Here comes the sun...doo doo do doo...

All right all right, calm down. I know, where they heck have I been?

Well, a couple of things. I was hoping to post the following amazing information last November but things got delayed and I got lazy. So there.

Anywho, the new season is upon us and I will be blogging more after my long winters slumber.

That aside, this will be just a quick blog and frankly, who doesn't like a quickie? Wait, what?

Rather than try and beat around the bush and keep you guessing, the big news is I got these...



Clouds!!!

NOOOOO! Not clouds! Ugh.

Solar Panels! Yayyyyyy!!!

Now I can't be spit upon by todays youth as being part of the problem! Hey! Get off my lawn!

(And no my house isn't sliding off it's foundation to the right)

The other reason why I delayed is because I wanted to show you what we paid for our first months Solar powered electricity.

Here....



Yup. 50 cents, 4 bits, half a buck. (technically it was 49 cents)

So after the governments rebate, the income tax credit we paid roughly $5000 for the array.

Calculating our historic monthly bill, we have figured they will be paid off in just over 5 years. The money we save goes right back into the bank.

But wait SuburbanDweller, didn't you have to wade through all sorts of red tape and crazy "gobmint" bureaucracy?  For a long time I really wanted to do this and I knew there were rebates available but I had no idea where to begin and which installation company to trust.

One day last year, I had a very enlightening conversation with I wonderful woman I work with by the name of Katie. She and her husband John had just had panels installed. She told me about a great company out of San Antonio called Circular Energy. I contacted a gentleman by the name of Gary Royal and we started the process.

First we needed an energy audit to find out if our house was energy efficient. You see, the Feds are funny that way, if they are going to give you a rebate they want to make sure they are investing their money wisely. So we had to make sure our insulation and ductwork was up to snuff. And to make matters easier, both the state of Texas and the Feds offer rebates on the Audit. That was 1500 out of pocket but with the rebates it came down to 700.

Now our humble little abode was ready for Solar.

The best part about Circular is they take care of the paper work and contracting. We just had to read everything and sign our names.

Instillation took only a day and inspection by the city took place about 2 weeks later.

As I stated earlier, I wanted to write about this in November, but I couldn't because our instillation date was pushed back because, apparently, a lot of people are taking advantage of the savings from Solar!

So After they were installed, which was just after the first of the year, the savings began. Why then am I only seeing a 50 cent bill now and not last month? Because we had monthly averaging and had to pay that off.  Once done, we were ready for our first bill and there it was...



50 freakin' cents!

So as I say, Green is Good! But most of all, this goes toward my life long mission of trying to leave this earth a little better than when I entered it.

My carbon footprint just got that much smaller.

Cheers!