Brace Yourself

ColdHouse wrote: ↑

Wed. Jun. 29, 2022 7:54 pm

100% guaranteed. Even production guarantee for 25 years. Guaranteed to produce 92% of what it did when new at 25 years. All parts and labor covered.

Will this $50K investment cover your entire electric bill? Can surplus electric be sold back to the grid? What are the rates?

CN says. I have a separate building and have an electric DHW electric. The last 40 gall unit was about $400. It gets limed up and yes a new anode was fitted. After 5 years just throw it away. Maintenance is a ball buster around here. Rip it out and I can fit a new one. Turn off valves make it a breeze

coalnewbie wrote: ↑

Thu. Jun. 30, 2022 4:17 pm

CN says. I have a separate building and have an electric DHW electric. The last 40 gall unit was about $400. It gets limed up and yes a new anode was fitted. After 5 years just throw it away. Maintenance is a ball buster around here. Rip it out and I can fit a new one. Turn off valves make it a breeze

If you have poor water quality and treatment is not practical, your strategy seems like the best compromise. My last electric unit was 20 yrs old when it developed a leak.

I'd go Amish before I had any of this stuff mentioned. But Im about halfway there already

Coldhouse, when you go thru with this I'd enjoy reading more about the specifics of how well it works. Its not something I'd do, but I usually learn a little reading about it.

Rob R. wrote: ↑

Thu. Jun. 30, 2022 4:49 pm

My last electric unit was 20 yrs old when it developed a leak.

Mine is at least 20 years old.. I wanna replace it with a ten gallon. Once the shower goes cold, all done.. color me an ass but I'm not refereeing these half hour showers anymore...

Even a superhero has limits.

I am going to be putting 42, 425 SunPower M-series panels on my South Facing roofs for a total of 17.85KW system. The way it works here is you send excess to the grid at retail rate and get it back at retail rate when you need it. So in perfect world, I use zero electricity from utility company and pay only $9.92 per month to be connected to the grid. This house was built in 1982 and has electric heat in all the rooms. So If I have a surplus I will just use some electricity in the winter to heat. But I would like to not be running my boiler all summer for DHW.

Lightning wrote: ↑

Thu. Jun. 30, 2022 4:05 pm

Will this $50K investment cover your entire electric bill? Can surplus electric be sold back to the grid? What are the rates?

The solar company will guarantee a little less than 15,000 kwh per year from the system at my location. I would expect it to do a little better. I also expect to cut my consumption. The swimming pool is going away. I have a seasonal water issue where ground water somehow gets into a plastic conduit and enters my utility room. This happens probably 7 months per year. Since I bought the house there has been a sump pump in a basin. That thing comes on every 5 or less minutes and runs for a minute. I figured a way to have gravity get it out of the house so no more electricity being used there.. Here is how it was before.

ColdHouse wrote: ↑

Thu. Jun. 30, 2022 5:57 pm

The way it works here is you send excess to the grid at retail rate and get it back at retail rate when you need it. So in perfect world, I use zero electricity from utility company and pay only $9.92 per month to be connected to the grid.

Wow that's pretty cool.. I'm not meaning to split hairs here but just want to be well informed. So, I would guess that when you sell power to the grid, you get credit for the power only... But when they sell it back to you, you'll get charged for delivery per kilowatt plus the power used.. is that correct or no?

Lightning wrote: ↑

Thu. Jun. 30, 2022 6:16 pm

Wow that's pretty cool.. I'm not meaning to split hairs here but just want to be well informed. So, I would guess that when you sell power to the grid, you get credit for the power only... But when they sell it back to you, you'll get charged for delivery per kilowatt plus the power used.. is that correct or no?

There is no selling extra power to the grid in my case. Retail rate is the generation and delivery costs. So When I send it I get both so it costs me nothing to get power back that I sent them. If I have overage it stays in the account until it is closed. As mentioned my goal would be to use it all each year. There is another option they call "buy all sell all." But there they pay you $0.29 per kwh for the next 20 years. I think that is a bad deal. I forgot to mention that the state also pays $0.0318 for every kwh produced by my system. So if I generate 15,000 kwh this year the state will tax credit me $477 per year for 20 years.

Oh ok... That's pretty sweet!

Lightning wrote: ↑

Thu. Jun. 30, 2022 6:32 pm

Oh ok... That's pretty sweet!

Better than spending $25,000 on a battery setup that will only run for a day or two. My power is pretty consistent and rarely goes out and only once in 10 years went out for more than an hour or two. We have a generator that could power some essentials and those Hitzers I have are gravity fed and don't need any power to run.

Coal arrived today. 18 skids. Pretty nice. The guy bagged and delivered the coal and I haven't even been billed yet. When he quoted he said I would be invoiced after delivery. That is pretty amazing to extend credit on $8k and have out of pocket third party transportation to a person that has never purchased before without any credit application or anything.

The whole solar / not solar debate really hinges around the life expectancy of the panels vs. initial cost. I'd be curious to see some numbers on those, since I haven't done any research myself

Retro_Origin wrote: ↑

Fri. Jul. 01, 2022 9:05 pm

The whole solar / not solar debate really hinges around the life expectancy of the panels vs. initial cost. I'd be curious to see some numbers on those, since I haven't done any research myself

I'm not in the market for solar gen and couldn't be even if I could afford it. Very limited sun exposure throughout the day, especially in winter. I also would like to know what the average and also the state-of-the-art productive life of solar panels is at these days. I know that 7 years to go down to 30% of original output used to be the standard. I've read that 10 years to degrade to that level is typical now. They can't be recycled but there is some low end market for the degraded panels. If a contractor or others in the biz are claiming a 25 year guarantee on decent output life I 'd have to question if they will be around to make good on that. Has there been a big breakthrough? Nearly all manufacturers are in China due to the hazards of manufacture.

I have some long time friends that I only see about every two years. They went all solar cogeneration about 8 or 9 years ago. Somehow, they got a dirt cheap installation done, but I've forgotten what sort of twisted pay off there was for the installer. As of about 2 years ago, they still hadn't exceeded their "bank" with the power co. It's a big home and I believe a multi heat pumper. If they had to be paid cash for the excess cogen it would be like having a tiny oil rig in the yard. If I see them this summer I'll have to ask about the output level they still have.