Going Green
Oct. 1st, 2011 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heliopsisWhen Google bought ITA Software, the options I had been granted years ago turned into money. A nice chunk of money, but not enough to retire on. I decided to spend some of the money on improving the energy efficiency of my home.
I had an energy audit, complete with IR photos of my walls. This revealed that my walls were well-insulated, which I find a bit hard to believe. They're certainly not up to Canadian standards of insulation, but then again, winters here are not as severe. It's also true that my gas bills are not outrageous. I used to pay more for gas in my previous apartment, which was a lot smaller. Anyway, it was good to know that the previous owners had done a good job with insulation, because that's a messy job and not much fun.
What I really wanted was solar panels, so I looked into this. (OK, actually I started by looking into solar panels and then, when I felt guilty about doing the fun thing first, I did the energy audit.) It turns out to be a really, really good idea to put solar panels on your house these days in Massachusetts. The state has big subsidies, and even the federal government has a bit of a subsidy for this. There are plenty of companies eager to install solar panels, several of which will install solar panels for free. Yes, for free: they install the solar panels and you buy your electricity from them, at a fixed rate, for a few years. They collect the subsidies, you get electricity at a discount, and everybody's happy. But when I talked to one such company, they were only willing to put enough panels on my roof to produce half the electricity I consume. I figured I could do better than that.
Sure enough, I found a couple companies willing to install enough panels to generate all the electricity I use. I have to pay some money up front, but I happen to have some money at the moment. Once this is done, I'll get my electricity for free. The panels should last 30 years; certain components will need to be replaced in 15. They estimate that the system will pay for itself in about 5 years. Oh, of course I'm not simply disconnecting from the grid. The way it works is that my panels pump energy into the grid during the day, and I draw from the grid as I need it. The net over the course of a year is expected to be neutral, but I may need to pay a few bucks some months, while I'll get a refund in others. I'll have to track this to see how it turns out.
Really, why wouldn't everybody do this? Well, of course not everyone has a roof that's well suited for solar. I have a south-facing roof with no shading, thanks to Medford's anti-tree policies. And as usual, it takes money to save money, even despite the subsidies.
The solar installers will be here Wednesday to get started, and they expect to be done this week.
I've also started down the path of replacing my old boiler with an ultra high efficiency boiler. The energy audit said that I could probably save 30% on my natural gas bill by doing this, and that's significant. The subsidies for efficient boilers are not so generous, and I don't yet have an estimate of the total cost, but I expect it's well within my Google-enhanced budget.
Next, I'm hoping to persuade F. to replace his car with a plug-in hybrid of some sort, so that his daily commute can be solar powered. Of course, that would be a significant increase in our power consumption, so I'd end up buying electricity again...
I drink a cup of Yogi Tea most mornings at breakfast, and each tea bag has a little fortune on its tag. One of the recurring ones is "You will feel fulfilled when you do the impossible for another." Whenever I get this one, I think yes, I suppose so, but that seems awfully hard. I've decided to settle for feeling smug when I do something sensible for myself.
I had an energy audit, complete with IR photos of my walls. This revealed that my walls were well-insulated, which I find a bit hard to believe. They're certainly not up to Canadian standards of insulation, but then again, winters here are not as severe. It's also true that my gas bills are not outrageous. I used to pay more for gas in my previous apartment, which was a lot smaller. Anyway, it was good to know that the previous owners had done a good job with insulation, because that's a messy job and not much fun.
What I really wanted was solar panels, so I looked into this. (OK, actually I started by looking into solar panels and then, when I felt guilty about doing the fun thing first, I did the energy audit.) It turns out to be a really, really good idea to put solar panels on your house these days in Massachusetts. The state has big subsidies, and even the federal government has a bit of a subsidy for this. There are plenty of companies eager to install solar panels, several of which will install solar panels for free. Yes, for free: they install the solar panels and you buy your electricity from them, at a fixed rate, for a few years. They collect the subsidies, you get electricity at a discount, and everybody's happy. But when I talked to one such company, they were only willing to put enough panels on my roof to produce half the electricity I consume. I figured I could do better than that.
Sure enough, I found a couple companies willing to install enough panels to generate all the electricity I use. I have to pay some money up front, but I happen to have some money at the moment. Once this is done, I'll get my electricity for free. The panels should last 30 years; certain components will need to be replaced in 15. They estimate that the system will pay for itself in about 5 years. Oh, of course I'm not simply disconnecting from the grid. The way it works is that my panels pump energy into the grid during the day, and I draw from the grid as I need it. The net over the course of a year is expected to be neutral, but I may need to pay a few bucks some months, while I'll get a refund in others. I'll have to track this to see how it turns out.
Really, why wouldn't everybody do this? Well, of course not everyone has a roof that's well suited for solar. I have a south-facing roof with no shading, thanks to Medford's anti-tree policies. And as usual, it takes money to save money, even despite the subsidies.
The solar installers will be here Wednesday to get started, and they expect to be done this week.
I've also started down the path of replacing my old boiler with an ultra high efficiency boiler. The energy audit said that I could probably save 30% on my natural gas bill by doing this, and that's significant. The subsidies for efficient boilers are not so generous, and I don't yet have an estimate of the total cost, but I expect it's well within my Google-enhanced budget.
Next, I'm hoping to persuade F. to replace his car with a plug-in hybrid of some sort, so that his daily commute can be solar powered. Of course, that would be a significant increase in our power consumption, so I'd end up buying electricity again...
I drink a cup of Yogi Tea most mornings at breakfast, and each tea bag has a little fortune on its tag. One of the recurring ones is "You will feel fulfilled when you do the impossible for another." Whenever I get this one, I think yes, I suppose so, but that seems awfully hard. I've decided to settle for feeling smug when I do something sensible for myself.
