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Ah, this is the kind of discussion I was hoping for. Thanks guys. I really need to start getting quotes on a 'standard' roof so I have something to compare this to. edit: It looks like solar tiles aren't available in my area anyway. I wonder if solar panels even are. I've seen a small handful but a lot of them looks like they were done by do-it-yourself hippies, and by that I mean not very well. CornHolio fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Jul 12, 2019 |
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Jul 12, 2019 16:11
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The other thing to be aware of with solar on your roof is that you pretty much want to do it as part of replacing the roof -- if you have an existing roof with 10-15 years' worth of useful life in it, then putting solar on now means that in a decade or so you'll have a much more complicated roof replacement job to deal with. So ideally you put solar on a new roof, and by the time the roof is going you may well want to replace the solar panels as well.
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Jul 12, 2019 16:29
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Solar panels don't start to look interesting economically until at least ~$0.20/kwh, and even then you always have the risk of your utility company screwing you over in year 2,3,4,etc if your numbers counted on them reimbursing you for excess power provided to the grid. Air conditioners use so much power that you can't really happily run your whole house including AC indefinitely, unless you install like 4 powerwalls and a huge amount of solar cells on the roof. The technology has been getting better and definitely cheaper, but on the other hand the same stuff basically existed 30 years ago so I'm not holding my breath waiting for a breakthrough.
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Jul 12, 2019 16:42
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CornHolio posted:Ah, this is the kind of discussion I was hoping for. Thanks guys. I really need to start getting quotes on a 'standard' roof so I have something to compare this to. If you were banking on Tesla's solar tiles specifically they have been extremely tight-lipped about them probably because they are having a really hard time with them and it's really best to treat them as something still in an experimental phase and not a mass-market product.
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Jul 12, 2019 16:56
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Droo posted:Solar panels don't start to look interesting economically until at least ~$0.20/kwh, and even then you always have the risk of your utility company screwing you over in year 2,3,4,etc if your numbers counted on them reimbursing you for excess power provided to the grid. If you are going into a solar install you need to ensure what the "PPA" (Power Purchase Agreement) is with your utility. Call them and ask for a copy. Review it, and assume that when it ends they're going to go to a wholesale buy / retail sell model. This is not a net model. You have basically three options here: 1. Net Metering - You Generate 500kwh, you consume 500 kwh, $0 bill. This is regardless of hours consumed. 2. Net Consumption (I just made this term up) - You consume your generation first, and pay retail for grid power consumed. This means you pay for your power overnight plus whatever excess you had to consume during the day. They likely buy excess generation at wholesale rates. Unlikely, and not as good as you think it is except for chopping your AC bill as most houses have a low baseline load and lots of peaks, outside of AC running. 3. Retail Buy, Wholesale Sell - The worst. All generation is credited to you at wholesale rates, all consumption is billed at retail rates. Generate 500kwh - $0.04/kwh credit, Consume 500kwh - $0.14 = $50 bill.
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Jul 12, 2019 17:05
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Doesn’t having a battery system like a power wall get around utilities that don’t do net metering? Because you can reduce your grid draw to only when you actually need it, and do stuff like charge the battery off peak.
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Jul 12, 2019 17:11
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My wife and I are moving into a bigger "forever home" type house, we close in about 3 weeks. The new home is great and we are very excited, but there is a feature that we think could be troublesome or even a safety issue for our cats (or any future cats we have). Upstairs there's a tiny loft with an adjacent ledge that cats could easily get onto, and we would not have anything like easy access up there if needed, and if they did fall it would not be a safe drop for them. Here is the loft from below (show picture from the MLS hence the nice looking shot):  Here's a pic I took up at the loft:  And a bit of a close-up of the ledge:  I couldn't quite get the angle (didn't want to risk dropping my phone) but you can kind of see from the first pic that the railing in the dining area is extended out a bit from where the ledge drops off, so if a cat were to fall it would likely hit that on the way down which could cause serious harm. The rest of the house is A+ awesome and quite affordable and we really want it. Right now we've got about 5 more days left for the due diligence period. We have some money for upgrades we will want to make, nothing super major but possibly the biggest is to do something about that loft so that the cats can't get onto that ledge. We're not good with interior design stuff so our best idea is to put drywall roughly where the railing is and then a nice interior window or something where the open air is. We are going to be meeting with a contractor soon to see what options we have that still makes good use of that openness. I wanted to ask here though if anyone has run into similar issues, what their thoughts would be on how to block that off without it turning it into an eyesore, etc. Bhaal fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Jul 12, 2019 |
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Jul 12, 2019 17:13
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Replace with a cool glass/metal railing. http://www.iron-wire.com/custom_stairs_railings#10 for the guy who did mine. Maybe $250-350/ft IIRC. Probably more for a job that small. e: But yeah, it doesn't really seem like a problem to me unless you have suicidal cats.
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Jul 12, 2019 17:18
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Healthy cats can survive that fall pretty easily. I wouldn't really worry about it with my cats tbh. It's not like they fall all the time.
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Jul 12, 2019 17:18
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I agree that they'd handle the 10 foot drop no problem, but I think he's more worried that the cats would walk out on the little ledge, fall above the dining room, and bash their heads in on the dining room handrail I think there is effectively a zero chance of that happening (but you know your kitties better than we do) and also cats are incredibly resilient. If it happened once, they'd be fine and they wouldn't do it again.
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Jul 12, 2019 17:24
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^^^ Yes. The distance isn't the issue, it's that their fall is obstructed by something big enough to catch a piece of them coming down but not big enough for them to land on safely. We might be over-worrying about it, but it's our cats in particular that factor in. They would both would love to hang out up there and while they get along they do get testy sometimes if they both are interested in perching around the same spot. Plus one of them is not a surefooted cat at all. If it were a single cat in our home or something I would agree but given our cats my wife and I both see trouble if that ledge becomes a popular thru-way. Bhaal fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Jul 12, 2019 |
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Jul 12, 2019 17:26
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Jealous Cow posted:Doesn’t having a battery system like a power wall get around utilities that don’t do net metering? Because you can reduce your grid draw to only when you actually need it, and do stuff like charge the battery off peak. Sure, but you'll never pay back the cost of the expensive Powerwall before the lithium cells are toast. Lithium as storage for the grid, especially at the residential level, doesn't start to get interesting until around $50/kWh for the cells. It's currently at around $170. Outside of a few high-sun/high-electric-rate areas, solar and Powerwall stuff (can throw most EVs in here as well) is just feel-good greenwashing for rich folks. That will probably change in the next decade or two, however.
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Jul 12, 2019 17:31
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Jealous Cow posted:Doesn’t having a battery system like a power wall get around utilities that don’t do net metering? Because you can reduce your grid draw to only when you actually need it, and do stuff like charge the battery off peak. In theory, yes. It all depends on availability, PPA, and if your local utility monopoly/jurisdiction allows them. I don't know of any who don't, but I'm willing to bet that as investor owned utilities realize they're losing their grip on their profit margins the regulatory claws will come out. SCE around us is already pissing and moaning about how they built their whole model where consumption subsidizes distribution and are trying to change that around as more and more people get solar. Plus peoples usage is changing and they have a ton of steady-state generation which is becoming harder to maintain as peoples draw patterns change. If only they could have seen this coming for the last 20 years and adapted. (I hate investor owned utilities.)
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Jul 12, 2019 17:33
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H110Hawk posted:If you are going into a solar install you need to ensure what the "PPA" (Power Purchase Agreement) is with your utility. Call them and ask for a copy. Review it, and assume that when it ends they're going to go to a wholesale buy / retail sell model. This is not a net model. You have basically three options here: On page five of this document I found they mention that they have a net metering program, but I'm not smart enough to go through that entire 225 page document and make sense of what it would mean for me, a consumer with a solar powered roof.
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Jul 12, 2019 17:58
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CornHolio posted:On page five of this document I found they mention that they have a net metering program, but I'm not smart enough to go through that entire 225 page document and make sense of what it would mean for me, a consumer with a solar powered roof. I mean their website just has a site on Net Metering: https://www.nipsco.com/services/renewable-energy-programs/net-metering And this is the agreement: https://www.nipsco.com/docs/librari...ng.pdf?sfvrsn=5
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Jul 12, 2019 18:06
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H110Hawk posted:I mean their website just has a site on Net Metering: https://www.nipsco.com/services/renewable-energy-programs/net-metering oh poo poo I'm blind
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Jul 12, 2019 18:09
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B-Nasty posted:Sure, but you'll never pay back the cost of the expensive Powerwall before the lithium cells are toast. I can't find it right now, but the warranty on the powerwalls extend to long after the expected life of the cells, with the cost of the unit not being sufficient to cover a battery change. They are literally banking on the battery tech getting cheaper in the future.
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Jul 12, 2019 18:14
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B-Nasty posted:First, check out Google's Project Sunroof to see if the calculations even work out: https://www.google.com/get/sunroof That's a pretty awesome tool. $6,000 savings over 20 years is what it estimates, though I don't have my utility bill in front of me. I'd really like to go solar, but it really isn't worth it and that makes my liberal heart sad.
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Jul 12, 2019 18:40
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B-Nasty posted:Outside of a few high-sun/high-electric-rate areas, solar and Powerwall stuff (can throw most EVs in here as well) is just feel-good greenwashing for rich folks. That will probably change in the next decade or two, however. This was my conclusion when I looked into it when I built my house last year. I live in a really good sun area (San Antonio suburbs), and our local municipal electricity provider (CPS Energy) allows for net metering. Our electricity rates are fairly low in general, 8ish during the winter, with a peak of 12 ish during summertime peak energy usage. My neighbor installed 12kW worth of solar at a cost of about 35K if I recall, possibly a little more. He has a Prius prime he charges during the day, and has a 8 person household in a almost 4K sq ft house. I don't think his net electricity costs have changed, the payments on the solar panel financing plus his reduced electric bill is a wash last time I asked him. He might do really well in the summer as far as the net metering situation goes. He did pay extra for the local Mission Solar panels, but there was a small extra rebate for using them. He's got 40 panels up I think. I use a ton of electricity though.. Last month I used 2000kWh, and my peak usage in August is generally around 2500kWh when both A/C units are pretty much running all day. My issue is I know I'm not staying in this house more than 15 years at the most. Once the kids are out of the house (7 and 9 yr old) we're going to downsize to something smaller for sure. I can't see us keeping a 6bd/3bath 3500 sq ft house for just the 2 of us. skipdogg fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Jul 12, 2019 |
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Jul 12, 2019 18:47
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CornHolio posted:That's a pretty awesome tool. $6,000 savings over 20 years is what it estimates, though I don't have my utility bill in front of me. I'd really like to go solar, but it really isn't worth it and that makes my liberal heart sad. I don't know anything about Indiana, or wherever you live, but if your state has supplier choice, you may be able to find a supplier that uses 100% renewables (usually by offsetting with Renewable Energy Credits.) In my area, there's a rate from a supplier that's 100% renewable for less than what the default power company (i.e. the EDC) charges, though not as cheap as other rates.
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Jul 12, 2019 19:03
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Anonymous Zebra posted:I know that the answer to this question is, "It depends...", but what is a reasonable price for a termite treatment and prevention on a 1,400 sq.ft. single story home? I got my whole house tented for $2k - same size You can't really do preventative treatment for dry wood termites, so tent it and do the 10% a year as basically insurance.
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Jul 12, 2019 19:43
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From garage looking through the wall into the new office room:  Office looking towards garage yesterday before they pulled off the insulation:  Seems that room was held up by permitted, inspected, and signed off hopes and dreams. Basically to build this room they seemingly bashed off the stucco, but not all the way, built the outer walls, bolted some rafters to the garage rafters, and called it good. Then they realized they needed some space to put the drywall on, so they screwed some furring strips to the existing garage framing, some of which had rafters sorta resting on them. However despite doing that the top ~6" of the wall wasn't flush correctly so they just taped, mudded, and floated to the ceiling. No drywall behind it. You can see some of the original stucco in the third picture.
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Jul 12, 2019 20:01
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Sab0921 posted:You can't really do preventative treatment for dry wood termites, so tent it and do the 10% a year as basically insurance. I don't believe this is correct. Bora-Care, the chemical he suggested, is rated for fungi carpenter ants, dry wood & subterranean termites. It is absorbed into the wood completely and the current study shows it lasting 12 years and still going. The wood becomes essentially toxic to the termites and new infestations cannot establish. Someone correct me if I'm wrong about any of that.
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Jul 12, 2019 20:07
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I can't justify solar on my house because there are currently no state incentives here in Michigan and my house isn't really positioned well for it, but my mom and her husband's house is and they're never planning on moving so if the incentives line up again I'm going to try to convince them to get solar and help them pay for it.
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Jul 12, 2019 20:37
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Bhaal posted:My wife and I are moving into a bigger "forever home" type house, we close in about 3 weeks. The new home is great and we are very excited, but there is a feature that we think could be troublesome or even a safety issue for our cats (or any future cats we have). Upstairs there's a tiny loft with an adjacent ledge that cats could easily get onto, and we would not have anything like easy access up there if needed, and if they did fall it would not be a safe drop for them. You could maybe put double sided tape on the top of ledge, if that is something that deters your cats (I think it works on most but you never know, some cats are weird). You probably wouldn't have to do the whole length, just as far as the cats could touch from the other side of the railing. Since it's clear tape it shouldn't be very noticeable. They make double sided tape that doesn't stick to paint, in case you're worried about that. Future Wax fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Jul 12, 2019 |
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Jul 12, 2019 23:12
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Anyone got a quick indoor camera recommendation? We're leaving our new house for ten days and I'd like to be able to keep an eye on things when we're not here. Nest cams seem good, but $10/month or $100/year seems a bit steep. Wyze has a nearly too-good-to-be-true price, $26/camera.
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Jul 13, 2019 01:22
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I know people who use Wyze and they love it. Buy directly from Wyze for the best price.
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Jul 13, 2019 01:35
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We bought our house in January, and the inspector said it would be a bad idea to run or test the existing AC system while it was so cold outside. Because of this, we bought the house knowing it was an older system that might not work. It also had a 30+ year old furnace that, while functional, we had aimed to replace. Well, it turns out it the AC doesn't work and we just had a well-known company come and quote us. Because of the size and age of the furnace, the guy said it was impossible to get a modern AC coil above it, and would just in general recommend replacing the furnace. He also noted that there is are a few things, like the value on the gas line, and the vent size leading out of the house being out of code. We got quoted at 6.5k for midrange furnace and AC units, which includes removal, getting everything up to code, and lining the chimney. The furnace and AC units are efficient enough to qualify us for all of the rebates from the energy companies. The wrinkle is that we got a home warranty with the house. While it looks like a good plan on paper, we don't expect a ton out of it, but the contractor said he is familiar with the language to use when writing recommendations. Apparently, the warranty company requested that they speak directly to the contractor, which seems a bit unusual. Is there anything we can do to increase the costs the warranty company will cover? Is this a decent price for both systems? We plan on getting at least one more contractor out to compare, but I'd like a frame of reference.
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Jul 13, 2019 01:41
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Our main sewer line has clogged three times in the 6 months we've lived here. Basically, toilets don't flush anymore and whatever's in the pipes will eventually come back up if we keep using water. I called a plumber the first two times with each costing $300!!! (have a home warranty but couldn't wait several days for the service request) and it clogged again today. Both times they snaked the main drain and took a look with cameras but found no issue with the piping. It's older cast iron (?) but intact and fine. It's not like we're throwing piles of toilet paper or hygiene products down our toilets. I'm gonna go to Home Depot in the morning and rent a snake drain auger thing and try DIYing but anyone have any idea what the issue could be? I don't think it's the city's problem/issue since it's under my front lawn. The cleanout pipes don't have caps on them but the plumber reassured that's not anything to worry about. (will probably buy some cheap ones anyways) Edit: After doing some research, it looks like there are indeed liquid cleaners for main line clogs (and you can pour those every so often as maintenance). I'll probably grab one of those early in the morning and try that first (takes 6-8 hours). I assume I can just dump it directly into the cleanout pipe in the yard... If that doesn't work, I'll go rent a snake auger. hmmxkrazee fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Jul 13, 2019 |
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Jul 13, 2019 05:30
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meanolmrcloud posted:We bought our house in January, and the inspector said it would be a bad idea to run or test the existing AC system while it was so cold outside. Because of this, we bought the house knowing it was an older system that might not work. It also had a 30+ year old furnace that, while functional, we had aimed to replace. Well, it turns out it the AC doesn't work and we just had a well-known company come and quote us. Our AC kicked the bucket a month before our one year of home warranty was done. We knew what the issue was, a leaky system that was basically bleeding freon. We had it charged for free by my wife's cousin when we moved in but he suspected it would end up being an issue. That said, we called the home warranty folks, they sent their contractors out, all of which basically punted on it because the problem is bigger than they can handle or they just didn't feel like doing it. Home warranty folks came back to me and said "if you find someone who can repair it and send us a quote for approval, that is fine" Got my wife's cousin on the phone, he looked at it, drew up a quote to replace the coils in the current system, warranty folks approved $2400 of repairs, it was all done without much hassle beyond that. Basically, don't be afraid to take advantage of the home warranty. For most stuff they are useless, but they can only wiggle their way around the fine print so much. Just don't let them know that your AC may or may not have been working when you moved in...
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Jul 13, 2019 05:44
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couldcareless posted:Just don't let them know that your AC may or may not have been working when you moved in... "to the best of my recollection yes." you don't know it wasn't and it's not relevant.
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Jul 13, 2019 06:02
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hmmxkrazee posted:Our main sewer line has clogged three times in the 6 months we've lived here. Basically, toilets don't flush anymore and whatever's in the pipes will eventually come back up if we keep using water. I’ve been using root-x in my sewer line for a couple years now and I haven’t had to get it snaked since. I have an old clay pipe line and lots of trees.
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Jul 13, 2019 12:37
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Do you have low GPF toilets? My sewer line is concrete and when I had it inspected the plumber told me to be careful if I ever switch out the toilet for something newer because the rough texture of the pipe has more friction than modern pvc and without enough water behind it, waste could get backed up.
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Jul 13, 2019 15:10
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Are you using wet wipes?
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Jul 13, 2019 15:12
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StormDrain posted:Are you using wet wipes? SpartanIvy posted:Do you have low GPF toilets? My sewer line is concrete and when I had it inspected the plumber told me to be careful if I ever switch out the toilet for something newer because the rough texture of the pipe has more friction than modern pvc and without enough water behind it, waste could get backed up. The Dave posted:I’ve been using root-x in my sewer line for a couple years now and I haven’t had to get it snaked since. I have an old clay pipe line and lots of trees.
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Jul 13, 2019 17:14
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hmmxkrazee posted:Nope. Just TP. Are you scoping all the way to the city demarcation? If not you should do this and not get such lazy plumbers. They can provide you with video on a USB stick if you provide them with one. Also cover the clean outs. It's weird that the plumber wouldn't just stick one of those super cheap covers on and charge you $20 for the pleasure as part of the larger bill.
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Jul 13, 2019 17:18
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I've got an unfinished basement with a concrete floor. I don't want to invest in finishing it, but I also wouldn't mind adding some level of comfort to it. Any recommendations for floor covering other than area rugs?
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Jul 13, 2019 18:04
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What are you planning on using the room for?
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Jul 13, 2019 18:18
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It's mostly storage and half is home gym stuff, but I do have a TV and futon there for super hot days or if a friend spends the night.
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Jul 13, 2019 18:21
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My freestanding bathtub is not large enough for me to be comfortable in, and there’s room between it and the walls, so I’m looking to get a larger one. What should I keep in mind when choosing tubs and getting quotes? I don’t think I’m going to DIY it.
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Jul 13, 2019 18:37
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