The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

There’s no inventory of houses for sale, but demand for houses is still there. Last week there were fewer houses for sale than realtors. I’m not sure if that’s ever happened before the current situation.

if you’re able to sell and rent for a few months to a year, you might find some great gains if the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic relents.

If I could easily find somewhere to rent, I’d move to sell my house. I think it would go for between 550-590 right now, well over what I paid and I could get nearly 300k of equity out

[The Sicatoka]

Def not as aesthetically beautiful as say, an oil field!

I assume you account for surface land usage as you make that assessment. Me, I'd rather see one well head in four square miles (Bakken field average) than some of the solar monstrosities being done. Beauty is in the eye ...

[The Sicatoka]

I am so thankful that my wife and I were able to redo our deck last Memorial Day before the lumber prices went bonkers. I think for giggles we did an online estimate again for materials (16x12 deck, composite top boards) and it's triple what we paid.

Plywood has gone 6x! Yow-zah.

The plants I know that make pre-fab building components (roof trusses and walls) have all switched their design software from "production" to "usage" (meaning not fast but get the most used material per raw board or sheet).

[unofan]

Net metering hurts the power distribution company unless they have a high monthly connection charge and a low energy rate. (Think: Cell phone. You really don't pay per minute, you pay a monthly fee to have the phone and be connected. The power distribution company needs to go to a model like that to pay for their infrastructure to keep you connected to the grid if your state allows net metering.)

With net metering you pay X for each kWh in and get paid that same X for each out. Seems fair to you. But, you're using the power distribution company's infrastructure to deliver your energy.

Net billing is more reasonable: When you buy you buy at retail, when you produce you sell at wholesale. All energy sellers are equal wholesalers and the power distribution company just becomes a wheeler of energy.

All that said, most homeowners produce excess (sell) when the grid doesn't need it (off peak demand times). So now the power company is forced to buy energy that is not in demand at the time, and that forces the power distribution company to raise rates.

I disagree adamantly with most of this which are almost all industry talking points from the utilities that I've heard numerous times before, but I don't have time to rebut them point by point.

[unofan]

Nothing you say is wrong. But nearly two acres of panels is not appealing.

Nor is a clear cut mountaintop or a sinkhole caused by coal mines.

[Scarlet]

There’s no inventory of houses for sale, but demand for houses is still there. Last week there were fewer houses for sale than realtors. I’m not sure if that’s ever happened before the current situation.

if you’re able to sell and rent for a few months to a year, you might find some great gains if the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic relents.

This is what my plans were in the fall and I'm still thinking of selling in the next 2-6 months. Two units in my building each sold in less than a week for more money than what I was originally asking. Since I took my place off the market, I've paid $10K additional towards the principal, replace my hot water heater, washer and dryer. I have a few other home improvement projects in mind. That being said, rents for places where I want to live are super high. The rent for the apartment I had hoped to move to last fall was pretty much a wash with what I'm paying for mortgage and condo fee, which is what I'm hoping for. I'm not ruling out going back to them if I make the decision to sell. Seems like now is the time to put it on the market to get as much for it as I can.

I am still hearing from several realtors questioning whether I put this place on the market again. I was thinking of calling three of them to interview them, see what their thoughts were on what I would need to do to sell and how much they think I could get for it.

[BassAle]

All that said, most homeowners produce excess (sell) when the grid doesn't need it (off peak demand times). So now the power company is forced to buy energy that is not in demand at the time, and that forces the power distribution company to raise rates.

Homeowners produce the most during sunny days in the summer when air conditioners are cranking and California is having rolling blackouts

Is peak demand really during the night? I find that hard to believe now. Lighting is a tiny percentage of my electricity usage. Lots of businesses are closed at night. Why is peak not during the day when everyone's working, everything's open, and it's hot out?

[dxmnkd316]

For the record, I have literally no idea who it was. It may have been multiple people.

The point is, it doesn't matter who, just that it's freaking awesome that BassAle has a functional, green, and seemingly cost-effective means of powering his house. In Maine.

[dxmnkd316]

Homeowners produce the most during sunny days in the summer when air conditioners are cranking and California is having rolling blackouts

Is peak demand really during the night? I find that hard to believe now. Lighting is a tiny percentage of my electricity usage. Lots of businesses are closed at night. Why is peak not during the day when everyone's working, everything's open, and it's hot out?

It's an interesting question. I'm guessing peak is right around 3-7. When recovery mode kicks on after the houses have coasted all day. That said, this has been flipped on its head since we're all at home all day now.

[The Sicatoka]

Nor is a clear cut mountaintop or a sinkhole caused by coal mines.

There is no panacea. Everything has pros and cons.

[BassAle]

seemingly cost-effective

expected life span of the solar panels is ~30years, and "payback" is around 9 years, so they'll give me about 20 years of "free" electricity

I may or may not still be living here in 9 years, but I'll recoup some of my investment if I sell

[The Sicatoka]

... industry talking points from the utilities ...

One person's talking points is the fiscal reality of a director of a power cooperative who has been looking at the issue and the numbers for a decade.

Taking this a different analogous direction (and all analogies are admittedly terrible) say you had a well and refinery in your basement. Sometimes you go to the gas station to fill up because your production was low; other times you go and pour gas into the station's tanks. Should you be paid the same as you pay per gallon? Who covers the station's expenses?


Our solution is what I called the cell phone model: higher connection cost (monthly cost of connection), but lower per unit (minute or kWh) cost.

[The Sicatoka]

Is peak demand really during the night? I find that hard to believe now. Lighting is a tiny percentage of my electricity usage. Lots of businesses are closed at night. Why is peak not during the day when everyone's working, everything's open, and it's hot out?

Peak times traditionally are 0600 to 0900 and 1500 to 1900 hours (get ready for work/school; come home and make supper). That seems to be holding even in the work at home COVID world.

Peak solar farm production times are "high sun" midday. That's why I say we need better energy storage tech.

[unofan]

One person's talking points is the fiscal reality of a director of a power cooperative who has been looking at the issue and the numbers for a decade.

Yeah, and even though cooperatives were exempt from state regulation, as a former regulator who saw the exact same arguments from the for-profit utilities we did regulate, pardon me if I take your "fiscal reality" with a huge grain of salt, where every single expenditure was maximized and capitalized and every single savings was minimized to try to buff up the rate base.

[dxmnkd316]

If you mean me, I stand by prior statements: Wind and solar make sense but only after large scale energy storage catches up. And I mean large scale, and notice I don't say "battery" because some really interesting new energy storage tech is coming about.

Side note: I ran the numbers to take my house off the grid. I based my assumptions on Prairie Sun Solar data (representative of what I'd get for solar) as it is reasonably near where I'm at. I assumed five cloudy days and one sunny (data supports that worst case). I'd need panels to do six days of usage (that day's usage and charge five day's worth) and batteries for five day's usage. I'd need almost two acres for the panels and batteries and house. Better batteries would cut that down some, but I still need the panel space.

I literally do not believe the two acres calculation. North Dakota and Maine are about the same latitude.