Big name tuners are no longer selling "off road/race" tuning

[JayTheCPA]

About the awesomeness of non-utility solar and other renewables...

The inconvenient truth with the non-utility renewable energy movement is the same as the BEV: dependence on a Robbin Hood model to hide costs. The solar movement has done so for decades. We have also seen cycles that without somebody else providing the free lunch portion, consumers have little appetite for its actual cost and ditch it.

Toward description of one State's slate of municipal run utilities and the how funds go back into maintenance and R&D, this sounds about right as municipalities are generally governed by laws which do not allow a profit. And even for the for-profit utility sector, they generally have a requirement to pour funds back into maintenance and R&D as well given that they exist in a highly regulated environment, to the point of needing advance approval for any rate changes.

If anything, private / publicly traded utilities sometimes get too smart for themselves and try to game the system by artificially creating shortages which allow for spike pricing. But this is short lived as penalties tend to follow. Most extreme case is Enron and it is sad that some are continuing to re-live that lesson

So back to the sailboat analogy. Yup, it still works as in the sail boater's case, nobody else is providing the free sails. Lets see what happens to the home solar / home wind / BEV owners when they have to pay full-bore up front costs and then replacement of their equipment along with paying their fair share of the infrastructure maintenance and upgrades without the tax offsets and sale of carbon credits. And lets see what happens when it is time to buy another bank of batteries for that farm.

Toward not knowing what I am talking about. Perhaps not. But then again, I do have first hand knowledge of a nearby homeowner whom looked to do net-metering with a net production position. And to do it without the aid of somebody else paying for the equipment (but tax subsidy was part of the strategy). The house is still on the grid without solar. This was ~4 years ago. And for myself, I am evaluating a project for a small scale off-grid system just to consume ~3,000 Watts. Up-front cost is currently looking in the $7K territory as one requrement is to use lower TCO lithium batteries rather than higher TCO lead. Am deciding how long it is going to take to build up that budget, or if I really want to go there. Oh, and there is no return on investment as the structure does not have electric nor will it ever if I do not install it. And even if I do install electric, it will remain off-grid as there is no future plan of grid connection. Alternatively, I could do a carbon energy driven generator for a *LOT* less money!

 

[jrsavoie]

The message I got from one of the solar companies I contacted. Another just said, " We don't deal with EIEC customers."

I have done some digging and it's impossible to go solar with EIEC. They do not net meter, meaning they buy your generation for less than they sell it to you. They want $8,600 upfront to install a $75 production meter. They also demand $500 to inspect your system (which is free with Ameren & ComEd).
Then on top of that, they assess a fixed charge of $80 a month because you went solar. I've actually never seen a policy this bad for solor. Before you put much more time and energy into this, we wanted to let you know.

From east central Illinois.

 

[JayTheCPA]

From what I have seen, even net meter customers buy high and sell low.

That $80/month solar charge is actually possible good news. Another Robbin Hood element of residential solar is (or now, maybe was) that there was no contribution toward grid maintenance as all these costs were tied to variable electric consumption. Install a residential solar system, and consumption goes down which also lowers infrastructure cost recovery, but in reality the home remains connected to the grid and just as reliant on the grid. Personally, I saw the best method to overcome this shortfall was a fixed-cost on a per-home bases and the $80 monthly charge looks like the electric utility companies were finally able to convince regulators to provide some relief.

And if $8,600 seems like a stinging whack to the wallet, am betting this is just for solar panels and the related wiring. Oh, and another not widely publicized aspect is, when the grid supply goes down, so does the home solar array. Put another way, if a storm takes out power somewhere up the feeder line, your house goes dark too. Only way to keep the solar array from going offline is to install some sort of battery bank which (in today's money) makes the solar panel costs look inexpensive (hint: that puny 3,000 Watt system referenced above includes a small storage system). And, when pricing that battery storage system, plan for replacement every X years or Y cycles (which ever is likely to occur first). And, I would not put the battery system inside a structure that I cared about which just adds more cost to the money saving solar array as now I need to make a suitable container should the battery system go thermal run-away So, yeah, moving over to solar is a much tougher decision once *all* the costs are known and placed on the consumer.

In case it seems that I am bashing the solar concept, I actually am looking forward to sustainable and renewable energy. But I am not a fan of the Robbin Hood approaches. The costs need to get fully exposed, not buried in some funny-money offset or hidden subsidy. And, we get rid of the freeloader approaches by properly connecting infrastructure maintenance costs to *all* consumers.

 

[MrMarty51]

I have been thinking of some type of off grid system for the just in case the SHTF, I am okay with our power companies ability to produce energy for these times but I know one of these years, it will not be able to do that.
Also, being I am dwelling in the river channel makes it more difficult. About 12 feet down is a shallow water table, that can rise to about six foot or less in a season of a lot of precipitation. I have had about six inches of water in the basement that is about six to seven foot deep, that makes storage in that space very unreliable.
An old diesel generator, or, welder generator plant would be okay, as long as a person has a source for the fuel. Wind and sunshine it could have to be, except, Jesus said that the skies would be darkened and the sun and moon will not give their light, so then what ?

 

[jrsavoie]

I have been thinking of some type of off grid system for the just in case the SHTF, I am okay with our power companies ability to produce energy for these times but I know one of these years, it will not be able to do that.
Also, being I am dwelling in the river channel makes it more difficult. About 12 feet down is a shallow water table, that can rise to about six foot or less in a season of a lot of precipitation. I have had about six inches of water in the basement that is about six to seven foot deep, that makes storage in that space very unreliable.
An old diesel generator, or, welder generator plant would be okay, as long as a person has a source for the fuel. Wind and sunshine it could have to be, except, Jesus said that the skies would be darkened and the sun and moon will not give their light, so then what ?

All of the above would be my plan.

 

[FellowTraveler]

Power companies have taken the approach, if they have a contract within a county then "no off grid". Florida is one of the 1st states to embrace this...so if you can't afford to pay for installing say a 5 mile or so of power lines you would not own, then you are SOL.

 

[Husker6.5]

Power companies have taken the approach, if they have a contract within a county then "no off grid". Florida is one of the 1st states to embrace this...so if you can't afford to pay for installing say a 5 mile or so of power lines you would not own, then you are SOL.

And that is part of the problems that all of you elsewhere in the US have that we DO NOT have here in Nebraska. 100% of our electrical utilities are PUBLICLY OWNED! You all are stuck in a private, for-profit, gotchya by the balls model. Here, the utility companies not only encourage conservation and better efficiency, they PAY customers to lower their bills by insulating older homes, upgrading to more efficient windows and doors, or upgrading that 50 year old furnace&A/C to a modern, high efficiency unit or heat pump. Furthermore, unlike you poor suckers on Con-job Edison or PG&E, we get straight across Dollar-for-Dollar on our Net Metering, our Publicly-Owned utilities pay US what we pay THEM to buy our excess electricity produced by our home Solar or Wind systems! Why? Because We The People OWN our Electric Systems in this State, so WE get to tell THEM how to run the provider. We The People ELECT the Boards of Directors that oversee the running of our utilities. In the case of Lincoln, by our City Charter, the Board Members of LES are appointed by the Mayor, on staggered, seven year terms, so that no one Mayor would have political control of the Board. And appointments are made from a list provided by a non-partisan Citizens Advisory Committee when an opening comes due. Sometimes the same person (if they chose to serve again) is nominated along with other possible candidates to fill that opening, sometimes not (if the Committee feels they didn't serve well).

As a BTW, LES (Lincoln Electric System) sent their Emergency Response Team of 15 service trucks of various sizes/types and their crews down to Louisiana three days ago to be on site as Cat 4+ Hurricane Ida with 150mph sustained windsp slams into the SW side of the Delta and onto New Orleans and up through the heart of Louseyanna. As did Omaha Public Power District their's, Nebraska Public Power District their's, Norris Public Power District (named after US Senator from Nebraska, George W. Norris, [as was my rural High School, that's also within Norris PPD, too] who was the founder of the TVA and the Rural Electrification Act [the basis for Nebraska's Publicly Owned Utilities model] during the Great Depression) their's, Columbus Public Power District their's, too.

The State of Nebraska also sent their Task Force 1 Emergency Response and Search and Rescue Team down to Louisiana in preparation for Ida. They were last activated for that horrific (and 100% preventable) condo collapse in Surfside, FL. to assist in Search, Rescue and Recovery operations there.

All of your "It doesn't pay to make your own electricity" examples, especially yours, @FellowTraveler, are because you are dealing with PRIVATELY OWNED, FOR PROFIT utility providers, that in the cases of especially Florida and Texas, have completely bought and own the Government regulators and especially legislators who are supposed to oversee them. VERY glaring evidence of that is the Sunshine State making off-grid solar power essentially illegal because it would take profits away from the industry that owns your State's legislature. And we all witnessed what unregulated, owns the legislature, total disaster ERCOT was during the February Arctic Express Cold Snap. That disaster was the direct result of 100% unregulated greed and incompetence!

 

[MrMarty51]

And that is the same reason that the Montana Department of Highways will not privatize the maintenance of the roads.
We can do it cheaper, we will buy the necessary equipment to get the job done and we will have our paid workers handle the labor.
South Dakota, years ago privatized the maintenance of their highways and roads. That was good for a couple of years. Then the hired companies started jacking on the tax payers. Too late. The damage was done and South Dakota had auctioned off all of their equipment.
I believe that SD was in the process of purchasing some equipment but that would take a very long time to get where they could do it efficiently and with enough equipment to keep their roads open, which the private companies do not do now. Two snow flakes and they are shut down.

 

[dbrannon79]

I have been pondering on the idea of building a stand-alone off grid system for our home. something that would sustain power to at least the kitchen and maybe a couple of rooms in the house. when the "great" freeze hit last winter here in south Texas we had constant rolling blackouts due to ERCOT's claims but no one here in our town had power on long enough to stay the least bit warm. at one point I was really tempted to go sleep in the truck furring that happening! throughout this summer they have been making threats of the same thing happening due to the heat and everyone using their air conditioning!

with the thought of how our economy might end up in the future and for when SHTF times, I have been really temped to invest into a camper or RV and make it able to sustain it's self for long periods of time given the fact that I would have to have fuel and water reserves available or learn to make my own diesel and have access to a ground water well! something I like since I've heard our 6.5's are able to run WMO or cooking oil without any problems

Our local utility company is now wanting to tack on a new "drainage water" fee on us all!!

 

[Husker6.5]

@MrMarty51 Let me make this clear. Our Electric Utilities are Publicly Owned, not to be confused with Government ran. Example, LES employees work for LES, NOT the City of Lincoln. Nebraska Public Power District employees work for NPPD, NOT the State of Nebraska. They are ran more like non-profits, the pay for positions like Line Workers is generally higher than that for equivalent privately-owned utilities (obviously, a ConEd Line Worker in NYC gets paid more than an LES employee does, just because of cost of living differences) but they have excellent benefit and retirement packages, there are no staffing shortages, we have some of the highest "on time" (no outage time) in the country, some of the lowest rates, too.

 

[Husker6.5]

@dbrannon79, most major RV motorhome manufacturers now have solar cells on their roofs to charge the 12VDC House batteries and have gone to 12VDC LED interior lighting whether hooked to 120VAC at an RV park or running off House Batteries/Generator. In theory, if the cooking is electric (like induction cooktops and a microwave) you could stay unplugged and run off of House Batteries w/solar recharging/back up, with perhaps minimal running of the onboard generator. If I had a permanent winter over site in say Southern Arizona, New Mexico or Texas for an RV, I would make certain that it had a very large shelter to park under for shade of the RV and surrounding "entertainment" area whose roof would be 100% covered with solar panels to leave the RV off the electric grid and able to run completely off of the house batteries/solar array.

The whole reason I went with and stay with the venerable (and some say antique/archaic/obsolete) 6.5 is because it's IDI and readily and easily capable of running off of biodiesel. Modern diesels can, in theory, with their high pressure pumps and common rail injectors run just fine off of real biodiesel (not WVO or WMO) chemically derived from vegetable oil stocks, either used or virgin, but the component manufacturers and end assemblers refuse to certify them for anything over B20, sometimes not over B10.

We had a member on here way back, who went into commercial production levels of B100 Biodiesel out in the Bay Area, after doing some small and medium batch production in a thread(s) on here. I can't remember the poster's name for the life of me.

 

[ak diesel driver]

Our power and phone here is a co-op but you wouldn't know it. We pay so much per FT for new installation. Also I believe the money for the home improvement stuff is federal money as it's available nation wide.

 

[Will L.]

what does power cost where you are at is a key.
How well the system is operated/ maintained is huge as well.

Non for profit isn’t always the answer. Here, NV Energy is the main power company for almost all of Nevada. Private company now owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Rates are split from Clark County (southern nv) and the rest of the state. It used to be 2 separate private companies that megerd when there was a push to deregulate, and when the outside places looked into it, they couldn’t get near the rates. So the mess inside the new merged company is because of it. Rates used to be lower, service better, all around better for both North and South before the merge. I have family working in both sides before and after the merge, so seen it as customer and inside track.

Where I live now is Boulder City, which is non profit gubmint system. Rates were way lower here for many years because there was a sweetheart rate from when the Hoover dam was built. 10 more years and the last part of thatsavings will be gone and power will go up at least another 10% here when that happens.
The rates in Boulder City were 25% lower than the rest of the state gets, but because the long term profitability was not a concern, the 4 year cycle of wanting to get re-elected, gubmint officials did not spend the required money on maintenance and built a second city owned golf course for our town of 15,000 people. (Smart, huh? Smh) So now we are getting hurt for it. Also proof that forced term limits for positions like mayor is not always good. The mayor here maxed out on time and everything here was amazing. The 08 crash barely effected Boulder City. Boulder City had more In reserves than the state! Mayor got the boot by a state law and it has been a shite-show ever sense. George Knappthe reporter that busted all the big news here since the 70’s from the real mob stuff to area 51 did a thing on Boulder City not long ago from how bad it got- Search “mormon mafia Boulder City Nv”

Southern Nv is a great for solar with an average of 294 sunny days per year.
On solar system output, NV Energy customers only allowed to build a system that produces 90% of useage because there was a lot of people producing excess power monthly and making profit from the power company. But the PUC will not let them build another power plant which they wanted for 30 years now. So they buy most the electricity on the market at a higher rate - so they had to put in the regulations in or the power company was seriously going to close!

You have to do a hard cost of the system and determine your individual return on investment.

I live in an 1800 sqft house built in the 50’s, horrible insulation, a/c from the late 80’s, large pool with horrible jetting (high heat means we fight algea bad) so big pool pump running 12 minutes per 10° of temperature, deep freezer, 21 year old fridge, so basically gobble electricity like candy. Power this month cost $350. I have friends that wre in Ca and Ny that pay $900 month and have energy efficient everything in <1,000 sq ft.

The power rates here in Boulder City just went up 3-4 years ago. So now it is ALMOST worth it to get solar. Wife and I are doing the homework as to where the money is best spent now. I know most you know I was a pro mechanic for years, but a trade I did in between was an electrician. I work for a certain gubmint group now as a commercial electrician, low voltage up to 70,000 volt, so I wear the fire rated clothes includig the moon suit on occasion. So installing my own solar is no biggie except that my body is taxed now to where I don’t do much after work hours as it is.

 

[Husker6.5]

Our power and phone here is a co-op but you wouldn't know it. We pay so much per FT for new installation. Also I believe the money for the home improvement stuff is federal money as it's available nation wide.

No our Public Utility's improvement programs.are separate from any Federal Tax Credit program. These are cash payments on proof of work done. Ie: present the receipt for the new HVAC system under their program, get a check for 50% of the cost. This is through LES, because not as many peole who were eligible took advantage of the program and LES thought about ending it, there was a big debate at the Annual Meeting last year about continuing to fund the program. After much debate between Citizens and the Board, it was decided to continue the program with increased PR and information put out about it for another three years, but at decreased funding of the program (like $1M/yr instead of $3M/yr).

No, these aren't "tax rebates" or "tax credits", they're direct payments from the utility to customers for improving energy efficiency of your home.

 

[Will L.]

HOLY MOLY!!! 50%?!!!!?

$70 per ton up to 5 ton if 14.9 seer
$125 per ton up to 5 ton if 15 or higher seer.
So buy a $7,780 unit for my house (not counting install, permits, etc) and I get a credit towards my power bill of $625. But I CAN NOT do any of the work diy even if I am licensed for it. It has to be 3rd party work or not eligible.

 

[FellowTraveler]

And that is part of the problems that all of you elsewhere in the US have that we DO NOT have here in Nebraska. 100% of our electrical utilities are PUBLICLY OWNED! You all are stuck in a private, for-profit, gotchya by the balls model. Here, the utility companies not only encourage conservation and better efficiency, they PAY customers to lower their bills by insulating older homes, upgrading to more efficient windows and doors, or upgrading that 50 year old furnace&A/C to a modern, high efficiency unit or heat pump. Furthermore, unlike you poor suckers on Con-job Edison or PG&E, we get straight across Dollar-for-Dollar on our Net Metering, our Publicly-Owned utilities pay US what we pay THEM to buy our excess electricity produced by our home Solar or Wind systems! Why? Because We The People OWN our Electric Systems in this State, so WE get to tell THEM how to run the provider. We The People ELECT the Boards of Directors that oversee the running of our utilities. In the case of Lincoln, by our City Charter, the Board Members of LES are appointed by the Mayor, on staggered, seven year terms, so that no one Mayor would have political control of the Board. And appointments are made from a list provided by a non-partisan Citizens Advisory Committee when an opening comes due. Sometimes the same person (if they chose to serve again) is nominated along with other possible candidates to fill that opening, sometimes not (if the Committee feels they didn't serve well).

As a BTW, LES (Lincoln Electric System) sent their Emergency Response Team of 15 service trucks of various sizes/types and their crews down to Louisiana three days ago to be on site as Cat 4+ Hurricane Ida with 150mph sustained windsp slams into the SW side of the Delta and onto New Orleans and up through the heart of Louseyanna. As did Omaha Public Power District their's, Nebraska Public Power District their's, Norris Public Power District (named after US Senator from Nebraska, George W. Norris, [as was my rural High School, that's also within Norris PPD, too] who was the founder of the TVA and the Rural Electrification Act [the basis for Nebraska's Publicly Owned Utilities model] during the Great Depression) their's, Columbus Public Power District their's, too.

The State of Nebraska also sent their Task Force 1 Emergency Response and Search and Rescue Team down to Louisiana in preparation for Ida. They were last activated for that horrific (and 100% preventable) condo collapse in Surfside, FL. to assist in Search, Rescue and Recovery operations there.

All of your "It doesn't pay to make your own electricity" examples, especially yours, @FellowTraveler, are because you are dealing with PRIVATELY OWNED, FOR PROFIT utility providers, that in the cases of especially Florida and Texas, have completely bought and own the Government regulators and especially legislators who are supposed to oversee them. VERY glaring evidence of that is the Sunshine State making off-grid solar power essentially illegal because it would take profits away from the industry that owns your State's legislature. And we all witnessed what unregulated, owns the legislature, total disaster ERCOT was during the February Arctic Express Cold Snap. That disaster was the direct result of 100% unregulated greed and incompetence!

Yep, it sux here with all the bought and paid for government types...

 

[Husker6.5]

@Will L. I live in a 50 year old house, split foyer style cut into a hillside, entrance landing with a half flight of stairs up to main level (LR, KT, DR, 3 BRMS, BA, 1200ft²) and a half flight down to the basement (Rec RM, Laundry/furnace, single stall garage, ~600 ft² finished. Questionable whether or not there's insulation in the outer walls, being built winter of 70-71 before the energy crisis and any mandatory building codes for insulation. There's about a foot of fiberglass blown in over the top of the 3½" batts laid between the attic joists. I replaced the original, single pane windows with Krypton-filled, Low-E, triple pane vinyl windows back in 2005 when I was subcontracting for a window, door and siding company.

This summer, we've set records so far for the hottest June and July on record and probably also for August. While our top temps aren't as high as yours, we have that thing called humidity that adds to the Heat Index and necessitates running the A/C 24/7 to get the humidity out of the air. We've only had 5-6 days this summer where the actual air temperature went above 100°F, but we've had 68 days so far this Summer where the actual air temperature was above 90°F (yesterday was 98°, day before 100°, Heat index yesterday 104° and day before 107°, dew points were in the mid-upper 70's to lower 80's, putting relative humidity in the 75-85% range! And it doesn't cool.off at night because of the humidity. Two nights ago the overnight low was a really muggy 82°! Almost all of August been this way! June and July no different. My July electric bill? $97! And that includes that our Summer Rates are higher than the Winter rates by 30%! I expect my August bill to be the same or slightly lower.

My A/C unit? The original 1970, highly inefficient unit that leaks slightly and I have to have recharged every other year. Going to use the program to replace my 1980 gas furnace that I haven't used since 2002 because the plenum corroded through and I don't feel like CO poisoning myself, I just use the monster Lincoln Stove in my rec room to heat my whole house with a couple of small, 350/750 Watt space heaters as localized back up (like in my BR, under the kitchen sink on the NW outer wall, and in the basement bathroom intermittently.

A nice air-to-air highly efficient Heat Pump to replace the furnace and A/C, after rebate from LES, will set me back about $3200. I just need to come up with that to pay Thermal Dynamics up front for the unit, I'll let them do the paperwork for the rebate and let LES send them the back half check directly. As far as things like blowing insulation into your walls, just present LES with the receipt from Menards or Home Depot for renting the blower and buying the bags of cellulose/fibreglass insulation and they'll reimburse you half of your costs.

Difference between Publicly Owned utility and Privately owned, Will.

 

[dbrannon79]

@Husker6.5 Ill trade you utility bills! ours has been running an average $500-600 a month combined with our water and trash. but again were on window ac units and all for this old brick house!

 

[MrMarty51]

Vicks and my house are signed up for AMP, average monthly billing.
Last summer and winter the bills was about $220.00 a month. State granted MDU a raise and it now runs about $280.00. Just sucks bad.
Oh yeah, our house is about 900 SF. And that includes the garage. 80 gallon 7 horse compressor and a window AC unit. Neither one of those run unless I’m out there messing with crap.

 

[Husker6.5]

@dbrannon79, I know where you at, just east of San Antonio. I did my AIT at Ft. Sam Houston back in '79. Couple of three rotations through Ft. Hood back in the 90's, so I know how miserably hot and humid it can get in Central Texas in the summer around Fredericksburg, Luckenbach, Killeen, Waco area. Swamp coolers only work when the humidity is fairly low, otherwise you're just blowing hot, sticky air on you. Not to mention how much of a waste of water it is!