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Automotive News & Views How does gas at $4 and higher impact you?
2183 messages, Last post on Nov 21, 2009 at 5:13 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: gagrice (Sep 23, 2008 6:50 am) What part of it? The financial aspect only?
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Replying to: larsb (Sep 23, 2008 7:00 am) Financial and efficiency of the current systems. They are ok for SW applications to supplement the cost of AC. Other places they are of little value. That and proven longevity. The sun destroys things fast. You need to look around at the solar systems in place. Many are already split and ruined by the sun. One big array very near me is abandoned. It had to have cost a small fortune. The house is for sale. One of the foreclosures. Realtor says system not working. This is a million dollar home. Or it was a couple years ago. My electric bill last month with the most AC used this year was $140. Not worth the hassle to go solar. The CFLs and getting rid of the hot tub saved the most electric.
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Replying to: gagrice (Sep 23, 2008 7:23 am) And what the solar industry needs to do is prove that fallacy incorrect. Even a small solar array that does 20% of my power can be installed at my home for ZERO dollars net cost to me. I can save around $20 a month in electricity for as long as the system works. That's like getting free money per month for 10-15 years. These new solar panels by Kyocera and Sharp are warrantied by the manufacturer for 20+ years. Even if the sun "destroys" one or more of them before that, you can get a replacement for basically free from the manufacturer. They are not going to be putting a warranty like that on the panels unless they are PRETTY DARN SURE that the panel will make it that long. Some people with low monthly bills are not the best candidates for solar, but you ARE a candidate. I only average about $110 per month on my electric bill and I'm looking to lower that, because I know that electricity prices will be going up over time. That $110 per month was only $75 10 years ago. In another 10 years it's likely to be $200 a month. |
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Replying to: gagrice (Sep 23, 2008 6:50 am) I am surprised that a wind turbine is that cheap, at least relative to solar. Appears to be about half the cost, except I'm sure they'd try to upsell me to the $20k version. Whisper Wind. Is that sort of like Clean Coal?  Anyone here from Atlanta having trouble finding gas for their car?
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Replying to: steve_ (Sep 23, 2008 7:53 am) 
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My electric bill peaked at $145 this summer, my first in my new house. There are a bunch of fees in the bill so even if I used 10 KWhrs, it would be $25 min per month. In the winter, the elec bill was about $45 for April, the first month in the house. I was still running heat most days. So chasing after 20 a month in the winter and 120 a month in the summer adds up to about 500 a year. To finance a 16k wind turbine is going to eat that up, so there is never a break even point for wind power.
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Replying to: steve_ (Sep 23, 2008 7:53 am) brief story |
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Replying to: larsb (Sep 23, 2008 6:03 am)
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Replying to: dave8697 (Sep 23, 2008 8:20 am) I wouldn't say that France is overwhelmingly enamored with nukes. New incident at French nuclear plant (Reuters) Financing is in disarray with the credit crunch for building new ones on the drawing boards around the world although Warren Buffett seems to have snatched up Constellation Energy - that's a diverse energy company but is big in nukes and hopes to bring them to the US. I bet they won't try to put one in Omaha though.  Financial Times
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Replying to: dave8697 (Sep 23, 2008 8:12 am) That must be a really efficient house! My last electric bill (~Aug 19 to ~Sept 20) was about $225. I've blown about $1700 on electricity so far this year. Back in 2004, 2005, and 2006, it usually averaged out to about $100-110 per month. But with the way rates jacked up, I blew about $2000 in 2007. Now part of that was because of a leaky faucet that made the water heater run constantly, and I didn't realize just how bad it was leaking until the bill came! And because I didn't get a plumber out right away, it carried over to the next bill. That could have easily accounted for about $250-300 right there. I'm looking forward to the October and November bills. They should be pretty reasonable, since I won't be running a/c anymore, and it won't get cold enough to really put a strain on the new heat pump. And I still have about a half-tank left of oil, so I'll probably try to burn that off this winter, before retiring the old furnace for good.
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