Thought Catcher

No wifi

popicon88 — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:09:06 +0000

The trip has been a whirlwind. I thought I would have time and free wifi that would allow me to update this blog frequently but alas it is not true. Now I am in kaoshiung on the last leg of the trip. We have survived remarkably well. I will write more later about the remaining Hong Kong trip but in summary the trip has been extremely memorable. To be continued.

Day 1

popicon88 — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 05:09:04 +0000

The Plane trip was kind of hard. Ethan didn’t want to sleep and wouldnt let mommy sit down or put him down. We finally got him down only to have the crew turn on the lights for meal service. Cathay is a real nice airline thou and the flight attendants gave Ethan a lot of attention and treats.

We got to hong kong and checked into our room at the Salisbury YMCA. We have a beautiful harbor view if you turn your head a little. Ethan was up most of the night again with mommy. Today he was a pretty good sport until about 3. We went to breakfast and met the rest of the family. The our first day trip was to hong kong university where we met mom’s old teacher. We went with the teacher to st Paul’s church for Easter mass. We came back to the admiralty for lunch where Ethan fell asleep. He slept until dinner at 6pm. We ate at Macau restaurant. Then we came back to the hotel to get ready for bed. Sorry for the choppy sentences. We are very tired.

Lax layover

popicon88 — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:57:54 +0000

Just arrived at LAX. Ethan did really well. He’s a lot more wiggly than last time but he woke up and he was good for most of the trip. We even got a few compliments. Only one outfit change so far.

Breakfast at the airport

popicon88 — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:32:13 +0000

It was a relatively pain free morning. Ethan’s in good spirits. Thank goodness.

Asia Trip Eve

popicon88 — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 06:01:50 +0000

Tonight is the eve of our family vacation to Hong Kong and Taiwan. After the stressful start to the year, this is a well deserved and welcome vacation. In the next 2 weeks, Ethan will visit both his mother’s ancestoral land, HK, and his father’s ancestoral home land and all of his distant relatives in Taiwan. We will use this blog to keep our memories and share with our friends our little adventures. For now, the first adventure is getting some sleep so we can get up at 4:30 to get ready for our car pick up at 5:15am. yawn..

Solar: December versus December

popicon88 — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:59:11 +0000

Got my bill this month from TXU Energy. I used 696 kWh for the month. Last year this time, we used 1,178 kWh. That’s a 41% reduction in my usage with the solar panel. Woohoo!

My adventure into solar energy – The Decision

popicon88 — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:48:57 +0000

A bit about me, I tend to know more than most about the energy space because I work in the industry. So, yes I know solar is inefficient, it’s expensive as a result, and the pay-off is long. However, someone came up with something called the solar lease and the game was changed.

The Obstacles

One of the biggest hurdles for solar adoption and ownership was the high upfront costs. Even with tax breaks and rebates, cutting the cost down by as much as 45 – 50%, a homeowner still has to pay around five figures for the pleasure of owning a solar panel and deal with 15 year payback after rebates. Solar leasing provided me the opportunity to own a solar panel for a fraction. This was the opportunity that was presented to me when SolarCity came to Texas.

You might think that Texas is a natural location for solar given the amount of sun the state receives each year. However, the Texas solar market has challenges that are not unique to its market. For one, home prices in Texas are low. An investment of $30,000 in a solar panel on a $150,000 represents a much more significant amount of the home’s overall value than a $30,000 panel on a $500,000 home in California of the same size. That makes the benefit of home value improvement from solar panels harder to believe. Secondly, Texas deregulation means that prices for electricity are much less than in regulated markets like California and New Jersey. That makes the payback longer in Texas if you only look at the potential savings on your electricity bill. So why invest in solar panels at all? The answer is in an innovation that has is not technology-related but financing focused instead; the solar lease.

Solar Leases versus Purchase

So why solar lease versus just buying a panel outright?

Well, for starters, the upfront cost means I don’t have to shell out all that cash. Instead of having $15,000 available, I only needed to have $4000.
Then with Solar City, they give me monitoring for free as long as I own the system.
I can also upgrade and they’ll monitor my usage and let me know how much electricity I’m using on a daily basis from the grid and from the solar panel.
They also provide a performance guarantee and a warrantee on the system for the life of the lease.
Finally, with a 15-20 year lease, I practically own it without the headaches of owning it. Because I prepaid the lease payments, I can transfer the lease when I sell the house without having to worry about the credit of the home buyer ruining the home sale.

I wanted to make sure I was getting the best deal and shopped around a bit. SolarCity offered me the best price and I figure with a reputable company like SolarCity, I don’t have to worry about the company going under in the middle of my lease.

So we called SolarCity and the agent pulled up my address on his computer and was able to tell me how big of a system I could get, 5 kW, and how much production I would be able to get from it. He sent me a powerpoint with the proposal and a form to fill out. In short, my system was going to be 5 kW, sit on the front roof of my house, and cost me $3600 up front if I choose to prepay the lease, or no-money-down with $50 payments for the life of the lease. Actually, I don’t remember the monthly payment amount because I was so fixated on the upfront costs. They were able to make this happen because of the rebate Oncor was offering for homeowners.

Decision Revisited

I took another look at my decision now the rebate is no longer available. My conclusion is that solar is still a very good deal and thanks to the Chinese and their enormous investment into solar manufacturing. It’s resulted in an oversupply of solar panel just as demand is starting to slow. Without the rebate, you can’t get the 4 year payback I’ve got with my system. But the payback at 8-10 years for a 20 year lease means you’ll earn a 100% return over the life of the lease. Further, if you factor in the attractiveness of your home in this slow real estate market when you sell, it’s an even better deal. I also get a kick of watching my electricity bill go down each day and month. For technology geek like me, this is the ultimate toy.

I survived. So why do I feel so guilty?

popicon88 — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:26:15 +0000

This week my employer laid off my mgr and my director in a restructuring move. I am still grieving for them. A good friend of mine gave me some good advice, saying

it is not your burden to bear.

. I can’t shake the feeling of why not me and are they going to be ok? This flood of worries came to me again when I was looking at the Xmas stuff at sam’s club. If anyone needs a great director or mgr with STRONG project management experience and deep green energy experience let me know.

I just reached 2 mWh

popicon88 — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:25:15 +0000

My solar panel has produced over 2 mWh (2000 kWh) in just over 2 months. That’s about 1.5 months of free electricity.

Solar power international

popicon88 — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 04:48:55 +0000

Today I attended the solar power international conference. I learned a lot and found some cool things I want to buy. Maybe I’ll get a new pool pump when I sell my condo.

Oh and someone put in a bid for the Austin condo yesterday. I can’t wait to get rid of it.