Use a Tesla Charger on your EV

So we could not afford a Tesla, but found a spunky BMW i3 that we love. In our neighborhood in Washington Heights, Manhattan, there are few EV charging stations that are compatible, but there lots of Tesla Destination chargers that are sitting around unused and are free!!!! with one caveat: if they are in a garage you pay for the parking. Note that Tesla sells these chargers but does not operate them. The electricity is from the destination that installs them; they pay for it.

So we bought a Lectron Tesla to J-1772 adapter. Have not tried it yet but will report in when we do!

This is what we bought:

Lectron - Tesla to J1772 Adapter

There are competitors:

The Teslatap

Payenergy Tesla to J1772 Adapter

I will report back once we have given it a try!

How the BMW i3 really works

We bought our 2017 BMW i3 with Range Extender yesterday! As city dwellers without our own garage where we can plug in at night, we got concerned that the charging of this wonderful machine was going to become a real headache. We were comforted this morning when we found this video on how the range extender works. It is a small gas-powered motor that acts as a generator in the car to allow you to drive indefinitely on fuel, provided you don't have to climb long hills without a full charge.

Geothermal!

Starting to consider Geothermal heating/cooling in addition to passive solar for our future home. Some resources below:

https://www.buildmyowncabin.com/geothermal/diy-geothermal.html