Posted on 12/10/2018 9:01:28 AM PST by SeekAndFind
State and local governments in California have made housing there far more expensive than it needs to be. Developers rightly complain of regulations at both state and local levels that make housing construction unreasonably difficult and expensive. California's cities are filling up with homeless people living on the streets or in encampments whose nonexistent sanitary facilities and rampant drug abuse make them public health dangers.
As of last week, a new and burdensome regulation has made constructing a new housing unit even more expensive, by at least $10,000, the lowball estimate of the bureaucrats administering the new regulation, or up to $30,000, the estimate of a mortgage lender. Natasha Bach enthuses in Fortune:
California has taken the final step to be the first state in the nation to require solar panels on new homes.
The California Building Standards Commission on Wednesday unanimously upheld a May 9 decision to require solar panels on homes up to three stories. The requirement goes into effect Jan. 1, 2020.
Currently, just 9% of single-family detached homes in California have solar panels. But as the state pushes toward decreasing greenhouse gas emissions – and with a 2045 goal to transition to a fully renewable energy grid devoid of fossil fuels – this rule will help accelerate that progress. Aside from energy efficiency, solar panels reduce ozone-damaging household emissions, most of which come from natural gas-generated electricity.
Advocates claim that energy savings would more than pay for the extra cost of the panels, yet they are unwilling to allow private homeowners to make those calculations themselves. Norman Rogers has demonstrated on these pages that the cost calculations are skewed:
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Dear kalifornia. You elected them, you live with it, don’t make it my problem.
Where an old shoebox on a postage stamp goes for over a half million dollars, adding ~$20,000 to a new home seems a pittance to local rulers.
Insofar as there are new affordable homes being built in the state, they’re considered insignificant numbers in “flyover country” easily & contemptuously ignored by the powers that be.
I almost moved to California in 2008. Man did I dodge a bullet.
In ten years or less californicate will be site to tons of old batteries when the solar homes need new ones.
The batteries are recycled.
How many have batteries?
Developers? The same AH's who along with their contractors have hired millions of low wage illegal aliens? I have zero sympathy for these people. They only worship profits... Regardless of consequences.
I just drove through a residential section in Burleson TX of 25-30 year old starter homes. One had newly installed solar panels on three large roof sections. Those panels are huge! And ugly to boot!!
How ridiculous to try and save a few bucks and be green. Yes, they have batteries, and bet they are expensive and might last 3-5 years if they are lucky!
Lifepo batteries will be what most use for power use and lifespan.
Just another in a very long and growing list of why not to live in CA.
Lithium batteries are expensive. How many banks and inverters do you need for a 2000 sq. ft. house? Can you heat and run A/C with such a set up?
Just another big regulatory nail in the coffin of California’s housing affordability ... they keep this up, pretty soon people won’t be able to afford living in their cars or in cardboard boxes under bridges ...
All depends on what you want to set up. Many have setups that are less than what they’d use in a conventional setup, use less appliances simultaneously...lights are led and efficient, house set up to use more natural light.
$30,000 more in home sale cost means about $3,800 in additional sales taxes, at least an extra $300 a year in property taxes, and with the typical California mortgage, will run the average homebuyer $78,000 over the lifetime of the panels in mortgage payments plus at least $12,800 in taxes (not counting special district taxes...)
That’s a $90k tax increase on working families, all to make liberals feel better. Go ahead, tell the story again how those panels will pay for themselves?
Solar panels cost something to manufacture, transport, and install, and I bet it is much higher than the electricity they claim it replaces.
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