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Oh, I forgot to add - my utility no longer does full net metering for new solar installs. They force you over to a demand-based billing model where a big part of your bill comes in the form of your peak demand from the grid during the month, and your per-kWh rate both in and out decreases accordingly. It's a shame because we should literally have panels on every roof in Arizona.
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Oct 11, 2021 23:26
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I would have no faith in APS doing the right thing, assuming that’s who you had. No idea if SRP is any better either. But yes, everywhere you can fit a solar panel there should be one.
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Oct 11, 2021 23:47
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All I know about the panels is that they were fully paid off and cost about 30k? and that they were transferred over to us when we bought the house.
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Oct 12, 2021 00:00
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redreader posted:All I know about the panels is that they were fully paid off and cost about 30k? and that they were transferred over to us when we bought the house. The PO has to call Tesla to initiate the transfer.
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Oct 12, 2021 00:28
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skipdogg posted:I’ve been unable to make the numbers work for solar panels to be worth it at all for my house. That’s living in South Texas AND having a local electric company that does full net metering, AND me using a poo poo ton of electricity. The fact that there’s a poo poo ton of door to door salesmen hawking solar in my part of Texas leads me to believe it would be a bad investment for the homeowner.
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Oct 12, 2021 04:09
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Democratic Pirate posted:The fact that there’s a poo poo ton of door to door salesmen hawking solar in my part of Texas leads me to believe it would be a bad investment for the homeowner. The installers make a ton of money on installation, so it’s very profitable for those door to door guys. It’s not a bad investment per se, I just can’t ever make the numbers work out in favor of solar for me I’m not going to live in this house more than 12 more years and electricity is reasonably priced where I’m at. If they came out with some incentives that changed the numbers I’d reconsider for sure.
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Oct 12, 2021 04:50
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You're considering the 26% federal tax credit right?
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Oct 12, 2021 05:12
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spf3million posted:You're considering the 26% federal tax credit right? As another Texan, every time I ran the numbers, it was always 15-20 years to break even. For 100% renewable energy I pay ~.08/kwh.
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Oct 12, 2021 06:07
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Love waking up to my a/c being off to see that the blower fan motor seized and the fan ate itself.  This isn’t going to be cheap. It’s an almost 20 year old unit with probably impossible to find parts so probably new a/c time. Yay homeownership.
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Oct 12, 2021 11:40
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It's just a standard X inch 120v blower fan? $250 at your local AC supply company edit: probably
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Oct 12, 2021 12:18
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Hadlock posted:It's just a standard X inch 120v blower fan? $250 at your local AC supply company Ya our A/C guy said he's going out to find one and will be here once he does. I'm still going to have him quote a new unit. We've had a few problems with the unit over the past couple of years, small fixes here and there and we're in a financial place where replacing it isn't a big deal, plus it's over a week to pull a permit now so if something else breaks on it that they can't fix we don't want to be without a/c for a week.
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Oct 12, 2021 12:28
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One of our toilets is acting odd. Sometimes it doesn’t fill, then it does? Any thoughts?
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Oct 12, 2021 12:32
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New tank fill unit, they are $20 at any hardware store. Eventually the float trigger gets sticky. Takes all of 5 minutes to replace. Any YouTube video canb walk you through it. Just make sure to turn off the supply valve at the wall first You could limp it along with some jury rigging, but it's not worth the hassle
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Oct 12, 2021 12:35
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Hadlock posted:New tank fill unit, they are $20 at any hardware store. Eventually the float trigger gets sticky. Takes all of 5 minutes to replace. Any YouTube video canb walk you through it. Just make sure to turn off the supply valve at the wall first Yep thank you! I jiggled the fill valve and it filled. It seems to not fill after it’s been sitting, but then when it starts to fill it’ll keep filling. Replacement part o. the way.
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Oct 12, 2021 13:09
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Johnny Truant posted:I got a rough quote of $1000 for running power up from my basement to my second story to create two new junction boxes (I think that's the proper term!) for my bidet and heated towel warmer, it seems like there are a lot of factors in electrical work that come into okay when quoting. Pretty good price for running power up two stories imo
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Oct 12, 2021 13:30
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skipdogg posted:I would have no faith in APS doing the right thing, assuming that’s who you had. No idea if SRP is any better either. SRP in my case at both houses, so... yeah. I think I might tick the box to pay SRP a couple bucks for more renewable sources instead. redreader posted:All I know about the panels is that they were fully paid off and cost about 30k? and that they were transferred over to us when we bought the house. It may still be a lease - Tesla gave me the option of prepaying the remainder of the lease at about a 30% discount as part of the home sale. If I had sold to Zillow or something like it, I would have had to. They take one of two positions - either they don't deal with leased solar at all regardless of payoff status (Opendoor) or they require it to be paid off (everyone else I checked). Even paid off like that the panels would still come off the roof at the term end. Tesla still owes you some paperwork and monitoring information.
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Oct 12, 2021 14:52
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Fallom posted:Pretty good price for running power up two stories imo I think so, too! Especially when it's going to turn my bathroom into a fuckin wonderland  Doubly thought so because my POs just hosed up my electrical something FIERCE. But that gets sorted out next Monday! 
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Oct 12, 2021 15:23
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Johnny Truant posted:I think so, too! Especially when it's going to turn my bathroom into a fuckin wonderland That is pretty great and seriously a goal for my bath remodel, I've been kicking around the idea of adding a dedicated circuit for my master bath, with an outlet for a bidet and why not wire in a towel warmer if I'm going to that length.
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Oct 12, 2021 16:05
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StormDrain posted:an outlet for a bidet and why not wire in a towel warmer if I'm going to that length. Lol this is exactly what we're going to be doing! It also lights a fire under my butt to get the bathroom painted before they do the electrical work. Actually, question about this: would it be best to have the electricians just leave a hole in the wall that I can put one of those easy spring-covers up to cover, so I can still access the junction box? Towel warmer I can wire in, bidet is just a plug. And you have to be able to access any plug(junction box?) for it to be up to code, I think?
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Oct 12, 2021 16:34
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Johnny Truant posted:Lol this is exactly what we're going to be doing! It also lights a fire under my butt to get the bathroom painted before they do the electrical work. Wouldn't it be better to paint after the electricians are done putting holes in the walls? I do paint and floors as the last 2 steps before completion on just about any home project.
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Oct 12, 2021 16:42
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Yeah, I’d save paint for after the electric work and before you install the towel warmer. poo poo always gets dinged.
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Oct 12, 2021 16:47
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Good points! I was jumping the gun and thinking of having to paint around the already affixed towel warmer, which would be a nightmare 
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Oct 12, 2021 17:35
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spf3million posted:Does anyone know if these solar heaters actually do anything? According to a handwritten seller's disclosures from P2O, it was "installed in 1978?" We're getting bids to replace the roof before going forward with solar PV, wondering if it's worth putting this thing back up after it inevitably will be taken down as part of the re-roofing. How much are they going to charge you to remove + replace while doing the roof? I can't see it really making sense to pay to have them reinstalled tbh.
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Oct 12, 2021 20:04
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We have what I think may be a crack in the foundation. There's water in the crawlspace. A lot of water. We have a concrete guy coming to check it out, and have already had a restoration guy check out the water situation. Luckily the restoration guy says no mold, and cleanup is a price that won't break the bank. I have absolutely no vocabulary with which to speak to the concrete guy though. Anyone have any quick suggestions on what to ask about, or intelligent questions to ask, just to help me not get upsold or anything? Googling this leads to a bunch of aliexpress poo poo and contractor websites, very little helpful information. 
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Oct 12, 2021 20:37
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I think you're right to be wary. On one hand I don't know anything about basements, but on the other nobody does and there are people prepared to take advantage of that. We called a "basement specialist" about a similar leak and got a pitch to replace the entire french drain and put some kind of membrane on the outside of the walls. It would have been about 25% of the value of the house. He asked what our budget was before he asked why we he was there. If he'd been a little less horny for the sale it might have worked, hydrostatics and poo poo is intimidating and it's easy to picture your house caving in and scare yourself stupid. My guess is either you can just cram some hydraulic cement in there or the house is doomed. One of those.
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Oct 13, 2021 03:50
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BigHead posted:We have what I think may be a crack in the foundation. There's water in the crawlspace. A lot of water. We have a concrete guy coming to check it out, and have already had a restoration guy check out the water situation. Luckily the restoration guy says no mold, and cleanup is a price that won't break the bank. I don't see a crack in your photo. Concrete isn't waterproof on its own. What's the water situation around your house? Have you lived here long? Is it suddenly raining a lot more? Do you have a perimeter drain and sump pump? What is a lot of water mean, was your basement or crawlspace flooded to a depth of inches or feet? Is this near a water source like the incoming water main?
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Oct 13, 2021 04:15
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go for a stroll posted:I think you're right to be wary. On one hand I don't know anything about basements, but on the other nobody does and there are people prepared to take advantage of that. We called a "basement specialist" about a similar leak and got a pitch to replace the entire french drain and put some kind of membrane on the outside of the walls. It would have been about 25% of the value of the house. He asked what our budget was before he asked why we he was there. Oh my husband is in full "house is doomed" mode. StormDrain posted:I don't see a crack in your photo. PNW, and it just hit the rainy season, so everywhere is saturated. Several inches, much below the moisture barrier but also above. Mostly affecting the 25% of the crawlspace that is downhill from the rest, though there is a clear flow from that area near that photo to the downhill area. Feels like a water bed and the soil is saturated if you lift the moisture barrier. I was at first hopeful that rainy season meant our soil was just wet and it was getting under the house, rather than a foundation problem. Restoration guy said he was 90% sure it was foundation and to call a concrete guy before he sent his crew in to clean it up under there. We just bought the house; it's 10 years old. The previous owners successfully hid this or didn't know about it, and the inspector didn't see it. No sump pump, and honestly I needed to google what a perimeter drain even is. I don't think we have one (if I'm thinking the right thing) but we do have the gutter draining into an underground pipe that snakes around the house. Yes, the outside of that bit of foundation is the irrigation box thing now that you mention it. Since we just moved to the area, one of the frustrating things about this is I have no network of contacts spanning forty years of friendships. Luckily I found someone at church who is a general contractor of some flavor or other, and he asked many of the same questions you asked. He also is going to hook me up with someone he trusts, which is leaps and bounds ahead of where I was yesterday (panicking). If the concrete is leaking that badly, though, I would assume I would need to install some sort of barrier to stop that from happening? Even if it's just porous concrete reacting to the rainy season rather than a crack or other problem, I still want it sealed off appropriately. BigHead fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Oct 13, 2021 |
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Oct 13, 2021 04:48
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StormDrain posted:I don't see a crack in your photo. Username/post
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Oct 13, 2021 04:54
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When it rains hard enough for long enough, there's a spot on the wall in my basement where water starts gushing in through cracks in the stone where the mortar has given out, and it sounds like the waterfall part of a babbling brook. I've never gotten a really good look at it while it's happening because it's in the murder room part of the basement where the lights don't work. Luckily the floor is dirt so the water just goes back into the ground. Otherwise the basement walls are constantly damp and only dry out in the winter when the boiler's on and the ground freezes. I am envious of your singular small damp spot. We did get a quote for moisture mitigation (15k for an interior French drain system) but will probably try repointing and doing further fixes on exterior drainage first.
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Oct 13, 2021 05:54
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Presumably on the other side of the concrete is earth. There's probably some moisture barrier (if it was built in the PNW in the 80s it's probably like an industrial thickness garbage bag thing) and it has a pinhole in it. You could excavate and try and find and patch the pinhole, but chances are you'll do more damage trying to find it Maybe get a wifi webcam and stick it down there with an extension cord (but so it's not laying in any puddles) and keep an eye on it? If it's keeping you up at night. If you get less than 10 gallons cumulatively over the winter, in the PNW, I wouldn't worry about it too much. My boat leaks more water than that, for comparison Double check and make sure your rain gutters drain at least 36" away from the foundation, and if you live on a hill, that they don't drain back towards the house. The seller might have hosed up the drainage trying to do last minute landscaping trying to sell the place for top dollar. Or something. A picture of the exterior of that wall would help dispel any drainage concerns Hadlock fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Oct 13, 2021 |
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Oct 13, 2021 09:06
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Seems like a thermal camera ($250 for a phone attaching one) might show you the water path in the wall at least.
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Oct 13, 2021 10:03
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Hadlock posted:It's just a standard X inch 120v blower fan? $250 at your local AC supply company Blower fan was it. Nice and cold a/c finally.
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Oct 13, 2021 13:21
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BigHead posted:Oh my husband is in full "house is doomed" mode. its the gutters. clean em out, then extend the downspouts as far out as you can bear. you gotta get the rainwater away from the foundation and see what that does before anything else. also stop by the portland/seattle LAN threads to meet some local goons (eew)
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Oct 13, 2021 16:52
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I am now a baby lawn owner. I am now the prod owner of like 400 sqft of basically new pavers. 3 pallets worth, basically. What are these worth? What can I do with them? Upgrade fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Oct 13, 2021 |
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Oct 13, 2021 19:40
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Upgrade posted:I am now a baby lawn owner. You can pave a 4 foot by 100 foot path?
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Oct 13, 2021 19:44
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Elephanthead posted:You can pave a 4 foot by 100 foot path? I don't know what happened to my picture. I hate mobile SA. I guess I could also build a wall!
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Oct 13, 2021 19:48
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Upgrade posted:I am now a baby lawn owner. Make an outdoor pizza oven? 
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Oct 13, 2021 19:54
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Any recommendations for removal/control of moss and lichen growth on roofs? We have a small low angle roof above apart of the structure with a first floor only footprint. There’s some growth there since it’s in the shade most of the time. Preferably something that I could do myself.
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Oct 13, 2021 20:11
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EPICAC posted:Any recommendations for removal/control of moss and lichen growth on roofs? We have a small low angle roof above apart of the structure with a first floor only footprint. There’s some growth there since it’s in the shade most of the time. Preferably something that I could do myself. For removal, bleach in a sprayer works the best. You can use one of those hose-end chemical sprayers to dilute it and maybe hit it from the ground. For prevention, zinc strips can work to some degree, but are ugly. Shade and wet conditions will mean that this is just another one of those regular things. I have to do the siding on the North side of my house at least twice a year to keep it looking good.
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Oct 13, 2021 21:15
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I opened my chest freezer after cleaning it and putting it in a storage pod, and it was moldy on the inside. I sprayed it with 2% bleach spray and the black of the mould (and the mould?) was gone within about an hour. I'll have to wipe it later, but holy poo poo that was a fast de-moulding. Also Tesla put the solar stuff in my name and I am now able to log in via my phone and check the power usage/etc, which is great.
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Oct 13, 2021 21:34
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