d	Bill	Compared to last year
Mar 1 to Apr 1	4/18/2015	757	24.42	87.43	18.51%
Apr1 to May 1	5/18/2015	456	15.20	59.29	-18.44%
May 1 to Jun 1	6/18/2015	801	25.84	96.95	-119.45%
Jun 1 to Jul 1	7/18/2015	873	29.10	103.5	-42.41%
Jul 1 to Aug 1	8/18/2015	841	27.13	100.19	-40.17%
Aug 1 to Sept 1	9/18/2015	701	22.61	85.79	-33.52%
Sept 1 to Oct 1	10/18/2015	615	20.50	74.47	-9.24%
Oct 1 to Nov 1	11/18/2015	778	25.10	89.75	-52.55%
Nov 1 to Dec 1	12/18/2015	934	31.13	104.37	22.30%