atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems First Service call in 25 years

Anything for you guys in the city, Sam. Just wait until we pull the plug on that pesky nuke plant here. One big argument for keeping it going was that NYC would have rolling blackouts without it.

-Hal

Well, the city does need power from someplace. I have no problem with nuke plants in general. Indian Point is getting a little long in the tooth.

Personally, like most bleeding-heart pinko leftists I'm kind of fond of renewables - solar, wind, hydro....

I put Solar on my house last year. Thought I'd put my money where my mouth was.

Sam

That's the problem. You can't just get rid of a plant that generates 25% of the regions power without a plan to replace that power BEFORE you shut it down. But what do you expect from bleeding-heart pinko leftist politicians?

As for solar, it's all very confusing to me. Not the technology but all the different solar companies and their "deals". Truthfully, I never looked into any, the last salesman that came walking around the back of the house last summer when we were having a barbecue didn't last long.

Probably one in ten houses have solar around here. When I ask neighbors about their installation and how much they are saving nobody can give a straight answer. The one across the street paid something for the installation to their company but her electric bills are all over the place. Some months nothing and some months over $200. The guy next door didn't pay anything and he says he saves about $30/mo. When I ask him how does he get that number, he says his bill is $30 less than what it used to be. So is that because of what your solar produces or did you just use less? He had no idea.

So my point is, I think solar could be a cute way to offset some of your electric usage but it all depends on the company you are dealing with, what their cut is and how much "real estate" you have available to cover with solar panels. If I'm only going to save $30 a month it's hardly worth the trouble. I've briefly thought about buying my own equipment and installing it myself, thus not sharing the KWs with some company that leases space on my roof. But I suspect that the ROI would be longer than my lifetime.

-Hal

I bought mine outright. I almost didn't, because ¾ of the way through the process, the City and the the FDNY changed the regulations and I could only install 10 panels, not the 14 I was planning on.

In any event, I did it and am on target to produce about 2,000+ KWH this year. That should be between 20 & 25% of my total electrical bill. (In the last 3 years I used 10,416, 8,880 & 9,033 KWH).

I'm getting a pretty sizable Federal Tax rebate because of the Solar Installation, as well as a State Tax rebate and a City rebate (spread over 4 years on my property taxes). All things considered it's not costing me much and should produce some nice returns over the next 20 years.

To me, it was a no brainer - and I've got a 20' wide row house. If I had one of those McMansions that you upstaters have I'd be doing much better.

I'm tracking everything on a spreadsheet and have logged my monthly bills for the last 3 years. I'll no more at the end of the summer with a full years worth of data.

PS. The people I bought it from are in Mt. Vernon. They said it was much easier to get things done up in your neck of the woods.

Sam

Hi Sam,
I know nothing about solar. Do they use storage batteries? If it does, how are they maintained?

No, an inverter that syncs to the incoming power line. It just backfeeds a two pole breaker in your panel. The inverter will shut down when it senses no power from the utility.

There are of course all kinds of other schemes and some do use batteries, kind of like a UPS but these are not what you see in these residential solar installs.

By the way Sam, since you got me interested, driving around the neighborhood it looks like 10-12 panels is the norm even here when they could get twice as many on the roofs. Wonder why?

-Hal

Thank you for the information. We can't do solar due to all the trees around us. Oh well I guess I could just put up a wind mill and wait for my neighbors next shouting match.

John,

In NYC you are NOT allowed to use storage batteries in residential buildings (the Fire Dept. considers them bombs waiting to go off). God knows I've put thousands of batteries in commercial buildings, backing up telephone switches and Electrical UPS systems.

Hal,

Without seeing the roofs, I can't tell. The best place to put them is on a Southern exposure. While you can get results from another exposure, usually it's not enough to justify the expense. My problem was maintaining an aisle the FDNY could walk through, clearance around hatches and skylights etc.

I always thought that when I retired I'd do the work myself. Then when I actually did retire, I considered my physical condition and then thought about dealing with the City Buildings department without an Electrical license and I said "screw it". I was offered a pretty good deal though my union and I went with it.

So far, so good. If you have any questions, give me a call and I'll do what I can to answer them.

Sam

Got a call from my power company(AEP) last week saying they would be doing tree trimming in my area next week and would be using a helicopter with a hanging saw.Im not too knowledgeable in that area but thats a new one on me.

Saw a video and had a discussion of that a couple of years ago on the arborist board I belong to. Wasn't too impressed. It ain't any saw, it's a hacker.

-Hal