Air no good.
I hesitated to say anything, but since all seems to be progressing, there seem little point. We have an opportunity to go solar, without the up-front $10K+ investment. A local/regional company decided to modify the car buying system. Buy now, when you need it, pay us on a monthly bill.
No payment for 12-18 months, based on tax rebates for green improvements, which will cover the bulk, with monthly installments after to them instead of a similar amount to coal-fired power company. And they do "bumper-to-bumper" service, check the roof, electrical, permits (complicated by us living in a Historical District*),albeit a low rent one (Central City), 25 years guarantee and maintenance, monitoring. They went through the rigorous process of solar panels for Real Salt Lake's soccer stadium, so they are legit and reliable. Local electrical power company has been raising rates madly, so jumping now is our best bet for later.
Still net-metering, because the batteries needed to go completely off grid are just not up to snuff... yet. We are in a good location, good roof angle, not too many trees. They came to check said roof this morning. So far, so good. They like our attic, for one. We had the closet with attic access cleared on Saturday, nothing in there but the vacuum and a couple of step ladders.
So far, they have behaved like our beloved real estate agent. There is a sense of professionalism and genuine caring. We could be wrong, and have certainly considered that we might be being suckered, but so far, so good. Laid our bets, taking our chances. A real pro, though, has pride, and reputation, which is worth gold.
And yes, Auric, like Auric Blowfeld. Gold, Au. Hoping they aren't supervillains. Seems unlikely. Just our paranoia acting up.
Air terrible today. More incentive to keep going with this. One less thing. Blog full of links, too.
Blechghth.
*The Historic District thing was not mentioned when we bought the house.
6 comments:
We have solar panels. They are paying for themselves, but slowly- it'll take 10 years-ish. But presumably it's good for the environment. And presumably also you get more sun than we do, so they'll pay for themselves more quickly!
Pam,
If we can not add to the ammo the local power co wants to build new Coal Fired Plants, we're good. Lots of smog in this geographic bowl, making winter unbreathable too often. One day, the batteries will be good, and maybe we can go completely off-grid.
Funny, how we feel apologetic about doing the right thing, ain't it?
Seems like that omission (no mention of historic dust) is the sort of thing lawsuits get filed over. Not that I think it would improve your quality of life. Good wishes for sun energy.
Dist.
I don't think my own house is well suited to solar: we do not have as many sunny days as you, for half the year our nights are long and my roof's axis has the better slope facing just slightly south of west.
Also, I've heard that HydroQuebec's monopoly on power generation makes it difficult to get in on net-metering - lots of red tape.
Nimble,
We were so swamped when we found out about it, and it probably wouldn't have made a significant difference in what we'd have done.
Phil,
I have a friend out in Massachusetts that got a wind turbine for much the same reasons.
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