Solar Energy?

Parent Cafe
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<p>OP here. Thanks for the sharing of insights, guys.</p>

<p>We moved to NJ about 18 months ago and into our current home about a year ago. It was built in 1988 and is slightly over 5,000 sqft if you count in the basement (partially finished but not air conditioned or heated, except a small separate heater that we have never turned on.)</p>

<p>Our gas and electric thru PSEG has ranged from $500 to $900 per month since move in. We are flabbergasted. Our last home in a different region of the country was roughly the same size and gas & electric was about $200 per month.</p>

<p>Like many aspects of living here in NJ, navigating this issue has been complex. After several months of trying to parse our utility bills we finally realized that PSEG was not sending someone to our home to read our meters. We have a small dog and an electric fence with a sign indicating the fence. That apparently violates PSEG policy and allows their meter reader to simply skip your house. So for a number of months our bills were simply “estimates”. Finally, we managed to get PSEG to install the remote meter devices in our home but still the readings are partially “estimates”. Apparently the gas remote reader is not functioning. All of this, naturally, has entailed many, many frustrating hours on hold on the phone with this truly appalling company. </p>

<p>A couple neighbors with similar sized homes have wood burning heat. But their homes were built originally to incorporate that feature. One neighbor has solar panels being installed now. As far as I know, everyone pays around $400 to $500 per month for gas & electric. We seem to be the outliers (lucky us!).</p>

<p>So our house may be especially bad in terms of power usage. There are many, many windows – two sun rooms, one with radiant heat in the tile floor. The air conditioners are 20 year old Tranes. They were serviced last summer and declared to be in very good condition, but obviously not high efficiency. The heat system is baseboard powered by natural gas. The thermostats are scattered about the house, non programmable so I may be missing the opportunity to optimize savings. But we like a rather cold house and tend to keep it on the cool side, very cool at night. The water heater is gas, and about 15 years old. Washer and dryer are electric, maybe five years old.</p>

<p>This has been an incredibly frustrating issue for us. Nothing like receiving an $875 utility bill just before the holidays! We aren’t even sure we are being charged a valid amount for our usage – most of what we have paid has been “estimated.”</p>

<p>At this point, I would love to be free of PSEG entirely but I there have been articles in the local papers of NJ residents being hoodwinked by Solar power installers. </p>

<p>It’s a jungle out there.</p>

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<p>Sewhappy – Have you had a full energy audit? I think that would be the very best place to start – particularly if they do a blower door test and use an infrared camera to identify areas with absent or deficient insulation. I’d also check with neighbors and find out what their utility bills are as a cross-check. Have you read your own meter to check the electricity usage? Gas is not as easy to get to, but the electric meter usually is pretty easy. Our utility prints the meter reading value right on the bill. (Or, at least they used to… haven’t looked at that in a while.) If there’s a significant discrepancy, that would be a place to start. I’d also consider working my way up the utility ladder to get an appointment for a meter reader visit. If that failed, I’d file a complaint with the PUC. </p>

<p>One note on warranties. The warranty is only as good as the company that stands behind it. We live in solar central --and quite a number of solar companies have gone out of business over the years.</p>

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<p>They aren’t. I just had a look at an electricity price map and NJ was in the second-highest category. All of New England and California is in the highest rate category. Even though we’re in a high-cost state, our electricity bills are modest - I guess our usage is pretty low and our home fairly efficient. Replacing the roof and HVAC in the 1990s resulted in big energy savings for us. Putting in better windows made an improvement too.</p>

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<p>BC- do you mind telling me what your electric cost and the size of your home. One issue with my home is my wife needs the AC running due to health issues so we do use AC a lot during the summer.</p>

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<p>I work for an electric/gas utility. We recommend that customers install energy efficiency first, then consider renewables. I agree with others that an energy audit would be a worthwhile investment. The appliances you have mentioned are pretty old, and there are far more efficient models out there now. Always look for the EnergyStar label on appliances. The auditor may also have recommendations on the building shell, such as more insulation or new windows. It looks like PSEG has some good information and links on their website regarding energy audits and rebates. I don’t like that you don’t have good meter readings though. It makes it a lot harder to figure out what improvements are cost effective. I’m pretty sure not reading the meter would violate state regulations here. You might be able to contact your state utility commission about that. I believe you are also in a deregulated state, so you have the option to choose another supplier, but PSEG will still deliver your gas/electricity.</p>

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<p>We had an energy audit and did a number of remediation steps with an energy contractor. We got a subsidy from the state of NJ as I remember, through this program:
[Home</a> Performance with ENERGY STAR | NJ OCE Web Site](<a href=“http://www.njcleanenergy.com/residential/programs/home-performance-energy-star/home-performance-energy-star-r]Home”>Home Performance with ENERGY STAR | NJ OCE Web Site)</p>

<p>I would rather have PSEG as my electric company than JCP&L. We’ve lost power 3 times this year, and twice it has taken JCP&L 6-7 days to get our power restored. PSEG seems to have much better repair service.</p>

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<p>1,200 sq ft though the finished basement and attic get it to about 1,900 of living space. I think that our electricity bill runs around $80-$90 most of the time in the summer with the potential spike to $130 if it is really hot. We run the AC quite a bit in the summer too. Summer bills before we replaced the HVAC and roof could spike to $200 and those were with electricity rates a lot lower than what they are today.</p>

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<p>tom1944, my mother required AC for a medical situation, and we were told by the doctor (family friend) to contact the electric company and explain the situation. The electric company sent out some paperwork, the doctor signed it, and my parents received a “medical rate” for some of their electrical costs while my mother was living. You might call your electric company and ask if there is a similar program in your area…I honestly don’t remember if my dad called the gas company about heat, but that might apply as well. My mom was happy to be bundled under extra blankets in her chair, although we had to be careful with heated blankets.</p>

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<p>Just an FYI…our house including the finished walkout lower level…about the same size as Sewhappy’s house (ours is a little smaller, but not much). Our total electric bill never exceeds $100 and that includes running AC units in our bedrooms in the summers. Add to that $2000 total in heating costs for the heating oil. We don’t come CLOSE to the costs she is quoting. Our house was built in 1994.</p>

<p>I agree, get an energy audit. Sounds like some of your energy is not particularly efficiently used.</p>

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<p>Just saw the amounts that you’re paying in NJ - sounds like a lot. If you have access to your meter, you could measure the amount that you use in a week and calculate what the cost should be and compare it to what you’re getting charged. It sounds like there’s either a huge measurement problem or your house is leaking a lot of power.</p>

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<p>Sewhappy, this won’t help your winter bills, but my office building (built in the 1970’s) replaced our AC units a few years back and literally cut the summer electric bills in half. The new units paid for themselves in just a couple of years. I’d look into savings possible with those AC units. As for winter - well, radiant heat in a sunroom in New Jersey looks like a likely suspect to me. Can you shut that off from the rest of the house?</p>

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<p>I agree with the energy audit. Something about your use just doesn’t seem right. One thing to consider is replacing your windows if they are inefficient. Probably just as expensive as installing solar panels and it might decrease your energy cost substantially. </p>

<p>We used to live in a 1200 sq ft house built in 1928, bad windows, bad furnace. I spent more year round on the budget for my natural gas than my highest bill here. 3100 sq ft, tons of windows and to boot no window coverings. It doesn’t leak here, no drafts, new furnace. </p>

<p>Another option to think about is a heat pump. They are popular here and I hear they are cheaper to run. </p>

<p>I’m just not sure I would install solar panels in NJ. I live in Michigan though which they say is the 49th sunniest state lol! Wouldn’t work here very well. </p>

<p>Also I would look into and see if possibly there might be a gas line leak.</p>

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<p>Go git yourself digital thermostats, available low voltage, or micro volts at your local big box or habitat for the humanities restore. I had 3 older units in the draw before Dw said git’em gone.</p>

<p>Approx 20 bucks for timer, heat only to 130 for lighted, multifunction.</p>

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<p>HiMom, </p>

<p>Sorry I misunderstand - I thought the rebate was on your kw charges. I was blinded by the flash of jealousy seeing your screen name gives me :-). I hope one day to visit your beautiful state! It must be wonderful to live there.</p>

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<p>No, unfortunately, we have the HIGHEST energy charges in the nation @ $.33+/kilowatt hour. Fortunately, most of us don’t need heating but even so, there are many here with electric bills that are pretty high. My folks pay about $400+/month & they don’t run their A/C at all; perhaps their home is 2000 square feet. Our $100/mo bill is based on a home that is under 1000 square feet, no A/C at all.</p>

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<p>I’m also surprised by those costs. My NJ house, though smaller than yours, averages about 2-300/month, gas and electric. The electric never gets higher than very low 100s. Gas runs from negligible in the summer to 400 or more in a really, really cold winter month (the bill we just got for gas/electric was 330.) So, yeah, I’d check for some kind of leak or measurement problem.</p>

<p>There are some solar companies that are running a deal where they put the panels up for free and then charge you for the electricity–they pay a lot of incentives and say it runs cheaper, but not guaranteed. Jury’s still out on that for me. I’d probably go with buying my own, instead.</p>

<p>With all the credits/incentives/rebates, I’d love to do it, but i don’t have a good southern facing roof or a place for stand-alone installation. It would have to be something complicated and costlier. Still would like to do it, but need to research more.</p>

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<p>Interesting idea. Thank you.</p>

<p>Yes, it just seems crazy. We were braced for facing higher costs to some extent but this is just out of the park.</p>

<p>It is a complicated house, built by a builder for himself. Lots of idiosyncrasies that we like for the most part. He was quite old when he sold and a prosperous gentleman who might not have been paying attention to utility bills.</p>

<p>I love the idea of getting the audit done. Thank you to who suggested and provided the NJ link down thread.</p>

<p>It’s been a lot of complexity and challenge doing this relocation and I have tried to get to the bottom of this but not succeeded yet.</p>

<p>This thread is helping me.</p>

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<p>Pay attention to what appliances are turned on 24/7. I couldn’t figure out why our electric bills were so high until I turned of DH’s bleeping espresso machine every day after he made his coffee for the electric bill month–and the bill was instantly $50 lower, going from $200/month to $150/month.</p>

<p>AT $150 a month it’s still high, but I’m pretty sure I know the causes, and I’m not sure what I want to do about them. I like having a large freezer and warm bathroom floors :wink: And DH makes his living writing software, I don’t think I’m going to get him to turn his computer and his monitors off (yes, monitors, two 24" and a 36").</p>

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<p>My home system has three monitors: one old 24 inch and two newer 21 inch LED models and a four-year-old laptop. The old monitor uses a fluorescent lamp for a backlight and generates more heat than the LED versions. Power usage for the older stuff is inefficient compared to the newer stuff.</p>

<p>I built my computer system early in 2011 and went with power-efficient components. My previous system is six years old and the processor and graphics cards use far more power than what I have today - basically newer components that do more work use less power. I’m pretty sure that I could drop the power consumption of my laptop with a newer model. Mine runs about 2.5 hours on battery. Newer models will run up to 8 hours on battery (I’m assuming equivalent batteries). The difference is mainly in modern computers with integrated graphics. My old system has to eat the costs of discrete graphics even though I generally have no need for discrete graphics.</p>

<p>So yes, I could increase efficiency by replacing my 24 inch monitor and my laptop but that would be around $3000+. I’m not going to save that much in power bills.</p>

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<p>DVRs that are plugged in all the time are huge energy hogs. None made in this country are required to have sleep modes, unlike those in Europe. I just unplug mine at nite and replug then 1/2 or so before turning on the TV.
We also recently replaced 12 fluorescent lights [ the kind that can fit in the Halo type cans], with new dimmable sylvania LEDs- saw the electric bill go down within a month. And we turn off computer monitors when they are not being used.</p>