It hasn't been quite a year yet since I had solar panels installed on my home from Sungevity. I have had quite a few people however ask if I've noticed a difference, and at first I had to tell them I didn't notice much, though my bill has been on the leaner side, but we also had a warm winter, so it was hard to tell. But then as the sun got higher and the warm weather moved in my wife and I got to use less of the furnace (which uses gas) and open up the house and turn on the AC a bit. So the last bills I paid were very good, and I will go in to some details on how good they looked. I don't expect every month to look like this, but if even a few do every year then I will be one happy camper for my decision to lease the solar panels.
Lets start with February.
Last year, in 2011, average temperatures were 30.5F. My energy consumption that month was 380 KWh. Not too bad, not the biggest part of my bill as I had to be heating the house then. This year, in February, the average temperature was 31.6F, so a little bit warmer. My energy usage, that is, what I paid for, was 257KWh. So a nice little drop and the bill that month was better for me than last year. Last year in February the cost of the energy we used was $43.80. This year it was $31.59.
Now, lets look at March.
Last year the average temperature in March was 42.2F and we used 406KWh of electricity. The cost for that was $46.27. Not a huge jump from the previous month. This year, however, we averaged a temperature of 43.8F, not a significant jump, but if you experienced the swing you'd know that windows were opened one day and the furnace was working overtime the next, it was a crazy month. But it was also very sunny. We used a total of 65KWh, and no, there is no typo, that is a 2 digit number. That cost me $13.47. Now that to me was something to celebrate, that's a wonderfully low bill. But that month wasn't yet my greatest joy...
Then there was April, I must say I really enjoyed this one.
Last year April was 48.4F on average and we used 369KWh which cost us $44.10. This year it was 53F on average and we used...
0, ZERO, NONE, NO KWh!!!!
Actually, that isn't even true, according to the bill we generated 3KWh more than what we used for the month. Our meter "spun" backwards (it's digital, it doesn't spin anymore). It cost us $7.35. Go figure, still got fees when you don't use any.
May, this is the bill I just got today!
Last year the average temperature was 48.6F, we used 378KWh and that cost us $45.73. This year the average temperature was 59.5F but we only used 94KWh which cost us only $16.89.
In four months that was a savings of $110.60 over the previous year during the same months and it is hotter this year (which would mean more cooling). You will notice I didn't talk about gas as that is my heating cost and is not offset by the solar panels. Out of curiosity I crunched the numbers of all our energy spending since August of last year (which was when we had our first full month of solar) and it shows a savings over last year of $234.25.
If this sounds pretty good to you, head on over to the Sungevity website and get a free iQuote. Don't forget to use my referral code! Instructions below.
1.) Go to www.Sungevity.com
2.) Enter your address and information. When the site asks "How did you hear about us?" type in my referral code 44120 so you can get the $500 gift card bonus.
3.) In 24 hours, you'll receive your free, no obligation iQuote in your email inbox.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Garage Door Opener
Well, my fun for the last couple of days began Sunday morning. I was getting ready to go to church and went out to the garage. I pushed the button to open the door and heard a very loud noise, turned around to see my door still closed and heard the motor still running on the opener. My first thought was, "This is not good." I pushed the button again to stop the motor and then climbed into the bed of my truck to take a look at what happened. I saw the chain was very slack, though pulling on it revealed that it was still attached as it should have been. Looking at the opener itself showed a small plastic piece sitting on it, this of course couldn't have been that loud noise and since it was plastic would not have held a chain, however looking at where the plastic came from showed me a slightly uneven metal surface, which as I saw that also showed something on the floor I had walked past. The gear that turns the chain on my opener had been sheered off by the force created by the opener trying to open a door that had ice holding it down. Great, so I had a broken opener. I manually opened the garage door and pulled the vehicles out, I knew I would be frustrated having to keep opening and closing the door manually so it would be easiest to just park outside. After this I went to church, my mind still on the problem I now faced. I set things up and then gave my dad a call, he's a handy guy so maybe he knew how to replace a garage door opener (I surely didn't, I'm not that handy yet). He did, to my delight, and we decided it would be best to do the following day after work.
After an anxious day at work, in which I educated myself on the different openers, I went home and my dad was already there. I talked to him about what I had learned and what my plan was, he didn't object to it and even said he didn't know a few of the things I mentioned. What I had told him was this: that I found 4 types of openers, a chain one, being the oldest design and likely cheapest, was also the noisiest and since it was the type that had just broke I had even more bias against it. The next one was a belt model, this one used a rubber belt, like the one in your car, to open the door, this was the quietest one. The next one I told him about was a direct drive model, it seems to be the newest type and the opener moves with the door instead of pulling it on its own towards it. There wasn't enough information on this one so I opted to avoid it. The last model, the one that my dad had experience in, was the screw drive type, this one was the 2nd quietest according to my research and delivered power in a more direct manner, this is what I decided I wanted. There were two models available to me, a 1/2 horse power unit and a full horse power unit. I already had been using a 1/2, so I knew it would work, but I wasn't convinced it was the right choice given that my door was pretty heavy. So, figuring there was no harm in it, we got the full horse power unit. Installing it wasn't too hard, it just took some time to do and it was good that there were two of us, and once we had it all properly set up and calibrated I got to push the button to close and open it for the first time, which would finish the programming. Closing it worked as anticipated, it closed smoothly and completely, and then opening it revealed a nice surprise. It started to open slowly, slower than my old unit, and then suddenly it took off and opened very quickly. I realized the slow part was to avoid the type of damage I had just encountered the other day and then the speed was impressive, even my dad said "Wow" to how quickly this thing worked.
So in the end my research paid off, I was an informed consumer and got what I thought would be right and it was much cheaper than paying someone else to do it. Though if I ever have to replace the door, I'm not doing it, I've heard some things about that and I just won't even try. So if you are like me and find that you have to replace the opener, don't worry, it can be done with a couple of people who don't have to be professionals, they just need some patience to understand the instructions and take it slow. Also, make sure you take the time to research and figure out what will work best for you, it will help you to make a more confident decision and hopefully lead to fewer feelings of making a mistake.
After an anxious day at work, in which I educated myself on the different openers, I went home and my dad was already there. I talked to him about what I had learned and what my plan was, he didn't object to it and even said he didn't know a few of the things I mentioned. What I had told him was this: that I found 4 types of openers, a chain one, being the oldest design and likely cheapest, was also the noisiest and since it was the type that had just broke I had even more bias against it. The next one was a belt model, this one used a rubber belt, like the one in your car, to open the door, this was the quietest one. The next one I told him about was a direct drive model, it seems to be the newest type and the opener moves with the door instead of pulling it on its own towards it. There wasn't enough information on this one so I opted to avoid it. The last model, the one that my dad had experience in, was the screw drive type, this one was the 2nd quietest according to my research and delivered power in a more direct manner, this is what I decided I wanted. There were two models available to me, a 1/2 horse power unit and a full horse power unit. I already had been using a 1/2, so I knew it would work, but I wasn't convinced it was the right choice given that my door was pretty heavy. So, figuring there was no harm in it, we got the full horse power unit. Installing it wasn't too hard, it just took some time to do and it was good that there were two of us, and once we had it all properly set up and calibrated I got to push the button to close and open it for the first time, which would finish the programming. Closing it worked as anticipated, it closed smoothly and completely, and then opening it revealed a nice surprise. It started to open slowly, slower than my old unit, and then suddenly it took off and opened very quickly. I realized the slow part was to avoid the type of damage I had just encountered the other day and then the speed was impressive, even my dad said "Wow" to how quickly this thing worked.
So in the end my research paid off, I was an informed consumer and got what I thought would be right and it was much cheaper than paying someone else to do it. Though if I ever have to replace the door, I'm not doing it, I've heard some things about that and I just won't even try. So if you are like me and find that you have to replace the opener, don't worry, it can be done with a couple of people who don't have to be professionals, they just need some patience to understand the instructions and take it slow. Also, make sure you take the time to research and figure out what will work best for you, it will help you to make a more confident decision and hopefully lead to fewer feelings of making a mistake.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Steel Cut Oatmeal
A little over a month or two ago I bought some steel cut oats with plans to start making them and increase the fiber in my diet by a bit. The oats I purchased sat there for a bit, my excuse was I wanted to get something else like dried fruit to put in to it. A few weeks ago we got the dried fruit and my laziness kept me from trying to make it for a bit yet, but this last weekend I finally got to it. I didn't hold any super high hopes in how it would turn out, I just found a recipe online that looked like something I could do and got to work making it happen. I modified the recipe as I needed to, my daughter is allergic to dairy and so I substituted soy milk for regular milk and I didn't feel like measuring the dried fruit. I also found the recipe didn't put enough sugar in it and I knew that without enough sugar my wife would hate it. Anyway, when it was all done after about 40 minutes of work we tried it out and found it to be a superb breakfast. My daughter liked it, exclaiming, "Mmm, yummy!" when she tried her first bite and my wife, after adding just a little more brown sugar, found it better than the packets of oatmeal we've bought in the past. I liked it as well, though I was sure I would when I got started anyway, and so we are now anxiously awaiting our next shopping trip to buy more ingredients and make this a common breakfast in our rotation. Below is the (rough) recipe to follow to make it in the way that I did.
Steel Cut Oatmeal
1 cup steel cut oats
2 cups milk
2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons brown sugar (you can use any type of sugar really, honey works too)
1/2 cup dried fruit
Combine water, milk and salt into a medium size sauce pan, cook over medium heat until it begins to boil, stir often (the milk will boil over quickly if you're not paying attention)
Add the oats to the boiling mixture, allow the mix to start boiling again (won't take long), stir often
Once boiling reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, covered, stirring often
Add dried fruit and sugar, simmer for another 15 minutes, covered, stirring often
The oatmeal should be thick, whatever your preference is really. Makes 4 servings, it refrigerates and microwaves well, getting slightly thicker in the process (so you may need to add more milk when you reheat it). The recipe I followed also says it freezes well, I haven't tried yet, but I'm sure I will when I make a large batch.
Steel Cut Oatmeal
1 cup steel cut oats
2 cups milk
2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons brown sugar (you can use any type of sugar really, honey works too)
1/2 cup dried fruit
Combine water, milk and salt into a medium size sauce pan, cook over medium heat until it begins to boil, stir often (the milk will boil over quickly if you're not paying attention)
Add the oats to the boiling mixture, allow the mix to start boiling again (won't take long), stir often
Once boiling reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, covered, stirring often
Add dried fruit and sugar, simmer for another 15 minutes, covered, stirring often
The oatmeal should be thick, whatever your preference is really. Makes 4 servings, it refrigerates and microwaves well, getting slightly thicker in the process (so you may need to add more milk when you reheat it). The recipe I followed also says it freezes well, I haven't tried yet, but I'm sure I will when I make a large batch.
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