4 ms·

75,000 in savings over 6 years is $12,500 a year, which means this person's utility bills were over $1000 a month!? I know that my house is wildly inefficient a

75,000 in savings over 6 years is $12,500 a year, which means this person's utility bills were over $1000 a month!? I know that my house is wildly inefficient and $300-$400 a month is the worst it gets with extreme weather. Talking with friends and family my bills are higher than normal, most are around $200 and less in the milder months. A quick search shows $469 being average us Utility bills and that includes water, trash and internet. I would also like to know, what size the panels and battery are as well.

PaulKeeble 3y ago
Typically a panel these days is going to be around 400W, so the 33 panels is likely somewhere around 13KWp. I am not sure which Needham (Boston?) they are referring to but in Boston would produce annually about 15 MW/h. As to the battery the price gives us an idea of its size, $23,000 dollars. On the expensive side with a Tesla powerwall you get 13.5KW/h for about $9000, its possible to get about 2/3 that price with other systems. So somewhere in the region of 40-50KW/h of storage. Hope that helps.
simonjgreen 3y ago
Presumably the export has been factored in to this, so making money not just saving
PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
> I know that my house is wildly inefficient and $300-$400 a month is the worst it gets with extreme weather. I lived in a house for 4-5 years where it struggled to stay cool in the summer and the bills would get up to $300-$400 a month as well. One year I had an HVAC guy out to clean my unit and I was asking him questions (which I did every year) and this was the first guy to tell me when he generally sees issues like that it's insulation related. He climbed up into my attic and recommended I add more insulation. I did so and the relief was shocking. Obviously I understand how insulation can help but what shocked me was just how large a difference more insulation helped in a house that already had insulation. Lessson learned that many times us technical folks know but don't truly understand. Every other HVAC person had just said the unit was on the small side. So you may take a look at the insulation in the house, even something as laying more insulation in your attic may help tremendously.
- Cthulhu_ 3y ago
  I know in my country (NL) modern houses are built to an energy efficiency standard, so that 15 odd year old houses like mine are pretty efficient and well-insulated; how is that in the US? Over here if you have an older house you can get subsidies or attractive mortgage rates if you spend it on improving your house's energy efficiency, it's worthwhile looking for schemes like that. Actually I should look into that myself; I don't need to improve insulation, but switching to electric heating and adding solar panels and a heat pump would be interesting, especially given we need air conditioning during the hottest periods nowadays.
  - hattmall 3y ago
    I think most modern homes are built to pretty efficient standards. I just don't have one of those!
- hattmall 3y ago
  Yep, insulation is huge, my house has practically none. There isn't even an attic to put it in. On very hot days I have sprayed the roof and apparently a mister system will work extremely well.

PaulKeeble 3y ago

Typically a panel these days is going to be around 400W, so the 33 panels is likely somewhere around 13KWp. I am not sure which Needham (Boston?) they are referring to but in Boston would produce annually about 15 MW/h. As to the battery the price gives us an idea of its size, $23,000 dollars. On the expensive side with a Tesla powerwall you get 13.5KW/h for about $9000, its possible to get about 2/3 that price with other systems. So somewhere in the region of 40-50KW/h of storage. Hope that helps.

simonjgreen 3y ago

Presumably the export has been factored in to this, so making money not just saving

PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago

> I know that my house is wildly inefficient and $300-$400 a month is the worst it gets with extreme weather. I lived in a house for 4-5 years where it struggled to stay cool in the summer and the bills would get up to $300-$400 a month as well. One year I had an HVAC guy out to clean my unit and I was asking him questions (which I did every year) and this was the first guy to tell me when he generally sees issues like that it's insulation related. He climbed up into my attic and recommended I add more insulation. I did so and the relief was shocking. Obviously I understand how insulation can help but what shocked me was just how large a difference more insulation helped in a house that already had insulation. Lessson learned that many times us technical folks know but don't truly understand. Every other HVAC person had just said the unit was on the small side. So you may take a look at the insulation in the house, even something as laying more insulation in your attic may help tremendously.

Cthulhu_ 3y ago
I know in my country (NL) modern houses are built to an energy efficiency standard, so that 15 odd year old houses like mine are pretty efficient and well-insulated; how is that in the US? Over here if you have an older house you can get subsidies or attractive mortgage rates if you spend it on improving your house's energy efficiency, it's worthwhile looking for schemes like that. Actually I should look into that myself; I don't need to improve insulation, but switching to electric heating and adding solar panels and a heat pump would be interesting, especially given we need air conditioning during the hottest periods nowadays.
- hattmall 3y ago
  I think most modern homes are built to pretty efficient standards. I just don't have one of those!
hattmall 3y ago
Yep, insulation is huge, my house has practically none. There isn't even an attic to put it in. On very hot days I have sprayed the roof and apparently a mister system will work extremely well.