Lemme help you out, bro... https://www.bengal.com/products/insecticide-concentrate Put that bitch in a garden sprayer according to instructions, and you are basically a pest control subscription.
Termites swarm during the daytime, often after a rainstorm, and prefer to fly on warm days. Spring is the optimal time for swarming, with peak periods between May and June. This you?
This, I think it's required right in Georgia when buying a house? At least our realtor made it seem like that was the case.
Don't freak out quite yet, I had a house where I got some pretty gnarly swarms this time of the year. I cut down a bunch of pine trees and they were eating the rotting root system but never fucked with the house. Now, on the other hand my last house we got a swarm in our garage and those guys were going to town on a structural member holding up my second floor.
Only thing making me feel better is we've never seen any before yesterday, and we did cut down a tree this past weekend then had the stump ground yesterday.
Ask to meet with their supreme leader. Negotiate a deal where they can have as much of the stump as they desire but if you see another of their kind with 10 yards of your house you’re buying the Bengal. Spoiler then buy the Bengal anyway and double cross those little bastards.
It's a pain in the ass sometimes, but I actually enjoy PVC repair jobs. Especially when it's actually fixed.
Friendly reminder that if your fridge ice maker seems like it’s struggling to clean the dust off the rear vents and change the water filter. Was worried mine was dying until I did this yesterday and my man is so reinvigorated it sounds like a gun is going off when ice gets made.
So the inducer motor on my heater went out yesterday, ordered up a new one at midnight last night and I'm sure that when it comes I'll turn a relatively simple 5-minute replacement job into a full day of wacky hilarity
Long time lurker, first time poster here. Been coordinating a solar installation at my house and it’s almost done. Feels good man.
That's awesome, I've really toyed around with the idea of getting it if we could get a discount through the state. How much is it costing you and how did you choose a contractor?
I've been working on chipping away at this for a few years. Did an electrical panel upgrade a few years back, slowly cleared trees to increase potential, etc. This year I decided to just finish it all off with the potential Chinese tariffs coming up that might fuck the solar industry. I didn't really have to, but I replaced the roof on all roof planes where the panels will be installed. The roof + a 9.84 kW design is about 35k. I ended up going with a system size that is about 150% of my average usage. That will allow us to put in an EV charger and still not have an electric bill. We're not there yet, but will be doing so in the next few years. Choosing the contractor was intense. I'm pretty lucky that we live in a place that has a number of locally owned solar companies, all with great reputations. I picked 5 local companies that I knew were all decent, and started the search process. It took me about 1 month of constant back-and-forth with each company to settle on a contractor. Each contractor did an initial 30+min phone call to scope things out, then did an on-site visit. I asked a shit ton of questions and I ended up learning a lot about the process, the ups-and-downs of the industry, etc. I even got one contractor to do a zoom call with me where he screen shared the software they used and we build out my system together. That was cool.
Glad you have good local places. I had a company come by doing door to door and they quoted like 3x a reasonable price.
I just sent a pic of my front yard, to my dad, asking for approval. Fuck I'm getting old and staying the same age at the same time All while listening to songs about cocaine
Did you finance that? What were your electric bills before this ? I’ve got a neighbor that put in solar a few years back, but I just don’t see there being a good ROI to justify it.
I did not finance it. Interest rates for this type of work suck ass. I talked with my finance guy and we broke everything down. Looking at our current bill and projecting our future rates, I'm looking at saving >100k in the next 25 years. The system will essentially pay for itself in 7 years. electricity rates in my town in MA are not great and are going up pretty dramatically.
avoid the big national companies as much as you can. Try to find a local company that can give you good warranties for all parts of the project. the big national companies skimp on this.
The ROI is something I’ve always questioned especially in not planning on staying in this house for an extended period of time. Seeing all the issues with the California solar situation also makes me that much more hesitant
yea, if you're not planning on staying there, it doesn't make sense. We're going to be here a while. CA situation is a fuckshow. I'm at least getting grandfathered into net metering here, so that if does get rolled back here I'll be all set.
I was thinking a usual cost was in the 10-20k range depending on rebates/subsidies. 35 is a biiiiit too high for me right now even though we might be able to technically afford it. What is California specifically doing that's not great? Not giving customers rebates when they're using less than the solar output?
35 includes a new roof too. 10k-20k might be what you need. It all depends on your usage and also how efficient your home is. again, I significantly sized up to a 150% system to meet future energy goals.
Okay that makes a lot more sense. There's a neighbor close to me that has a setup that I've never met and probably should bug if I'm real serious.
re: CA... all the companies I talked to referred to CA's decision to alter net metering, which caused customers to lose value on energy they don't consume. this decision essentially shitcanned the solar market in CA and they saw something like a 65% job loss rate in the solar industry. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.co...es-take-their-case-to-the-state-supreme-court
Are you considering a battery for storage down the road? I have considered it just simply from the aspect that I live in Texas and it seems like we are getting energy conservation notices on an almost weekly basis now. Considering going to solar with a battery to just avoid it all with the benefit of no power costs going forward.
Yes. I think that will be the next step for us as well. Probably a few years away once the incentives get a little better for us here. I also don't really want that thing anywhere near my fucking house in case it goes up in flames, so I'll have to research what my options are there.
This is basically my plan. Have a roof that's on borrowed time and when it's time to replace I'm going to do roof/solar install all at once. Roof is 95% south facing in KC so I'm an ideal candidate for it. Will just need to trim my sweetgum tree down in my front yard to free up the lower 1/3 of my roof.
I am curious on if you have any detail on why Solar investment doesn't create some significant equity in the value of the home? I would assume the 35k investment would carry over for when someone sells the home but I have heard stories it doesn't make much of a difference. Can anyone comment on that?
My guess is that solar panels have a lifetime on them and replacing them in future could be costly, just like getting a house with an old roof.
good question. I didn't dive too much down that hole because we don't plan on leaving here, so am not really concerned about that. I can ask around though because I know some folks who would know more about this. I'm curious now. you are correct. solar panels have a 25 year lifespan on them and they lose a little bit of efficiency each year. I forget the rate of decline. even after that decline, 25 years from now, you're still generating energy and by that point you've recouped enough $ to easily replace things.
I could totally see that, but most people I have talked to about this say its not worth it if you aren't going to be in the house longer than say 10 years. In the first 10 years, I would assume the panels have a ton of life left in them and I would assume they would add some value to the home. The lengthy (one) google searches I have done say the panels are good for a normal 20-30 years. I mean if I was buying a home and it had a solar setup, i would immediate assume I am going to be able to pay at least $100 a more a month as that money wouldn't be going to a power company. Am i missing something (I fully expect I am).
Yea and from what I have learned, the panels are just a single component in a larger system. The majority of the cost for getting the system up is the permitting, engineering, etc. Replacing panels once you have invested in the full system would be a much smaller expense compared to the initial setup. Additionally it sounds like panels are just getting cheaper and cheaper.
I also think you’re assuming a level of rationality that doesn’t apply to most buyers. People don’t buy houses because of solar panels. People buy houses because of schools, neighborhoods, or really cute kitchens.
For example, right now we are choosing between several options on our never ending list of approximately $30k projects. She wants us to convert our very usable second floor sunroom into an all seasons office for her. I want to build a decorative brick wall at the back of our property to replace the currently failing old wood fence. And in reality if we were moving soon, we should probably be using that money to replace our failing HVAC system. Nevertheless, different buyers would all attach different values to each of those options.