Solar electric

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Paul B

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 19, 2006
Messages
1,422
Location
New York
As I posted in October I installed Solar electric on my home and I would like to report the results being it is almost 100 degrees here in NY today.
I can access my electric bills for a year and I am happy to say that I have been saving about $110.00 a month in electric costs.
My bill this month which has been the hottest August on record is only $125.00. Last year it was $260.00.
That is with 3 ACs running almost continuosely and my reef with 300 watts of MH lights and five pumps.
On average I have saved $1,320.00 this year on power costs.
I am very happy about this.
And on Long Island we pay some of the highest rates for power in the country.
I also just finished installing my new
high efficiency boiler which is 96% efficient.
This is also supposed to save me over $1,000.00 a year in heating. I removed my 50 year old 1000 pound oil burner and installed one of these new energy efficient gas units. The thing is so small it hangs on a wall which is surprising being I have 3 zones and here in NY it gets down to zero degrees.
New York is one of the few places in the worls with a 100 degree difference in temperature between summer and winter.

The new boiler is so efficient that there is no chimeney. You are not allowed to vent the thing into a chimeny because it doesn't make enough waste heat to rise up a chimney. You have to vent it outside with plastic pipe. All of the heat goes into the radiators.
There is an outside sensor that tells the boiler how much heat to generate. If it just needs a little heat, the burner just makes a small flame and the radiators just get warm. On an old system, the boiler only has one speed, high. So even if you need to bring up the temp 2 degrees, the boiled has to go on full force and heat the hell out of everything. This thing has brains.
Of course I didn't try it out in the winter yet

Now all I need is an electric car and boat and I will be set.
 
yeah I Installed Solars on my building a while back, Got the panels from a dismantel building from the northwest somewhere. Saved me huge on my shop costs. Sold the building for twice what I payed for it. Solars are great. I wish I could put them in here, But the HOA wont allow it. Good that your watching your bucks, will keep ya in reefing that way.
 
I priced getting solar into my house & was quoted $60,000, second quote was a little less but either is way to costly for me. If I installed it myself I would save the labor cost but right now I have too much other projects going on so that won't happen. Down South we don't have basements, no boilers & most homes are using electric heat, heap pumps, or gas of some sort. Living in an older home that is a disadvantage over newer homes because of the new types of insulation & building standards such as three pane windows, spray foam insulation, combination of natural gas or propane for water heaters, etc. I'd like to convert from all electric to at least propane. This biggest problem for me is cash flow, the way things are these days I hate to spend money at that level right now, so that will hurt my plans.
 

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