Posted July 11, 2018
timppu: So... does it mean you'll be mostly independent as far as electricity goes? At that point I'd buy an electric car as well (but then I guess the gas prices in US are always so super low compared to here...).
On an annual net basis with a grid tie, yes, but not really off-grid livable over the winter. We over-bought by about 25-30% generation, so on paper an electric car would make decent sense. And we're thinking about it. But the main goal is to transition from liquid propane heat to electric. That 25% margin won't be enough electricity to make a 100% swap, but it could cut it down by a significant amount. More-so than our gasoline prices, LP can have some really wild price swings. And this big shop can surely suck up a lot of LP over a cold winter like 2017-18, even with the thermostats sitting at a low 7-8C / 45F.
But yeah, electric car is being considered for some future date. It wouldn't work for most of my long-distance business travel but could surely handle nearly 100% of my wife's annual driving and all of my local errands.