Drew Dowdell

And GM's truck sales are higher than Ford's.

If you're looking to do geothermal electrical generation then yes, you need underground steam. Geothermal for heating/cooling a house is based on the principle that at a certain depth underground, the earth stays a fairly constant temperature (I seem to recall it being 55 degrees F, but don't quote me). The geothermal systems they install are basically heat pumps. You can get an above ground heat pump, but they aren't very effective nor efficient below about 20 degrees, and virtually useless below 15 degrees. There simply isn't enough heat in the outside air to pump into your house at those temperatures. By having a constant temperature below ground, you can pump that 55 degrees up into the house, concentrate it, and warm your home. The systems also work in reverse for air conditioning, you pump the heat out of your house and release it in the earth. Since all you're doing is pumping heat from outside your house to the inside... or vice versa... all you have to pay for is the electricity to run the pump. There is no fuel to burn and thus no fuel to pay for. The downside is the very large up-front costs to install these systems, but if it is a place you think you'll be in for a while, the cost savings and increased property value could make it worth it. The rough estimate for my 1,700 square foot place was about $25k, but my place is well insulated, so the cost savings over a standard high efficiency gas furnace would never make up the cost. Some more info on How GeoThermal Works

Definately look into geothermal then. Expose brick interior is virtually impossible to insulate. Brick and cement are terrible at heat insulation, so no matter what HVAC system you put in, you'll be losing a lot of that energy to the outside world. Geothermal would mean no fuel to burn to heat the place. You could, in theory, also do rooftop solar hot water and then use that to do radiant floor heating, but it really depends on how the place is set up. My friends in Germany built their house brand new with solar hot water (and PV, but that's not the point here) and that system will burn you if you aren't careful in the shower.

In the spreadsheet? No they are broken down by brand. But they will say stuff like "GM trucks posted an xx% sales increase, beating industry average." or some such thing. They do that fairly frequently.

Would you call Truth About Cars a fanboy? The had the GM death clock. http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/10/gm-sold-124000-pickup-trucks-ford-first-three-quarters-2015/ TruckYeah on Jalopnick raise the same issue I did. - http://truckyeah.jalopnik.com/why-ford-gm-and-rams-truck-sales-numbers-are-all-kind-1642486291 FastLaneTrucks seems to agree with me. http://www.tfltruck.com/2014/10/chevy-and-gmc-sell-more-trucks-than-f-series-in-september-sales/

If you've got a yard and can get a driller in there, then you can do geothermal. For a place that large, you'd probably have to punch three or four 55ft deep holes in the yard. The nice thing about geothermal is that it does your heat, hot water, and A/C, so it's all one system. It doesn't use any fuel, it only uses electricity to run the pump and fan blowers. One of the things most legitimate solar installers will tell you is that you want to make the building as energy efficient as possible first before you start down the solar route. No point installing solar just to waste it on an inefficient HVAC system. Tackle the low hanging energy fruit first. Are these exposed brick walls on the interior?

You can pay to have an energy audit done. Usually done through your local gas or electric utility. That will give you an idea. For a building that large and a remodel that large, you may want to look into geothermal. Large upfront cost, but then low low low heating bills. It also increases the value of the property significantly, usually by as much as you put into installing it.

Interesting... I've been shopping for an F-150 Raptor King Ranch Super Duty Limited.... can't find any on the lots.

My point was that there is a Cruze hybrid... they just don't call it a Cruze... nor a hybrid....

The energy price is only half the bill. That is a pretty good energy rate. I pay about the same for 100% renewable, but I got a really good deal.. it's actually lower than the coal rate in my area. The other half of the bill is the delivery charge. You can't shop that around, it's the same for everyone in your service area and generally regulated by the states. It's typically 5.5c kWh - 10c kWh. So when you get your bill the total amount per kWh will be closer to 12c.

Double it, triple it, quadruple it, quintuple it... It's still less than $44k by at least 5 figures. You're an entire Ford Focus off with your cost estimate.

I'm assuming you don't know what F.U.D. is. It means "Fear", "Uncertainty", and "Doubt". You've certainly covered all of these in this thread. Here's just a small sampling. Fear - You're spreading fear about range. You talked about range anxiety a lot by extrapolating your own driving practices to the rest of the driving populous. Yet the Bolt's and Tesla's range is more than enough for daily use of 98% of the non-commercial driving population. For road trips I have already shown you maps of trips between a number of major metropolitan centers where you get through your whole trip with one short charge up mid-route. Doubt - You're spreading doubt about battery life. Without any proof, and in fact in spite of proof to the contrary, you are doubting the long term battery life of these vehicles. There are many documented cases of hybrids going over 400k on their first battery. Frequent regenerative braking is actually harder on batteries. Batteries cycling up and down is basically an EV "wear item". That means that hybrid taxi batteries (and in fact any part on a taxi) have a substantially harder duty cycle than hybrid batteries in a typical family car. You know that, I know that, everyone in the world who knows what a Taxi is knows that, yet you persist in trying to spread this doubt anyway. Uncertainty - You're spreading uncertainty about battery costs. The Tesla battery doesn't cost $44k. That was a wild guess by someone online, but since it suits your narrative, you went with it. Tesla was selling batteries for the Roadster for $12,000 ten years ago... battery prices per KW have gone down, not up. The Model-S's batteries are warrantied for unlimited miles in 8 years. Tesla has stated that the batteries cost less than 25% of the cost of the vehicle. Even on a $100k P90, that's only $25,000. Somewhere between $12,000 and $44,000 is the likely true number..... $25,000 sounds about right for a P90. For a vehicle like the Bolt which has a smaller battery pack, that amount is likely a lot lower. As the batteries in both the hybrids and EVs (yes, I'm aware they use two different technologies) have largely proven to have longer lives than the cars themselves, the whole replacement cost uncertainty is largely academic.

Erm... no. The difference between the Silverado and Sierra is no different than the difference between an F-150 XL and a Lariat and a Kind Ranch and a Raptor and Super Duty. It's just a different grille/headlights/hood in the half ton GMs and Ford does the same thing just without swapping out headlights. Which badge is on the GM trucks is largely immaterial. Even if you wanted leave out the GM Mid-sizers (which I'm sure you do since Ford has a big fat zero in that sales column right now), the two companies are pretty close.. .GM isn't behind Ram as you tried to imply with your original post and I have since corrected. When you look at the YTD numbers for half-tons and 3/4 tons at Ford and GM, you get Ford at 595,656 and GM at 589,996.... or a difference of only 5,660 units... GM is less than 1% behind for the year to date. When you include the mid-sizers, GM's number rises to 697,249 while Ford remains at 595,656... meaning GM sold 100,000+ more trucks than Ford so far for the year.

Yes, 400k. The Escape Hybrid Taxis age out before the batteries die. $44k is not the cost of a Tesla battery. Tesla is on record saying that it is less than one quarter the cost of the car and they credit you the cost of the old one. The Tesla batteries are also refurbishable. They can take out worn out cells and replace them. Therefore they can sell you a refurbished pack for less money. Even if after 300k miles the battery capacity is down to 75%, in a P85, that's still 200 miles of range. Stop spreading F.U.D.

The batteries are lasting longer than anyone ever expected them to even in hybrids. The Escape Hybrid's batteries generally don't quit below 400k miles.

I think they should have just called it Super.

The current Regal was always capable of having a V6. It was built to be able to handle the 2.8TT, which while no longer in production, is the same basic block externally as the 3.6. So there's no reason why even in the current car, the 3.6 wouldn't just drop right in.

oreally?

Silverado + Sierra = 63,488 Also - Canyon + Colorado = 13,332 Meaning GM sold 76,820 trucks last month

That may be partially because there's no alternative until now. I think once EVs become more mainstream it will become a thing. I'm already there with my lawnmower... I switch from gas to an electric that was given to me and I doubt I'll ever go back to gas.

Selling this in the US is an afterthought. They are going after the wealthy Chinese here. Also, the comparable Cadillac is still going to be more. A 2017 Lacrosse AWD rollin on 20s and every option box checked is $50k. An AWD XTS with no options checked is $53k. The Regal GS Gone Wild is $42k... equip an ATS the same way and you'll be over $47k.

It only works in custom streams, not the built-in Unread Content. Are you looking under custom streams? Mine just happens to be named Unread Content.

If they get access to the better engines, I agree. What I think this really is, is for China. Buick has clout there and they probably feel that a high end luxury trim of each model will sell well. 3 out of every 4 Buicks sold globally is sold in China. We're only getting it here as they throw us scraps of what they plan for China... it costs them nothing to slap the same trim pieces on that they've already designed for overseas and charge a giant markup for it. I don't have the numbers from this year, but as far as Denali goes, as of last year, just the Denali trim outsold the Lincoln brand. It also outsold Jaguar and Land Rover combined. So I can really see why GM would want to try and replicate that with Buick.

It really depends on how Buick goes about doing it. If this is just another way of saying "Limited" or "Platinum".... then meh.

I'm okay with the idea, but eh on the name. It just doesn't flow well with the other names in the lineup. Buick Encore Avenir.... Buick Lacrosse Avenir.... Buick Enclave Avenir.... Denali worked because it was its own high end model first and had unique front sheet metal to make it something "more".