One of my goals as an entrepreneur is to build my wealth to the point where I can design a custom home on a large plot of land. This will be in stark contrast to the basic 4 bedroom home I live in today. My current home was built in the 1990’s, in a development with 1,000 other homes, with zero green tech.

This post was written with Florida’s climate in mind. I’ve detailed 9 factors that will make any home more efficient and less expensive to operate. I’m sure more factors will emerge as technology advances, but I’ve only included existing technology here. You can buy all these systems today, and the results are proven.

This home will be equipped with a traditional HVAC unit, as a back up in conjunction with the other factors listed below.

The first factor will be the way the home is sited in regards to the path (perihelion) of the sun throughout the seasons on the year. Mature deciduous trees along the south side of the home will help keep your home cooler in the summer, and when the treetop foliage thins out in the winter more sun will reach the home, keeping the temperature warmer from December to February.

The 2^nd factor will be lighter colored roof shingles, preferably white. Lighter colors reflect more heat. Some homeowners might not like the aesthetic look of lighter roof shingles, a compromise might be a lighter tan or brown. Either way the cost of the lighter shingles is exactly the same as the darker variety, but a lighter roof will reduce the heat coming into the home.

The 3^rd factor will be a radiant reflective barrier installed directly under the entire roof surface just below the attic joists. There is some controversy about thermal barrier, but if we merely lower the attic temperatures by 15 degrees this will ease the cooling needs of the HVAC system. Even with the shade trees to the south and the lighter colored shingles there will still be some sun hitting the roof and heating the home throughout the day, even from ambient light.

A cool attic means lower costs to keep the rest of the home cool.

The 4rth factor will be a photovoltaic array in the backyard, hooked to a motorized system that tracks the perihelion of the sun throughout the day. Why not solar on the roof? The efficiency of current solar panels drops in high heat conditions, so it makes more sense to keep the panels in the backyard, mounted in an area with sun exposure from early morning to late afternoon. The energy from the photovoltaics could also be used to charge our vehicles, especially when the panels are generating more electricity than needed by the home at that moment.

Of course, the home would still be connected to the local electric utility, but with the goal of only using energy from the grid as a secondary or emergency source of power. There are many power storage solutions out there, mostly based on lithium ion batteries, but being grid connected makes sense until far superior battery technology comes to market.

The 5^th factor will be a geothermal cooling system that consists of a series of pipes that extend 100 feet deep under the home site. Underground temps hover between 55 to 60 degrees in Florida, a geothermal system pumps water down to a matrix of coils underground, the cold water is then pumped back up to the house to cool the interior of the home. This is far more efficient than running a standard AC unit.

Residential electricity usage in Florida is 41% higher in the summer months because of the electricity needs of a typical AC unit. The other cooling factors mentioned above (factors 1-3) would passively cool the home, causing the blower and geothermal pumps to run less throughout the day. Here’s what a simplified geothermal system looks like:

The 6^th green factor will be energy efficient appliances, LED light bulbs, and motion sensors in each room that will turn out the lights when no one is there. Perhaps this timer could also be set to television sets, computers, or any other electric device that can be shut down when the room is empty.

The 7^th factor will be high quality / well insulated doors and windows, keeping the environmental envelope of the home cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Part of the discomfort from the heat here in Florida is the high humidity from March to October. A better insulated home will stay dryer and cooler, requiring less electricity throughout the day.

The 8^th factor will be a solar hot water heater mounted on the roof. This system will store hot water during the day, to be used in the evening for showers, laundry, etc. In the winter the heated water can be run through the HVAC blower to warm the air in the home as well.

The 9^th factor will be a simple water conservation system that collects condensation from the traditional HVAC in addition to rainwater from the roof. This water can be used to water the lawn or any other beneficial plants grown on the site. Here at my home in Florida I keep a bucket under the AC condensation outlet and collect 10-15 gallons of water per DAY in the summer. I currently use AC condensation to water the orchids and plants around our home.

These 9 factors will have to be built into the home, but the additional cost will be offset long term by a minimal electric bill. The home will still be connected to the local electric company, but the monthly electrical bill will be minimal, maybe $20 per month.

The small HVAC unit in the home will act as a back-up to the geothermal and solar heating units, in the event that those systems are not heating or cooling the home enough in extreme weather. This might require a central computer system that monitors all the household systems and regulates the needed energy flow as needed.

In the event of a power outage this home would still stay cool and comfortable. The solar panels would capture enough electricity during the day to run the geothermal cooling system if the weather was hot. The solar heater could be used to heat the home if it was cold (we might have to put on a sweater here in Tampa).

I’d rather have a spacious home with green technology rather than a fancier place with a grand foyer, of a giant ornate staircase, or any of the other ego-driven junk that one finds in million dollar luxury homes.

When you visit my green home in the year 2025 I can show you where you can plug in your car, then walk you through the orchid greenhouse and show you how our geothermal system is set up. Maybe after that we can check out the Tilapia tank and how we use the nitrogen from the Tilapia to grow hydroponic vegetables…..

It’s good to have a clear vision of where you want to go, and when I’m out growing my business I think about all the cool things that you can do when money is no longer a limiting factor.

Benjamin T. Alexander

February 6 . 2017

UPDATE: soon after this post was written I joined Tampa Bay Solar and went on to close hundreds of solar deals. 

Yes, I got solar on my home, and it powered 2 Chevy Volts! 

My daughter Claire was under the weather Monday afternoon so I filled her balloon gig that night. I’m the spare artist for the Tampa team, the twister of last resort.

That restaurant has used Balloon Distractions for many years, and I fill the gig there every few months. One of the managers was an artist on our team about 10 years ago, it’s always nice to see him as well.

You never know who you’ll run into later on, sometimes unexpected people circle back into your life. This is a great reason to be nice to everyone. Being decent to folks has a great long term return on investment.

When I put on a balloon apron and approach a table they have no idea I’m a business owner, a writer, or anything else. The customer just sees an average looking middle aged guy, they probably wonder why someone my age is twisting balloons in a restaurant!

The parents don’t know I run a national company and they don’t care. I’m there to make their child happy, nothing more.

Wearing a rainbow of balloons and entertaining children is always humbling.

Filling a booking keeps my ego in check, and I need that.

Ego is destructive and expensive. It’s a huge pitfall for leaders.

Someday I’ll no longer fill bookings, perhaps I’ll develop a Regional Leader to run the Tampa region and step back from that role myself. Until then I’m ordering balloons, getting my apron set up, and heading out to fill gigs.

I won’t stop filling bookings until I’m totally debt free, and my income from the LIFE business exceeds my income from Balloon Distractions. There will be a “last day” when I finally untie my apron, and retire my Sharpie marker forever.

I’ll probably write about it here.

Happy Twisting folks!

Benny the Balloon Guy

February . 2017

This pic was taken years ago, my daughter Claire was probably in 5th grade at the time.

She’s in college now, saving money by living at home and commuting to USF down in Tampa. Claire has 3 sources of income; she works at a jewelry store, fills bookings for BD, and gets paid a residual trainer bonus on several entertainers she recruited over the last three years.

When Claire was old enough to drive I made her save $5,000 in CASH before we even looked at used cars. Claire’s Honda was paid for by balloon twisting in restaurants and at events!

Some parents buy a car for their children, but I feel that this is a huge mistake. If we want to raise self-reliant adults we have to teach them delayed gratification, responsibility and accountability. Claire has some friends with over-indulgent parents who buy everything for them. These kids go to college but don’t work, they’ve never had a job, but they’ve become very good at getting high, drinking excessively and sleeping around.

I worked several jobs in college, and it kept me out of trouble. By the time I was 21 years old I went to Taiwan on a one-way plane ticket with $1,000 in my pocket (that I had earned sorting boxes at UPS and delivering pizza). My parents were surprised that I made such a leap, but working and paying for my own stuff taught gave me self confidence in my own abilities. Enough confidence to live 12 time zones away!

At the same time our kids in college need us for guidance, a 19 year old kid like Claire might think she knows everything, but her life experience is minimal at best. Even in college our kids might look like full grown adults, but they still have plenty to learn about life in general.

Claire knows I love her to pieces, but when she recently got a speeding ticket I showed her how to sign up for the driving class (to get the points taken off), made her pay for the class, then made sure she paid the ticket… with her own money.

Paying $279 for an avoidable speeding ticket will teach her a lesson that words will not.

The great thing about lessons learned at an early age is how they are less expensive now than later. If Claire can avoid debt at 20 years old it will be easier to avoid debt at 30 or 40. The same goes for excessive drinking, bad habits, procrastination, low work ethic and all the other challenges that I see in adults much older than Claire.

People are going to screw up, my daughters are going to make boneheaded mistakes, and that’s OK as long as they learn from those mistakes moving forward.

Of course, you never really know whether you’re a good parent or not until your children are grown and out on their own. I want to give my girls the right tools to go forth and prosper, but at some point they are accountable for their own decisions; good, bad and ugly.

Benjamin T. Alexander

January 31 . 2017

Sometimes I write to codify and remember things, like this post about my daughter:

https://balloondistractionsblog.com/2017/01/27/an-afternoon-with-grace/

We tend to forget things, and writing about anything will clarify your thought process and help you reach certain conclusions. Writing is a natural step after we read and think about something, at least in my case.

This blog is a reverse chronology of my life since 2014… going on Shark Tank, joining the Life business, growing Balloon Distractions, the last presidential race, even buying a car.

These are eclectic pages; from posts about Jim Rohn, Elon Musk and MLK Jr. to Super Sonic Spheres, Sacred Geometry and Simplistic Socks.   

This page is connected to the Balloon Distractions website, as well as the online scheduler for our artists… but I might be the only person who reads these posts. Once in awhile our Shark Tank episode airs as a rerun, and this blog gets 100 hits on an odd Monday.

Writers feel a need to write. If this medium had been around when Winston Churchill was alive he probably would have written even more. A blog is not as serious as a book that is printed and bound.

When my mind begins to permanently leave me I can scroll through these posts and try to remember who I was and what I was doing during that season of my life.

Perhaps a clever piece of artificial intelligence coding will absorb these words and perfectly mimic my voice, creating a facsimile of my personality long after I’ve become worm food.

There is a verse in the Good Book that says “We know not the time nor the place” of our own demise. I expect to reach 250 years old as a cybernetic robot, but if this does not pan out my silly blog might persevere, perhaps as an item of interest to someone born centuries after I’m gone.

I wish my great, great, great- grandfather had written about his experiences as a Union soldier in the Civil War, all I know is that he survived the war, only to die in a railroad accident soon after.

I suppose that all media will be preserved somewhere; the digital files of everything ever written, spoken and videotaped. Imagine if the search engine in 2075 lets you build a three dimensional dossier on whomever you want, perhaps with a holographic avatar that looks and acts exactly like your subject of interest.

Interested in Elon Musk? A 3-D avatar of Musk will appear before you, you’ll be able to hold a conversation with him, compare chocolate cookie recipes, even take him with you to go miniature golfing.

OK. That’s enough for today. At least I didn’t write about my car.

Benjamin T. Alexander

January 30th . 2017

This is a picture of a massive Buckee’s gas station in Texas. This place has 120 gas pumps, 83 bathroom stalls, and 68,000 square feet of retail space. On my swing through Houston I saw one of these monstrosities on I-10 just outside of Beaumont.

Wanna fuel up at a gas station that’s visible from outer space? Go to Buckee’s!

Here is Buckee’s beaver mascot, isn’t he glorious!

Gas stations advertise with huge signs on 250 foot poles that you can see from miles away, some gas stations even put up billboards before the exit. Ray Charles could find a gas station on any given interstate, provided someone tossed him the car keys that day.

As of 2014 there were 260 million registered passenger vehicles in the United States, 15.5 million commercial trucks, plus hundreds of thousands police, fire, and government vehicles. Selling gasoline along a highway is a pretty steady business, even with competing gas stations every exit.

In contrast to the Buckee’s pictured above here is an EV charging station I found at a local bank in Land ‘O Lakes:

No billboards, no lighted signs. I used my GPS to find this charging station, but even after the GPS told me where to turn I still had to hunt around to find it. The charging station is about chest height, if a minivan was parked in that parking spot I would have missed it.

I’ve hunted down several charging stations over the last few weeks, one was hidden behind a Home Suites hotel, another was at a Nissan dealer… none of them were obvious.

Do you love to find hidden charge stations? Buy a plug-in electric vehicle!

It takes 5-10 hours to put a significant charge on most electric vehicles, so the best charging station for most folks is in their driveway, all night long. I used the gas generator in my Volt about 98% of the time when I was on the road. If all the gas stations closed down and I had to drive on electrons only it would have taken 3 weeks to get home.

A public charging station makes sense at a hotel, your workplace or your college; any place where you’re going to spend most of the day. A charger at a bank or a grocery store is just plain silly, you’ll be in and out. Your car might get an extra mile of charge.

Someday charging stations will have better technology, and plug in electric vehicles will have batteries with a thousand mile range, or better. By then you’ll see more advertising for charge stations, probably lit by LED lights and powered by solar….

Ben Alexander

January . 2017

I sold Toyotas from September of 2001 to November of 2003. I was still in Toyota sales when I landed our first restaurant clients for Balloon Distractions.

Back then I always liked the Avalon, but I would never buy a new one, too expensive at $38,000.

The Avalon always came standard with the 3.5 liter / 268 HP engine that was originally developed for Lexus, but also found use in the Toyota minivan and the Camry. The Avalon was a step up from the Camry, with a huge backseat, better sound deadening in the interior, and a bunch of shared components with the Lexus ES350.

In 2012 I bought the 2006 model pictured above for just over $12,000. It had 72,000 miles on it, and the dashboard had cosmetic cracks, but other than that the car was in awesome shape. It looked like a retired guy with time on his hands had maintained it (a guy like my Dad).

The Avalon is known for being driven by card carrying AARP members, so I was the rare buyer at 37 years old.

3 years ago Toyota did a full recall on the cracked dash, replacing the entire thing at no cost to me. From 72,000 to 188,000 miles I only spent money on gasoline and tires, synthetic oil changes, a new front axle for $800, a tune up for $600 and two brake jobs for about $350 each.

At one point a teenager in a Honda hit my back bumper, so I got a new rear bumper for free as well.

When the AC on the Avalon stopped working earlier this month I looked at the 188K on the odometer, test drove a used Chevy Volt, and was pleasantly surprised when the Chevy dealer gave me 3K for my 11 year-old car.

My largest expense on the Avalon was the $12K purchase price and the additional $13K I spent on gasoline. The car was heavy with a powerful engine, I probably averaged 23 miles per gallon. On the open highway the Avalon rolled peacefully at 80 mph, the engine at 2500 rpm, barely working.

Even at 100 mph the engine was only turning 3,000 rpm!

The picture above was taken during one of my summer road trips to Rochester, New York, to work with Balloon Distraction’s team in that area. This car took me all over the eastern half of the United States, from Chicago to Boston to Miami to DFW.

With big wheels, a long wheelbase and a strong engine the Avalon could roll at 80 all day, there were days when I put 900 miles on the odometer, listening to CDs on the sound system… and I felt like I had been sitting on my couch all day.

On one swing through Atlanta the battery gave out at 5AM in a gas station parking lot. I took a nap (nothing was open that early) and when I woke up 2 hours later I realized that I had been stranded across the street from a Toyota dealer!

Even with 188,000 miles on it my Avalon still looked great, I used to park it in the corner of the parking lot away from other vehicles, so it was ding free. The white paint really held up under the Florida sun, the only sign my car was 11 years old was the 2006 styling and the faded plastic on the headlights.

I found the picture above in my phone, and it inspired this post. This car was just a machine made out of metal, plastic and leather, but it took me through a 5 year period of my life that I’ll never forget. Those 5 years represented a transition, I’m a different person today at 42 compared to who I was at 37. I’d like to think that I’m a better human, with less ego and more compassion today.

When I handed the dealer my Avalon keys on January 9th and drove off the lot in a Chevy Volt I felt like one era was ending and another was beginning. The Avalon was the 2011 version of myself… and the Volt represented the future, a new beginning.

The next 5 years will be amazing, a time when some of the good work I’m doing now will  come to fruition.

I’m moving towards a debt-free life, a life of freedom, a life of expanded possibilities.

Benjamin T. Alexander

January 28, 2017

2022 UPDATE:  About a month after this post was written I joined Tampa Bay Solar, and a year later I sold Balloon Distractions.

In the five years after this was written many things took place… it was INDEED a transition in my life!

My daughter Grace is in the home stretch of her Senior year in high school. She’s worked really hard and gotten great marks so I let her take a day off from school this week. She wanted to go to St. Pete, have lunch at her favorite restaurant, and check out some of the artsy stuff in that part of Tampa Bay.

There are several glass blowing studios in St. Pete, so we stopped at one and toured their gallery. They let us watch one of the craftsmen on the bench, if you’ve never seen anyone heat and manipulate glass check it out on YouTube. Glass blowing has been around for centuries, its one of those skills that an individual can learn and spend decades mastering.

After we visited the glass studio we stopped at a former rail station that had been converted into a clay and pottery workshop with a display space. Across the street I saw the mural above. Being a cheeseball Dad I had to take that picture….

If you’ve have never heard of Nicola Tesla feel free to read about him on Wikipedia. If you have never heard of the Chevy Volt just scroll down and read my posts from the last few weeks. There are several epic murals painted on buildings off Central Avenue in St. Petersburg. You have to drive around a bit to find them, here is the mural across the street from where we ate lunch:

Grace and I ate at Hawkers restaurant on Central Avenue. The prices there are reasonable,  the food is top notch. Central Ave near Rays stadium has gone upscale, there are several good restaurants and galleries in that area. If you haven’t been to St. Petersburg in a few years check it out.

We drove west after lunch and got some ice cream while we walked on the beach on Treasure Island. It was breezy, maybe in the low 70’s. Florida in January. The weather was just perfect on Wednesday, one of the benefits of living this far south.

This was one of those laid back days that Grace and I will remember for a long time. As she gets older I might not see her as much, and before I lose her to geography or boyfriends (or both) I want to spend as much time with her as possible.

Ben Alexander

January 27, 2017

This past Christmas I put up more lights than ever before. My dad gave me about 200 feet of some old LED lights he wasn’t using anymore, and I bought some extra LEDS at Lowe’s. I went around the roofline of my entire house, even the backyard.

We got a 10 foot live tree, it was the heaviest tree I’ve ever placed in my living room, and it almost totally blocked the back door to the lanai. The tree was so big there was enough room for all of our ornaments!

The evergreen was still up when I got back from my business tour through the Southeast, so I took it down and got out the ax. I don’t know if the trash collector will take a whole tree so I chopped it in bits and started filling the trash can. I put some of the wood chips in a bowl in our bedroom, for the pine scent.

A few years ago I took down the huge wooden swing set in our backyard using the same ax. It’s a great workout, chopping wood works all the muscles in your arms and back. If you don’t know how to swing an ax you should get a cord of firewood and go to town on it.

For some strange reason I had nothing booked today, so I pulled all the stuff out of my garage and started putting things in better order. I don’t know why, by my garage seems to devolve into chaos every few months, I suppose the law of entropy is alive and well in that specific part of my home. My office tends to stay neat, but not my garage.

I drove to Goodwill twice in my Volt, removing a ton of stuff from my garage. Later on my wife came home from a real estate appointment and we went out to the see The Founder, about McDonald’s franchisor Ray Kroc. After cleaning the garage, chopping up a Christmas tree and also swimming laps it felt great to just relax.

I drove a total of 40 miles today, but my Volt only used one TENTH of a gallon of gas!

There are so many things that can bring us happiness; working hard towards a tangible result, a date with our spouse, even saving money on gasoline.

A great cure for the blues is as simple as just doing something productive; washing your car, cleaning out that closet, washing those socks. Throw out or give away whatever you haven’t touched in the last 12 months (except for tools, a good hammer can last for 200 years).

Today I found the “Groom” and “Bride” wine glasses from my wedding 19 years ago. I kept the wine glasses, we can use them to toast our 20th anniversary this summer.

Benjamin T. Alexander

January 21rst . 2017

On Thursday morning a week ago I unplugged my Chevy Volt at 6AM, put my suitcase in my trunk and started driving north.

I had just bought a used 2013 Chevy Volt on January 9th, so I figured the best way to test it would be a swing from Atlanta to Louisville to Little Rock to Houston and then back home.

By 2PM on the first day I was in Kennesaw, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. I had a late lunch with the top leaders on Balloon Distraction’s Atlanta team, then continued on to Louisville.

Life Leadership had a huge conference in Louisville on Friday and Saturday. A bunch of folks from my LIFE team attended the conference, so we saved money by renting a house from Air B&B.

Renting a house was a great idea, I could plug in my Volt in the garage, and we cooked meals in the kitchen. Its always less expensive to stay in and cook, one morning I made French toast for everyone! The people who gravitate towards the LIFE business tend to be very nice, so we had a great time hanging out together.

The house we rented was built in the 1920’s, it reminded me of the first home I bought in Baltimore back when my daughters were just babies. There was a warmth to the home, a certain aura that is hard to nail down or measure. It felt different than staying in a hotel room, more restful.

10,000 people attended the Life conference, the speakers onstage really knocked the ball out of the park. If you have never gone to one of these conventions you should check it out, wow. I got a ton out of the convention, and so did my team.

On Sunday morning I unplugged my Volt and headed towards Little Rock. That afternoon I held interviews in the search for a Regional Leader for a new Balloon Distractions team in that area. I met some great people, only time will tell whether they take action or not.

I choose Little Rock because it was halfway between Kentucky and Texas! Since I was driving through anyway it made sense to try to get something going there. In business you never know what thin threads will lead to your next team!

I got to Houston at 2AM early Monday morning, and fell into bed exhausted!

On Monday and Tuesday I worked with our Balloon Distractions leaders to sell new clients and recruit artists from the local colleges. I’ve been in and out of Houston since 2005, so I’m familiar with the layout of the city and many of the local brand restaurants found there. Houston is just a huge city, with business everywhere, linked by giant dusty highways that always seem to be busy.

I’m always amazed by the size and scope of the restaurants in Texas, there are so many places that seat 400 or more people, huge restaurants that are not common in the East.

The restaurant managers we pitched were all very nice, another thing I’ve noticed about Texans in general. I don’t know if everything in Texas is bigger, but the restaurant chains seem to adhere to that rule, from what I’ve seen over the years. One gets the sense that there is a ton of money in Houston, even though the oil business is down right now.

In many ways Tampa Bay feels sleepy compared to Houston, but in our defense the drivers on our roads are not as stressed or insane as what one finds on Houston highways. I was tailgated, cut off in my own lane, and a car in front of me came to a dead stop in 70 mph traffic in the middle of an 8 lane freeway!

On Tuesday night we had a “Balloon Jam” with our Houston team, it was great to see how nice the team was, very professional, and how they had mad balloon twisting skills. I spoke to them about increasing their income by becoming trainers, and they were receptive to the idea.

I strive to love everyone, and expect nothing. Leaders always emerge in any group, my role is to find them and simply encourage them to take the next step.

On Wednesday morning a massive thunderstorm woke me up at 4AM. It sounded like all the oil refineries in Galveston were being blown up. My stuff was packed, so I braved a downpour to start the 980 mile drive home.

Route 10 east for 12 hours, then 4 hours south on route 75 to Wesley Chapel!

At one point along I-10 I needed a quick nap, so I found a charge station on my GPS and charged the Volt for free at a Nissan dealership. It was only a 120 volt charger, so my 30 minute nap gave me 8 miles on full electric mode.

8 free miles folks, on Nissan’s dime!

It took until 9:30 Wednesday night to get home, just under a week after I left Tampa.

980 mind-melting miles in one day, 3400 miles in 7 days, less than 100 gallons of gas burned for the entire trip. Most of those miles were at 80 mph or faster, and I tend to drive aggressively. If I drove like a Grandma I might have done the entire 3400 miles in under 90 gallons.

The Volt was a great car for the trip, I charged it up when possible and filled it with gas when charging was not convenient. It rode as fast and smooth as my old Toyota Avalon, and used far less gas along the way.

I think any entrepreneur could benefit from buying a used Volt (new ones are too expensive). My 2013 Volt cost me just a little more than my used Avalon, yet I’ll spend $6,000 LESS in gas over the next 100,000 miles.

The Volt is fast, like a car with a V-6, but without spending $50 a week on gas.

The Volt rides better than the Toyota Prius, and has far better efficiency if you can charge it on a regular basis. In my opinion the Chevy Volt is the best road car you can by used for under $15K, especially for anyone who drives over 20,000 miles per year.

If you need to replace your current vehicle go test drive a used Volt, you’ll see what I mean.

Benjamin T. Alexander

January 20th . 2017

Every time I gassed up my Avalon over the last 120,000 miles some of those dollars went to the Middle East and Russia. I sat down and figured out that over the last 120,000 miles I spent over $13,000 on dead (then liquefied) dinosaur remains.

What if 90% of my daily driving could be under electric power? The 2013 Volt can drive on full electric for 40 miles, this means that if I drive less than 40 miles each day my gas usage would be zero, nada, zilch. NO dollars to Putin, the Saudi’s, and all the other dictators and oligarchs who participate in OPEC.

I know, some of that electricity comes from burning coal, but it also comes from nuclear fission and natural gas turbines. At least is doesn’t fund another dacha for Putin outside of Moscow.

I could save $10,000 in fuel costs, even when you factor in a slightly higher electric bill charging the Volt each night. And that $10,000 is based on gas prices TODAY, where will they be in 3 or 4 years? Who cares!

I went back to the local Chevy dealer to take a second look at a used 2013 Volt. They let me take the car for a test drive on my own, casually tossing me the keys: “Bring it back when you’re done”. I must look trustworthy or something…

I drove the Volt to my Dad’s house and let him drive it. He loved it. We drove it around Wesley Chapel a bit. In sport mode the car is fast, smooth, it feels like a spaceship, in a good way. The Volt is not that different from the Tesla, especially when the battery is at full charge; its fast, very quiet, very high tech.

When the 40 mile range on the battery is exceeded the gas generator turns on, and you can hear it working like any other small car engine. The gas engine extends the range another 250 miles, which makes the Volt practical for longer trips. With the gas engine charging the electric motor the Volt gets similar mileage to my wife’s 2010 Prius.

This is still TWICE as good as my old Avalon, about 45 mpg.

By the time I got back to the Chevy dealer I was ready to negotiate. We went back and forth for an hour, they were willing to give me 3K for my 2006 Avalon with 188,000 miles on it. I kept thinking about how that if I don’t buy the Volt and opt for another V-6 car I’ll spend an extra $10,000 in gas over the next 4 or 5 years. In a way this makes a used Volt for 14K much cheaper than it actually looks.

The Volt drives like an expensive car with similar acceleration to any luxury vehicle with a V-6 engine. I’ve driven several types of V-6 powertrains, from BMW, Mercedes, Cadillac, Lexus and even Jaguar. The Volt stands up to all of them.

Electric power has a ton of torque, the Tesla is faster off the line than the best V-8 engines on the market, jut look at the drag races on YouTube pitting the Tesla against the hellcat.

There are less maintenance costs on an electric or hybrid vehicle, less oil changes, and the brakes last longer because regenerative braking uses the generator to slow the vehicle in addition to the brake pads. My wife’s 2009 Prius hit 152,000 miles before we traded it, I never had the brakes done, at all!

I bid farewell to my 11 year old Avalon, and drove home in a RED Volt. I parked it next to my wife’s Prius and our daughter’s 2007 Accord. Now the four banger Accord is the gas guzzler in the bunch!

The future is here, and plugged into my house tonight.

Benjamin T. Alexander

January 9, 2017