Solar Musings

Solar isn’t affordable? Won’t work in Ohio? Hmmm

Our electric usage has been 18,297 –> 16,455 –> 15,530kWh annually, I can only guess that LED’s are helping drive down our annual electricity usage.

Average home is 10,812kWh. Ours is higher because we run geothermal heating / cooling, water pump, sump pump. Also we work from home 24/7. Also a large home at 2.8K sq. ft+

For about $26K ($34-48K w/ battery back up), or less than the cost of a new, higher-end car, we can get a 12kW solar array and go completely off grid. If we can improve our electricity usage (we can) the system can be even smaller.

Our only utility bills would then be for gas (cooking, hybrid furnace) and phone/cable/internet.

And should the zombie apocalypse happen we’d be good to go.

 

Links:

http://www.affordable-solar.com/solar-tools/residential-solar-calculator/

http://www.dovetailsolar.com/default.aspx

Click to access Spring-2016-SOLAR-PV-Residential-Price-Sheet-3-06-2016af.pdf

Click to access Spring-2016-SOLAR-PV-Residential-Price-Sheet-3-06-2016af.pdf

https://www.tesla.com/powerwall

 

Even More LED Bulbs

Was at my LED bulb spot, Home Depot, and saw three packs of my go to Philips BR30 light bulbs for about $18 per pack. It’s amazing how the cost of LED’s has plummeted. I picked up twelve bulbs to start replacing burnt bulbs, as well as some of the working incandescent bulbs, in the front hallway. This leaves about four ceiling bulbs on the first floor that aren’t LED. Once I change those out, I think there are eight on the first level, and about four bulbs on the second level that are incandescent.

Changing out these twelve bulbs this week lowers our energy use to operate the bulbs from 2,925w to 108w. For my $80 investment in twelve new bulbs we’ll save $1,848 over the next 22 years.

This is my go to bulb for 6″ ceiling can fixtures. It’s dimmable, and performs great. Nice warm color, and enough lumens (650) to brighten any location.

Vanity Knobs

After four years, we finally impulse  bought knobs for the half bath vanity. Whimsical ceramic pieces discovered at World Market that seemingly go with the botanically themed wallpaper. Progress is being made; we should have the rest of the house decorated within the next few decades.