DaveNV: Making a Home in the Desert

[klpca]

Just at a glance, it appears you used 4321 kWh of electricity. We used only 1669. Using that number, at the higher of the two rates on my bill, 4321 kWh here in Mesquite would cost $376. So it's not terribly different, if all the other rates are factored in. Your home just used a lot more electricity than mine did, I think. Maybe Robert @controller1 can shed some light on things?

What kind of rates does the rest of the country pay?

Dave

I really can't quite figure out our bills because we use something called net metering and everything seems to be presented as a net number but I was able to find the rates. We have three tiers (off peak, semi peak, peak based upon time of day) but the rates seem to be the same for semi-peak and peak. That rate is $.26265/kwh and the off peak rate is $.08682/kwh. You can see why, at those rates, solar is a no brainer in CA. (Btw I spent some time looking but still can't find out what the semi-peak hours are, but peak hours are 4pm-9pm). I do quite a bit of research in my job but SDGE has really found a way to hide a lot of information on their website. I am sure that it's there but wow, finding it takes a lot of effort!

We still have a big energy user in our house - our 22 year old single speed pool pump. We're just waiting for it to die. The newer ones that are variable speed are a lot more energy efficient. I suspect that the outdoor bar fridge that is in the sun half of the day might be costing us some money as well but that is where the beer is living these days. We will move the beer into man-land (the garage) soon. We will move our older refrigerator in there and turn off the bar fridge unless we are entertaining.

 

[DaveNV]

Dave,

Wow! Your place is coming along nicely! I love the colors you chose and the fabric for the chairs - both very warm and inviting. I can visualize how your hardwood will look in there and it is just going to be stunning. So excited for y'all to be getting closer and closer to having everything done. You will have such a beautiful setting for the upcoming holidays. Can't wait to see your pictures when it's complete!

Thanks, Jan! Glad you and others can see what we see. When I start to get tweaked over the expense, I remind myself that we're reinvesting "found money" from our old home into this one. With our eyes firmly focused on the prize, it all seems like it'll be a really nice place to live. After we get through the next couple of weeks, and we start moving in, things will get seriously "real." Can't wait!

Dave

 

[DaveNV]

I really can't quite figure out our bills because we use something called net metering and everything seems to be presented as a net number but I was able to find the rates. We have three tiers (off peak, semi peak, peak based upon time of day) but the rates seem to be the same for semi-peak and peak. That rate is $.26265/kwh and the off peak rate is $.08682/kwh. You can see why, at those rates, solar is a no brainer in CA. (Btw I spent some time looking but still can't find out what the semi-peak hours are, but peak hours are 4pm-9pm). I do quite a bit of research in my job but SDGE has really found a way to hide a lot of information on their website. I am sure that it's there but wow, finding it takes a lot of effort!

When I was in the Navy, stationed in San Diego from '79 to '89, SDG&E was known THEN for being outrageous with their electric rates. I don't remember the rates we paid, but I'm sure it was over $100 a month for a basic house. It doesn't surprise me to hear they're still very high. if I lived in California, solar would be a no brainer, certainly.

Here, it doesn't pencil out at this point in my life to add solar to my home here. (At least not now.) With ROI timeframes of 12-15 years, I may not be living in this house long enough to get the money back. And there may not be enough resale profit to cover the difference. If I was younger, if it was a new build, or if install costs were cheaper, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I want to use alternative energy costs, if I can.

Dave

 

[Karen G]

Here, it doesn't pencil out at this point in my life to add solar to my home here. (At least not now.) With ROI timeframes of 12-15 years, I may not be living in this house long enough to get the money back. And there may not be enough resale profit to cover the difference. If I was younger, if it was a new build, or if install costs were cheaper, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I want to use alternative energy costs, if I can.

Dave

That's our position, too. It really would be great to be able to have solar here.

Dave, I love your furniture and color choices. Our dining room table and chairs are very similar to yours and that small table in the background with a lamp on it looks almost identical to our bedside tables and lamps. At least with all the expenditures you're making now it's for things you can see, use, touch, and enjoy everyday as opposed to some major expense to fix something behind a wall that you never see.

 

[klpca]

When I was in the Navy, stationed in San Diego from '79 to '89, SDG&E was known THEN for being outrageous with their electric rates. I don't remember the rates we paid, but I'm sure it was over $100 a month for a basic house. It doesn't surprise me to hear they're still very high. if I lived in California, solar would be a no brainer, certainly.

Here, it doesn't pencil out at this point in my life to add solar to my home here. (At least not now.) With ROI timeframes of 12-15 years, I may not be living in this house long enough to get the money back. And there may not be enough resale profit to cover the difference. If I was younger, if it was a new build, or if install costs were cheaper, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I want to use alternative energy costs, if I can.

Dave

I wouldn't do it either in your case. And yes, SDGE is still ridiculous. Honestly, as a long time SDGE customer, kind of sticking-it-to-them was part of the decision making process, lol.

Our breakeven point when we installed it in 2016 was 6 years. Truly a no-brainer. Plus we have no plans to move. We used to think that we would move someday, but over the past 5 years we have gotten our home to the point where it is almost perfect for us, so now we are really enjoying it. We still need to reduce the yard maintenance so that as we age we can keep up with it, and we don't have a full bathroom downstairs so we plan to address that need, but once that is done we can probably stay here comfortably for quite awhile.

 

[DaveNV]

Dave, love your furniture and color choices. Our dining room table and chairs are very similar to yours and that small table in the background with a lamp on it looks almost identical to our bedside tables and lamps. At least with all the expenditures you're making now it's for things you can see, use, touch, and enjoy everyday as opposed to some major expense to fix something behind a wall that you never see.

Thanks, Karen. We call that our "Hall Table." It usually sits near the Front Door, where it catches car keys and the mail. It's a nice piece of furniture.

Dave

 

[DaveNV]

I wouldn't do it either in your case. And yes, SDGE is still ridiculous. Honestly, as a long time SDGE customer, kind of sticking-it-to-them was part of the decision making process, lol.

Our breakeven point when we installed it in 2016 was 6 years. Truly a no-brainer.

That was pretty much the discussion with our real estate agent here when we bought the house. I asked about adding solar, and she said, "Why? It's not cost effective here." And as this thread is showing, she's right. Utility rates here are a lot lower than other areas, and solar here isn't worth it, in the short term. Over time, certainly, it's worth it. But until/unless the costs change, you'd really have to be committed to the premise to spend the money it takes.

I have a friend in Phoenix who installed his own (because he's a wizard at stuff like this, and he "can.") He said with the paybacks he gets from the power company, his monthly electric bill is something like $24. Ridiculous. I'm happy for him.

When I asked him to come and install a system at my house, he actually said No. Can you imagine? Some friend he is! LOL

Dave

 

[JanT]

I know the cost of refurbing can definitely cause us to ask ourselves what we're doing. But, you're right - in your circumstances you are being very wise to make all the improvements you can. As you know, Mesquite is a nice retirement haven and should you ever want or need to sell, the improvements you are making to your home will make it stand out, just as the home you sold in Washington did.

As I was looking at your pictures and reading your narrative of your journey, I found myself again longing for the deserts of Nevada. We spent 8 years in Henderson and really loved it there. Life events caused us to make the decision to move and while I really do love the little town in Texas that we currently live in, I have sometimes regretted the decision to move from Henderson. I grew up in the deserts of Cali, too and still love the desert. So, we could find ourselves moving back out that way again. Right now, we're laying low and not buying anything for at least a year+. We're concerned about how the long term economy in the Vegas/Henderson area is going to shake out and there is no way we are going to invest in housing there at this point. So, we're going to travel as much as COVID-19 and safety will allow for the next year or so. That's the plan anyway. Who knows, we might make the trek to Mesquite and check it out there! In the meantime, I am watching your journey and living the desert life vicariously through you.

Thanks, Jan! Glad you and others can see what we see. When I start to get tweaked over the expense, I remind myself that we're reinvesting "found money" from our old home into this one. With our eyes firmly focused on the prize, it all seems like it'll be a really nice place to live. After we get through the next couple of weeks, and we start moving in, things will get seriously "real." Can't wait!

Dave

 

[DaveNV]

I know the cost of refurbing can definitely cause us to ask ourselves what we're doing. But, you're right - in your circumstances you are being very wise to make all the improvements you can. As you know, Mesquite is a nice retirement haven and should you ever want or need to sell, the improvements you are making to your home will make it stand out, just as the home you sold in Washington did.

As I was looking at your pictures and reading your narrative of your journey, I found myself again longing for the deserts of Nevada. We spent 8 years in Henderson and really loved it there. Life events caused us to make the decision to move and while I really do love the little town in Texas that we currently live in, I have sometimes regretted the decision to move from Henderson. I grew up in the deserts of Cali, too and still love the desert. So, we could find ourselves moving back out that way again. Right now, we're laying low and not buying anything for at least a year+. We're concerned about how the long term economy in the Vegas/Henderson area is going to shake out and there is no way we are going to invest in housing there at this point. So, we're going to travel as much as COVID-19 and safety will allow for the next year or so. That's the plan anyway. Who knows, we might make the trek to Mesquite and check it out there! In the meantime, I am watching your journey and living the desert life vicariously through you.

Kind words. Thanks! As I've said previously: Mesquite is not for everyone. But it's right for me.

Dave

 

[pedro47]

DaveNV, your home is looking like a model home in Better Home & Garden magazine. Love your color selections.

 

[Karen G]

Thanks, Karen. We call that our "Hall Table." It usually sits near the Front Door, where it catches car keys and the mail. It's a nice piece of furniture.

View attachment 26750

Dave

What a beautiful piece and the lamp is gorgeous, too! Upon closer took, that's about twice as wide as our bedside tables, but several details are similar.

 

[Luanne]

Thanks, Karen. We call that our "Hall Table." It usually sits near the Front Door, where it catches car keys and the mail. It's a nice piece of furniture.

View attachment 26750

Dave

Love this. It would go very well in our home.

 

[little1]

Make sure to install solar panels. You will need them to run that AC and keep that temperature down or up in Nevada desert. In the long run (normally under 10 years break-even costs-savings), it should save you money.
I live in Southern CA and installed solar panels ~5 years ago. It already paid for itself in 3 years since I have 2 electric cars and saved over $400 per month on gasoline. I paid an average of <$10 per month for electricity for the last 5 years with 2 cars using electricity for ~26,000 miles per year.

 

[DaveNV]

DaveNV, your home is looking like a model home in Better Home & Garden magazine. Love your color selections.

Thank you! Hope it lives up to the expectations!

Dave

 

[slip]

Everything looks great Dave. It’s all coming together. It’s a lot of time and work but your getting it dialed in.

 

[VacationForever]

In reply #167 it says @VacationForever lives in a 2850 sf home. So more than twice the size of the house I'm living in. Their bill also says they're using 12% more energy this year than the same month last year. So something changed.

Dave

We had to put our cats down due to illness last year, the 2nd/last of our cats was put down in November. We kept the home warm for the kitties and would run the living room and dining area where they spent most of their time at 80 degrees. We started indoor hydroponics gardening in late April this year, a side effect of COVID-19 SIP, and kept our home at 77 degrees because lettuce grows better in low 70s. Our electric bill has actually gone down this year even though usage is up because NV Energy dropped their rates this year.

 

[presley]

What kind of rates does the rest of the country pay?

I live near @klpca, just a few miles away. The temps are more extreme where I am, though. Usually, when I watch the weather on the news and it says the high or low in my area, my property was actually higher or lower by 5 degrees or more. I've often thought about asking them to put their weather station in my yard.

At any rate, here's the part of the bill that shows my charges. Our air conditioner has been on almost all the time for this billing period. We've had an average of +10 degrees this year compared to last year (according to the electric company). House is 1600sq ft and extremely inefficient. Large pool, with variable pool pump that's on about 8 hours per day. Bill is over $400. after we used what our solar generated.

 

[DaveNV]

I live near @klpca, just a few miles away. The temps are more extreme where I am, though. Usually, when I watch the weather on the news and it says the high or low in my area, my property was actually higher or lower by 5 degrees or more. I've often thought about asking them to put their weather station in my yard.

At any rate, here's the part of the bill that shows my charges. Our air conditioner has been on almost all the time for this billing period. We've had an average of +10 degrees this year compared to last year (according to the electric company). House is 1600sq ft and extremely inefficient. Large pool, with variable pool pump that's on about 8 hours per day. Bill is over $400. after we used what our solar generated.
View attachment 26788

Thanks for that. It looks like you're paying 13 cents per kWh for your regular electricity usage. That is double what the rate is here, I think. I don't understand all the credits and different kinds of rates or charges on these various bills - makes me wonder if the power companies are trying to make it confusing. Kind of like cell phone bills.

Yesterday I gave my dogs a bath here in the rental. It's the first time I've stood at the sink with the water running for any length of time. I discovered the average temperature was really low. Afterwards I checked the thermostat on the electric water heater. It was already set to Hot, but the water temperature, even on straight hot, was just too low. So I bumped it up a smidge. We'll see if the electric bill next time is higher than it was this last time. It should be our last full month's bill here in the rental. After that, we can just work with the electric usage and rates at our new house. It's a bigger house than the rental, but our electric usage will be about the same. I'll be curious to see if the bill is much different.

Dave

 

[chellej]

Our rate here in Eastern Wa is .065. This thread got me wondering....we put in a solar system about 18 months ago... It was one of those meetings where you go to dinner and they set an appointment. I will tell you it was like going to a timeshare presentation. The salesman was throwing so many rates and figures and rebates around that this was going to pay for itself in no time....the last 12 months it has produced $175 worth of electricity.... we did get about $8000 in tax credits. I wanted the thermal blanket for the attic and solar attic fan..DH wanted the solar.... We got it all. I can't take him to timeshare presentations either. It will not pay for itself in our lifetime but may increase the home value.

In Texas...we were there for 22 years. 3 kids, 2 parents and us....large all-electric house , large swimming pool....my highest summer bill was almost $700 and averaged around $500. It was wonderful to move here and have my bill go down to $50 in the summer and less than $200 in the winter. We do have gas fireplace and water heater which adds an additional $55/month

 

[DaveNV]

Our rate here in Eastern Wa is .065. This thread got me wondering....we put in a solar system about 18 months ago... It was one of those meetings where you go to dinner and they set an appointment. I will tell you it was like going to a timeshare presentation. The salesman was throwing so many rates and figures and rebates around that this was going to pay for itself in no time....the last 12 months it has produced $175 worth of electricity.... we did get about $8000 in tax credits. I wanted the thermal blanket for the attic and solar attic fan..DH wanted the solar.... We got it all. I can't take him to timeshare presentations either. It will not pay for itself in our lifetime but may increase the home value.

In Texas...we were there for 22 years. 3 kids, 2 parents and us....large all-electric house , large swimming pool....my highest summer bill was almost $700 and averaged around $500. It was wonderful to move here and have my bill go down to $50 in the summer and less than $200 in the winter. We do have gas fireplace and water heater which adds an additional $55/month

Rates are sure variable. In our western Washington house all those years we paid more for electric (without central a/c) than the rates here. We also had natural gas, which I'd always heard was supposed to lower the utility costs. But our gas bill was always high, too. Here, we don't have gas, and our electric costs are lower overall, even with running the a/c 24/7. I just don't get it.

Dave

 

[Karen G]

This is our most recent bill in Henderson, NV. Our house is about 2600 ft.², with gas heating, gas dryer & water heater & cooktop, & gas pool heater. Pool is 18,000 gallons.

 

[DaveNV]

View attachment 26791

This is our most recent bill in Henderson, NV. Our house is about 2600 ft.², with gas heating, gas dryer & water heater & cooktop, & gas pool heater. Pool is 18,000 gallons.

Thanks, Karen. So it looks like you're paying 10.6 cents a kWh for your basic electricity. Different power companies have different rates even here, I guess.

Dave

 

[chellej]

In Texas, you could choose your electric company and the rates varied tremendously. They were often on a 1 year or 2 year contract and if you forgot to renew or change the rate could go up tremendously.

Power To Choose | Home

Power to Choose is the official, unbiased, electric choice website of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, where all certified electric providers in the State of Texas are eligible to post their electric plans. On the Power to Choose website you can compare electric offers and choose the plan...

powertochoose.org

Here, we get who covers the area...no competition or choice

 

[isisdave]

@presley is paying about 30 cents per kWh. In California, there are separate charges for generation and delivery. He's paying 13 to 20 cents for delivery on a tiered rate plan. (And over 29 cents for 22 kWh; he just hit the trigger for that "penalty" level, it appears.) It looks like generation is all at 13.5. So up to 33.5 cents total for most of the power.

KarenG is paying less than 11 cents, so she gets about twice as much triz for less money.

I live just a little north of presley and klpca but in SCE-land. For our last bill period, which ended 9/2, our solar made 770 kWh and we paid $265 for 1108 kWh from Edison (an average of 24 cents). All the generation was at 10 cents, and the delivery either 10.5 for Tier 1 or 16.5 for Tier 2. But our baseline ration (Tier 1) was 548 kWh at 20.5 cents, then 27 cents for Tier 2, which would be about the next 1900. After that the price is 33 cents. We also got a $61 credit for agreeing to AC cycling, which they did about six times that month for a total of probably 25 hours.

 

[DaveNV]

@presley is paying about 30 cents per kWh. In California, there are separate charges for generation and delivery. He's paying 13 to 20 cents for delivery on a tiered rate plan. (And over 29 cents for 22 kWh; he just hit the trigger for that "penalty" level, it appears.) It looks like generation is all at 13.5. So up to 33.5 cents total for most of the power.

KarenG is paying less than 11 cents, so she gets about twice as much triz for less money.

I live just a little north of presley and klpca but in SCE-land. For our last bill period, which ended 9/2, our solar made 770 kWh and we paid $265 for 1108 kWh from Edison (an average of 24 cents). All the generation was at 10 cents, and the delivery either 10.5 for Tier 1 or 16.5 for Tier 2. But our baseline ration (Tier 1) was 548 kWh at 20.5 cents, then 27 cents for Tier 2, which would be about the next 1900. After that the price is 33 cents. We also got a $61 credit for agreeing to AC cycling, which they did about six times that month for a total of probably 25 hours.

So after all that, what is their average cost per kWh? It's like trying to compare apples to rutabagas.

Dave