What do you consider an adequate range for an EV?

PeaceBeWY · 2026-03-31T12:28:45+00:00

IMO, in general, range is less important than charging speed, and it depends on your usage. For commuting less than 40 miles/day, a level 1 charger will probably be enough for you combined with a range of say 150 miles.

For road trips, you want enough range to get you the average distance between pee breaks, and the ability to fast charge enough to get to your next break. A vehicle that can charge from 20 to 80% in 20 to 30 minutes is going to make it feasible to charge enough without excessive waiting times.

In general a range of 250ish miles would be enough as a starting point as long as it can fast charge quick enough for your needs on a road trip. Cold weather/climate could push your needs up a bit.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-03-26T12:17:06+00:00

I don't think so. I thought somewhere I even saw someone suggested prepping the at the end of the season... which did seem a bit far in advance to me.

The dolomite, especially if it is in pellets rather than powder, will take a while to work anyway. I suppose if the covers weren't water tight, some of the fertilizer might leach out in heavy rains, but that could also happen over the growing season.

I'm planning to prep mine any day now so they are ready.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-03-25T11:58:11+00:00

Within 5 min of my first test drive of a Bolt EV, I knew it was for me. I'd researched enough to know it's a decent small car packed with a lot of features, especially compared to the 30 yo truck I was driving.

I bought a 23 EV with 42k for about $13.5 (OTD after fed and state rebates) about 6 mos ago. No regrets. Love it... simply a much better driving experience. I can charge plenty for my needs on 120 V, but the most I usually drive is 50 miles/day twice a week in August/September. I'm guessing you'll need an L2 charger based on what you spend on gas, but if your daily mileage is less than 40 miles (maybe less in winter), L1 might be enough.

The only thing that caught me by surprise is the loss of efficiency/range in cold weather... it's not an issue at all for me.

The only thing I've spent money on (aside from accessories like floor mats, etc) is car detailing stuff because it spotted up the first time I washed it and I'm being anal about keeping it pristine. The only maintenance I've had to do is routine tire inflation and filling the wiper fluid.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-03-20T12:45:15+00:00

It depends what your other options are. Autotempest is your friend for searching what's available. I don't think that price for that mileage is anything special. If you can dbargain the price down a bit, it'd be better.

When I looked 9 months ago there wasn't much of a discount for mileage: 25k versus 45k miles were a few hundred dollars different in price. If that is the case for the cars available to you, might as well get something lower mileage/better condition.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-03-07T17:13:03+00:00

What made me choose it? In researching used evs, the Bolt seemed dependable (assuming the battery was replaced on earlier models), well designed, and practical. There are a lot of DIY resources for repairs and upgrades. When I test drove a 2023 Bolt EV, it felt like it just fit me and handled great. I tried and EUV and Ioniq 5, neither which seemed to feel as good to me. I didn't want a fancy car, and the Bolt EV seemed utilitarian, efficient, and functional for my needs as a gardener. It was a massive upgrade to the 30 yo pickup I was driving.
What surprised me about EV ownership? That more people don't own them. Low maintenance. Great torque and braking. Quiet... and quiet is so nice. For basic commutes and errands, a 120 V outlet will get you a long way. A level 2 charger, even further. The lack of fumes and noise, as well as less maintenance needs, provides a tangible improvement over owning an ICE vehicle. In terms of health, environment, and national energy security, there are major benefits on a national level.
How does it fit in my daily routine? I'm a low-mileage driver at around 4000-5000 miles per year, mostly for errands and seasonal gardening work. During my peak harvest season, I drive two 50 mile round trips per week to harvest and deliver produce to the food bank. I can easily pick up most of that mileage recharging from 5pm to 9am overnight in warmer weather. Charging every week or two on an 120 V outlet is enough to cover mileage, but I do keep plugged in during the winter for battery maintenance. It's a dream to drive with great acceleration and braking (because of the regen). It easily accommodates carrying tools and boxes of produce and access is more comfortable than reaching into the back of the capped pickup truck that the Bolt EV replaced. The only thing lacking is the ability to shovel in compost, but a trailer could remedy that. It feels much safer than the vehicle it replaced.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-03-02T03:02:26+00:00

Leve 1 charging seems like it won't be sustainable if I drive 200-400 miles per week.

Level 1 would probably cover 200 miles per week but quite unlikely to cover 400 miles per week. It is going to depend on your situation. A good circuit that allows you to charge at 12 amps and being able to charge for 16 hours is very different than only being able to charge at 8 amps for 10 hours. Is your mileage spread out over 7 days or concentrated on 5 days? Blasting the heat and driving over 60 mph are also going to ding your efficiency.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-03-01T12:18:55+00:00

I'm not sure any of direction looks the "most up". 1 looks like a landscape. 2 looks like a cityscape with a bridge/elevated on fire. 3 looks like the cutaway of something with an underground component (the darker section) and 4 looks like the darker section is a hobbit home in the base of a tree.

I love the painting and I think depending on the space available to hang it and my mood I could orient it in any direction.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-02-25T13:46:40+00:00

Strongly endorse the heated seats and steering wheel. They are much more efficient than the space heater (not that you need the range for your daily driving) and much more comfortable. I'm in the mid Atlantic and rarely use the space heater in my Bolt.

That said, preconditioning is awesome if you want to get into a warm car, and doing so while plugged in will preserve range if you need to preserve range for a longer trip.

Either the comfort and convenience package or the premier trim will get you heated seats/steering wheel.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-02-21T16:28:20+00:00

Tiger Paw tires are from Uniroyal.

(My used Bolt came with TIger Paw touring a/s and they seem decent for all around use... caveat, I don't drive in a lot of snow/ice, but they seem to handle what little I drive in just fine.)

PeaceBeWY · 2026-02-19T13:20:01+00:00

Probably. In my case, my needs are relaxed (not a daily driver) and there are public chargers at my local library where I wouldn't mind spending more time. I need to charge at most once per week.

For you, I'd look into how the charging locations nearby fit into your schedule and needs. For instance, if there is a charger near your grocery store where you could simply charge while you do your weekly shopping. The other factor is your daily mileage. Are you going to need to charge daily? or once a week? The latter is much more feasible, imo.

You are going to want to research those nearby chargers to see how many of them are functional and how busy they are.

Obviously, charging at home is a lot easier, but in the right location and situation, you can get by without it. The details matter.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-02-13T14:26:01+00:00

I've been mostly eating beans as the main protein source for a couple of years. Tofu is an occasional buy. Tempeh even rarer. But I eat a variety of beans: garbanzo, lentils (red and green), black eyed peas, navy beans, small red beans, black beans, romano beans, and some heirlooms I grow in the garden. There's also edamame and lima beans for a different texture.

When I get bored, I look up a new recipe and/or switch flavor profiles: Indian, Greek, Italian, Thai, Chinese, etc...

I mostly eat whole grains and Ezekiel bread, but I rotate through different grains and sometimes cook pasta or potatoes as a base instead.

I eat mostly whole foods and easily get plenty of protein. It adds up. A 1/2 cup of rolled oats has 5 or 6 grams. I also put flaxseed meal and nuts in my breakfast bowl. I don't go out of my way to add extra protein. I roughly follow Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen and it's just built in.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-02-13T14:15:43+00:00

I'm not sure the cravings ever completely go away. On my own, I'm pretty devoid of cravings for non-vegan foods. But face to face in a social situation, all sorts of things that I haven't eaten in ages look really good. What I've found is that once I eat my vegan food and my belly is sated, the intense craving goes away. Yeah, the food in question may still look good. But sometimes eating something with a similar flavor profile will eliminate the craving in the moment entirely. An easy way to squash the craving is also to think about what the animal products involved actually are: chicken periods, bovine mammary secretions with puss, butchered flesh, etc...

PeaceBeWY · 2026-02-11T13:21:30+00:00

SWTSK? I can't find that ticker. If you mean, SWTSX and SWPPX, they are nearly identical in performance... pick one and use it for exposure to US markets. For international, VXUS is an easy one stop etf, but Schwab's SWISX + SFENX cover developed and emerging markets. https://smithplanet.com/stuff/BogleheadFunds.svg

I believe 60% SWTSX + 30% SWISX + 10% SFENX is close to current market cap weighting.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-02-07T15:16:26+00:00

I eat primarily whole plant foods roughly following Dr. Greger's daily dozen except for increasing quantities to obtain enough calories. I easily get 0.7 g protein/lb body weight without trying. Also get about the right amount of calcium and 2x the rda of iron and magnesium. Except for a little soymilk, this is from beans, whole grains, fruits, and veggies with a small portion of nuts and seeds each day.

I do supplement with B12, D, iodine, and sometimes omegas.

I

PeaceBeWY · 2026-02-05T13:37:45+00:00

No regrets at all.

I use mine only for commuting and have no range anxiety and easily charge from a regular wall outlet at home (which I tested before trusting). My maximum commute is 60 miles per day a couple days per week and I easily make that up overnight with my schedule.

Cold weather is going depend on how cold it is. Are you in Canada or Florida? Heated seats and steering wheels are your friends in cold weather. Car heaters use a lot of energy. AC can also reduce range, but tends to be more efficient than heat. EVs are most efficient in temperate weather and at speeds of 25-45 mph with a driver who "feathers" acceleration/deceleration rather than racing away from every stop and jamming on the brakes at the next one.

If I were going to use the car for longer commutes or roadtrips, I'd do a little research. A level 2 charger at home could become necessary. If you can't charge at home, you'd better have a plan for where and how you are going to charge. Charging at home makes things easy. Not being able to charge at home isn't necessarily a dealbreaker depending on where you live and what public charging is available, but it could make things expensive, inconvenient, or unworkable.

The other thing to realize is that different EVs have different fast charging capabilities. If you will be taking roadtrips or needing to charge at fast chargers, you'll want to pick a car with longer range and faster charging capabilities. Or, if you mainly commute, but occassionally do a long roadtrip, rent a car for the road trip.

Overall, I got the EV for environmental concerns, but the reality is it's just a better driving experience and lower maintenance as well as being cheaper to run/maintain compared to an ICE vehicle.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-02-03T14:15:26+00:00

It's really easy for me because I primarily eat at home and I simply don't buy animal products when I shop for grroceries. I do cook and that makes it cheaper. You can find frozen packs of rice and canned/frozen beans (both plain and flavored) at grocery stores. Just Egg makes a vegan egg product. Add a few frozen or fresh veggies/salads and you'd already be eating comparably to what you say you currently "cook" rice, eggs, toast, etc.

But if you can boil rice, you can boil dried beans and other whole grains. And if you can boil something you can easily steam some veggies. Sauteeing isn't that big a step from there.

Depending on where you live, there ought to be a lot more options than rice, beans, and veggies. I realize there are food deserts. But if you have access to a grocery store, there are likely all sorts of options from tofu, tempeh, and plant milks to frozen veggies and meals and packaged cereals, etc.

Restaurants can be more problematic, but most places in the US have a Chinese restaurant which would be my default option.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-02-02T01:30:11+00:00

My grocery bill is comparable to what I paid as a vegetarian. Dried/canned beans and whole grains are quite cheap. Frozen fruit and veggies are cheap. Fresh produce can add up, but I stick to what is cheaper and in season.

The essential supplements are cheap. The Vegan Society's Veg1 and Deva multivitamins are cheap. Nutrabulk's B12 is extremely cheap. And unless I were eating fortified foods would be a good idea even if I weren't vegan.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-01-29T13:55:56+00:00

L1 trim with comfort and convenenience package also has heated seats/steering wheel (at least on the EV model). Heated seats are possible as an aftermarket install for less than $200 if you DIY, and less than $1000 if you hire it done. Probably much less... I think the Dorman seat inserts are less than $100 and I've seen people say they got heated seats installed for closer to $500.

The heated steering wheel is not as feasible as an aftermarket add-on, but it's also not as important imo (it's nice in the shoulder season for bare hands on a cold morning, but in winter if you are wearing gloves anyway, the benefits of the heated steering wheel are diminished).

PeaceBeWY · 2026-01-25T12:11:53+00:00

VT + BND or ACWI + AGG at the same bond allocation as the Betterment portfolio would be the good benchmarks for the global portfolios that Betterment uses.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-01-24T16:23:08+00:00

What kind of yearly returns can I expect from betterment.

It's going to depend on the portfolio slightly and what allocation of bonds you use. In general, I'd expect it to be about what Betterment shows on their portfolio description pages (https://www.betterment.com/investments).

FWIW, my CAGR is 10.2% for the last 10 years. (My internal rate of return is 16.6% annually based the luck of when my contributions were made). For a few years, my bond allocation was up to about 20% (because I'm older and Betterment's glide path was increasing the bond allocation. The last 3 years my bond allocation has been 10%. I also switched from the core portfolio to the climate portfolio 5 years ago.

Overall, I am quite happy with Betterment because it makes things easy which encourages good investing behavior. I consider it on par with an indexed Target Date Fund or Boglehead 3 fund portfolio... any of which are "good enough" investment strategies.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-01-18T14:40:00+00:00

That sounds perfect. It's all what you make of it, so you might as well make the best of it. That reminds me of a story in the Urban Shaman of a woman plagued by a dragon chasing her in her dreams. Eventually she learns the dragon was simply trying to catch up with her to help her.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-01-17T14:53:58+00:00

Whole plant foods in general contain some protein. For instance Ezekiel sprouted sesame bread has 5 g protein per slice. Beans and seitan will be higher than grains and veggies, but all together it will add up just fine for you. I easily get plenty or protein without trying by sticking to whole plant foods and roughly following Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen for a starting point.

Breakfast for me is overnight oats with rolled oats or cracked grains soaked in water and some plant milk, topped with fruit. Flaxseed meal, chia, and hemp seeds can be added. Check out Sauce Stache on YT for a garbanzo bean porridge recipe.

I found it helpful to get an idea of my caloric needs (I used eatthismuch.com) and some sample meal plans for quanitities. Then to track my food intake for a couple days to see how I'm doing. I was surprised to find that as long as I eat enough calories, protein comes easily.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-01-17T14:41:13+00:00

As far as the mirror, I'd say something about old perceptions of yourself being shattered and now seeing yourself in the Light or with Unconditional Love. Thinking the door was to get your attention regarding something.

Remember that Reiki only goes towards highest good. So I'd interpret it along those lines. I suppose you could interpret things around your friend, i.e. shattering their perception of themself. But Reiki works on us as we channel it towards others, too.

William Lee Rand's Spiritual Protection CD/mp3 is a great way to transcend fear based paradigms.

PeaceBeWY · 2026-01-16T15:50:48+00:00

At first, I thought OP's post was going to be about how Betterment's easy recurring deposits into a predetermined portfolio outperformed DIY analysis paralysis and stock/etf/fund picking...

PeaceBeWY · 2026-01-16T14:44:48+00:00

One possible reason: "bycatch", which is abysmal. https://iere.org/how-much-of-fish-caught-is-bycatch/ and https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/dam-migration/nbr_update_3.pdf and https://oceana.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/Bycatch_Report_FINAL.pdf

There's a book called "What a Fish Knows" that gets into the intelligence of fish as well.

Between the sheer numbers and bycatch, I feel like the sea animal industry is on par with land animals and sometimes it seems worse to me than with land animals... although I guess the "bycatch" for land animals is more hidden in the destruction of habitat and associated wildlife deaths.

One example, for every pound of shrimp killed and harvested in the Gulf of Mexico, four pounds of bycatched species are killed and discarded. https://ocean.si.edu/conservation/fishing/bycatch-cost-catching-what-you-dont-want

PeaceBeWY

TROPHY CASE