Is solar addiction or hobby?

solarking

I am not sure if it is right to post this on the forum, moderators if you find it bad please delete it. Solar hobby is highly addictive, is this how everybody  or most of the solar hobbyists feel or am I the only one.

mike95490

Electricity is addictive. Solar is a way to get it, day after day, free. (getting the solar is not free)

Lumisol

It's a luxury to me, but not a hobby. I already have way too many of those.

bsolar

its a hobby to me and practical on top of it .. ive always played around with electrical things and experimented since i was a kid ..

petertearai

Yep  .. Maybe a cross between a hobby and an interest . Being off grid , you have to be interested in solar for everything to work properly. . 

westbranch

It's Like the chocolate shop, once bitten....  you want MORE!

mmaritz

It started as a camping box for lights while in the outdoors (a hobby) and now helps alot with our current power crises in South Africa (so not a hobby) . Addiction well - maybe  

Estragon

After a storm rolled through on the weekend, snapped power poles means 2-3 days with no power for nearby grid cabins. We just didn't quite make float that day, but otherwise fine. I guess that's addictive!

Dave Angelini

Business is business! My grandfather did without electricity up near me in the gold mining days. He was a tough son of a gun!

Lumisol

We did without it for 3 years up at our place. It's not really tough at all. In fact it's kind of peaceful.

softdown

Lumisol said:

We did without it for 3 years up at our place. It's not really tough at all. In fact it's kind of peaceful.

The simple life is often under rated. My mountain shop doesn't even have pressurized water, let alone hot water. I call the frequent trips from the mountains to my Denver home.....a trip to hell. Complete with sirens, middle finger salutes if one isn't speeding enough, traffic jams etc.

Societies that live the simple life enjoy some amazing stats. Take the Amish for example. Their food is organic and I wonder about that. Just started drinking organic milk and am amazed at the difference in taste. Much, much better. Worth it.

I'm not addicted to solar and I can't say that I really enjoy it as a hobby. I'd call it an interest in keeping my food from spoiling and my tv working. Light is also good. I would do solar professionally but there are simply too many things that can go wrong. I do not enjoy emergencies regarding electrical problems.

Lumisol

LOL that is so true. When I am driving down the 10 or so miles of dirt road to the mountain place, I pass a lot of other trucks going the other way (5 is a lot there) and everyone waves at me as I pass and I wave back and smile.
Of course our place in town is nice too as we know all of our neighbors and are friends with them. We have people that will watch our place and we watch theirs for them.
Once you leave the neighborhood though it's not as friendly, but I let everyone that is in a bigger hurry go right ahead of me.

solarvic

It was kind of addictive for me.  Originally I wanted to be able  to live in retirement in a modern house with modern appliances without a lot of utility bills.  The only utility I have is phone and internet. Have a gas well for free heat and cooking and GT solar supply that covers the electric bill.  There was a story in home power magazine about the cost of solar and people saying it cost too much. Basically if you have a job and average income you can afford it. They compared  cost of solar with buying a new jeep.  You have to choose your priority. You can spend your money and buy the jeep. After 10 years the value of the jeep isn,t very high and probably will be rusted out and be in junk yard. If you invest it a solar electric system it will be paying you back over more years than the jeep. I had a couple vehicles that were serving me well and payed for. Actually I was thinking of getting a new vehicle but invested in solar and drove the old vehicles and spent my car payment on Solar. When I retired I had my solar payed for and bought me a new car spending the money saved on the utilitys. That about covers the car payment. So for me it was a good move as I would never been able to afford my new truck I now have. I have a lot of satisfaction that my needs are met. Solarvic   PS  There are lots of AMISH in my area and they do use the fruits of electric  and modern traveling and depend on the English to supply them for them.  One of my friends have amash neighbors that keep a freezer, phone and battery charger in her garage. When they want to go to town they have the English taxi them.  Since I have a 4 door truck I get asked many times to taxi them or haul their work trailer and crews to job sites. I got tired of the taxi business quickly. They  don,t want to wear their seatbelts and I know someone that got fined for having duch not wearing them. Unless you get a puc licence you can lose your vehicle and your insurance won,t pay.   Softdown, I was wondering if you could have fresh unpasteurized milk confused with pasteurized milk. There is a difference in taste between unpasteurized and pasteurized. I doubt if you could tell the difference in organic milk taste. Some times the difference in milk taste is because of the breed of cow.  

softdown

Both are pasteurized and sold by Costco where I do most of my shopping. The cheap milk costs about $2.50/gallon. The organic milk costs about $3.50/gallon. There is a scientifically proven variance in the quality. The organic milk comes from grass fed cows and has a lot more beneficial DHA and EPA Omeda-3s. A lot of cows are kept chained up and pumped up with shots while being fed the cheapest calories available.

I'm not a dedicated organic guy yet. Maybe close to 50% organic. Did you know that Cheerios are dried with weed killer/glycophospate? Over a 1000 times the recommended amount is found in Cheerios. I'm sure many other popular cereals have gone down the same path though not to the same degree.

solarvic

Ok I will look for some organic milk.  in my area all the farmers are growing corn and soybeans. I rented my land for a 5 year term and I am going to fire the guy that is farming it now because of his farming practices. He don,t believe in tilling the ground and sprays roundup to kill the weeds and after the weeds die he plants the corn and sprays roundup again after the corn starts growing to kill the weeds again jusdt so he don,t have to plow.  We all have well water and some have springs. SWo that roundup is getting in the food chain, meat, milk cerial and everything that eats the soybeans, wheat ,corn, and ect. I feel this guy is depleeting my land and might let the neighbor  that has a dairy farmk farm it rent free if he puts manure and tills the land the right way. He grows crops to feed his animals and most of the others are just spraying chemicals to make things grow.  I have a couple amish I buy produce from that I think don,t use all them chemicals. they just use HS and CS to keep the land fertile.  

Lumisol

> @solarvic said:
> It was kind of addictive for me.  Originally I wanted to be able  to live in retirement in a modern house with modern appliances without a lot of utility bills.  The only utility I have is phone and internet. Have a gas well for free heat and cooking and GT solar supply that covers the electric bill.  There was a story in home power magazine about the cost of solar and people saying it cost too much. Basically if you have a job and average income you can afford it. They compared  cost of solar with buying a new jeep.  You have to choose your priority. You can spend your money and buy the jeep. After 10 years the value of the jeep isn,t very high and probably will be rusted out and be in junk yard. If you invest it a solar electric system it will be paying you back over more years than the jeep. I had a couple vehicles that were serving me well and payed for. Actually I was thinking of getting a new vehicle but invested in solar and drove the old vehicles and spent my car payment on Solar. When I retired I had my solar payed for and bought me a new car spending the money saved on the utilitys. That about covers the car payment. So for me it was a good move as I would never been able to afford my new truck I now have. I have a lot of satisfaction that my needs are met. Solarvic   PS  There are lots of AMISH in my area and they do use the fruits of electric  and modern traveling and depend on the English to supply them for them.  One of my friends have amash neighbors that keep a freezer, phone and battery charger in her garage. When they want to go to town they have the English taxi them.  Since I have a 4 door truck I get asked many times to taxi them or haul their work trailer and crews to job sites. I got tired of the taxi business quickly. They  don,t want to wear their seatbelts and I know someone that got fined for having duch not wearing them. Unless you get a puc licence you can lose your vehicle and your insurance won,t pay.   Softdown, I was wondering if you could have fresh unpasteurized milk confused with pasteurized milk. There is a difference in taste between unpasteurized and pasteurized. I doubt if you could tell the difference in organic milk taste. Some times the difference in milk taste is because of the breed of cow.  

If you run a new jeep into the ground and turn it to junk in just 10 years, you might not be able to keep a solar power system running long either.
I have a 17 year old truck that looks, runs and drives like brand new. It's all about maintenance and repairing and replacing parts that wear out.

solarvic

In northwest PA. where I live the vehicles rust out from all the road salt. You can keep up with all the mechanical parts and maintainance but hard to stop rust. Toyota  had a recall on their Tacoma  trucks a few years ago and scrapped them out because of rusty frames. I know 2 people that got paid for their trucks. Everyone got 125% high Kelly blue book for their trucks. The jeep example was to show that basically most people can afford what is their priority.  Your priority could be spend your money on jeep payments that devaluates or buy solar which will keep paying you back for a longer period of time. I drove th life use out of the present vehicles I had and bought the solar. Since I had the solar payed for I have had 4 new vehicles. 

solar_dave

The wife and I are about the most extreme instance of a capitalist install (but she is a green too).  In AZ the AC bills are enormous and we were headed to retirement.  12.5 Kw grid tie system knocks off about 85-90% of our electric bill, the net metering plan was a big determining factor.  But then again solar wasn't our only investment, we upgraded to 17+ seer AC units, improved our insulation, upgraded pool pump to an inverter model and bought a pair of Chevy Volts.  WHY you may ask.  Because every step of the way made financial sense.  Now retired and the outlay for this place is minimal.  

The only upgrade we have been considering is to direct DC the pool pump.

solarvic

Solar Dave. I think that you were thinking about the same way about investing in solar as I did. My solar system already paid me back due to the federal income tax break. I still have credits that just keep rolling over as I didn,t use all of them even with a couple withdrawals from my 401-k. Do not know if and when they expire.  My biggest expense in owning my house is the property tax and insurance.  Last year I had to put on a new roof. Around here in the rural area of n/w PA most people are getting steel roofs when their shingles go bad.  My Abode is a double wide manufactured home on a crawl space basement. I do like my steel roof and think it will last as long as I need it.                                                                                                     You do not see very many volts or any kind of electric cars in my area. Probably because of the cold winter days where you have some -0 F cold weather days. Do you drive yours on snowy slippery roads?  Wondering about the traction. I had a hhr and it was helpless and my daughter has a cruze and it is also helpless on slippery roads. 

Estragon

Tires are likely the biggest factor in winter driving. That, and experience. The type of power is way down the list of factors.

I've driven through cities like Atlanta and Birmingham when there's been an inch or two of snow. Between wrong/bad tires and inexperienced drivers it's a real gong show.

nickdearing88

solarvic said:

In northwest PA. where I live the vehicles rust out from all the road salt. You can keep up with all the mechanical parts and maintainance but hard to stop rust. Toyota  had a recall on their Tacoma  trucks a few years ago and scrapped them out because of rusty frames. I know 2 people that got paid for their trucks. Everyone got 125% high Kelly blue book for their trucks. The jeep example was to show that basically most people can afford what is their priority.  Your priority could be spend your money on jeep payments that devaluates or buy solar which will keep paying you back for a longer period of time. I drove th life use out of the present vehicles I had and bought the solar. Since I had the solar payed for I have had 4 new vehicles. 

Hi neighbor! I live in NE Ohio, right by the state line.

solar_dave

Estragon said:

Tires are likely the biggest factor in winter driving. That, and experience. The type of power is way down the list of factors.

I've driven through cities like Atlanta and Birmingham when there's been an inch or two of snow. Between wrong/bad tires and inexperienced drivers it's a real gong show.

Haha, I remember back in the day, you could run studded snows up in Michigan.  Me and my buddies went to spring break in FLA and in Georgia we hit a freak snow storm 1-2 inches. We cruised through at speed while the locals were all at the side of the road.  

We got some funny looks with those noisey studs in Florida.

solar_dave

solarvic said:

Solar Dave. I think that you were thinking about the same way about investing in solar as I did. My solar system already paid me back due to the federal income tax break. I still have credits that just keep rolling over as I didn,t use all of them even with a couple withdrawals from my 401-k. Do not know if and when they expire.  My biggest expense in owning my house is the property tax and insurance.  Last year I had to put on a new roof. Around here in the rural area of n/w PA most people are getting steel roofs when their shingles go bad.  My Abode is a double wide manufactured home on a crawl space basement. I do like my steel roof and think it will last as long as I need it.                                                                                                     You do not see very many volts or any kind of electric cars in my area. Probably because of the cold winter days where you have some -0 F cold weather days. Do you drive yours on snowy slippery roads?  Wondering about the traction. I had a hhr and it was helpless and my daughter has a cruze and it is also helpless on slippery roads. 

Yeah my recent roof job with double layer of 40 lb underlayment under the concrete tile and extra wide flashing with bird stops on the tile will last a lifetime, at least my lifetime. Correcting all the solar mounts to double flashed stanchions should also last a very long time.

The Volts give a nice one shot tax break as well, I was working then but paid very little in taxes those years.  I hear the Volts are pretty good in the snow with proper tires, ours have never seen such weather.  They are heavy and that helps.

solarvic

There lots of preius cars here but hardly any volts.  I don,t know why no volts. I heard people worry about battery not working well in cold weather. I also heard that people think the price is too high. I know that the dealer I got my truck from  had one for about six months and advertised it at a high discount to sell it. I think he advertised it @10.000  off the sticker price. Also it seems that most people want 4/4 vehicles  Trucks, equinox, trax , tahoo  ect.  I only had the Silverado 2 months because the seat was very uncomfortable and traded for a ram ecodiesel which is very comfortable but doesn,t get the advertised fuel milage for me. The gov. has a lawsuit against them for cheating the emissions test and they will not let them sell  the 2017 models that are already built. They have lots of engine failures also. I had to get new fuel injectors around 13,000 miles and it was a $2500.00 warranty claim. Some have had thiers changed twice.  If the Gov makes them take back their trucks I will probably buy another Subaru. 

nickdearing88

I've had a Nissan Leaf for the past three years on lease -- it's going back in August. The experience has been very good overall but I want to get back to one car, since I still need a gas engine for longer trips. Less cost for insurance, plates, etc. It performs above-average in the snow for a FWD car. I think the electric motor having full traction available at take off helps.

Blayd

Economic necessity.   Southern California Edison wanted stupid money to grid connect. It was a pain in the rear in the beginning and expensive to install solar and wind.  10 years on, new equipment is 25 percent of what it was. I have done numerous upgrades in the 10 years and still have not spent what it would have cost to grid tie.  Ten years of no meter or electric bills, other than batteries. Now my electric is cheaper per watt hour than what the utility company charges, using the cost of batteries as my electric cost.  The bonus being when the grid frequently crashes I am the only one still enjoying my day rather than in the dark with a flashlight watching food spoil in the fridge.
Hobby, no, as I am now the electric company replete with the usual chores needed to keep it up and running.

peakbagger

I did like designing and installing my systems but realistically they are now appliances. I do adjust seasonal tilt on two arrays and on rare occasions look at the readouts but that's about it. I run a surplus on net metering and do keep an eye out on my monthly power bill to see when my surplus stops being sucked down in the spring to when it starts going up in the summer.