Homestead mailing list

["Wendy" <crazygardens AT verizon.net>]

Kathyann,
I am so glad to hear that!  A few years ago I was on an RE list and many of 
the allowances for RE had gone away and legislation to eliminate the rest 
had to be constantly fought .  Net metering was one hot topic.  The utility 
company companies were fighting big-time to eliminate it everywhere.  I had 
lost track of the status of the pending legislation being pushed by the 
utilities.  Most of the legislation favoring RE was put into place by Jimmy 
Carter.  Ronald Regan axed much of it.  The fight back and forth has been 
going on ever since.  It seems though, that your RE plan is state funded. 
What state do you live in?  What is a "bundler"?  Is that the guy who 
collects green credits from conscious people and sells them to polluters so 
that they can legally continue to pollute?

Wendy


> Wendy wrote:
> > Does your electric co. allow "net-metering"?  (Net-metering is when you 
> > are charged the "net" total of power-used minus power-sent to the grid.)
> We've been really happy with our net-meter set-up over the last 2 years. 
> Utility companies have to accept it here now. Net-metering not as simple 
> as you describe. When we produce the meter runs backwards, when not it 
> runs forward. If we owe at the end of the month we pay the excess used (we 
> have am/pm so we only buy at night rates unless cloudy.) Once a year they 
> do a settle up. If we are ahead in production they buy out at wholesale 
> (cheaper rate but since they buy daytime and we buy nighttime we both pay 
> similarly.) Overall, the state rebated 75% of the cost of the system, we 
> sold the "green credits" to a bundler for 20% of the cost. The remaining 
> 5% is financed. With lowering our usage, we currently pay out 50-60% our 
> old electricity costs for electricity above what we produce + payments on 
> system. We get a service contract with the installment plan that includes 
> annual check, replacements if needed, and removing/replacing panels once 
> to allow us to reroof if necessary (for 20 years or til paid off.) And 
> we're assured we are supporting solar production.
>
> Kathyann