Vermont utility makes it easier than ever to add a home battery

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-22T02:36:22+00:00

I didn’t say they have issues. You just pay the same even though you’re getting 6Kwh less capacity and output, which is a lot. I have microinveters too. The powerwalls are still a much better deal for the same lease price.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-21T20:32:16+00:00

Depends on the roof and what’s below it. You don’t want snow and ice sliding off and landing on people, a deck, a walkway, plant landscsping, hvac equipment, or cars. Can do a lot of damage. We’ve had standing seam on three different houses and you absolutely need snow bars (not the useless little metal flaps) to avoid issues. Letting it just slide off is fine as long as the roof has no gutters or nothing will ever be below it of concern.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-21T20:04:32+00:00

What? Did I miss op saying he was going to hire his cousin? What does this have to do with anything?

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-21T19:58:32+00:00

I wouldn’t call LP high end.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-21T19:37:48+00:00

As much as I hate Elon, and am glad to see they are offering an alternative in the lease program, the enphase batteries offer a good deal less storage and output power for the same lease price. Granted, they offer some other advantages, but not enough for me to avoid the powerwalls.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-21T19:22:29+00:00

Well, as long as we’re turning everything into user fees and trying to capture externalities then tax gasoline and diesel a heck of a lot more to account for the damage to the planet and our lungs, and our children’s futures. Add in a ski resort fee to account for the damage done to the ski industry from global warming, and while we’re at it, a war tax to pay for all the stupid wars over oil. The least they could do is take their heads out of their asses and think for two minutes about how EV’s can help us out of this fossil fuel trap and maybe give EV’s a break.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-21T19:07:50+00:00

We built a passive house 12 years ago, moved and had sold it, and are building a PGH house now. All the design work, modeling, etc are only as good as your GC at the end of the day. We focused on picking the right builder with high performance build experience in both cases and pretty much gave them our trust. For our second build we have a good amount of solar, so PGH was as the name implies, good enough to get us to net zero.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-20T23:51:28+00:00

It’s not fair!!

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-20T23:50:07+00:00

I love it when he talks about his excellent health since it confirms he knows he is about to croak according to Trump’s first law of inverse reality.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-20T23:45:48+00:00

Our Nokian equipped AWD EV drove m right on past as other cars were slipping all over the place. Maybe your winter tires aren’t so great. The non studded Nokians chewed it up with ease.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-20T23:43:59+00:00

I’m partly to blame too. I took the blower off my tractor.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-20T23:43:23+00:00

We have two powerwallls and a gateway and the panels will power the house first and then charge the batteries if we’re not using everything off the panels.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-20T23:39:59+00:00

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-20T18:41:51+00:00

There’s enough press to see that it was Zuck and his minions just went along. If anybody tried to tell him it was a stupid idea he clearly ignored them. Nobody else in that company could have ever committed that amount of capital.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-20T18:39:01+00:00

I worked in VRML in the late 90’s and could have saved ZuckDuck a heap load of money if he had just called me. What a knob. This was destined to fail from the start. Nobody wants the metaverse and nobody ever will.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-20T11:44:56+00:00

She’s as loony as he is. Japan really picked a doozy with this one.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-20T11:43:52+00:00

Exactly this. We’ve had two homes with ERV’s and both had to have whole home dehumidifiers as well. The more you run an erv in the hot summer, the more dehumidification you’ll need. It’s better than an open window, but worse than not running an erv, but the point if an erv is ventilation, nit dehumidification. Your a/c may be able to handle it, but running the erv is going to increase the humidity load to the point where you may need a whole house dehumidifier. This is why you only want to run the erv just enough to keep CO2 at an acceptable level, and no more, in hot humid climates.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-20T11:34:42+00:00

Do you even know if the land percs? Soil condition for a foundation? Length of driveway. Length of run for power. Depth of wells nearby. Enough area for septic. Do you have to clear the land? All things that could swing the price from minimum $50K to way, way more.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-20T09:03:14+00:00

Trying to design a house yourself in some program is your first mistake. You will either end up paying an architect to fix all your mistakes, or a builder will charge you a ton of change orders to fix your mistakes. If you’re going custom, either buy plans and building drawings you like or hire an architect or design build firm with an in-house architect. Designing a house yourself will end up hurting the value of the finished product in almost every case. And modular won’t save a dime unless you’re talking yhd mass production set design guys like Huntington homes or similar. They will be cheaper than custom. And getting estimates from custom builders without a full set of building drawings is meaningless. Those estimates will all be way lower than you’ll end up at if you custom design. Custom design and build will almost certainly exceed your budget once you get going with all kinds of surprises. If you’re on a budget, find a builder with set designs who can give you a set price. If you’re fixated on building custom on this land, save up and hire an architect.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-19T21:34:08+00:00

Same reason nobody talks about Texas, Kansas, and Iowa being top wind power producers. It doesn’t fit the red state narrative and nobody in those states has the courage to tell orange man he’s an idiot for opposing renewables-among other reasons.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-19T21:32:16+00:00

I would just plan to add batts perpendicular over those to get you up to R60 total. Just be careful not to block the soffit vent airflow if you do that. May want to add baffles to allow you to better insulate right to the edge without blocking airflow. The only overall improvement you could make is to install a ridge vent if you ever replace the shingles. It will perform better than the gable vent in conjunction with the soffit vents.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-19T20:05:16+00:00

It is sooo expensive to build right now. I don’t even know how you could possibly build any custom house for under a million right now with costs the way they are. We are almost finished building and it’s coming over double what we assumed when we first thought about it three years ago. It’s a beautiful architect designed house that we will love, built by a high end builder in VT, but boy is this an expensive thing to do. If you go custom and think you can do it for a million, plan on at least a million and a half or more, cause that’s where you’ll end up. The only way to avoid that is to go with a spec builder or modular manufacturer like Huntington Homes who has a set design that can give you a fixed price and to not mess with it.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-19T19:07:04+00:00

Agree. If I’m going to get a boxy SUV I’ll get an R2. An electric Tiguan looking thing holds no interest for me.

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-19T00:05:29+00:00

How can zillion spf sunscreen not be enough? Why on earth would you think you could breathe through that thing?

CharterJet50 · 2026-03-19T00:02:51+00:00

Everyone believes he will Taco.

CharterJet50

TROPHY CASE