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I'm assuming some sort of set-up just utilizing peakers? I guess it depends on the region, too. A lot of utilities (at least regulated) are working on developing non-regulated arms of the business so that they can find ways to be a part of the post-electricity scarcity world.
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Aug 1, 2018 19:50
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Since we're talking about solar: Does anyone know if there are any residential type windmills you can get? I've seen some smallish vertical windmills on some nearby businesses, I wonder if they exist for homes too.
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Aug 1, 2018 19:59
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enraged_camel posted:How much did the solar system cost, and what are your electric bills now (I assume lower, but not zero)? I'm in CA. I ended up with a lease instead of buying outright but I still have the option to pay for it at the end of the lease. At the time I paid nothing upfront and got a $1k signing bonus. I pay about $200/mo for the system which was what my lowest bills were in the winter. Company is responsible for all maintenance and they've replaced the inverter once. I got the system about 5 years ago. I'm going to end up paying more for the system in the long run but I'll still end up saving money in the long run. Lease is for 20 years. If I were to do it now I would probably do what my neighbors did: take some cash out from a refi or heloc, go to https://www.wholesalesolar.com/grid-tie-packages and get a complete solar kit and call up an installer to put it up. Here's what my summer bills were before:  Now I'm on a yearly billing cycle and pay SCE around $300-$400 once a year for net usage.ca FCKGW fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Aug 1, 2018 |
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Aug 1, 2018 20:15
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Hope you never have to/want to move
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Aug 1, 2018 20:18
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Jose Valasquez posted:Hope you never have to/want to move I'm not planning on it but if I do solar is super common around here so it's not something new buyers would be unfamiliar with. If they won't assume the lease I can buy our the contract with the proceeds too.
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Aug 1, 2018 20:19
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Motronic posted:And let's take this to it's (unrealistic but we may creep up on it) conclusion: everyone has solar sufficient to generate all of the power they use. They pay for utility access charges, so the grid is still up. But - whoops: who's storing or generating when the sun is down? Presumably the utility starts developing energy storage systems, which I have to assume are cheaper to run than generators. If nothing else, their inputs and outputs are solely electricity and maybe water/steam. Buy power at wholesale rates, keep it for a bit, then sell it at market rates; sounds simple enough. There will always be need for some baseline power generation. But you wouldn't need nearly so much in the way of peak power generation capacity, because peak demand is usually during the day when solar is generating. Peak capacity plants sit idle most of the time and are often expensive and polluting to run, so getting rid of those is a big win.
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Aug 1, 2018 20:29
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Peak capacity plants sit idle most of the time and are often expensive and polluting to run, so getting rid of those is a big win. Yet wind and solar are the sources that need those fast to come up and fast to go down generating capacity the most in our current technical and financially feasible reality.
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Aug 1, 2018 20:43
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FCKGW posted:I'm in CA. I ended up with a lease instead of buying outright but I still have the option to pay for it at the end of the lease. At the time I paid nothing upfront and got a $1k signing bonus. I pay about $200/mo for the system which was what my lowest bills were in the winter. Company is responsible for all maintenance and they've replaced the inverter once. gently caress SCE (and I'm going to generalize: investor owned utilities in general.) Motronic posted:Yet wind and solar are the sources that need those fast to come up and fast to go down generating capacity the most in our current technical and financially feasible reality. This is why a place like Pasadena Water and Power (government owned) invested in a big natural gas plant upgrade and continues to try and get people to stick solar on their roof, business and residential alike. Their goal has been for a while now all internal (to Pasadena) power generation. One thing I don't know is if they do net metering or wholesale buyback. They also bill transmission and usage separately, and allow you to pick 100% renewable which today they get through PPE's with other generation facilities out of town, but they're working on getting it to "local" as well. They had reasonable rates, so we did 100%. SCE on the other hand has stupidly high rates, no risk (hi San Onofre Fee), and allows you to piecemeal on even more money for green power but in 100kwh increments. (I agree retail buyback or net metering is unsustainable, but also that investor owned utilities aren't innocent in this problem either.)
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Aug 1, 2018 21:18
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Leperflesh posted:Who pays for those large capital projects? Ultimately, the money comes from the customers, unless they're subsidized or paid for by taxpayers. FYI I have net metering and the power company still charges fees (like they always have) for things like transmission, which net metering does not apply against. That seems to solve the problem you've raised (which was never really going to happen anyway)
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Aug 1, 2018 21:23
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Motronic posted:And let's take this to it's (unrealistic but we may creep up on it) conclusion: everyone has solar sufficient to generate all of the power they use. They pay for utility access charges, so the grid is still up. But - whoops: who's storing or generating when the sun is down? Residential electricity usage is a small fraction of overall electricity usage, so in this hypothetical there's still a need for centralized electricity production to supply a shitload of power to the commercial and industrial sectors during the day, which can be used to power residential homes at night.
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Aug 1, 2018 21:26
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QuarkJets posted:FYI I have net metering and the power company still charges fees (like they always have) for things like transmission, which net metering does not apply against. That seems to solve the problem you've raised (which was never really going to happen anyway) This varies from state to state, currently. Some states are evidently already doing this, while others have not caught up yet. The point here is that if you're buying rooftop solar and looking at the current deal you're getting from net metering - however it's structured, with or without fixed transmission costs, etc. - for a 20 year timeframe, and using that to determine your breakeven point, well, you're aiming at a moving target that is only going to move in an unfavorable direction. And even when the transmission costs are a fixed cost, the incentives for utilities to even offer net metering at all are either legislatively enforced (and thus subject to the whims of politicians) or economically based (and subject to ending when there is enough rooftop solar to entirely offset the benefits of rooftop solar to a for-profit utility). This makes investment in solar purely from a financial perspective an uncertain prospect, at least as long as breakevens are measured in decades. I still encourage people to do it, though. It's possible it'll still save you money, but it's also (and in my opinion much much more importantly) environmentally necessary as part of our overall national and international imperative to get off fossil fuels as fast as possible.
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Aug 1, 2018 22:41
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IMO every utility should have a "basic infrastructure" fee, and then a usage fee on top of that. It only makes sense. You need the same infrastructure whether I use your service once a month or 24/7, and that infrastructure has to be maintained. My residential water bill is something like $25 for infrastructure, and then $2 per "unit" of water. The infrastructure fees dwarf the usage fees, for me anyway. Can you imagine the hell of trying to bill solely on usage and arrange things so that everyone pays a fair amount for the infrastructure they use?
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Aug 1, 2018 22:50
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SpartanIvy posted:I am also interested in solar. My power bill is stupid cheap but it would still be cool. Here is a series where a joist was replaced from above. It's pretty involved: Tiny $12K Block House: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv1hfAP6jOb5clZM1rWw20fuDg40x54P- Around video 7
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Aug 2, 2018 00:28
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bred posted:Here is a series where a joist was replaced from above. It's pretty involved: I've seen another video that's similar, where they rip up the floor and replace the main joist (and reinforced it with a steel band), but the joist I need to replace is really a smaller cross member so I think it won't be as involved, and I can do it from below. At least once I can get some wood in there longer than a couple feet in length. That's an awesome video series though. I'm going to have to watch through it all.
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Aug 2, 2018 00:36
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SpartanIvy posted:I've seen another video that's similar, where they rip up the floor and replace the main joist (and reinforced it with a steel band), but the joist I need to replace is really a smaller cross member so I think it won't be as involved, and I can do it from below. At least once I can get some wood in there longer than a couple feet in length. Your crawlspace should have vents to the outside: can you not pop out or even outright destroy a vent, and then feed lumber in through the hole?
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Aug 2, 2018 00:39
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Leperflesh posted:Your crawlspace should have vents to the outside: can you not pop out or even outright destroy a vent, and then feed lumber in through the hole? SpartanIvy posted:Unfortunately not. The vents aren't just rectangles. They are made up of like 6 different triangles so even if I ripped out the mesh you couldn't fit anything bigger than a smallish pipe through. Complicating things even more is that those are on the brick facade, and there's another set of vents behind them that are offset somewhat. So I couldn't even make use of the entire vent width if I busted the whole thing out of the facade. Plus I'm not very sold on the idea of busting out one of the concrete vents, but we'll see. I need to get some foundation quotes for leveling some piers and beams, and I'll pick those peoples brains for ideas. They've probably dealt with this situation a million times.
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Aug 2, 2018 00:49
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Ah, sorry, I somehow missed or forgot that. Yeah it's gonna come down to making a hole somewhere, and you'll probably just get to pick which spot is the least expensive or disruptive.
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Aug 2, 2018 01:02
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Leperflesh posted:This varies from state to state, currently. Some states are evidently already doing this, while others have not caught up yet. The point here is that if you're buying rooftop solar and looking at the current deal you're getting from net metering - however it's structured, with or without fixed transmission costs, etc. - for a 20 year timeframe, and using that to determine your breakeven point, well, you're aiming at a moving target that is only going to move in an unfavorable direction. And even when the transmission costs are a fixed cost, the incentives for utilities to even offer net metering at all are either legislatively enforced (and thus subject to the whims of politicians) or economically based (and subject to ending when there is enough rooftop solar to entirely offset the benefits of rooftop solar to a for-profit utility). I agree with what you've written, but the point that some people are taking away is that net metering is unsustainable, which is wrong. Your hypothetical fuels that kind of perception. It's only really unsustainable if you make a bunch of other assumptions, like that an evil wizard is preventing you from charging fees for transmission and infrastructure I think it's fair to say that many investments having a moving break-even point, including solar panels for your roof, and it's a cool thing to take advantage of that will probably pay off but obviously is not a for-sure financial win.
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Aug 2, 2018 01:32
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SpartanIvy posted:I am also interested in solar. My power bill is stupid cheap but it would still be cool. If you go with the garage wall, make sure you put in an air tight (and fire resistant?) door. You don't want car exhaust getting sucked under your house where it'll rise up into living areas.
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Aug 2, 2018 01:52
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QuarkJets posted:I agree with what you've written, but the point that some people are taking away is that net metering is unsustainable, which is wrong. Your hypothetical fuels that kind of perception. It's only really unsustainable if you make a bunch of other assumptions, like that an evil wizard is preventing you from charging fees for transmission and infrastructure Yeah since I basically said net metering is unsustainable, and you're right that that statement on its own isn't quite right. Net metering as many layperson understands it - paying you the same rate for power you add to the grid as you pay for power you take from the grid - is unustainable. A scheme that includes net metering but captures revenue to cover the costs other than wholesale power generation is sustainable. The reason I think so many people don't understand the nuance is partly because there is a highly aggressive and crowded field of solar panel sales/install/lease companies that are very happy to promote that impression. Certainly at least some of the worst actors will present ROI numbers to potential customers that take the net metering scheme that is currently available to them and project those numbers ten, twenty, thirty years into the future, conveniently leaving out the likelihood that actually no, you probably won't be saving quite as much money down the road once your state changes the rules and allows your utility to recapture its net costs. But this thread isn't run by those people and I think the real situation has been pretty thoroughly covered, and I'm happy to admit that I overstated the case and net metering can be a portion of a sustainable and scalable home solar generation model.
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Aug 3, 2018 05:32
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I have a plumber who just finished up some work and wants me to pay him via Zelle. Apparently he is in a “fight with his credit card company” and can’t accept my credit card payment. Is this shady as gently caress or am I just uninformed? I feel like the credit card would be safer for me due to the built in consumer protections if anything were to go wrong.
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Aug 3, 2018 21:38
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Gin_Rummy posted:I have a plumber who just finished up some work and wants me to pay him via Zelle. Apparently he is in a “fight with his credit card company” and can’t accept my credit card payment. Is this shady as gently caress or am I just uninformed? I feel like the credit card would be safer for me due to the built in consumer protections if anything were to go wrong. A contractor asking to be paid in cash is (was?) standard. It probably says so on the written estimate you received.
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Aug 3, 2018 21:43
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H110Hawk posted:A contractor asking to be paid in cash is (was?) standard. It probably says so on the written estimate you received. No mention of payment method on his estimate.  Doesn’t matter anyways, the bill exceeds my daily limit on transfers through Zelle, so I guess I’m paying a surcharge to use my credit card.
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Aug 3, 2018 21:55
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Gin_Rummy posted:No mention of payment method on his estimate. Write him a check?
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Aug 3, 2018 22:02
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If he did the work already I don't see how it could be a scam
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Aug 3, 2018 22:26
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God help us, we just had the initial ideas/design meeting with our architect for a home addition. It’ll probably be a couple of years before we actually kick off construction, if SA is still around I’ll definitely do a thread. Adding an entire new master bath/closet to the footprint and adding a room + bathroom up top over the master/kitchen area for a play room/family room/teenager hangout when the kids are older. We’ll take the existing master closet/bath space and use it for the stairs, a bigger pantry, and a large utility/laundry/storage room that we can also put stuff like the deep freeze, mop sink and safe to get more room in the garage. 
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Aug 4, 2018 00:17
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SpartanIvy posted:If he did the work already I don't see how it could be a scam Getting paid via weird P2P app, then claiming non-payment and going for double payment via legal system.
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Aug 4, 2018 00:19
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Sigourney Cheevos posted:Getting paid via weird P2P app, then claiming non-payment and going for double payment via legal system. Zelle is how some banks now do transfers between two people. A contractor though use bill pay.
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Aug 4, 2018 00:50
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Sigourney Cheevos posted:Getting paid via weird P2P app, then claiming non-payment and going for double payment via legal system. Zelle isn't a weird P2P app and it leaves way more of a paper trail than cash. My bank, USAA, signed up with Zelle and it's fine. Paying a contractor with it might be against the TOS or something though.
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Aug 4, 2018 00:50
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Fallom posted:Zelle isn't a weird P2P app and it leaves way more of a paper trail than cash. My bank, USAA, signed up with Zelle and it's fine. Paying a contractor with it might be against the TOS or something though. Definitely is: Prohibited uses posted:The Service is intended for personal, not business or commercial use. You agree that you will not use the Service to send or receive payments in connection with your business or commercial enterprise.
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Aug 4, 2018 01:00
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Ultimate Mango posted:Write him a check? I would’ve, but I wasn’t home to do so. I left my girlfriend there with my credit card assuming it’d be no problem to swipe it... But to echo some previous posters’ sentiments: I feel like if say, the repair was done incorrectly or poorly and then they tried to charge me two weeks from now to do the same thing, it’d be easier to go to my credit card company to dispute the initial charge (“hey, they didn’t actually do this service and they won’t refund me”) than my bank after paying in cash. Plus, I just prefer the credit card overall because of them sweet, sweet airline miles off these big expenditures. Gin_Rummy fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Aug 4, 2018 |
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Aug 4, 2018 01:12
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Zelle has zero chargebacks or any recourse for reclaiming payments so keep that in mind. It's 100% legit app but its intended purpose is small, quick payments between friends and family like when splitting a check.
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Aug 4, 2018 01:25
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So I need to get blinds for my windows. What are my options? I don't need anything fancy, but I don't want something that looks like poo poo either. I'd be happy with standard 2 inch wooden blinds. I talked to a few local companies and one of them quoted me $500 for two windows (one is 56H x 60W and the other is 34H 90W) and it just seems expensive to me.
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Aug 4, 2018 22:51
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I checked out a custom blind shop and they quoted me $700 per window at a minimum. You can get wooden blinds at Home Depot or Lowe’s that they’ll size for you in store and aren’t remotely difficult to install.
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Aug 4, 2018 22:59
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Anyone have any troubleshooting advice for my riding mower that keeps dying after a couple of minutes? Little bit of background, it's a mid-90's Poulan with a Tecumseh engine. Earlier this summer, it started running only with partial choke. So about a month ago, I replaced the carb, throttle body, air filter, spark plug and fuel cap. Ran great for two cuts after that, fired right up and ran for an hour or so with normal throttle. Last weekend and now again this weekend, it'll fire right up when I first go to start it, run fine for a few minutes, then die. It won't start again for a minute it so, and then it'll only run for a very short time. I replaced the battery this weekend as well since it was very old and not holding a charge well anymore, but that didn't help. Doesn't matter if I've got it ongreat or blades engaged or not, still seems to start, run, and die on the same manner. Any thoughts on what what I can test or replace? Grand total I still only have like $80 into this thing since I got it for free two years ago so it's still worth it to me to throw some parts at it.
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Aug 4, 2018 23:18
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e: ^^ check the spark plugs, I bet they're fouling out. Was the carb OEM or aftermarket china? I paid $30 for some faux wood ones at walmart, they are decent CloFan fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Aug 4, 2018 |
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Aug 4, 2018 23:20
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enraged_camel posted:So I need to get blinds for my windows. What are my options? I don't need anything fancy, but I don't want something that looks like poo poo either. I'd be happy with standard 2 inch wooden blinds. We used the home depot blinds.com (which I can pimp out to you for a referral credit) and it was great. Bunch of free samples, paid a few bucks to get everything measured, and paid for install. Did cordless cell shades and are really happy with them 2 years later.
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Aug 4, 2018 23:55
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CloFan posted:e: ^^ check the spark plugs, I bet they're fouling out. Was the carb OEM or aftermarket china? Definitely some cheap aftermarket one, paid $20 for carb/air filter/fuel filter lol. Not sure if oem is around anymore since Tecumseh stopped making engines I think? If the plug is fouling what would be the next step to check? I am very bad with carbs.
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Aug 5, 2018 00:05
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enraged_camel posted:So I need to get blinds for my windows. What are my options? I don't need anything fancy, but I don't want something that looks like poo poo either. I'd be happy with standard 2 inch wooden blinds. I just put in 20 windows of the Home Depot 2” faux cordless blinds. They work fine. The 90W is going to be problematic for off the shelf blinds. The Walmart faux wood blinds had some bad reviews about warping so I went HD. They’re not fancy or anything, but they’ll do for now.
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Aug 5, 2018 02:27
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brugroffil posted:Definitely some cheap aftermarket one, paid $20 for carb/air filter/fuel filter lol. If you still have the original carb, you should disassemble and clean it. Running aftermarket carbs can be a pain in the rear end to tune, and the old one is probably serviceable with some TLC. https://mechanics.stackexchange.com/questions/642/how-do-i-know-when-to-change-my-spark-plug/649 Check the chart in the answer post
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Aug 5, 2018 02:36
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