# This could not have happened if I didn't heat my house with wood



## brant2000 (Aug 18, 2015)

Last week, I was able to pick up my dream car, a Tesla.  It's used and certainly far from fully equipped, but there is no chance in h*ll that my budget could have afforded this car if I didn't heat my house with wood.  So that was part of my plea to my wife to let me purchase it....that all of my countless hours spent sweating over a pile of split wood could help me achieve this goal.


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## begreen (Aug 18, 2015)

Beautiful. Now wipe that silly grin off your face.


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## brant2000 (Aug 18, 2015)

Thanks.  The grin just doesn't seem to go away.  I don't think I've ever felt this way about a "toy" since I got a minibike when I was 8.  If anyone has never had an opportunity to, please look up your nearest Tesla store and inquire about doing a test drive...I promise, you won't regret it.


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## Jags (Aug 18, 2015)

Sweet ride.  PV panels next in line??


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## brant2000 (Aug 18, 2015)

Jags said:


> Sweet ride.  PV panels next in line??



I want to, but it still just doesn't make sense here in mostly cloudy western PA.  Ammortizing the costs over 20 years, I figure I can make electricity at $0.14 per kWh vs. buy it for $0.115.


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## iamlucky13 (Aug 18, 2015)

How much wood fits in the trunk?

Enjoy. There don't seem to be many unhappy Tesla owners.


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## brant2000 (Aug 18, 2015)

iamlucky13 said:


> How much wood fits in the trunk?



Lol...Hopefully I'll never learn the answer to your question.  Several months ago, I also traded up my F150 for an older GMC 3500 dump truck.  It holds a little more wood than the Tesla .


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## Osagebndr (Aug 18, 2015)

Jeez I was just saving for a hydraulic splitter  . Nice ride


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## isipwater (Sep 18, 2015)

brant2000 said:


> Last week, I was able to pick up my dream car, a Tesla.  It's used and certainly far from fully equipped, but there is no chance in h*ll that my budget could have afforded this car if I didn't heat my house with wood.  So that was part of my plea to my wife to let me purchase it....that all of my countless hours spent sweating over a pile of split wood could help me achieve this goal.
> View attachment 160617


I tried the whole "but I save money on our heating bill by burning wood" with my wife for a Tesla.  It did not work. Now I need to stop drooling.


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## legrandice (Sep 18, 2015)

That's awesome!  It's a dream car for me too one of these years.


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## woodgeek (Sep 18, 2015)

Welcome to the 21st century!


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## jeffesonm (Sep 24, 2015)

what did that set you back if you don't mind me asking?


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## Fi-Q (Sep 25, 2015)

Who kmowa, in a decade or 2, we might be talking here on hearth forum about our new TEG wood burning generator that we use to charge our electric car  !

Nice car !  Once our actual mini-van get paid off, I will start looking to trade it in on a electric ride, in 2-3 years from now !


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## begreen (Sep 25, 2015)

New Tesla X will be an SUV/Van. Seats 7 and looks good. Moms are getting excited. 
http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/2016-tesla-model-x/


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## brant2000 (Oct 1, 2015)

Thanks, all!



jeffesonm said:


> what did that set you back if you don't mind me asking?



Tesla's discount for used cars generally runs about $1 per mile on the odometer, less the $7.5k tax credit.  That was pretty much in line with what I paid.  The car had just under 24k miles, has almost no options and I paid $44k.  The reality is that we paid about the same for my wife's explorer, but I can drive this for a small faction of the fuel costs.  I've put on over 3k miles since I got the car, and have used just about 1k kWh (~$120).


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## rowerwet (Oct 1, 2015)

Have a friend who bought a new hybrid fusion, his savings in gas cover his car payment.


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## Redbarn (Oct 1, 2015)

rowerwet said:


> Have a friend who bought a new hybrid fusion, his savings in gas cover his car payment.



We bought my wife a BMW I3 Rex as her daily driver. The first month cost $19.98 to cover 604 miles.

The only service costs are to replace the windshield wipers at the end of year 1. There's nothing else to really wear out.
The insurance was cheaper as we got an electric car discount. We leased it as the technolgy is developing rapidly, resale value is iffy and a better version will surely be available at the end of the lease.

The running costs of an electric car are absurdly low compared to an ICE car and the manufacturer was doing good financial terms to get cars out the door. For a new car of this price range, the lower overall total costs made it affordable for us.
The performance is smile inducing. With the electric torque and inbuilt traction control, you can beat anything (corvettes included but excepting Teslas) away from the lights up to 45 mph.


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## BIGDADDY (Oct 1, 2015)

rowerwet said:


> Have a friend who bought a new hybrid fusion, his savings in gas cover his car payment.


Really what kind of car payment? You can buy a lot of gas for the difference in price between a hybrid fusion and a all gasoline car especially since gas is in the $2-$3 a gallon range. I guess if you're conscious of you're carbon footprint as they say and you have the extra money a hybrid might be the way to go but I highly doubt not buying gas will pay the difference in price let alone the total cost of the vehicle.


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## rowerwet (Oct 2, 2015)

He went from driving a minivan to the fusion, his job has him driving all over new England (sports broadcasting). 18 mpg to 50 on average.


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## mass_burner (Oct 2, 2015)

BIGDADDY said:


> Really what kind of car payment? You can buy a lot of gas for the difference in price between a hybrid fusion and a all gasoline car especially since gas is in the $2-$3 a gallon range. I guess if you're conscious of you're carbon footprint as they say and you have the extra money a hybrid might be the way to go but I highly doubt not buying gas will pay the difference in price let alone the total cost of the vehicle.



I just filled up the '04 Prius yesterday for $17 and change. That's ~500 miles of driving. Let's face it, it's not just the savings.


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## peakbagger (Oct 2, 2015)

I would love an electric vehicle if someone dropped if off for free but I cant justify it. I work from home, I do a bit of local driving but he majority of the trips are to client sites which lately is 3 to 5 hundred miles round trip in day. Sure I could get a Volt but like all the used government and corporate Volts for sale I would effectively be voluntarily dragging a dead battery for most of my trips. I wasn't a fan of VW diesels even before the cheating scandal appeared so I end up with high mileage gas engine cars. My fiesta gets 40 to 41 MPG at 70 mph and was close to the cheapest car on the lot when I bought it. Ford ads in the goodies to get folks to buy them as they need to sell a lot of fiestas to make up for the bad gas mileage of F350. NH has an excise tax based on vehicle price so a high sticker means high excise taxes for five years. Insurance is also indirectly related to sticker price so insurance is cheaper.

I guess I have to make up poor mileage and no emission's on my Unimog somehow


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## brant2000 (Oct 2, 2015)

peakbagger said:


> I would love an electric vehicle if someone dropped if off for free but I cant justify it. I work from home, I do a bit of local driving but he majority of the trips are to client sites which lately is 3 to 5 hundred miles round trip in day. Sure I could get a Volt but like all the used government and corporate Volts for sale I would effectively be voluntarily dragging a dead battery for most of my trips. I wasn't a fan of VW diesels even before the cheating scandal appeared so I end up with high mileage gas engine cars. My fiesta gets 40 to 41 MPG at 70 mph and was close to the cheapest car on the lot when I bought it. Ford ads in the goodies to get folks to buy them as they need to sell a lot of fiestas to make up for the bad gas mileage of F350. NH has an excise tax based on vehicle price so a high sticker means high excise taxes for five years. Insurance is also indirectly related to sticker price so insurance is cheaper.
> 
> I guess I have to make up poor mileage and no emission's on my Unimog somehow


Fortunately/unfortunately for me, I just sold an '09 TDI wagon to help pay for the Tesla.  It did fine (37-38 MPG all around) but considering the price of diesel in my area is usually 30-40 cents more than gas, it sounds like you're doing pretty well with your fiesta.  IMHO, eventually electrics will dominate.  Yes, I am very passionate about them, but could easily argue that the current vehicle pricing doesn't make them overly competitive.  That said, considering the current prices of slightly used Volts, if you drive <40 miles a day, I don't think you can own/operate a vehicle for less.  I almost bought one several times, but really had my eye out for the Tesla.


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## BIGDADDY (Oct 2, 2015)

mass_burner said:


> I just filled up the '04 Prius yesterday for $17 and change. That's ~500 miles of driving. Let's face it, it's not just the savings.


I filled up my 2015 Chey Cruze for $32 and will be able to drive at least 400 miles.
I actually don't like the looks of the Prius and the price tag of the Prius is just way to much.
You say it's not just the savings but I say there are no real savings overall. After you lay out the money for these hybrid cars you are in the hole and I doubt will ever save your way out of that hole by saving a few dollars on your fill ups.
As  I said before if it's more about carbon footprint then money mabey a hybrid is for you.
When did you buy your 04 Prius?


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## mass_burner (Oct 2, 2015)

BIGDADDY said:


> I filled up my 2015 Chey Cruze for $32 and will be able to drive at least 400 miles.
> I actually don't like the looks of the Prius and the price tag of the Prius is just way to much.
> You say it's not just the savings but I say there are no real savings overall. After you lay out the money for these hybrid cars you are in the hole and I doubt will ever save your way out of that hole by saving a few dollars on your fill ups.
> As  I said before if it's more about carbon footprint then money mabey a hybrid is for you.
> When did you buy your 04 Prius?


Bought my '04 in late 2010 for $9200, it had 57k on it. Paid if off in 2012. It has 168k now, still gets 50mph routinely.


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## bad69bird (Oct 8, 2015)

Redbarn said:


> We bought my wife a BMW I3 Rex as her daily driver. The first month cost $19.98 to cover 604 miles.
> 
> The only service costs are to replace the windshield wipers at the end of year 1. There's nothing else to really wear out.
> The insurance was cheaper as we got an electric car discount. We leased it as the technolgy is developing rapidly, resale value is iffy and a better version will surely be available at the end of the lease.
> ...


What dealer did you purchase from?  Do the I3 not carry 4yr 50k maintiance


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## Redbarn (Oct 8, 2015)

bad69bird said:


> What dealer did you purchase from?  Do the I3 not carry 4yr 50k maintiance



We leased it for 2 years from our local dealer. 
On an electric car, the car maintenance is almost irrelevant. There's not much to maintain. 
The big issue is the battery life. BMW warranty it for 8 years. 
However the technology is evolving so rapidly that today's battery is already obsolete. Both Nissan and the Volt are offering much better batteries for their 2016 models, significantly increasing range. This just kills resale value.


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## hamslam42 (Oct 20, 2015)

Looks like you're in Somerset PA, heating a 3000 sf house. I'm curious, what would your heating costs be like if you weren't burning with wood? That's a lot of savings for the car...are you using some fuzzy math?  

I have a 2800 square foot home that we bought in 2013, and it came with a high efficiency gas furnace. Admittedly my wife and I like it a little on the colder side, especially for sleeping, and our annual gas bill only ran about $1100 to $1200 before we had our insert installed. So I can't even justify the cost of the fireplace insert alone...let alone a nice toy like that! We love the wood heat though, and I personally like all the work that goes into it (gathering, splitting, stacking, loading, lighting, drinking a beer as the fire grows, etc). I echo somebody elses reply here...if anything I'm just looking for enough savings to maybe justify those cost of a splitter someday!


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