Stijn!!

[slodave]

Knock yourselves out! I'm going to see if the rain can put me to sleep.

Have a good day!

[Rick V]

Night Dave, Listen to Echos while you try and fall asleep.

[svandamme]

Damn, my solar panels are fully ready to produce electricity.
But they are disabled because the install needs to be certified first ... which will be in the coming weeks.
But when i plug in the fuse.. it works. I can see my meter running backwards.

900 watt production at the moment, on a cold, slightly hazy, but sunny november day..
Sun ain't fully high up in the south yet .

That inspector better get his ass over here stat.. i'm loosing electricity !

[Rick V]

Do you get to sell the power back to the electric company?

[svandamme]

yeah, and it get's better

let's say the install has cost me 10 K , good for about 2960 Kwh a year
i get a 610 subsidy from the city
I get to deduct 4K off my 2011 taxes

So my initial investment is already reduced to 5380 euro right here.

For that money i get to use up the 2960 Kwh i produce. ( current value of about 5-600 eur per year, that's what i pay now for it off the grid)
But also get Green certificates worth 270 euro for each 1000 Kwh i produce per year. (guaranteed for 20 year), so that's about 810 a year

Realistically, the whole thing is payed for after 4.5 years. And anything after that is pure profit.
And those 4.5 years is based on current electricity prices.. I'm sure the ROI will improve as prices go up..
It's a friggin no brainer if i ever saw one.

I have about the amount i need, so i would not have much surplus.. but if i do, i can sell it at going rates, it's an automatic thing, don't have to do anything, i just get billed or refunded.

[Rick V]

I have looked into it, I have a lot of southern exposure roofline and clear unblocked sky but it is the initial investment money I can't come up with. I would love to make the entire back side of my house solar.

[svandamme]

at this point, i doubt it would be worth the investment without the subsidies.
The reason why i did it now, is because our gubmint is looking to find money for the 2012 budget.. and i fear the subsidies will be gone next year.

Not sure how much electricity costs in your area, or how the grid works there.
But here, the solar PV setup doesn't work if the grid is down. There are no batteries, so it has to shutdown if it can't work with the grid.


You live in a more rural area, right ? so you'de probably need a more grid indifferent setup.
Batteries, but that's a completely different story anyway.

Either way, the first thing to do, is reduce your electrical and other energy needs. The less electricity you need, the lower your PV investment will be. you mentioned AC in your garage. Well if you gotta install PV panels to run AC, you gonna need more then is cost effective.
Ideally you should insulate the snot ouf of the place so you don't need to heat much in winter, nor cool it in summer. The initial cost of that will be lower then PV and reduce more then it would cost to produce that power with PV..

[Rick V]

The way it worked here (when I looked into it) was that I had to pay the full cost and get reimbursed, not gonna happen. As for insulation, I did that the first year I was here, you can set a bomb off outside and I won't be able to hear it in the house. I have actually made the place so "tight" I have mold issues

[svandamme]

well, same here, had to pay for it myself
but we get "green" loans for that, extremely low interest, and deductable.

however i do want to get those payed off way before they are due , as in next year.

[Rick V]

Well since I am looking to sell and relocate I am going to put any plans for being green on hold. The next place can get the benefit of the research

[svandamme]

This relocation, it far? different town? area? state?
I know you want to move,but not much about the main reasons?
If you don't mind me asking

[Rick V]

Different town about 60 miles west of here. The reasons are simple. 1 We both love the little town we want to move to. 2 we sell this place for less than tax value, and buy the house we want, we will be debt free with a good chunk of change in the bank. 3 there are a lot of bad memories here for both of us so we are looking to start over, and this is a good way to do it. 4 this place is too big for just the two of us and it needs to have kids in it, the house needs a full family, you can tell it is lonely.

[svandamme]

Was busy drinking last night, got a bit bored, started ebay surfing.. always a dangerous thing to do..
But must say quite happy with my purchases .. got some F14 patches...







already have a couple laying around here, guess i'm a collector now?

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by Rick V

Different town about 60 miles west of here. The reasons are simple. 1 We both love the little town we want to move to. 2 we sell this place for less than tax value, and buy the house we want, we will be debt free with a good chunk of change in the bank. 3 there are a lot of bad memories here for both of us so we are looking to start over, and this is a good way to do it. 4 this place is too big for just the two of us and it needs to have kids in it, the house needs a full family, you can tell it is lonely.

That makes sense, hope you can make the switch

[Rick V]

Cool

[Rick V]

Originally Posted by svandamme

That makes sense, hope you can make the switch

It will happen but I am stressed to the max that we are going to lose the house we want. Due to some details we can't put a contract on it pending the sale of ours, and we don't have the cash. We are 50k away from being free of debt. I have actually been sick from this stress.

[svandamme]

Around here the banks usually provide a bridge loan, eg, you buy the second house and you're covered till the other one is sold.
But obviously that carries it's own risks and drawbacks.. And i wouldn't recommend it this day and age.. to much funky stuff happening..

But realistically , there's nothing you can do about it, other then trying to get the house sold.
It also helps to not focus to much on this one house... keep looking around for others.. just in case the one goes ,
and in case you find something else that might even be better, you never know.

And go to the range a lot.. that oughta help

[Rick V]

All info I am already aware of and there are other houses that we can deal with but we fell in love with this place and will always feel like we settled if we have to buy a different one.
Don't forget to post target pics when you get back

[livi]

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[Jim Richards]

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Wo bu shao da