Invest in solar panels and/or wood stove now or wait?

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Years ago, the Boy-Scouts built a cabin for the local troops to use for the kids to sleep in by a popular trout stream. The cabin had a nice big fireplace with thick bars across the top for cooking. The fireplace was big, and one day some scouts built a really big fire in that fireplace and the chimney got hot enough to ignite the wood in the ceiling. That was enclosed and when by the time the fire was realized it was way too big to be put out. The building was a total loss, and it was less than one year old.
 
All good points but the previous owner of our house managed to have a chimney fire using a modern (and pretty good) woodstove and dry firewood as their main source of heat. Though obviously they didn't burn the house down.

I'm not a fan of chimney fires. There is the characteristic roar and the smell of creosote burning, followed (in the old days) by someone throwing salt or fire extinguisher powder in the stove, and if that didn't work, climbing onto the roof to quench it from on top. The whole neighbourhood came out to watch the sparks (and sometimes flames) of course. Though none of that was any fun for the homeowner.

My wife just reminded me that there was the annual taking down and cleaning of stovepipes (with some soot inevitably escaping) followed by washing and painting the walls. Modern woodstoves are much better than that, but heating with wood is still a messy and time consuming business.

I'm happy to use our heat pump as our regular source of heat and keep the woodstove (with its now spotless chimney) as the emergency back up.
Lower energy density wood is harder to burn at an ideal temperature, so often people burn it cooler than ideal to play it safe, which is what I assume lots of people do in BC. I've played around with burning softer woods, and found if I keep the pieces larger to reduce surface area they are OK in our stove, but its kind of tricky to do. The dense wood we have like hard maple, Oak, Beech, Ash(sort of) seem to be less prone to having the fire "run away" when burned hot and are preferred for a reason. With dense wood I can usually set the damper once after everything is going and its good until down to coals, then I'd close it up more.
 
You can play around with this calculator to get an idea of how much solar irradiance is available:

I would personally use https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/ instead.

In South Florida at least, buying solar is like going to a used car dealer they are all scummy, I had quotes at almost 5$/watt which is insane.

I am currently working with Project Solar for a 9.5kw system and I am at $2.58/watt before the 26% incentive.

The cost savings that is usually presented to you by a solar company is usually inflated(shocker). FPL for example had only increased rates by roughly 2% a year since 1994 except for this year they did jump up from .12/kwh to $.14/kwh. FPL and Duke are both going to minimum bills as well.

With all that said, I have put a sizable spreadsheet together based on the PVWatts data, 2% electricity cost rise, and a loan at a specified interest rate... based on all my estimates in 5 years my savings is $1600, 10 years 4100, 20 years 11.5k. Based on my power usage (13,000kwh/year) There is not huge amount of money to be had but they say it does improve the value if your home. If you had an EV and a larger system then there could potentially be larger savings involved.

At this point I am doing this as an experiment, but do note if you do not find a good price for your system you can wipe out the savings pretty easily.
 
I would personally use https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/ instead.

In South Florida at least, buying solar is like going to a used car dealer they are all scummy, I had quotes at almost 5$/watt which is insane.

I am currently working with Project Solar for a 9.5kw system and I am at $2.58/watt before the 26% incentive.

The cost savings that is usually presented to you by a solar company is usually inflated(shocker). FPL for example had only increased rates by roughly 2% a year since 1994 except for this year they did jump up from .12/kwh to $.14/kwh. FPL and Duke are both going to minimum bills as well.

With all that said, I have put a sizable spreadsheet together based on the PVWatts data, 2% electricity cost rise, and a loan at a specified interest rate... based on all my estimates in 5 years my savings is $1600, 10 years 4100, 20 years 11.5k. Based on my power usage (13,000kwh/year) There is not huge amount of money to be had but they say it does improve the value if your home. If you had an EV and a larger system then there could potentially be larger savings involved.

At this point I am doing this as an experiment, but do note if you do not find a good price for your system you can wipe out the savings pretty easily.
Yes, and you are in Florida, which is a heck of a lot better for solar than PA :)
 
Live in the middle of 60 acres of woods 95% white oak and don't heat with wood. Chain saw, spitter, something to haul it , moving it several times, cleaning the ash, and my time. Not counting the gas, oil, saw chains and wear on my body.
 
Live in the middle of 60 acres of woods 95% white oak and don't heat with wood. Chain saw, spitter, something to haul it , moving it several times, cleaning the ash, and my time. Not counting the gas, oil, saw chains and wear on my body.
Yeah, its not for everyone. I wouldn't call it wear on the body, just exercise! I don't bother with a splitter, (only Elm here needs it, and most of that is pole sized), just 4 and 6lb mauls and often I don't even use the tractor. I just cut a tree near a trail, buck it up, drive the atv with trailer to it, load rounds into trailer, or split right there if too big to lift easily, cut crotches with the chainsaw in the woods, or just leave them there, drive wood to rack and unload right to the rack or split in front of it, and stack. The rack outside is a 20' walk from the woodstove. I only cut one or two trailer loads a day which are about a 1/4 cord each, which is easy to split by hand in one go. If I can't split it with a couple whacks, it gets ripped with the chainsaw when I have a few built up.
I think doing wood myself pays like $100 an hour in pretax income including actually running the stove all winter. In heating season loading the stove 3-4 times a day is like 5 minutes total as the fire never goes out for a weeks at a time. Lots of people make things complicated, or have the wood pile far from the house and the stove far from an entrance... My house isn't big or fancy but its well setup to heat with wood and if you keep doing it, you have a better chance to be able too, well into old age.
 
any exercise-movement is good especially if it saves $$$, too many EZE's today contributes to our overweight unfit society, BUT of course our POOR eating is the biggest factor. my hand fired Harman Mk I puts out 48,000 BTUS + heats my small house well for about $400 for a winter in Pa, its off in moderate + warm weather. its paid for itself since purchased in 2009 + only the short run of 6" stove pipes needed replacement!!
 
Look into outdoor wood boilers. I have one here in WV. A heat pump doesn't get it done here. I have to buy wood so I don't really save any money but I'm as warm as I want to be. Also get unlimited hot water. The boiler is 100' from the house and keeps 200 gal of treated water between 165-175 deg. A pump circulates it to and from the house constantly thru a well insulated tube. I used to save money by purchasing a load of logs and cutting and splitting it myself but that got old when I got old. I bought a Central Boiler unit and built a shed over and behind it to keep the wood dry. I think it cost me about $6k. Since it is outside, no creosote problems. Would work great for you in PA. Some of them are made up there.
 
looked into Solar in my old house with a pool and a 3 hp well pump plus AC the cost would have been $25,000.00 to get what I wanted . That is prepaying for lots of electricity.
All good points but the previous owner of our house managed to have a chimney fire using a modern (and pretty good) woodstove and dry firewood as their main source of heat. Though obviously they didn't burn the house down.

I'm not a fan of chimney fires. There is the characteristic roar and the smell of creosote burning, followed (in the old days) by someone throwing salt or fire extinguisher powder in the stove, and if that didn't work, climbing onto the roof to quench it from on top. The whole neighbourhood came out to watch the sparks (and sometimes flames) of course. Though none of that was any fun for the homeowner.

My wife just reminded me that there was the annual taking down and cleaning of stovepipes (with some soot inevitably escaping) followed by washing and painting the walls. Modern woodstoves are much better than that, but heating with wood is still a messy and time consuming business.

I'm happy to use our heat pump as our regular source of heat and keep the woodstove (with its now spotless chimney) as the emergency back up.
We heated our house for 17 years with a wood stove. we were in an area with lots of trees and fire wood was plentiful. I really enjoyed getting the wood and the wood heat.
 
We heated a portion of our house with wood. Its dirty. Nice dependable backup though.

Companies that offer solar installation make the money and you take the risks. And unless you have the battery capacity, if you lose electricity from outside. Your lights go out. Look at the fine print.
 
I just purchased a house and am strongly considering two possible sources of alternate energy for myself, profit, and self sufficiency. But am trying to work the assessments to see if it makes "sense" economically. My time horizon here is probably 5-10 years, realistically.

I have electric appliances and aged gas furnace. My electric is probably around $50/mo., and probably similar for gas heat. I have a brick wood burning fire place. I have a 1600 s/f house that will also need updated insulation and windows so I'll be looking for any tax credits for same.

Right now there's a ~25% tax rebate for solar panels and ~25% tax rebate for wood stove.
Solar panels: It's very sunny here and I could probably eliminate my electric bill, and maybe even feed back to the grid for a source of revenue but I'm not sure how that works. Seems the "break even" point might be about 5-10 years. My major hesitation is that electronics seem to get twice as good and 1/2 as expensive (for the same/better performance) every couple years. So I don't want to buy panels now for $10k when better cheaper panels are available next year for $7k.

Wood stove is very attractive, in that it could heat my house with inexpensive or easily sourced wood, as primary or secondary heat source, and can be used as a backup source for cooking. I know they are a lot of work, and do take up floor space. Still debating. Break even point on this is probably 7 years depending on how much I use it but my goal would be as primary source of heat, also extending the life of my aging furnace. I could do a insert in my wood fire place, or I have a secondary chimney from the original wood stove (removed) that I could probably tap into.

With rising costs and inflation, it's very enticing to try getting these items now as a immediate and future hedge against rising costs and shortages.

Feedback and experience thoughts?
Feedback, thoughts?
The tax credits in April were 26%, not 25%. After the so called Inflation Reduction Act, the solar credit is 30% for whatever you spend. Replacing your roof at the same time does not count. The wood stove credit is 30%, limited to $2,000. It is only for certain fuel efficient stoves.

You can also get tax credits for insulation and certain energy saving appliances, such as my hybrid water heater.

I have had solar on my previous house since 2013. After the tax credits, I figure it is paid for. Our new house has solar and I get 30% back in taxes on the $20,900 cost. Arizona also allows a $1000 credit against state income tax. Last month's bill was $-26.37. With shorter days and colder weather, combined with an all electric house, we will be paying for the next four months, but still getting the solar benefit.

Since we live in Arizona, it works. Farther north and with more clouds payback is less certain.
 
I just purchased a house and am strongly considering two possible sources of alternate energy for myself, profit, and self sufficiency. But am trying to work the assessments to see if it makes "sense" economically. My time horizon here is probably 5-10 years, realistically.

I have electric appliances and aged gas furnace. My electric is probably around $50/mo., and probably similar for gas heat. I have a brick wood burning fire place. I have a 1600 s/f house that will also need updated insulation and windows so I'll be looking for any tax credits for same.

Right now there's a ~25% tax rebate for solar panels and ~25% tax rebate for wood stove.
Solar panels: It's very sunny here and I could probably eliminate my electric bill, and maybe even feed back to the grid for a source of revenue but I'm not sure how that works. Seems the "break even" point might be about 5-10 years. My major hesitation is that electronics seem to get twice as good and 1/2 as expensive (for the same/better performance) every couple years. So I don't want to buy panels now for $10k when better cheaper panels are available next year for $7k.

Wood stove is very attractive, in that it could heat my house with inexpensive or easily sourced wood, as primary or secondary heat source, and can be used as a backup source for cooking. I know they are a lot of work, and do take up floor space. Still debating. Break even point on this is probably 7 years depending on how much I use it but my goal would be as primary source of heat, also extending the life of my aging furnace. I could do a insert in my wood fire place, or I have a secondary chimney from the original wood stove (removed) that I could probably tap into.

With rising costs and inflation, it's very enticing to try getting these items now as a immediate and future hedge against rising costs and shortages.

Feedback and experience thoughts?
Feedback, thoughts?
Heat Pump.
 
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