Exciting news on solar panels

I had some exciting news today as I was pricing solar panels. We've had solar, mostly off-grid (2 different houses) since at least 2002,and it's always been frustrating that we don't receive the same tax breaks as grid-tied houses. We are, after all, part of a growing trend who save the State of California the cost of several new power plants. Anyway, the news is that even off-grid we can receive a federal solar tax credit of 30% with no cap. That "no cap" part is important. We have industrial batteries from our last set-up (the battery is everything when it involves solar power) so that our total outlay is less than it would be for an entire new solar system. The total cost is still up there, at about twenty thousand (that's crossing my fingers and hoping that DH takes advantage of the newer more powerful panels and over-sizing the system a bit), so a 30% tax credit is $6K. That is so much better than the $2K cap they had before.

I do hope that we have a bit more power. I was reading an article that said that average American power consumption was 1000KW/monthly. Could that figure be correct? It must have been a typo. Who are these people? I really want to meet them, because we've lived on 10KW/day consumption for quite a while. I think that they must have electric heat. Perhaps an electric water heater. We're renting a house right now; our previous house sold and we haven't built the new one yet. This house has an electric water heater and I flinch every time I receive the power bill. I think that I'd flinch anyway, no matter what, after years of not having a monthly electric bill. The other thing about this rental house is that it has can lights simply everywhere. When we moved in they were all incandescent lights. We changed that in a hurry, but we were very puzzled as to why a comparatively new house would use them.

We had CF light bulbs before most people knew they existed (and paid large money for them then, too). We use laptop computers exclusively because they use less power, and forget about a plasma TV, that won't happen off-grid. LCD TV's use a lot less power.The refrigerator is the heaviest draw, because it's 24/7. We looked at propane fridges, long ago, but they were so expensive that it cost less to purchase extra solar panels. We've used Bosch dishwashers for 3 houses now. The reason they're energy efficient is that they have an in-line heater for raising water temperature instead of heating the entire tank. They don't have a dry cycle, the hot dishes convect dry.You would think that hand washing would be the way to go, but it actually is less energy efficient. If you doubt that, come watch my 14 yr old DS leisurely wash pots and pans. Bosch D/W's have a timer so that we can set it to run at the peak energy production. My point to all of this is that although a family can live a life with modern conveniences with 10K per day of power, it is a challenge. Extra power would be the most luxurious addition I can imagine.

With this new house build we've decided to use a propane 40 gallon tank heater instead of the tankless on-demand heater. The issue is that the tankless heater delivers a hefty slug of cold water every time it's turned on. It takes a while to heat up, so water and propane are wasted while waiting for sink or shower water to heat. So although it sounds like a great idea you either need a hybrid system or to go with a tank.

My request for this house is that one of our two toilets is a toto washing toilet. DH Matt is agreed if it's the lower level toilet without the water warmer or nice shot of warm drying air, because they use electricity. he thinks I'm crazy to want it because any user is going to get an unpleasant shot of cold water, followed by a gust of cold air to sear the experience into memory. He may be correct, but he doesn't purchase TP, I do, and I can't think of a more constant waste of money.

Speaking of a waste of money, we are utilizing kill switches in this house to eliminate phantom loads. We'll have a power strip set into a shelf for all of the chargeable batteries and cell phones, etc. We've noticed a distinct tendency on everyone's part to leave the charger plugged in. We learned long ago that it was easier to adapt the physical plant to bad habits than to try to retrain everyone around those habits. The TV and music system will have a kill switch by the bedrooms...all those blinking lights mean that a system is running.

I always hang LED lights in DS's room, he has a tendency to partially wake in the night and trip over things on his way to the bathroom. the LED light strips look cool and use a minuscule amount of power. I'm hoping that in this next house he actually keeps his room clean. My room was neat as a pin when I was a child. DS and DH both scoff at the very notion of his having a clean or even only partially deconstructed environment. I can dream, right? In the mean while I've been stealthily taping signs to his bedroom door on a daily basis. yesterday's was "Warning, deconstruction area". Today's is "Stay Out. Birthing area for Alien Life Forms." I've also used the symbol for nuclear waste and the word below, "hazard". Suggestions for new signs are welcome. Do you think he knows it's me putting them up?