Going for Solar - Choosing Your Contractor (Step 5)

Installing a solar system is not a small investment.  In many cases it will be more expensive than buying a car and the contractor will be working in your home, so it pays to get a good contractor and one that you are comfortable with in the long run.

For our project we sought bids from four reputable solar contractors (two smaller companies and two bigger ones).  Our installation is not the typical cookie cutter roof mount system and the two bigger companies do not seem interested in doing the anything residential beyond the basic roof mounted array.  The two more independent contractors were much more interested in thinking outside the box.  As I've mentioned in previous articles, we have a beautiful southern exposure along the back side of our house, but south is not the way the roof faces.  Both SunBug Solar and Go Green Industries were excited by the project and spent the time to work up a project estimate for us.

1. SunBug Solar
2. Go Green Industries
   
   

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GreenTip: Latch Your Windows

Are your windows closed but the outside sounds are a little noisy?  Does there still seem to maybe be a draft?  Before running out to price new windows (and fall over in shock), check to see if the latch is shut.  Those latches aren't really there for security,  they are there to insure that your window is fully closed.  If your window appears to be closed, but the latch won't shut, try opening the window and closing it more firmly and try the latch again.  Chances are it wasn't completely shut.


This is a tip I've know about for a while and we're pretty good with our windows.  For the last few days I've been thinking that the street noises were louder than normal in our bedroom.  I finally got up on my nightstand and found that the top sash wasn't firmly shut and my latches weren't shut.  I re-shut the window, closed the latches, and voila,  no more noise.

It's the time of year to close windows, but not necessairly close your storm windows or seal them up, so you may want to go around and check latches - and check them again before you seal your window up for the winter (if you do that).

Happy Greening!
Alicia

Useful Site - FuelEconomy.gov

Considering a new or used car purchase?  Do you know that fuel economy is a major component of overall cost of car ownership?

The US Department of Energy and the EPA have a great site www.fueleconomy.gov that helps you compare various model used and new cars for fuel economy.  I am really excited to find the "Fuel Economics" section which includes:

• Cost to drive 25 miles
• Fuel to drive 25 miles
• Cost to fill-up
• Miles on a Tank
• Tank Size
• Annual Fuel Costs (and they list their assumptions)

To compare vehicles side by side from the main site, click on "Find a Car" in the upper left.

Sample comparing 2004 Toyota Prius to 2004 RAV4 on www.fueleconomy.gov

I really appreciate that they include user reported fuel economy telling how many data points are included and if you don't have a typical driving practice of 55% city driving, 45% highway driving totalling 15,000 miles per year, you can even customize it based on your driving needs.

This has been really helpful in guiding my mom in deciding about her car replacement.  She drives a lot for work and knowing that she could save nearly $2,000 per year in fuel costs getting a Prius instead of a RAV4 will help her when deciding on similarly priced used vehicles.  She drives about 30,000 miles per year for work.

So if you are in the market for a "new to you car" or just curious how your MPG compares to others with the same car, go check out www.fueleconomy.gov and find out.

Happy Greening!
Jon

Going For Solar - Get Multiple Proposals or Bids (Step 4)

Since solar installations (even after incentives) cost more than most cars, you should definitely speak to several companies or contractors before making your decision to proceed and selecting the right one for you.

Because we were not doing the standard roof top solar installation, several of the big players in our area NexAmp and GroSolar were not interested in the project.  As it was, we did get 2 similar bids which confirmed for us that the prices were in the ballpark and that the overall design idea was good.  Remember, the lowest bid is not always the best and be sure to compare apples to apples.  Ask your contractor to break out the proposal into the following costs:

• Solar Panels
• Inverter
• Structure (if not roof mounted)
• Mounting Hardware
• Wirings & Interconnects
• Labor

Be sure to know if the proposal includes all necessary permitting, what the warranty is for the installation, inverter and panels and whether or not a monitoring system is included.

We got useful bids from Ben at SunBug Solar and Steve at Go Green Industries and will talk more about comparing them and choosing in our next step on Going for Solar.

Happy Greening!
Jon

Check out the other steps in Green Lifestyle Consulting's Going for Solar Series including photos throughout the construction.

Line-Drying Your Laundry

I never thought I'd hang dry my laundry.  I kept thinking about how heavy the laundry basket would be coming out of the basement and then how I wouldn't want my neighbors seeing my laundry hanging out. We've hung blankets in our basement before, but I'm not comfortable with the dust and kitty litter down there getting on my clothes and cloth diapers.  I KNOW that our gas dryer uses a lot of energy,  thank goodness it's not an electric dryer, and I've been washing most of our clothes in cold for a couple of years now.   Hang drying laundry just seemed like a going green step that I might never be ready for.

Cloth diapers drying inside
on folding clothes rack.

So what changed?  Well, I've been reading a blog off on on called Life As Mom: on the road to joyful motherhood, and while Jessica's life and mine  are significantly different (she has twice as many children as I do, homeschools and lives in California) she has a lot of home-keeping ideas that have appealed to me.   She was challenged in July by Seventh Generation and MyBlog Spark to participate in Project Laundry Line where she was supposed to wash all their clothes in cold water and line dry them for 30 days.   She has 6 kids and homeschools.  I was impressed.  The first thing that intrigued me is that she dried her clothes inside.   Well, I had already started that with a small rack in Timmy's room and air dried his cloth diapers during the winter. That hadn't been so hard and added some extra moisture to the dry air in the baby's room. 

I started to think about where else in my house I could dry clothes inside and I was stumped.  Wouldn't work in our tiny house.   Then I entered her giveaway to win Seventh Generation laundry detergent, a laundry line, clothes pins and a laundry basket - as fate would have it, I won!

Line drying clothes
in our carport

As I waited for the prize to arrive I started thinking about where I would hang a laundry line and focused on my carport.  I figured it would keep the rain off and no one else would have to look at my laundry every time they stepped out of their door or looked out their window.  That's when things got funny.   I realized I ALREADY had THREE laundry lines in my carport, and they even had clothes pins on them.  Where have I been living?  Clearly I needed to start line drying things immediately. 

Shirts hanging out to dry in our carport

And it turned out it wasn't that hard.  The baskets were not as heavy as I had feared (my front loader does a good job of spinning clothes dry) and while hanging things up takes more time than shoving everything in the dryer, I found that it is really easy to fold your clothes as you take them down, and thereby you skip the folding laundry step.  It also helps that my almost-toddler LOVES being outside, so he is happy playing in the yard while I put the laundry up or take it down. 

Overall, I'm not hang drying all my laundry, I just don't have the time for that.  However, I'm hang drying a couple of loads a week and we are seeing a savings on the gas bill this summer!   My husband and I  talked recently about how the gas bill during the summer is pretty much just heating hot water, but I realized that it also covers our dryer.  We saw our LOWEST EVER GAS BILL USAGE (only 6 therms) this summer and I realize that line-drying my clothes is making a difference to our pocket book.

There are some issues around line drying such as crunchier clothes.  Jessica on Life As Mom has some suggestions about what orientation you hang your clothes to avoid that, and I've heard things about vinegar in your wash to help, but I haven't tried that yet.  I also haven't gotten any complaints from my family about clothes being crunchy when they put them on.   I'm also not sure how far with this I'll go this winter,  but having the clothes under cover definitely helps when it's a little rainy out!

Have you tried line drying?   Please share your thoughts, tips and experiences with us.

Happy Greening!
Alicia