ODO 6376 Miles

Ah, gotta keep the car clean - it is absolutely filthy right now. This was probably the last time we washed the car. Just doing my part for the California water crisis. But I'm not sure how long I can hold out. I saw a statistic today at the 16th Annual West Basin Water Harvest that if you decrease the number of times you wash your car by half, you can save a lot of water (go ahead and roll your eyes - I forgot exactly how much). I want to save water but can I find a balanced approach? I did a little searching and came to the conclusion that it is not easy to find a drought-friendly way to wash the car. The best way seems to be driving your car onto your lawn and using an automatic shut-off hose with environmentally friendly soap. Alas, I don't have a lawn so I can't drive my car onto my lawn and kill two birds with one stone. Maybe I'll just borrow my neighbor's lawn. Or wait for the next rain to hit LA. When will that be? Not any time soon.

ODO 6271 miles

What fun! I was the guest blogger at BeAGreenCommuter.com, UCLA Transportation's website to encourage different sustainable modes of getting to campus, this week so I'll put that post here as well to celebrate.  

Why did I choose to switch from a gasoline powered car to an electric car? The reasons narrow down to three: environmental, innovative and economic. Starting with the first reason, I was already living a pretty environmentally-conscious lifestyle. I’ve ripped out my lawn and planted California native plants. It felt completely natural to match my primary mode of transportation with my lifestyle choices, especially after I installed solar panels to power my car. The innovative features of my car are also numerous. It has a keyless ignition with two very cool computer control screens and even gently honks a reminder if I leave my keys in my car. But, those are all just the icing on the cake. The main selling point is economics. I lease my electric vehicle (most people lease EVs because of the rapid changes in battery technology) and my monthly lease payment is less than what I was paying for gas.  A California state rebate for driving an electric vehicle nearly covered my down payment and I charge on campus for free as part of the SMERC program. The choice was easy - I am almost making money on the deal! Plus, there is the added bonus of carpool tags for that Los Angeles freeway driving. Could you put a price on that access?

I will admit that driving an electric vehicle takes some adjustments. While driving a gas-powered car, I was not the best at filling up the tank when it was close to empty. But, that wasn’t usually an issue because a gas station was always easy to find. I still find that I am draining the battery pretty close to empty but a charging station is not as easy to find. Looking at the bright side of things, apps do make the world an easier place to live in, or at least more convenient. There are already quite a few apps that help an EV driver find the closest charging station. I look forward to the day when those charging stations are almost as numerous as gas stations. But, until that day comes, I’m learning how to keep my car’s battery full.

ODO 6013 miles

It is fall so I am watching Thursday night football. Everyone is wearing pink, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Mouth guards, towels, even that stuff for light glare under the players' eyes. While I love the increased awareness around a disease that has touch many friends and family members, I am not a fan of the constant pinkification of all things girl/female. The blogosphere is going nuts over the pink Princess Pepperidge Farms Goldfish and I tend to agree with their commentary. I think the same phenomenon can be seen in the Lego Friends line of toys for girls. I hope they can extend lego products for girls beyond the beach house and shopping mall sets, especially given that I am a mother of an 8-year-old girl. But, I guess we will leave it to the market to decide what little girls want to play with (said with more than a little sadness).

But back to football. Exxon Mobil aired this commercial during the Colts - Texans game this evening. Imagine six diverse high school students, attractive and from all walks of life. Half girls. Half boys. Each saying one line of this script: "Who's going to do it? Whose going to make it happen? Discover a new energy source? Turn ocean waves into power? Design cars that capture their emissions? Build bridges that fix themselves? Give more clean water to everyone? Who's going to take the leap? Who's going to write the code? Who's going to do it? Engineers, that's who. That's what I want to do. Be an engineer." Bravo! While Exxon Mobil's stance on climate change may be wishy-washy, it is encouraging the next generation to embrace engineering as the way to make a difference. How many high school teens (especially teenage girls) are watching the end of a Thursday night football game? Not many. But, maybe Exxon will air the commercial during another more popular time slot.

Lastly, the football game was held in NRG Park. I will close this random download of my thoughts on all things STEM and energy with a statement from David Crane's (CEO of NRG) most recent letter to stakeholders. "Somehow, some way, the next generation of Americans became 'all in' in their commitment to sustainability, in every sense of the word, including clean energy. With them, it is built into their DNA, not just learned behavior as it is for us." He finished this letter with this statement: "So let's make it happen." Learn by doing, that's my motto.

ODO 5799 miles

I am a big believer in the saying "Practice what you preach." So, after I spent the summer analyzing electricity consumption data for work, it is about time I took a look at the hourly electricity consumption data for the house. What an opportunity for the perfect comparison! We were out of town on September 27, 2014 (a Saturday) and in town on September 20 (also a Saturday). The data comparison tells so much about our lives, e.g. we woke up just before 7am, left around 10am for soccer and didn't get back until around 8pm. The data also might (just might) have the power to shame me into watching less TV, if that is what is responsible for that "Holy Toledo!" sized spike at 10pm. For now, I'll just pretend we plugged in the car.

The data also point out another story. California is on its way to a policy of requiring zero net energy (loosely a make what you use philosophy) for all new residential construction by 2020. This deadline is right around corner, just over 5 years from now. Are we an early adopter case study for zero net energy? Let's see. 

When our house is unoccupied (Sept 27 - the green), we generate about 3 kWh so we are net positive. Good! But when we are here and it is a weekend, we are about 8 kWh in the hole (Sept 20 - the blue). Well, that isn't much of a surprise to me since I didn't size the solar system for all of our loads. So, it's a win win. Our house could be zero net energy, if we are out of town. And, maybe even if we don't plug in the car. That is another experiment for a different Saturday.