Fix or replace washer and dryer?

[tvguy]

Yeah this truly frustrates me beyond belief.

I would go solar if it made sense - but it does not. The fees for delivery and other random fees are 50% of my bill.
You would think these power companies would make it reasonable and want to put panels on every home instead of building these giant solar farms that use up valuable farm land or windmills that are not all that good. If you produce extra electricity they buy it at a very discounted rate - so really not much value there - there was a time and if you have an older contract it can be much better.

We constantly have door to door solar sales people in my neighborhood - and they ignore the no soliciting signs. The claim they are providing information and not soliciting - *** is the difference. Ill never do business with them.

Many of my neighbors switched and found out that they are still paying the same per month between financing and delivery charges etc. Batteries are still crazy expensive and a fire hazard so we are still a ways from that being worthwhile IMO.
By the time they pay off the panels they will most likely need new ones. (10 years seems to be the payoff time period)

In other countries it does seem to be much better - they also have climates and travel distances that are better for Electric Vehicles - making solar panels more of a value as well.
Between temperatures and travel distances here even the newest electric vehicles just don't make sense for me. Again hopefully this is something that will work out in time as they improve them.

All the companies here warranty the entire system for 20 years, so that is enough time for everyone I have ever seen to pass the break even point. I went with a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). I paid nothing for my panels, I just agree to buy all the power they produce at a preset price and sell surplus power to my utility at a lower price. I figure I am still saving $25 to $30 a month. Yes, batteries are crazy expensive. My utility figures my break even point for batteries is $7,000 ish. The lowest bid I got for ONE Tesla 3 Power Wall was $17,000. The bid for two came in at $28,000. One thing I am looking forward to is in 10 years, when my 20 year contract ends, I own my system free and clear and get all the power for free. That is assuming the system is still functioning.

 

[kdonnel]

Yeah this truly frustrates me beyond belief.

I would go solar if it made sense - but it does not. The fees for delivery and other random fees are 50% of my bill.
You would think these power companies would make it reasonable and want to put panels on every home instead of building these giant solar farms that use up valuable farm land or windmills that are not all that good. If you produce extra electricity they buy it at a very discounted rate - so really not much value there - there was a time and if you have an older contract it can be much better.

We constantly have door to door solar sales people in my neighborhood - and they ignore the no soliciting signs. The claim they are providing information and not soliciting - *** is the difference. Ill never do business with them.

Many of my neighbors switched and found out that they are still paying the same per month between financing and delivery charges etc. Batteries are still crazy expensive and a fire hazard so we are still a ways from that being worthwhile IMO.
By the time they pay off the panels they will most likely need new ones. (10 years seems to be the payoff time period)

In other countries it does seem to be much better - they also have climates and travel distances that are better for Electric Vehicles - making solar panels more of a value as well.
Between temperatures and travel distances here even the newest electric vehicles just don't make sense for me. Again hopefully this is something that will work out in time as they improve them.

I wouldn't want a solar system unless I had a battery or could use one or both of the two batteries I already have in my garage.

A hurricane skirting by that takes out the power for a couple days and not being able to power anything, even during the day, would be so upsetting.

My car has a 91 kWh battery and my wife's has a 66 kWh battery.

With bidirectional charging I could run my home for several days off the 157 kWh if the batteries were full when the grid died even without charging them during the day from the panels.

Using the giant EV batteries for both driving and whole home power makes so much sense to me.

Maybe in the next 15-20 years?

 

[barkley]

I wouldn't want a solar system unless I had a battery or could use one or both of the two batteries I already have in my garage.

A hurricane skirting by that takes out the power for a couple days and not being able to power anything, even during the day, would be so upsetting.

My car has a 91 kWh battery and my wife's has a 66 kWh battery.

With bidirectional charging I could run my home for several days off the 157 kWh if the batteries were full when the grid died even without charging them during the day from the panels.

Using the giant EV batteries for both driving and whole home power makes so much sense to me.

Maybe in the next 15-20 years?

is a whole house generator not an option? the cost of solar is so much higher than what we spent to have ours put in and from what I understand while there's more cost to it, if we had ev's we could have had the additional electrical work done to facilitate charging.

 

[kdonnel]

is a whole house generator not an option? the cost of solar is so much higher than what we spent to have ours put in and from what I understand while there's more cost to it, if we had ev's we could have had the additional electrical work done to facilitate charging.

A generator would be an option but would only get used once every 5, 7, 10 years? My power is very reliable. I would feel like it was a waste of money how rarely it was used.

Solar would at least be used daily.

 

[_19disnA]

I have a backup generator that runs on gas or propane wired into the house main panel for those occasional times when we lose power. The total cost was around $2,500 and seemed like reasonable 'insurance' for when something out of the ordinary happens. Any other option (solar/batteries/etc.) was WAY more expensive.

 

[barkley]

I have a backup generator that runs on gas or propane wired into the house main panel for those occasional times when we lose power. The total cost was around $2,500 and seemed like reasonable 'insurance' for when something out of the ordinary happens. Any other option (solar/batteries/etc.) was WAY more expensive.

for us a big consideration is not having access to water during a power outage (well water) so in the event of a fire it's a safety consideration, and in the event of a below freezing winter outage it lets us keep water trickling through the pipes to prevent costly plumbing repairs.

i'll also say-before getting ours we had an occasion during a region wide multi-day outage of having to stay in a hotel. hotels generally have generators but they are NOT set up to operate at full capacity for days on end (esp. when fuel deliveries are hampered by the same power outages). you want a horror movie experience-try being in a hotel where they are trying to conserve power by picking and choosing what to let run/what is set up in a limited/reserve capacity-dimly lit hallways and stairwells with flickering lights, people in soiled clothing (washers and dryers were off)/people opting not to shower as frequently as needed b/c the hot water heaters had been adjusted down to tepid temps-all shuffling down the scary dim hallways, and small children being very vocal by howling about the blackout periods put on in-room tv's. it was very reminiscent of dh's zombie shows