Paul MaudDib posted:

The short answer is that a decent amount of solar will probably run you $15-20K and absent incentives from your state and the fed (all gone at this point) will probably have payback periods of 15-20 years. and a lifespan of 25-30 years.

The long answer is that there will be a “capacity factor” for how northerly you are, which reflects how much of the day you get sun on average throughout the year, and how directly overhead the sub is (adjusting them multiple times a year will help slightly). So out of a 800W panel you might get 300W real output because you don't generate power during 50% of the day and because you lose some more power due to imperfect angles/clouds/etc.

Smaller installations tend to be less financially efficient because you have to buy the inverter gear and set up the installation anyway, there is a "fixed lower cost" pretty much regardless of how much you generate. But larger installations that generate more power than you can use in the house also tend to be less efficient unless you have “net metering” where the power company pays you the same price for generated power as when you consume it. If they are paying you wholesale power rates (like0.02 a kWh) then whatever excess you generate is effectively “lost”. If you have a battery installation or an electric car that can soak it up then that’s better, but that’s another ten grand. Unless you have net metering, you kind of want to aim to generate the amount that you can actually use on a regular basis.

What the people sitting at costco were really selling you was "we'll loan you the money now and you can pay it back like a mortgage!". Honestly the solar stuff is only an incidental thing in the process of getting you to sign a $20k loan at 7% interest or whatever.

Back when the payback was 5-10 years it was probably worth it if you could afford to flat-out buy the gear, or take out some kind of equity loan from a decent quality financial institution to install it. Now, you have a 15-20 year payback on something with an effective lifespan of 25-30 years. Absolutely not worth it unless you have the money sitting around and are looking for something to do with it. And even then it's better now to just park it in the stock market.

Which is a loving shame because it delivers power that doesn’t have to travel through the grid and provides some relief at the peak of the summer - my local power company doesn’t want to pay to upgrade its capacity and so they blew up two substations at the peak of the summer heat wave last year, but they also very much do not want to pay net metering or give any other incentives to install solar. I think that’s a real common story in a lot of places (hello California PG&E starting wildfires).

But if you're doubling your money in 30 years, that translates into a 2.25% APY or so... at which point you're better off just putting your money in the stock market and buying someone else's power/letting the wildfires burn.

Also, don't put solar on your roof, they have a tendency to burn down houses. If anything goes wrong you have a fire sitting right on your highly flammable asphalt shingles or in your attic, and that's very difficult to fight effectively especially when you've got a bunch of electrical gear sitting right there. If you've got some landscaping you could yank out and replace with panels sitting on rocks/gravel, that's a much better idea.

bird with big dick posted:

wtf, my costco stopped carrying take and bake pizzas and is using that space for taco kits and salad kits and poo poo.

StormDrain posted:

I believe you mean 88 cents.

Schadenboner posted:

StormDrain posted:

I believe you mean 88 cents.

Schadenboner posted:

Renegret posted:

I feel bad because you clearly put a lot of effort into your post and I neglected to mention that I already have solar. And didn't have to pay for it


The taco kits are wildly inconsistent, but when they're good, they're so god drat good. Every time I go I buy one and it becomes dinner for 2 days for both the wife and I.

I went on Tuesday and dropped $419.81. Quick, what can I buy for 19 cents?

Alan Smithee posted:

how tf did you get free solar

Alan Smithee posted:

how tf did you get free solar

Alan Smithee posted:

how tf did you get free solar

Renegret posted:

My FIL is an idiot.

Real Answer: My FIL is too generous.

My wife got pregnant around the same time as he was (extensively) remodeling his house, so suddenly his remodeling plan involved buying a house down the road, living out of it for the duration of the remodel, then flipping it. Oh and by dumb luck, my wife and I couldn't afford our apartment anymore with her being out of work from having a baby, so hey you can live out of this extra house to save money, just cover taxes and utilities so it costs him nothing to own. Then he sunk a ton of money into silly upgrades that you would never actually do to a flip because everyone knows we're totally going to end up buying the house at some point for the same price that he paid for it as a piece of poo poo foreclosure. Effectively I'm just renting a house with solar already on it. It's not technically my house, but it might as well be.

Then real life got in the way so the house is only half complete, so I have the ceiling missing in random parts of the house, random missing light switches, fixtures hanging from the ceiling, no molding anywhere, no backsplash in the kitchen, no washer or dryer, an empty master bath, bare drywall in half the house, the new boiler only got installed in Janurary a week before a sub zero cold snap, a garage full of my in-laws poo poo, random bare patches in the lawn, random doors that don't fit their frames. The list goes on and on. I do what I can to fix this place up, but I'm limited in time and expertise. A lot of the work we were supposed to do ourselves (he worked in construction so he has the knowledge and tools to do all this, while I'm young and strong enough to actually do the labor) but everyone's life is now a train wreck so we're waiting for COVID to slow down so we can get a carpenter here to just loving do the work.. So my life right now is playing make believe suburban dad when I have no loving idea what I'm doing. Which is why I go to Costco.

Alan Smithee posted:

can i crosspost this to the Bad With Money thread

ElGroucho posted:

Yo, this shredded rotisserie chicken bag is awesome, you never run out of uses for it

ElGroucho posted:

Yo, this shredded rotisserie chicken bag is awesome, you never run out of uses for it

ElGroucho posted:

It looks hideous, but it's already correctly salted

I'm going to make so many dang quesadillas this week

Martman posted:

thankfully it is a 420.69 joke, not some weird 1488 joke

Fallom posted:

Does using the Costco auto buying site hand your phone number out to a dozen dealerships that immediately start ringing it nonstop? I'd like to check out some prices but opening the floodgates to salesmen was a real pain when I used the USAA service.

Fallom posted:

Does using the Costco auto buying site hand your phone number out to a dozen dealerships that immediately start ringing it nonstop? I'd like to check out some prices but opening the floodgates to salesmen was a real pain when I used the USAA service.

Gaius Marius posted:

Use a Google voice number and then abandon it

Fallom posted:

ooh that's a good idea

Cartoon Man posted:

Was at church yesterday, they didn’t have my four pack of Kirkland bacon, had to get the the dummy thicc pack instead but it’s not as good as the regular. Looked for the legendary Sherpa blankets but they gone.

Suspect Bucket posted:

Oh, I like the thicc boi. I keep it in the freezer and just slice lardons off to throw in the pan. Makes it last a lot longer. We use bacon mostly as a seasoning though.

Fallom posted:

Does using the Costco auto buying site hand your phone number out to a dozen dealerships that immediately start ringing it nonstop? I'd like to check out some prices but opening the floodgates to salesmen was a real pain when I used the USAA service.

No Pants posted:

When I used it, it only gave my information to one dealership.

Pennywise the Frown posted:

I never even thought about storing bacon in the freezer. I like it very rarely but I have an air fryer now and it cooks perfect bacon in about 6 minutes. How do you store it? Just put it in a freezer bag?

Pennywise the Frown posted:

I never even thought about storing bacon in the freezer. I like it very rarely but I have an air fryer now and it cooks perfect bacon in about 6 minutes. How do you store it? Just put it in a freezer bag?

Jingleheimer posted:

The precooked bacon is a good purchase too, especially if you're mostly using it to put on burgers. And it's also great for a quick snack.

Chinatown posted:

Bought a bag of Daphne's frozen gyro meat. Its good. Just had a greek gyro salad for lunch.

Washout posted:

Costco turkey bacon gets surprisingly crispy and is legit good.