We own two electric vehicles (EV): a Tesla and a Toyota Rav. We purchased both of them used. We had some range anxiety when we were considering this so we started with just 1 EV at the beginning. We figured out how to manage the range and the next year, bought our 2nd EV. You do have to plan. The RAV gets 125 miles/charge in the summer and 80/charge in the. This suits all our around-town and day trips. The Tesla gets 250 miles in the summer 200 miles in the winter. We use that car for longer trips. Newer models have longer ranges. We installed a charging station in our garage. It’s a 220 line (same as an electric dryer). An electrician put it in for us. We have solar panels and 10 months of the year, the solar panels cover all our electrical costs. We love our EVs. We feel good about them, they are easy to use, it’s very “green” for the planet, and there is very little maintenance on our electric vehicles (no oil changes, for example). There is an app where you can see where charging stations are. For longer trips you do have to do some planning ahead but we have traveled to New York State and Canada in our Tesla. We highly recommend driving an electric vehicle.

I have kept a monthly spreadsheet of my energy use since 2002. I has been handy to see how much of my total electric use my solar panels cover, how my heating oil use dropped 400 gallons after I installed spray foam insulation in my attic, and even how the installation of solar panels in 2017 cut my A/C usage (since the panels shade the roof). The month to month comparisons can be a little mystifying, but the year over year numbers are great to see that I have been able to lower my electric use from about 25,000 kwh annually to 18,000 kwh by being more conscious of how much I use.

There are a lot of really great benefits to having solar panels. Makes sense on every level I can think of.

We purchased 48 panels for our barn in 2017. These panels feed our home, a barn and another property too. We have no payment due bills on these 3 properties! We are saving &/or making $.50/kwh. We are getting about a 12% return!

It feels so good to know the sun is powering our house. We changed all our lightbulbs to LEDs so we could reduce our electrical use so the panels can generate the electricity we need.

When we were deciding, very quickly when we did the analysis it was obvious it was a no-brainer. We also like how the panels look. It does feel good to know you are getting your electricity from the sun.

I recommend solar panels for other Medfield residents! If you want to chat about solar panels, stop by Park Street Books and say hi.

I first installed a small solar panel system (~3kw) in 2005, mainly to encourage growth of the industry and as a statement of how important the transition to renewable energy was. When Medfield participated in the Solarize program in 2016 - 17, I replaced the first generation system with a larger and more productive system. I now get about half of the electricity for my house from my solar panels, despite having a fair amount of shade on my roof.

Six years ago, we built our 'dream retirement house' here in Medfield. One of our principal requirements was for a low-maintenance lawn and garden. What we have are 10 'anchor' trees; each a native specimen and all but one that blooms. We added dozens of native shrubs and hundreds of native perennials and ground covers. There is not a blade of grass on our 1.5 acre property. We are in our seventies, but do all of our own maintenance - far less time annually than if we had a traditional lawn and foundation plantings. You can see our garden at 26 Pine Street.

this is great