Where does the time go?

Ok so I am going to get a solar hot water heater for about 1/2 price or even FREE!.

1/2 price: An active 2-3 panel system costs between $7,000 and $8,000. So with the $3000 and the federal tax credit of $2000 (max tax credit allowed but you have to spend $6700 to get the max Federal tax credit) for a total of $5000 off the price.

FREE solar hot water heater: If you do a passive solar water heater http://tctsolar.com/ such as a PN-50 then the cost is $2000 plus shipping and now the equation changes. You get $3000 and the tax credit for spending $3000 ($2000 plus S1000 shipping and installation) plus $900 tax credit. That make the passive solar water heater completely FREE!

Here in Colorado Amendment 37 was amended about 6 months ago and all the rural electric cooperative (REC) are no longer exempt from providing renewable energy in their generation mix. So therefore all the REC now have to have part of their energy mix renewable energy.

So my REC is United power with about 60,000 metered customers.

They have come up with a program in completion with the Governors Energy council to provide $3000 for a solar hot water system for those who only use ELECTRIC hot water heaters.

I have one of those so I qualify.

But not only do I qualify for the solar hot water rebate but I also qualify for a replacement hot water heater as well. That hot water heater is a Marathon hot water tank (see features below) that has a LIFETIME warranty on it and is NOT a metal tank but a plastic tank with about 3" of foam. Basically the best storage tanks if you are going to not have a thankless hot water heater.




So the first think I did was to request a replacement hot water tank. That came a few weeks ago and I am going to plumb that in first, then plumb in the solar and finally the solar panels.

I have 90 days in which to do this and already 30 days have flew by.

My current kWh averages about 500 kWh per month without AC being on in the summer months. Once my solar hot water heater kicks in I should drop the kWh to an average of about 400 kWh per month or less. I figure because my DHW heater is on a timer I use about 100 kWh a month to heat my water from the power grid.

Times are a changing.

THE HALF TRUTH (LIE) VS THE TRUTH

I am going to do this on occasion. It will be title d as above: THE HALF TRUTH (LIE) VS THE TRUTH.

This post is simple. The Status quo continues to tell half truths to the public to try to do something "green". But what the general public does not realize is that what they read or see on TV is only a half truth. When I read a half truth and it is so obviously incorrect I will report it here and on our upcoming updated web site.

Here goes:

This just came form our local Rural Electric Cooperative:

THE HALF TRUTH (LIE):

“United Power’s Board of directors has moved to create a program of incentives for solar power installations. The program is being instituted in response to several customer inquirers.”

THE TRUTH:

Colorado HB-1281 was signed into law on April 24, 2007. Unlike Amendment 37, which exempted REC from a renewable energy requirement, HB-07-1281 requires ALL Rural Electric Cooperatives (REC) in the state of Colorado have to get up to 10% of their power from renewable energy source by 2020. It starts with 1% in 2008. Thus United Power paints itself as being responsive to “several customer inquires” yet the truth of the matter is that they HAVE to comply with the law and to do so they need to encourage the installation of RE systems on their system. Had the law NOT been passed then I am 99.9% sure that United Power (or any other REC in the state of Colorado, would not come forth and give encouragement to using RE systems. The only reason Xcel gives rebates is because they are allowed to put yet another tax (fee) onto all Xcel customers to raise the money. It is NOT coming out of Xcel pockets at all.

What they do NOT tell you in pain English is that that have been instructed by LAW to encourage the use of solar energy.

About a year ago I called United Power and asked one of their employees what their policy was on PV systems and the guy got really upset with me. He said PV where to “expensive” an hat hey had no “payback” and that they where manufactured using all sorts of polluting materials. I told him it was MY lifestyle choice and that I wanted to produce my own clean power. Then he got real quiet.

Bottom line: 99% of utilities will NOT be encouraging ON SITE RE systems UNLESS they are required to by law. They realize that RE basically has no benefit to the utility companies. Two key reasons: RE systems are intermittent. Therefore they still have to provide 100% at night and during peak load periods during the day. Second issue is that the more RE on their grid network the less revenue they will generate. And that won’t pay the outrageous salaries that REC executives receive.