It should be easier to go green...

We bought a Nissan Leaf in early Jan to cut down on our gas cost as the big Toyota Sienna was not the right car for me driving alone most of the time on local roads.

It was one of the best decisions we made and now the Leaf has more than 2500 miles on it already!

Also, Daddy Narayanan seems to be setting a record of sort with ~4.7 miles/ kwh, if the readout is to be believed. Even at flat rates of 13 cents/ kwh, that crudely works out to 70$ in electricity bill for almost three months of use. My Sienna gas bill (mostly filled at Costco at cheapest rates possible) was ~ 270$/month!

So far so good. But there was a bigger incentive. If you went on an E-9 plan which has peak rates and off peak rates, you got cheaper electricity if you charged from midnight to 7AM. The Leaf comes with a charging timer, but ... there is always one, it can charge within that timeframe only on 220V. If you charge at 110V, it takes 21 hours.

This did not deter us. I would usually drive only 50 miles on a day and the max range was 110 miles and that meant top of charging as the strategy till we got the 220 V Blink charger installed.

Little did we know that it would be an ordeal. The whole charger install rebate program is winding down and it borders on  a scam. You get assigned to electricians who are not residents or licensed in your city. The city will not let anyone install it unless they pay for a City business license and Cupertino seems to be one of the most expensive city's just to get a business license, which you end up subsidizing out of your rebate! They need to make this part easier.

After San and me ran from pillar to post to work the permit process, install and final city inspection, we finally have the Blink Charger installed in our garage! It took almost 8 weeks, but it is finally here.

Now we get to charge the leaf between midnight and latest by 4AM. The thing sends me an email saying it has finished charging, connects to our wifi automatically and sends data to Ecotality for them to do the math, see where else I charge.. so they can figure out where to put charging stations, etc. etc.

In one way I feel happy to be an early adopter to help change the way we drive and consume gas. In another way it is interesting to see how the machinery does not favor a green solution as a default. The other interesting thing is that I now drive differently. If I see a person in front of me stopped at a signal light, I don't go as fast as possible and stop behind that person. Instead, I coast to a halt. I also drive at speed limit in the slow lane where possible. There is no range anxiety and I get to my destination..

The usual round trips are

local grocery store 4 miles 

Indian grocery store 4 miles

Kumon class 2.5 miles

swimming class 4 miles

Bikram Yoga 9 miles

work 24 miles

Which pretty much is the sum total of places I hit 90% of the time baring the visit to a friends place or some other destination during weekend! For this the Leaf more than does its job.

Do observe that there are at least 20+ Leaves that hit the same routes. Even the drivers kind of nod to each other on Lawrence expressway in the morning which I find amusing.

There is also a lot of Leaf haters out there, most of whom are in the 20-25 age demographic. Yes, I hate the racial profiling but it is true in this case.

Every time someone has taken a freeway exit on to the local expressways or main roads and they encounter a Leaf (not mine necessarily), they expect the other driver to just give them way to the point where even if there are other lanes, they won't move over. There wa this one kid in a brand new black Lexus going at 70 mph after he exit the freeway and ended up on a 50mph zone, where I was driving at 50 on my way back from work.  He kept honking for me to move over to end up in an exit lane and when I refused he had road rage and kept honking and giving me the finger. He even came directly in front of my car and put on the brakes abruptly. Knowing the kid was not stable, I was driving cautiously and was able to coast to a stop as other cars on the road watched with amusement.  Maybe his parents should have gotten him a Leaf instead of the Lexus! That way he could really go far if he goes fast and they can keep track of his every move!

As for these kids with the fast cars and no road sense, only wish the DMV had better scrutiny before handing out drivers licenses or we have a system where we can report such drivers. When I came home that day after this kid did all the honking, was really worried because he definitely seemed to have an issue with me to the point where he pointed his fingers at me as though he was going to shoot me. So came home and was tossing with the idea of calling the cops to let them know what had happened. After being on the phone for 25 minutes with various people, got put on to someone at Highway patrol.

The conversation was very short at that point.

Operator : You reporting a rash driver?

Me : Yes.

Op : when and where ?

Me : xyz location, almost 30 mins ago

Op : vehicle kept driving in which direction ?

Me : South

Op : what car?

Me : Black Lexus.

Op : Black, White, Hispanic or Asian?

Me : (was shocked by that question actualy. was expecting her to ask me male or female driver first..) White.

Op : Male?

Me : yes. young kid.

Op : Ok. Hangs up on me. 

That was it!  I kept saying .. I have the last three digits of license plate.. but nope. she hung up! Guess that was enough info for her.  A young white kid driving a black lexus south on a freeway 27 minutes ago..

Like I said, we need a better reporting system.

Only one thing remains with respect to completing the Leaf Saga.. and that is to get the HOV lane stickers. That way I can keep going in a steady pace on the local expressways without dealing with these road rage folks. Can avoid the freeways altogether.

Someday, sooner or later.. more folks will adapt to a battery operated car. The planet cannot keep going the way it does. It is just a question of time and economics and technology improvement.

Battery cars will be the default the same way Cell Phones, Digital Cameras and E-mail have replaced ther predecesors.

It is fun driving this car. It is a good ride. When you see folks race to stop behind someone, it feels bad now. But, I was one of those people and if I can change my driving habits so can the rest.

Time will do the job!

Leaf review

A short video that pretty much explains the driving experience so far..

Very quiet drive in a small car. 

So far have gotten used to knowing all local distances so the whole "what if we just end up with a dead battery somehwere?" phobia is gone.. for everyone in the family.

We are also keeping to approximately 50 miles or less a day. 

The kids love the ride and San is slowly tempted to at least go Hybrid...

So, in short, the Leaf has done its job!

A few fail the many

Watched the movie "Who killed the electric car?" recently. It was a documentary and the fact that it was put on top of the blockbuster online queue drew a lot of criticism from the wife and my queueing prvileges have been revoked for even putting this movie on the list!

Being the pro-green dude that I have become, it was an extremely difficult documentary to watch. Even more difficult that the Al Gore documentary. If Al Gore's "An inconvenient truth" showed us where the world is headed and beseeched us to find solutions, this movie was a reality check.

The solutions are already there. We just won't let them out! The best part of the film was I got to see the Ovshinsky's (Stan and Iris) who between them hold 200 patents, came up with so many things that cross my world today be it solar cells, Nickel metal hydride batteries, fuel cells, Chalcogenide based Phase Change Memories (PCM's) etc. etc. It was my dream to meet them in person some day! The couple had actually come up with a cheap long lasting battery technology, that made the electric car, cost competitive against gasoline based cars.

Apparently, Chevron bought a major stake in their company and shelved the technology because it threatens the existance of the gasoline based car as we know it!

Why would I buy a Prius if there was an EV1 option? I do not know!!

This post is not about the electric EV1 or Prius or environmentalism or technology.

It is about how a few people who decide the fate of many invariably make decisions which do not comprehend the responsibility of that decision making. It is almost a disease with politicians today, that when it comes to making right decisions, they invariably do what is right (economically for them, in their minds, at that time, or for their interests) as opposed to doing the morally right thing (which would be the greatest good for the greater many, right by the planet, looking forward to the future).

I would also be the worlds greatest bigot if I expected politicians and leaders to do that when an average citizen of the world cannot do the same thing, more particularly, if I cannot do that!

Given a choice between spending extra to solar power our home and continuing with the power grid, we chose the power grid. Given a choice to sell the old car and buy a Prius, we chose to keep the old car as long as it runs and save money. The same thing happened with a lawn in the backyard vs. synthetic turf! So many similar choices where we could have made a difference to the world or aorund us where the economics of the situation trumps the dogooder options.

In a world where it is each man for himself, where states protect their vested interests by erecting dams to control river water flows, where humans murder fellow humans by the hundreds of thousands every year in the name of religion, resources, security, and many other such things which really have no boundaries if you look deep enough, there is no hope for the many to expect the chosen few to do right by them. There is not even much hope for the many to expect the other people described by "the many" do the right thing!

Why have I suddenly become so self absorbed, self deprecating, guilty, etc. etc. Well in a way, my internal justification for doing a lot of things in this life was that technology would make this world a better place. After watching this movie, it has become apparent that the only technology that will make it into the world and its people are those that do not threaten today's rich in anyway.

Now that is a depressing thought, isn't it?

ps. This does not mean I will curl up into a ball and go sleep in the dark. Far from it. Life goes on. One can always hope that Ratan Tata will make a solar powered vehicle that gives the "Nano" a run for its money, or the Chinese will realize that they could get out of oil dependence and pollution by going to small Electric Vehicles. Yes! We can keep dreaming. It could happen....

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In search of a Millionaire

After this post on Tire pressure Indicators, I wanted to see if the person who actually came up with the idea, is in fact a millionaire. Just to get some closure on the fantasy that if I had come up with that idea, I would have millions of $$ and ergo, not have to worrry about rising college tuition costs sometime in the future!

So, decided to track down the US Patent numbers on this thingy and see who came up with this. Here is a link to the patent from 1985, if you would care to read about it!

If you don't, the interesting thing is that "people have been trying to do this since 1914"!!! and there are various versions developed over time that evolved with the tires.

Here is a patent that describes the example I cited in the previous post. This is from 2003.. and here are some latest ones from 2005!! This last one looks close to what the Sienna has for an onboard system!

The learning?

Lot more tire pressure patents from Taiwan than US in recent years.

Things have evolved from a little stick that you insert in the valve stem, to the same thing built into the air inflation system to permanent visual indicators and onboard computerized systems that monitor pressure irrespective of the vehicle being stationary or moving...

Taiwanese govt. seems to be pushing their dudes to come up with a nice solution.

Chances are, none of these dudes are millionaires. They are all salaried employees like yours truly who got another patent award displayed on their cubicle wall!

I now know a lot more about tire pressure sensors, than I cared to know a few hours ago!

You have been bored with an information overload, when all you wanted to see or read about was the cute things the little ones say or do. Well, there is always tomorrow and I did post this earlier!

Here's to all the wannabe millionaries sitting in those tiny cubicles, coming up with ideas that change the world, one step at a time!

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In the drivers seat ?

Parent's magazine had an article on the previous issue about the top three mistakes driving mother's make which cause serious accidents or fatalities. These should have been generalized to any person who drives around with kids in the vehicle, because men who drive the "mommy van's" as equally guilty of the same mistakes!

They were :

a. trying to calm down fighting kids by looking back or sending one hand back to touch the kid in the backseat
b. feeding the kid or yourself while driving
c. talking on the cell phone while driving.

Of course we could always add the special case of :

d. trying to operate a DVD player that is behind you with one hand because the kids want you to go back to the previous song!

But these are the standard offenses. This post is not about them. This is about something even more fundamental with kids in a van. The seat belt!

Apparently it is safe for kids only if they are in their car seats or booster seats and nicely buckled up. One can understand this logic, especially with all those videos you see with kid sized crash test dummies flying out of windshields during accidents when not buckled up!

Unfortunately, real kids are not as co-operative as crash test dummies. The day my kids look as calm and serene in their seats, accident imminent or otherwise, I would gladly keep my mouth shut!

In our case, putting the seat belts on is supposed to be safe for the kids, but it is highly unsafe for the driver! Jr. has learnt to unbuckle her seat belt on her own and baby has a tolerance limit of about 5 minutes in her car seat. By the time we reach the end of the street she is screaming her head off trying to get out of the belt. That said, it is impossible to focus on the road and drive, with one kid floating around the van like a free electon in a metal lattice and another one setting new records for the maximum decibel level ever achieved in a confined space of 150 cubic feet or less!

Are there any alternatives to seat belts for kids ? (I am talking legally allowed alternatives here! I already know that they will be quiet without the belts). If anyone knows of any, please do let me know.

In the meantime, I have an idea. How about I make an inflatable cushion that takes the shape of the back part of the van. The kid sits inside this box and it can be padded so well that even if the kid bounces off the walls of this enclosure, they will be safe! I am modeling this based on the space shuttle here!! Would that have a chance of making it through the transport authorities ?

Please note that I said "kid" and not "kids". The only thing more dangerous than a free floating kid in a van is, another kid! There has to be separate enclosures for each kid. If horses, cattle and wild animals can be transported on highways without restraint, why can't I transport two wilder, crazier, out of control creatures with the same rules?

That brings me to the topic of "If my wife or mother-in-law release a kid from the seat, because the kids is making a racket (this in spite of my pleas to keep them in the seat), then who gets the ticket if we are stopped by the cop ? Me, or the wife ? or mother-in-law ? ". If anyone knows the answer to that one, please let me know as well.

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