As Irma is upon us, I thought now would be a good time to talk about how I’m slowly but surely getting rid of fossil fuel in my daily life to mitigate my CO2 emissions. My house is already fairly efficient in energy use (since it was only built 2 years ago), and I recycle everything. But I felt I wasn’t doing enough. And since the disastrous Trump election, I redoubled my efforts at “cultivating my garden,” a la Candide.
This is by no means what I expect everybody to do. It does require some capital and planning, and I do not expect to recoup my investments for another 8-10 years.
1. Getting solar panels. Started the process to get them last summer. Maybe it was because of the annoying Solar City ad with the bird on Spotify, or maybe the hot weather from a La Nina year got to me. Took almost 6 months from start to finish to get the panels approved. Installed in 1 day. Took another 2 months for the city inspections and for the utility to change the meter so that they can account for the solar power produced (“net-metering”).
Cost: $12000 after federal rebate. (there are other options such as leasing).
Benefit: haven’t paid an electric bill (except for the $11.75/month grid connection) since March of this year, with 650+ kWh banked for the winter. Solar City estimates that my solar panels alone have saved me $500 this year so far. Technically, I’m still using natural gas for my power at night, but I’m using a clean energy producer who’s supplying my power, so for accounting purposes, I’m contributing more solar power than I’m using fossil fuel power.
2. Using induction cooking. I have used gas cooking all my life. Only recently found out that a lot of indoor air pollution happens with gas cooking, plus inefficiency of heat transfer with gas. Microwaving would be the next best thing, but you can’t microwave everything. So got an induction cooker from Amazon (as opposed to electric coil cookers which are still fairly inefficient).
Cost: $50 + 1-2 kWh of cooking a day
Benefit: cleaning indoor air. No natural gas used this year after March. Much quicker heating of the food due to more efficient heat transfer.
3. Buying a 100% electric car. Tesla would have been my first choice, but to get the Model 3 I would have to wait till 2019. Chevy did a fantastic job with the Bolt in terms of technology, but a terrible job marketing it. (When was the last time you saw an ad for the Bolt?) Finally got my hands on one in August, had to drive to the closest big city to buy it.
It’s amazingly quiet, responsive, and fairly comfortable. And one-pedal driving (with regenerative braking) is addictive. The EPA range is supposed to be 238 miles with a full charge, but with my conservative driving, I’m routinely seeing 300 miles with a 90% full battery.
Cost: $21000 after trading in my SUV and after the $7500 federal tax incentive for this year’s taxes. $1000 to install Level 2 charging at home. (Strictly speaking I could charge 4 miles/hour from the wall, but Level 2 charging gives 25 miles/hour)
Benefit: No gasoline used since August. Saved about $100 so far. I appreciate it even more now with gas prices going up due to Hurricane Harvey.
4. Using a home battery. As home battery prices will fall in the near future, I’ve decided not to invest in one yet. Tesla’s Powerwall2 is twice as big as the first one, and cost the same. In another 3-5 years, the competition will likely drive it down further. I also try to charge my car during the day when my solar panels are working.
In the meantime, I’ve bought a small 300 kW(I wish) 500W, 288 Wh lithium battery with all kinds of sockets (DC and AC) for about $300. I charge it during the day when the sun is up, either by the wall, or using my standalone solar panels. Then, during the night, I plug in my PC’s monitors, my phone and iPads into the battery which is good for 5 hours.
Cost: $300 + daily exercise moving the battery back and forth
Benefit: less use of fossil fuel at night. Eventually, with a full system, I will hopefully rely much less on the grid.
5. Investing in green tech. I’m using new company called Swell who allows you to invest in the market but only buying tech that promote zero waste, green tech or renewable energy. They’ve done fairly well so far (I’ve had a 5% return since I started with them in 4/2017). Of course, that hinges on the stock market being robust, and there are no guarantees.
I’ve also invested in a solar loan company called Wunder. They take your money and loan it out to businesses to install their own solar systems. There are 2 funds, and I’m in the long term fund that has 8% yield. This is obviously much more risky since there’s no guarantee. So far their record has been great.
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Total CO2 offset: With my solar panels I’ve avoided burning 3 tons of CO2 so far this year, and with the Bolt, maybe another 0.5 ton of CO2 (since 3 tons of Co2 is about 7093 miles of driving, and I’ve driven about 1000 miles so far on the Bolt). Cooking is not a big usage of electricity in general in most households, but the indoor air quality benefits are worthwhile.
Next steps:
--Getting rid of beef (which costs a lot of CO2 to make) in my diet
--Water saving (using “gray” water)
--Consider installing a second solar system (since I’ll use more power after having the Bolt)
--Consider loaning more money to Wunder for other people to build their solar systems
TL;DR: Just know that little things can be done in your life that add up to decrease CO2 emissions. Even 5 years ago, a lot of the above would not have been economical or even technologically feasible. Not to say that “old” technology isn’t worthwhile--a used hybrid from 3-5 years ago is still good, and much cheaper than the latest models.
When your grandchildren ask you in 50 years what you did for global warming, say you did your part in your daily life, besides voting for the right policies.