Grab your tinfoil hats and calculators folks and lets talk numbers.
I am NOT a numbers person but it is also hard to make me drink the cool-aide. Mr. Dometastic on the other hand is the opposite. He is a numbers guy and at times is a cool-aide guzzler. Between the two of us we should be able to navigate building this house and making it as "green" as possible without guzzling the cool-aid. At least that is what I am telling myself now.
We are at the point of involving the building engineer and getting our official architectural plans drawn up. Time to really think about the internal workings of the house.
Ok, put on those shiny hats for just a moment. At first, our plan was to go completely off grid. This idea came about with Tesla releasing the Powerwall house battery. A battery linked to solar to charge it (and a propane generator as backup) would take care of our electric needs. Read about the Powerwall HERE.
Ok, now off with the hats. The problem is the cost is still too much compared to connecting to the grid and just adding solar.
There are two kinds of solar systems. Couldn't resist this even if it is a dumb pun. I will blame it on spending too much time around small children. But you were all thinking it!
Photo voltaic (PV) for electricity and solar hot water for hot water and/or heat.
Ok, time for the calculators. Solar hot water is definitely worth it. We added solar hot water to our last house and it was a HUGE savings. Even in the dark short days of winter here in Connecticut, the hot water solar panels would get our solar tank up to 70 or 80 degrees. Then the oil water heater only had to heat it from that temp to 120 degrees. Without the solar it has to go from ground temp of about 50-55 to 120 degrees. That is a HUGE difference in energy needed from oil. In the summer the solar tank would get super hot and all our hot water use was free. Back in 2011, when we installed it, the tax credits from both the state and the federal gov equaled half the total cost of the system. It was 12k but with the tax credits it was 6k. That was a very quick payback when the oil costs were very high. Oil costs may be low now but they won't stay that way. We added solar hot water and a wood stove. We went from about 4 or 5 oil deliveries a year down to just 1. This was back when home heating oil prices were in the mid $3 per gallon range. This changed our yearly oil bill from about 4k down to about 1k.
Geothermal?
Ok, keep your calculators out but put those shiny hats back on because you will need them to buy into Geothermal. Now for Geothermal info I have collected. Actually it is simplest to say we won't be doing it. It is super cool and I want to do it but just too expensive to make financial sense. There WAS a 30% government tax credit. Well technically there still is but it expires in exactly 17 days from now. All the info I can find says that it won't be renewed unlike the solar credits. This means we have JUST missed the Geothermal boat. Those hats can now help you be suspicious of big oil's involvement in getting it killed.
Without the tax credits the cost of installation doesn't make sense. It's barely worth it with the tax credits if you are still wearing your hat! This is going by general numbers I have found online specific to Connecticut as well as talking to people that have installed Geothermal in their homes. I have seen/heard numbers ranging from $10k to $40k but in the mid 20's seems to be the norm. That is a really long payback before you start "saving money".
So the short version of this is:
We will connect to the grid but set up the house so that we can add in solar hot water and PV at a later date. We will need to add it later when we aren't broke from building. If my tinfoil hat wearing husband wants to drink cool-aid he can put in a small wind turbine sometime in the future.
I am NOT a numbers person but it is also hard to make me drink the cool-aide. Mr. Dometastic on the other hand is the opposite. He is a numbers guy and at times is a cool-aide guzzler. Between the two of us we should be able to navigate building this house and making it as "green" as possible without guzzling the cool-aid. At least that is what I am telling myself now.
We are at the point of involving the building engineer and getting our official architectural plans drawn up. Time to really think about the internal workings of the house.
Ok, put on those shiny hats for just a moment. At first, our plan was to go completely off grid. This idea came about with Tesla releasing the Powerwall house battery. A battery linked to solar to charge it (and a propane generator as backup) would take care of our electric needs. Read about the Powerwall HERE.
Ok, now off with the hats. The problem is the cost is still too much compared to connecting to the grid and just adding solar.
There are two kinds of solar systems. Couldn't resist this even if it is a dumb pun. I will blame it on spending too much time around small children. But you were all thinking it!
Photo voltaic (PV) for electricity and solar hot water for hot water and/or heat.
Ok, time for the calculators. Solar hot water is definitely worth it. We added solar hot water to our last house and it was a HUGE savings. Even in the dark short days of winter here in Connecticut, the hot water solar panels would get our solar tank up to 70 or 80 degrees. Then the oil water heater only had to heat it from that temp to 120 degrees. Without the solar it has to go from ground temp of about 50-55 to 120 degrees. That is a HUGE difference in energy needed from oil. In the summer the solar tank would get super hot and all our hot water use was free. Back in 2011, when we installed it, the tax credits from both the state and the federal gov equaled half the total cost of the system. It was 12k but with the tax credits it was 6k. That was a very quick payback when the oil costs were very high. Oil costs may be low now but they won't stay that way. We added solar hot water and a wood stove. We went from about 4 or 5 oil deliveries a year down to just 1. This was back when home heating oil prices were in the mid $3 per gallon range. This changed our yearly oil bill from about 4k down to about 1k.
Geothermal?
Ok, keep your calculators out but put those shiny hats back on because you will need them to buy into Geothermal. Now for Geothermal info I have collected. Actually it is simplest to say we won't be doing it. It is super cool and I want to do it but just too expensive to make financial sense. There WAS a 30% government tax credit. Well technically there still is but it expires in exactly 17 days from now. All the info I can find says that it won't be renewed unlike the solar credits. This means we have JUST missed the Geothermal boat. Those hats can now help you be suspicious of big oil's involvement in getting it killed.
Without the tax credits the cost of installation doesn't make sense. It's barely worth it with the tax credits if you are still wearing your hat! This is going by general numbers I have found online specific to Connecticut as well as talking to people that have installed Geothermal in their homes. I have seen/heard numbers ranging from $10k to $40k but in the mid 20's seems to be the norm. That is a really long payback before you start "saving money".
So the short version of this is:
We will connect to the grid but set up the house so that we can add in solar hot water and PV at a later date. We will need to add it later when we aren't broke from building. If my tinfoil hat wearing husband wants to drink cool-aid he can put in a small wind turbine sometime in the future.
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