If their religion wasn't in charge of politics and the Dims' stupid war on energy, I wouldn't have to have an EV or solar. Energy would be dependable and cheap.
Posted on 04/19/2023 3:15:55 AM PDT by NautiNurse
We use ethanol free for our boats down here. Over here near Tampa Bay regular unleaded gas went from 3.59/gal to 3.75/gal overnight.
My neighbor got them right after getting her new tile roof. The installers broke several tiles while installing them. They had to be removed and new tiles replaced then the panels put back on. She said she hasn’t seen that much difference in her bills and she’s always holding her breath if the solar company is still in business for service. I asked if she’d do it again and she said “NO”.
I have been approached multiple times at the pump while filling the car with corn-free gasoline. A wizened cab driver praised me for being smart, and another gentleman went on a tear about how awful ethanol is for engines. Others simply ask why I use the expensive stuff. I tell them it keeps my car happy and sober. I live in the Tampa Bay area too.
Count me in with your neighbor.
Amen to your solar assessment.
Our electric producers went through the customer screaming phase. Those with solar systems who bought into the scam of selling power back to utilities felt jilted expecting retail returns for their useless daytime home generated power.
Economics quickly stopped the demands of those buying solar for the wrong reasons. The utilities were not about to go broke buying power that was generally not needed.
Solar ain’t cheap and one definitely needs to buy because they can afford it and are willing to accept the additional work associated with those systems. Not to mention living where it doesn’t snow and where there is plenty of daylight in southern regions. Great for RV’s in other locations.
What’s battery life (as in years to replacement?) I use a lot of batteries of all chemistries for a lot of things (no cars or house-capacity solar installs tho’), and I’m a lot more careful than most people about charge cycles, using good chargers, and so on (my wife thinks I’m a nut about it): I’m still not happy about the reliability of how many charge / discharge cycles I get. Even within a good brand, model and size, I find some batteries will make their charge cycles rating, and some won’t, with fairly substantial percentages of severe failure (high internal resistance, capacity drops to under 50% of rating, or complete failure / won’t charge).
Then the 2nd question is backup time off the batteries - where you’d have a major advantage over me (warmer winters — our biggest threat of outages over 24 hours is ice storms, which often come with significant sleet, too.)
I’m still considering solar as the roof needs replacement — normally I’d do most of the work myself. My SE exposure is terrible (big trees that provide a lot of cooling shade in summer) but my SW exposure is pretty good. Our “practical” (and larger) roof section faces WNW.
Where I’d come up with the $$ is a huge problem, tho’, and I’m ethically opposed to gov’t subsidies of this sort.
Alabamian here (250 miles from the coast, so hurricanes aren't a thing except for worrying about family living south of here). You're 100% correct on the lifespan of the roof being a factor in solar panels adding to the cost to replace the roof. Years ago (before I thought about solar) on my last roof replace I went with a metal roof because it cost about 15% more than a shingle roof.
Years later the metal roof removed the roof replacement scenario with solar that you described and made me more open to solar when Obama's EPA jacked up my power bills by forcing my local power utility to shut down a coal plant and replace it with natural gas fueled power, then Brandon jacked up natural gas costs (which raised both my natural gas bill and power bill) while also jacking up gasoline at the pump. Enough! It's a sweet feeling to now have no natural gas bill (I made my house all-electric), almost no cost of gas at the pump (we do most of our driving in an EV) and yet with all of that extra demand for power we buy only 20% of our power from the grid. This situation isn't good for everybody; all the variables have to be in your favor for it to work well. But if you do your homework diligently to determine if this kind of setup is best for your situation, then do your homework more to optimize each of the components so that the overall system works better than the sum of its parts, it's really nice to be in a situation where the Dim regulators control only a small portion of your energy needs.
I'd be skeptical of getting solar if you live up north, say maybe further north than Kentucky. My solar works really well for me in north/central Alabama. My extended family in New England and Canada want to replicate it and I tell them it'd be a waste of money for them. For whole-house backup purposes they'd be better off getting a dual-fueled generator and a propane tank (but burn gasoline if they can get their hands on it for running the generator cheaper).
Where I’d come up with the $$ is a huge problem, tho’, and I’m ethically opposed to gov’t subsidies of this sort.
I used a HELOC to pay for my solar and other energy improvements. But interest rates have now gone up and that might not be worth it. As far as government subsides, I took the solar tax credit just like I take any other tax credits even though I advocate for a flat tax. Until I win the argument and get a flat tax I'll unashamedly take whatever tax credits/debits I can. They don't help us consumers, though. All the tax credits do is artificially inflate the solar costs just like other subsidies raise other cost (i.e. college tuition, medical costs).
Amen to that. When the useful life of my solar water heater expired, replacement scheme with rebate was triple the original cost. No thanks, I said.
The air intake vent has a duct coming from the attic (read: warm air that's easy to draw heat from). Might as well take advantage of the free warm air in the attic to heat the water tank. The air output drops free cold air into the closet the water heater is in; that cold air is picked up by a HVAC receiver in the floor. Might as well use the free cold air to help cool the house so the A/C doesn't have to run as much. (During the winter months I flip a duct lever and duct the cold air into the attic so that the cold air isn't fighting my home heating.)
Ok ...
My advice is if you live north of the 40th parallel you should buy a large and good quality multi-fuel PURE sine wave generator (Kohler or Generac) and also a smaller pure sine wave portable multi fuel generator.
Above the 40th only the government and virtue-signalling folks will throw away THAT much money on panels generate enough real world power from October-March.
Your panels would HAVE to face south and have a 40-45° incline. A large ground-mount panel set would work, and you might even have to employ the commercial motorized frames to maximize production.
Just. No. Unless ya got money to burn, or you just WANT to have a fuel-free power source and like the resilience of having solar as a secondary or tertiary backup.
We originally went the whole house generator route on a prior home. All in it was about $24k for the permits, concrete pad, new wiring in an existing house, transfer/isolation switch and upgrades to the breaker panel, and the generator as well. That’s a lot cheaper than our 34 panel, 10kW, 10 kWh Enphase battery and various controllers. That was roughly $80K list, then subtract the 24% investment tax credit.
The downside of generators is three-fold: (1) it was a $22K sunk cost we seldom used, and had a full on high- negative ROI. It’s only value was resilience. With solar you get value every day of sunshine because it reduces the power you buy from your utility. (2) despite their claims of being quiet, the noise is intrusive and annoying. Plus everyone knows you’re on generator power. (3) Along with that noise you are consuming fuel you have to have on hand and replenish, and if liquid has a shelf life you need to manage to.
About batteries. I $pent a good bit of money on hobbyist solar projects on the property and learned the expen$I’ve way to invest in good panels, charge controllers, and inverters. But batteries?? That’s a whole different level of ways to $pend money. One even exploded in my (outoor) Battery enclosure after the charge controller malfunctioned.
Net: screw it, our whole house solar battery is from Enphase, as are all the solar controllers and micro inverters on the panels. Enphase guarantees 90% capacity at 15 years. Also the electronics have a 25 year warranty from Enphase. Nothing. Ever. Breaks.
In 15 years, maybe 20 when my adult children replace the battery, it’ll be twice the power at half the cost.
Truth; by going 100% Enphase, all the usual gremlins are behind me. Co$t more, but it’s trouble-free.
Spot on.
Virtually all power companies have moved to monthly wholesale net metering, AWAY from retail instant/daily net metering.
In other words *IF* for the ENTIRE month, you net exported power, you’ll get a credit on your bill for those kWh AT WHOLESALE POWER RATES. Our EMC sells us power at an all-in rate of about $.13/kWh and will buy it back at roughly $.05/kWh. May and April, plus October we MIGHT get a credit due to moderate weather and high sun days. Otherwise the power we export is just a freebie the EMC gets to wheel onto the power grid.
Folks who bought in during the retail instant/daily net metering days really did have a good deal ... until it wasn’t. The house always wins. ;-)
Like you wrote, we can afford it and are happy to have it.
P.S. it’s also SILENT.
What you said ;-)
Solar done right, for the right reasons.
Short term issue. Some of the fuel pumps at Port Everglades failed when 24” of rain fell within 7 hours. As soon as the remaining pumps are repaired things will get back to normal.
I am in Ca. Yesterday AM went to put gas in my car on the way into work, went to 3 stations ALL out of gas!! I believe we are slowly headed to rough times like the Carter years!!
If their religion wasn't in charge of politics and the Dims' stupid war on energy, I wouldn't have to have an EV or solar. Energy would be dependable and cheap.
FL’s major utility FLP is still old school. Only 3% of its peak portfolio has solar and or wind. Our outages are usually due to hurricanes.
My schedule doesn't allow for me to hang out until the local gas stations are replenished. I'm going to guess I'm not alone.
What is the reason given to the plebs?
Fascinating setup for your water heater. Mine was a passive solar tank on the roof. Loved it while it worked. The solar pool heater was also passive. Ran it at night during summer to circulate cooler water—until it ripped away during a tropical storm.
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