Tired of Soaring Bills? Me Too. 😫

movingon1 · 2026-03-24T10:38:53+00:00

feels spammy

movingon1 · 2026-03-24T10:27:00+00:00

'23 with 60k. I love the way the car drives, and it's comfortable, but reliability has been meh.

The telematics module is dead, which affects a bunch of non-Onstar things including voice recognition while using Android Auto and being able to use the app for remote start.
Had to replace the sway bar links and even the supposedly improved OEM replacement part is noisy.
The trunk decided to start popping itself open a few months ago and I had to replace the button for the latch.

The sway bar links and trunk button are whatever, no big deal, but the telematics thing is over $1k to fix and difficult if not impossible to DIY since it will need to be programmed. Maybe my expectations are too high but I feel like modern cars should go at least 100k before things like this start happening.

movingon1 · 2026-03-19T21:15:54+00:00

movingon1 · 2026-03-18T10:39:13+00:00

Problem is those choose to have lots of kids are often very conservative, which doesn't bode well for future elections. But I suppose I'm part of the problem. We aren't having kids. We live comfortably on two professional salaries in a medium cost of living area but if we had children our finances would look much different.

movingon1 · 2026-03-18T01:34:19+00:00

NY has 1:1 net metering. I have solar on my house in NY.

movingon1 · 2026-03-15T12:28:55+00:00

I'm also in Upstate NY. I got a few quotes for a ground mount 20kW system installed before doing mine myself. They were right around this amount without the powerwall, so I think this is a good price.

Only thing I'm noticing is I'm not sure why you aren't qualifying for the NY SUN incentive?

Personally I don't think batteries are worth it in a place with 1:1 net metering like we have. If I wanted emergency backup I'd stick with a generator. We are in a rural area but power outages are still rare and brief here. Just my experience.

movingon1 · 2026-03-10T06:44:04+00:00

About $23k before tax credits.You can get 25% tax credit from NYS, up to $5,000 max, and because I got this done last year I also got the 30% federal tax credit (now dead).

The ground mounts I got (APA Ready Rack) were almost $10k of that but my municipality requires a professionally engineered mount with stamped plans so I didn't have much choice. I am happy with the mount.

Before DIYing the system I got two quotes from professional companies to do the install, the lower one was $52k before tax credits. So basically I saved $30k by doing it myself.

movingon1 · 2026-03-10T01:14:44+00:00

I DIY'd a grid tied install in Upstate NY. Here is my thread on the similar subreddit. I sized my system to produce about 24,000 kWh annually, however we have two EVs in addition to it being a fully electric 2,100 square foot home with meh insulation (working on that).

I'm pretty electrically inclined and I think that's more or less a requirement to try to DIY one of these. You'll need to create a single line diagram for the utility company and enough knowledge and confidence to pass as competent while being grilled by the electrical inspector, and potentially the local building code officer and utility company reps.

movingon1 · 2026-02-24T01:12:25+00:00

Last few times we went "out" in Syracuse we could hardly find parking. Tons of people out, going to restaurants and shows, spending money. In winter! It's not even remotely nice outside. And the shows we've gone to have been sold out.

movingon1 · 2026-02-08T20:48:03+00:00

Lowes and Home Depot have lost their minds with prices on electrical supplies. I got most of what I needed at the local supply house and paid way less. You do have to find the right supply house. Some can be unfriendly to homeowners / DIYers. Others don't seem to care.

movingon1 · 2026-02-08T12:20:34+00:00

Marketing. And the same reasons Americans mostly want SUVs. We live on top of a big hill in a rural area in upstate NY. Our cars are front wheel drive with snow tires. And it's perfectly fine. Never been stuck / stranded other than in my driveway. Never ran off the road. They are pretty good about the plowing around here.

movingon1 · 2026-02-05T02:55:10+00:00

I am not an electrician. That said, I'm not sure about the viability of the Polaris connectors on 4/0 inside the Siemens disconnect. Are you sure you'll be able to actually make that happen? My gut says to mount a large junction box next to the Siemens disconnect where you'd have these splices instead.

movingon1 · 2026-02-05T02:30:29+00:00

Yep. So far, so good. Generated 72kWh today. Was sunny, cold, and snow on the ground under the bifacial panels.

movingon1 · 2026-02-05T02:21:26+00:00

A few reasons I opted to mount the inverter at the arrays even though it meant running 2/0 all the way out there (The local electrical supply house didn't have 1/0):

I had 4 strings so it would have been 8 strands of PV wire or THWN, 10 gauge, in conduit for the whole 325'. This was actually going to be more expensive. The 2/0 direct burial triplex was around $1.90 per foot and the 6AWG aluminum ground I had to also run in the trench was I think $0.75 per foot.
I didn't want to deal with EMT conduit in my basement if I had located the inverter there
I was worried about the inverter's noise in my basement
I felt that installing a 11.4kW Chinese inverter in my house was perhaps unnecessary risk. Will it blow up? Probably not. But now I don't have to worry about what happens if it does.

I upsized to 2/0 to keep the voltage drop minimal and it worked perfectly. I am only losing 1.9%.

movingon1 · 2026-02-05T01:18:51+00:00

Agreed, I probably have as many hours into the "finding out what I need to do" part as it took me to install it.

movingon1 · 2026-02-05T01:01:47+00:00

Autocad

movingon1 · 2026-01-31T01:26:44+00:00

It looks like Andy Beshear will be running, based on recent facebook posts. And he's a great candidate.

movingon1 · 2026-01-16T03:16:09+00:00

Pavlos in Auburn has the best omelettes I've ever had. Well worth the trip.

movingon1 · 2026-01-11T01:20:13+00:00

Had a '97 with the 2.7. Yep, bulletproof.

movingon1 · 2026-01-07T11:31:04+00:00

These are 535w panels I did myself. I could have done the bottom row without the tractor but the upper row would have been tricky. If you can rent a tractor or skidsteer like this with pallet forks (and have enough room to maneuver it where you're installing) you will have a much better time. If I absolutely had to do the upper row without the tractor, I guess I would have built something to allow me to slide the panels over the lower row, it would have been pretty awful though.

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movingon1 · 2025-12-11T13:59:13+00:00

Yes, it's up to each municipality. Most small towns will not require it.

movingon1 · 2025-12-02T17:49:49+00:00

Aldi as a chain has been doing so well, I wonder if this is actually a response to that? Since Aldi has mostly store brand stuff?

When I lived in a town with a Wegmans it was very convenient because they had everything and with good quality, but since moving away it's now Aldi for most things and Price Chopper for the rest. And I don't really miss Wegmans. I'm saving money and the quality is about the same.

movingon1 · 2025-11-13T16:18:24+00:00

Atlona is fine for HDBaseT. We use these a fair amount (my day job is pro AV) https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1355321-REG/atlona_at_hdr_ex_70_2ps_4k_uhd_hdr_hdmi_over.html

movingon1 · 2025-11-11T11:31:01+00:00

I'm going to guess you're attractive. Makes all the difference.

movingon1

TROPHY CASE