***Very OT*** CHRISTMAS ***OT***

The whole historic preservation district thing is a bit asinine. Does that mean you also must use paint containing lead or building materials containing asbestos? Since vents for modern HVAC, laundry, and other systems appear on the exterior of the house do you also have to use 1905 versions of those entire systems? There should be an appeal process where the owner can prove the solar panels can be installed in such a way as to not detract from the historic appearance of the house.

That said, it is much cheaper to put a solar energy system in new construction than to retrofit an old house. My friends near Plattsburgh (NY) went solar and made enough money selling the excess energy to their local utility to pay off the whole system in under five years. The break-even point is going to be different for you than for them since I'm sure the local cost of electricity is quite different.

Geothermal is also much cheaper to add to new construction than to retrofit. Finding a contractor who does geothermal work (and has significant experience with it) may be a challenge in many parts of the country. It is a wonderful system if you can affordably install it.

Of course one of the answers in my neck of the woods is to put in your own natural gas rig. You get first rights to use whatever is produced and then you can sell the excess to the local utility. Unfortunately that isn't an option in our development since the land was sold but the mineral rights were retained by a prior owner.

Just out of curiosity, what are electric rates > I would've put up solar panels, but after buying the house, was informed

If my figures are correct, and I'm not sure I'm doing it right, mine is more like 16 cents per KWH. That includes a franchise charge and all the taxes.

Lucille

Yes, that seems to be the stock "come back" of her choice. My garden is a total nightmare. I wish I had the health to garden. My neighbors probably wish it too!

I know the feeling! My daughter comes and gives a hand occasionally. We`re currently doing battle with a Russian Vine that`s swallowing it. (Polygonum) To REALLY destroy it would also destroy some rather bice flowering shrubs for a few years - and they`re slow frowing to start with. I must have been nuts to plant it all those years ago - they don`t call it "Mile-a-minute" for nothing!

Pat P

This reminds me of summers in Lizard Land. All the water lines are put in the attic spaces of the houses because the ground is like concrete. Even with super-mega heavy attic ceiling insulation, there is NEVER any cold water during the summer unless you let it run for several minutes to void all of the standing water in the pipes! Once the cold water is actual coming out of the faucet in a "not so hot" fashion (it's never really cold water in the summer), you do need to add just a bit of hot water to make it bearable. Of course, that's probably only because the houses are air conditioned and it can get a bit chilly after a shower or bath! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

Yes, it will! If you spend all your money on S.E.X. instead of the dentist.......

No, since lead/asbestos aren't "visible". However, we cannot replace our old leaky wood-frame windows with double-pane or other energy efficient windows ... if you must replace a window, you are supposed to go to a salvage store and buy another old wood-frame window.

Unfortunately, the sales documents said absolutely nothing about any restrictions on the house. I was aware that HPD covered the Victorian mansions on the boulevards, but didn't realize that it also covered the working-class houses on the side streets, until I was invited to a meeting where the HPD Commission was going to explain new rules, and saw that my house was on the list as one of those governed by HPD rules.

The neighbor with the A/C on the roof is totally in violation. My A/C had to be installed in the back yard, behind a fence, so that it cannot be seen from the street.

Since someone took the TV antenna off the house, I cannot replace it. I'm stuck with cable, because with only rabbit ears, I only get two channels decently, and sometimes they're iffy.

This is really intersting: "Wimoweh" was incorrectly assumed years ago to be a traditional song, but the composer, Solomon Linda, was eventually identified. The family of the composer recently won a suit for payment of royalties. Disney had used it in "The Lion King" and now has to pay royalties.

Brenda Lewis wrote:

When we were travelling late this summer we saw several "wind farms" in Iowa. As we travelled through the UP of Michigaan, there was a huge trailer in the parking lot (extra length etc) that had just ONE blade of a powered wind thingy. In upstate New York, there was a community ( Malone I blieve) that was fighting such things. I would think that would be a great way to harvest natural energy!

Gillian

The three vines which have gotten way out of line are the perennial morning glory (takes over the entire property), Aristolochia gigantea, and several passiflora vines which are also way out of control. The problem with the first one are the stolens which take hold and dig roots wherever it touches earth. That one is a nightmare. Everything is so overgrown I am not too sure what survived the summer or not. I haven't watered but twice and we had triple digit temps for over 79 days in a row and not a drop of rain. All year we've had a total of 23 inches of rain. How things are green is a magical event!

I am going to hire someone to come in and hack through it all and cut back the ornamental grasses and pull the weeds, etc. I simply can't handle it any more.

With our humidity, it would go on more often if set at 82, not just when it hits 100 degrees outside. So we just turn off the central air for most of the summer, and turn it on when we're in a particularly long, hot siege - which includes "code red" bad air quality days. So we rarely run it for more than a week. If it's hot but not terribly humid or dangerous to breathe, we can adapt.

So many people turn it on in April and turn it off in October when it's time to turn on the heat! I'd much rather open the windows!

Sue

We are gradually getting more of the wind farms - we have one off the North Suffolk coast and they are planning more. There are big battles afoot, though, as fishermen say they`ll scare the fish away, people on land don`t want them there as they say they`re noisy and an eyesore. Personally I think there`s something rather beautiful about them. By far a better option than what we`re doing at the moment. There`s quite a big windfarm on Bodmin Moor, in Cornwall, and I don`t think the noise is objectionable - but of course I don`t have to live with it! I`d rather live near a windfarm than near those big electricity pylons, which seem to be peculiarly relative to cancer and mental problems in people living nearby.

We have a nuclear powered station just a few miles up the coast from us, and the fish seem to enjoy the warmer water in that area! You just can`t please everyone.

I wonder they don`t go further into the possibilities of harnessing the tides - we have some pretty fast flowing rivers (one of ours right here can be lethal - it`s such a fast ebb and flow, and would be ideal!)

Pat P

Me too - the UK`s not a great place for home A/C systems in any case. To be honest, on the hottest days this year it was sheer heaven to go out in the car which DOES have A/C. An extremely efficient one too! You can go from boiling to freezing in a very short time! LOL! John never does things by halves - you daren`t say you`re hot or cold in the car as he turns either the heating or the A/C on full blast!!!

Pat P

Pat P wrote: > Me too - the UK`s not a great place for home A/C systems in any case. To be

I have found that the more I am in A/C, the more unbearable the heat is when it can't be avoided. IOW, when we're *always* in A/C, I think our bodies don't adapt to the change of seasons. When DH worked in an air-conditioned office (with computers, which were always kept in frigid rooms), he felt miserable in the not-so-awful heat when he came home. The rest of us, who had been in moderate heat at home all day, were only marginally uncomfortable.

Sue

We had the same experience during the California Electricity Crisis a few years ago. The people who ordinarily conserve, turned off all their lights/appliances/heat and lit the house with candles. The people who don't ordinarily conserve still had their houses lit up like Times Square.

I was doing what I was told to: turned off the TV, turned off the lights, piled lots of blankets on the bed, picked up some crocheting that I could do by candlelight. When I went to the kitchen for a glass of water, I didn't have to turn on the kitchen light, because the kitchen was brilliantly illuminated by the outdoor spotlights of both the side and the back neighbor, both of whom had every light on inside the house, too. So, while I was saving maybe 100 watts by turning off the lights and TV, they were wasting 1000 watts. When I called the electric company to discuss this, they admitted that they knew that the worst offenders weren't going to change their ways, but there was nothing they could do about it. Couldn't disconnect your electric after you'd used a certain amount, couldn't put a governor on your line to limit how much you could use at once. The only penalty these folks were going to have was a big bill at the end of the month, and since money isn't an object for either of them, that wsan't going to be a deterrent.