Update - Living Sustainble, Net- Zero Electric, and the addition of a Chevy Volt

It's been ages since I have added to this blog, but I decided to provide an update of our home and new additions.

Living Sustainable:
Although living in a "Green Home" is great, but the "Sustainability" runs deeper than a house, but a way of life. Although, I don't run outside and hug my 40 oak trees in the backyard every morning (hence a tree hugger), but there are several common items that just makes sense...... like turning off the lights when you leave the room (simple, but every little bit helps). We use our house like normal people, but with energy saving everything installed. You won't see the temperature at 50 degrees and  us wearing parkas in the house.

Living on a well water property really makes you take on water quality issues and the electric power needed to pump it out of the ground (especially when the power goes out). No power..... no water.
With having 5 acres of land, it also makes sense to have a garden. We started the garden during construction of the house and have expanded/ improved on  it every year over the last 5 years. We also utilized the green house for the first year in 2015. Many plants were started in the green house and were transferred outdoors to get a jump on the season. We also took on a few new vegetables, such as radishes, Snap Peas, Buttercrunch Lettuce, Watermelon, Kale (which Cherie said it was a weed) and several types of  pepper plants. This coming year, we see great hardy plants, and enough vegetables to share with family and friends (or donate to a food bank occasionally). See photos of  garden and a past harvest. Rain barrels provide a small portion of the water and an area for improvement.

NetZero Electric......... an now were not anymore!
Over the last year, we have gotten better at utilizing our one 2nd floor air conditioner efficiently and minimizing our electric loads. We get a $18.07 bill for Spring, Summer, and Fall, which only covers the cost of the Com Ed meter fee. With 5 KW of power feeding an approximate 3,000 sqft. house, we ended up 34 KW over on power generation in July. Pretty good, considering we ran the air conditioner a good amount in the mornings and evenings due to high humidity and temperature. The idea of getting most of our power from the sun to run our house, still Wow's me. Seeing the panels in the backyard every morning, always reminds me to make that extra effort to keep the loads down and open blinds instead of turning lights on.

We are no longer Net-zero electric! Below is a photo from the Illinois Solar Tour with our electric car plugged directly into the 20 solar panel in the backyard (zoom view to see the actual cord). You can't get more direct than that.

As of the end of August 2015, we added an extensive load of an New Chevy Volt car to our power needs. As a result of the  USGBC Rockford Electric car event, and prodding from friend Allen Will (formerly of Telefonix), I acquired a new 2014 Chevy Volt Electric car (not 2015 or 2016).

2014 Chevy Volt Electric Car.... My 6 month review
As big fan of Tesla Motors (which I drove many), I couldn't rationalize buying one, but decided to look into a 2016 Chevy Volt. I had no idea what it would cost with discounts and tax incentives.

With a range of 50 miles on a charge and I decided to see if I could cash in on the IRS $7,500 tax credit. When I visited to the dealership, I found out that the 2016 was delayed and the first cars would go to the state of California. There was no promise of 2016 Volt cars hitting Illinois anytime within the next 6 month. As I looked at pricing of 2015 Volt cars through TrueCar.com (press send and you get 4 phone calls in 30 seconds from car dealers) and Cars.com (where I found the best price for mine), I noticed some deep discounted pricing on a few new 2014 Volts.
I did all my negotiating over the internet/ phone and found out the new 2014 model still qualified for the $7,500 tax credit. From Woodstock, I bought the car in Boolingbrook and was out the door in 1 1/2 hours. Although a $36,000 sticker on the car, with a huge discount from the dealer and $7,500 tax credit, I acquired  the car for just a bit over $20,000 (but I had to finance the $7,500 tax credit). I got the deal of the century.

Before I bought, I had asked a ton of question to my friend Allen Will, who said "It's the best car your have ever driven". To be honest, the Chevy Volt is a great car and exceeded my expectations.  In my effort to "pay it forward", I'm posting the most common questions people ask me.

Below are items you should know about the Chevy Volt:
1). How far does it go on electric? Do you have gas a gas engine?
Answer: You can go 50 miles in the summer and 30 miles in the winter. Batteries do not charge as well in the winter. And it take about 8 hours per charge with a 110 volt charger that comes with the car (Level 1 charger). If I install a Level 2 charger it takes only 4 hours. The gas turns over automatically with a 4 cylinder engine. The range is 382 miles for a full electric charge and tank of gas.
2). How much does it cost to drive my electric car? How much do you save?
Answer: To start people should understand an "Electric" car has an "Electric" motor for a majority of driving and will drive 250,000 miles easily in a lifetime.  "Electric" motors do not need maintenance and neither does the regenerative brakes. If you figure you may drive on gas 30% of the time, you can most likely count the 4 cylinder engine to will go 100,000. Oil changes are approximately every 2 years (I expect mine to be 1.5 years, because I use more gas).
So when you look at this car, you need to understand the "life-cycle costs" which could last at least 50% more than a combustion engine car. As for  a replacement battery, it should last 10 years. And worse case, I still have a 4 cylinder gas car. I'm counting on Eon Musk to make me a cost effective replacement in the meantime. I don't know the cost of a new batteries and assume it will be $2,000 at this point.
Back to cost..... at 12 cent per KW, it cost about $1.50 of electric for a full 40 mile average charge. With gas about $1.70 per gallon, I save about $2.00 per week (which is not much). People need to realize, electric is not free when you plug your car into the wall,
Gasoline is at a all time low and has approached $2.00 per gallon recently (so I'm up to $5.00 or $20.00 per month).  If I had enough solar panels, and generate enough electricity, charging would be free (but then you have to pay for extra more solar panels).
Now add the savings for not changing brakes, needing oil changes, Combustion engine maintenance,I predict I save $50 per month or  $600 per year.  When gas goes up, my fuel savings is substantial.
The bigger secondary savings is significantly lowering my family "carbon footprint".

3). How does it perform? How's the gas mileage?
Answer: An electric motor is direct torque, so the speed of an electric car is immediate. When you set it to "sport" mode on the Volt, it has great acceleration. It's not a Tesla, but the car has the power of strong V6 engine. I never feel unsafe.
One significant note,.... A Chevy Volt weighs 4,000 lbs., which is as much as my  carbon offset Ford F-150 truck, and has a nice heavy ride. Batteries weigh more than sand bags, so the traction in snow is excellent. The only word of caution,  do not go off the road or in a ditch. The bad news is, you can't push a 4,000 lb car out of the snow ditch. The air dam on the bottom is as low a a sports car. It's rubber and bends up and back (Chevy actually thought about this).
So when it comes to gas mileage, you'll find that it's opposite of a combustion engine gas car. Because of the regenerative braking, all electric cars do better in the city as opposed to the highway. Since I live in the country, I'm not the ideal driving scenario. My brother Steve and I went to the Blackhawks Winter Classic Hockey game in Minneapolis, and we got 40 free electric miles and total of 342 miles gas mile (total 382 range). We got 33.6 MPG on the highway at a speed of 70-75 mile per hours and didn't need to stop for gas on the way there. We did stop as a precaution to not run short in the middle of Minnesota and stretch our legs.

I'd have to say if your commute is 20 miles to work, the Chevy Volt is a perfect commuter car. It gets you up and back to work and you can charge overnight. Some people  fill the 8 gallon tank once every 6 months.
The newly designed 2016 Volt goes 53 miles, with a total rang of 420 miles.

4). How does it run in the winter? Are there any significant challenges?
Answer: The winter question was a big one for me. Running electric heat, depletes battery life quickly. That's the only way this car could be improved.
I froze the first week the temperature drop below 32 degrees. A call went to Allen Will, to find the tricks to managing the Volt battery life. He first said wear thick socks,
There are a few tricks, which would be my only recommended item that could be improved.
- Configure your car to switch to the gas engine to heat the car at 32 degrees. Save the electric for none heating purposes. After 10 minutes of running the heat, you can manually switch the car back over to electric with a push of a button. You can also change driving mode on the fly.
- Buy the electric seat option. Outside of being a reasonably priced option, it's a nice luxury for your back (and warms your body quickly). In the first winter months, were two pairs of socks. I did to keep my feet warm. The one improvement is to put a heat mat under the drivers feet.
- at a 4,000 lbs weight, the car has great traction on icy roads and snow. After changing your habits and adapting to driving reference, the car operation becomes 2nd nature (and drives like a small tank).
- You can remote start you car with Onstar or the key fob and have the unit pre-heat while your plugged in (if your parking outside). I park in a semi-insulated garage, so my car is not bitter cold when I get in with my coat on.

In closing comments, I don't live in the ideal urban environment to really get the full benefit of the car. About 50% of my driving is done on electric, because Rockford does not have strategic or enough charging stations (which I am acting a  "Champion" to change that quickly for personal reasons now).
 As someone living in the country, I like that I'm saving some money, reducing my carbon footprint significantly, and have an excellent solid built car that will go at least 250,000 miles (and at 20,000 miles a year last 12.5 years).  It's also a nice looking car (and not an ugly spaceship). Not bad.
In the meantime, I act a good role model and steward to my nieces & nephews, friends, and business associates.

What's to come in the future for the Woodstock House? 
- Introduction of 4 solar thermal panels. Mike is the installer of the system, so it should take forever to happen. Help may come from some college students. I removed these from someones home 2 years ago,so it's time to put them to use for radiant heat in a workshop and hot water.
- Advanced Rain Barrel System for the garden
- Level 2 car charger (a want, but not a need)
- Revamping the shed to a 800 sqft. radiant floor heated workshop
- Finding a DC well pump and (2) sump pumps to replace my higher power consuming ones
- Full use of the greenhouse and larger garden
- Finishing the larger outdoor patio this spring
Postings on the garden will follow in the next couple weeks. USGBC Private Home Tour event in late summer "Living in a LEED Home and Beyond"