What we blew our budget on this year

[ruthcatrin]

I mentioned in one of the other threads that we were having work done on the roof and Apollo DID NOT APPROVE.

View attachment 11407

Well, they finished yesterday. We're just waiting for the power company to come out and swap out the meter so we can turn them on! Its just a basic grid-tie system. Give us a few years to take care of other odds and ends and we'll add in a battery backup hookup though.

I'm thrilled.

Apollo is just thrilled its done. Poor pup was SO stressed by it all, which in turn meant that Arty was stressed....we made a point of introducing him to all the installers, and he liked them just fine, but the odd noises on the roof, and the back and forth, all of which he couldn't supervise "properly" just left him stressed to the gills. And then they staged the panels themselves on the front porch for easy access....both dogs have basically slept all day today!

 

[DennasMom]

Poor Apollo! Glad the work is done!

We had new windows put in when our last dog was just 3 months old. He slept through the whole process. Loud noises never gave him any trouble his whole life. We're already past that point with Denna, she did do fine with fireworks, but I'm sure she would not appreciate anyone on the roof, either.

 

[Rugers-Kris]

Congrats on getting the work done and Let me say "Poor guys". I am glad I am not getting anything done right now because with this fear stage that Ruger is going through, I would be a basketcase!

 

[musicdeb]

Glad the work is done! Now everybody can de-stress!

 

[ruthcatrin]

I think they've slept ALL weekend!

Normally loud noises aren't an issue. Fireworks and thunder might wake him up, but only long enough for him to ID them, then he goes back to sleep. But the tromping around on the roof was to much. And the up and down the ladder, and back across the driveway....and god forbid they set foot on the porch when he wasn't watching!

 

[Rugers-Kris]

I can certainly understand, Ruth. Ruger is in the middle of a fear stage AND he has started showing signs of "Guarding" at the same time which makes for an interesting situation. The only place I can take him that he accepts as is a "common" is petsmart. Everywhere else, he guards not just me but theplace. He announces himself and gets pissed if people are at his "place" when he doesn't want them there. He is still a great boy and he does well but he think he owns all places so he wants tomake rules as to where everyone can be and what they can do and when, of course. LOL I think the fear stage is amplifying everything...I sure will be glad when we get past it! Ugh! He has taken his job of guarding me very seriously. It has been crazy to watch my puppy change into my guardian so quickly.

 

[neona]

Congrats! We live in the desert & would love to do that. But we are in a rental so it'll be a while.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk, please ignore typos!

 

[dpenning]

Glad it is done for everyone's sake. That is one thing I have on my wish list for when we build out in the country. Did you do any analysis on how long it would take to pay for itself?

 

[ruthcatrin]

Based on average sunny days 8.5 yrs I think, though I don't have the paperwork in front of me and we looked at a couple variations so I might be remembering the wrong number. Its a 4kilowatt system, but we don't have a huge number of sunny days here.

 

[ruthcatrin]

I can certainly understand, Ruth. Ruger is in the middle of a fear stage AND he has started showing signs of "Guarding" at the same time which makes for an interesting situation. The only place I can take him that he accepts as is a "common" is petsmart. Everywhere else, he guards not just me but theplace. He announces himself and gets pissed if people are at his "place" when he doesn't want them there. He is still a great boy and he does well but he think he owns all places so he wants tomake rules as to where everyone can be and what they can do and when, of course. LOL I think the fear stage is amplifying everything...I sure will be glad when we get past it! Ugh! He has taken his job of guarding me very seriously. It has been crazy to watch my puppy change into my guardian so quickly.

Apollo never guarded places, but he did go through a stage where he tried to mark every store we went in *sigh*

 

[Rugers-Kris]

Basically ifIam there, Ruger feels the need to guard me and in turn wants to guard the entire area. Thank Goodness he isn't marking everywhere, Of course after our trip to petsmart yesterday and him marking the devil costume, I suppose it could be a start to a new behavior. Oh YIKES! I hope not.

Apollo never guarded places, but he did go through a stage where he tried to mark every store we went in *sigh*

 

[ruthcatrin]

Dug out my paperwork. Ok, estimated "pay-off" is 8.4 years of average sunlight for the area. Estimated savings over 25yrs is $17,790. That of course assumes energy costs stay the same, as prices changes so do those figures.

And for anyone else who's interested, its a 4kw system. 16 250w panels with micro-inverters.

Before incentives total cost is $18,000.
NYSERDA 2012 incentive is $6,000
Additional county incentive $2,000

So our upfront cost was $10,000 (which could be financed but not charged, we paid cash, and lord did that hurt)

Federal tax rebate will be $3,000
State tax rebate will be $2,500

Our final cost after we get our tax rebates back $4,500

Totally and utterly worth it in my opinion, but only possible thanks to the extra program our county is running that netted us that extra $2k off the top.

 

[dpenning]

That is awesome information Ruth, thanks for sharing!

Dug out my paperwork. Ok, estimated "pay-off" is 8.4 years of average sunlight for the area. Estimated savings over 25yrs is $17,790. That of course assumes energy costs stay the same, as prices changes so do those figures.

And for anyone else who's interested, its a 4kw system. 16 250w panels with micro-inverters.

Before incentives total cost is $18,000.
NYSERDA 2012 incentive is $6,000
Additional county incentive $2,000

So our upfront cost was $10,000 (which could be financed but not charged, we paid cash, and lord did that hurt)

Federal tax rebate will be $3,000
State tax rebate will be $2,500

Our final cost after we get our tax rebates back $4,500

Totally and utterly worth it in my opinion, but only possible thanks to the extra program our county is running that netted us that extra $2k off the top.

 

[ruthcatrin]

Welcome! It was the sort of information I wish I'd been able to find when we were looking at systems!

 

[Robtouw]

I wondered what that system would run, thanks for the insight! I would love to be able to produce our own energy source and be less dependent on the power company. We will be having a new metal roof put on in Nov. I need to be sure Cruiser is up and healed well before the noise begins because I am 100% certain he will be very active during construction. If his broken femur isn't as well healed as we would like by then, he will be staying at my friend's farm during the daily roofing process, about a week. All of the metal panels will be bent and cut on sight so it takes a while.

 

[ruthcatrin]

Good luck!

Our roof is pretty new, 7yrs. But when it comes time to replace we're looking at metal. Not sure how that'll work with the panels though, thankfully that shouldn't be anytime soon!

 

[ruthcatrin]

We've had the system up and running for a week now, and of course it started raining the day after they put in the new meter so we COULD turn it on. But we've managed to produce 47.7 kWh during that time, so I'll take it.