Author Archives: lukefrugalev

Having had our heat-pump for a couple of months now, we have some experience configuring it. Briefly, the heat-pump will produce heat down to -27 C, but performance is progressively reduced once it gets colder. Thus, depending on your home insulation, climate control settings etc. you need to choose what Daikin (our heat-pump brand) callsContinue reading “Balancing your heat-pump and gas”

Not a very scientific venture by any means, but lets have a look at my de-identified friend group to see which of my friends have gone electric? We find significant uptake among suburban two car households, with one road-tripper, and one commuter car. If my friends are representative of society en large, there is stillContinue reading “Friend Survey, who is buying electric vehicles?”

There is no need to use “fossil gas” to heat your home, in fact a cold climate heat pump can substantially reduce the amount of gas used to heat your home, if the winter is mild enough, perhaps all the way to zero. Lets kick of our discussion of heat-pumps by looking at the economics.Continue reading “Heat-Pump economics”

On a recent trip to Los Angeles, we went skiing. We used a plug in hybrid, which kinda became a hybrid for most of the journey. But I kept wondering if my trusty 2018 Nissan Leaf could have made it to Mammoth Mountain ski area. Indeed it can, its a long journey (about 500 kmContinue reading “Can my 2018 Nissan Leaf make it to Mammoth?”

On a recent trip to California, we went skiing in Mammoth Mountain. While we drove a plug-in hybrid, I found it odd that there were very few publicly accessible L2 charging stations. In fact Mammoth mountain only had one, which was broken. There are several hotels in the area which do offer L2 charging stations,Continue reading “Where are the L2 charging stations?”

Much ink has been spilled on affordability of EVs. Turns out several Chinese companies have been making affordable EVs for some time now. In fact several Chinese made Tesla Model Y’s are cruising our streets (source), so seems at least one automaker has figured out to legally get Chinese made cars into Canada. Further, inContinue reading “The Chinese cheap EV flood?”

As we have discussed, electric vehicles (EVs) are more expensive to purchase, but cost less to run. How does all of that shake out in terms of a total cost of ownership (TCO)? Much discussion has emerged on TCO of electric cars, some have gone as far as suggest the Tesla model 3 has aContinue reading “Total cost of ownership?”

Keep going North when you get to Barrie, and you will eventually find Awenda Provinical park. Its easy to get to from Toronto, fairly close at 180 km, and offers many interesting sites, including a shipwrek, dog friendly beach, camping and great hiking. What is not to like. Charging is mostly around Barrie, ON. WeContinue reading “Awenda Provincial Park”

Recently we discussed hot water heater economics (see this post). With a heat-pump tank heater now installed, and some early usage statistics, we can now add real-world usage data to the mix and see how close we came in our earlier analysis. We find that our usage is higher than expected, but through some cleverContinue reading “Does a heat-pump water heater save you money?”

As with most things, no appliance lasts for ever. To add to the chaos, things often break when under stress, in other words when the need is the greatest. This can lead to short term thinking, at the expense of you and the planet. While government programs are available, in most cases some planning isContinue reading “Appliance replacement”