Greening My Life: What’s Done, & What’s Left To Do

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What’s done

Solar panels on the roof: Cost, expenses, benefits, & implications

I put 20 solar panels on the west facing roof of my house 10 years ago. It cost about $20,000, but there was a 40% federal government subsidy at the time. South facing would be better but I don’t have a south facing roof. I could add solar panels to my east facing roof, but the 11,752 ft Mt. Timpanogos would block the early morning sun. We have net metering in Utah, so Rocky Mountain Power takes my power during the day and gives it back to me at night so I don’t need to have battery storage. In July and August when the sun is high in the sky and air conditioning is matched by solar output, my power bill is under $5/month. In the winter when days are short, the sun angle is low, it’s cloudier, and snow sometimes covers the panels, my bill goes over $200/month. See the details below.

We recently had a hail storm which damaged our shingles. It cost just under $7,000 to take the solar panels off and put them back on while the shingles were replaced. To be considered: if your roof is old, maybe you should wait to install solar panels, or at least factor in the cost of removing and replacing. Interesting note: Although the damage to my shingles and siding from the hail was such that my insurance company was willing to pay ~$30,000 to replace both, there was no damage to the solar panels.

At least during the longer days when my electricity production from my solar panels is higher, I can say that I am driving my EV on sunshine.

Solar panel power production, power use, & resulting power bill

A year or two after Auric Solar installed my solar panels in Utah, they went out of business. At first, I was able to check the status and output of the panels online. At some point this stopped working and I no longer got a report on the solar panels’ status. Auric was no longer available to help me. From then on, my only way to get the status of my panels was by looking at my Rocky Mountain Power bill. Since I just now had my panels removed and reinstalled, I am particularly motivated to know if they are working. Please see below my power bill for the last ~2 years. It is particularly instructive of the vagaries of solar power production and the vagaries of my household use. The minimum bills of under $5/month in July and August of 2024 and 2023 were at the time of high solar output matching the time of maximum air conditioning and when our Tesla EV was not in Utah so it was not being charged. The maximal were from January through March of the same years with a maximum of $258.52/month in March of 2023. This was at a time of shorter winter days and a time of record snowfall in Utah. I expect that the panels were completely covered with snow most of this month. This was also a time of maximum power use. There were 5 persons living in the house and our Tesla EV was frequently making trips to Brighton Ski Area and Park City that month. If my April (next month) power bill drops to ~$75, I will be convinced that my solar panels have been reinstalled properly and are working.

Rocky Mountain Power bills:

• 04/08/2025 $110.65
• 03/10/2025 $181.29
• 02/07/2025 $172.57
• 01/09/2025 $189.15
• 12/09/2024 $64.17
• 11/05/2024 $08.28
• 10/08/2024 $50.09
• 09/06/2024 $109.23
• 08/07/2024 $04.67
• 07/08/2024 $04.70
• 06/06/2024 $57.96
• 05/07/2024 $71.72
• 04/08/2024 $149.13
• 03/08/2024 $195.96
• 02/08/2024 $236.27
• 01/10/2024 $205.86
• 12/08/2023 $120.03
• 11/06/2023 $50.24
• 10/06/2023 $50.35
• 09/07/2023 $74.61
• 08/08/2023 $04.65
• 07/07/2023 $04.65
• 06/07/2023 $36.34
• 05/08/2023 $83.30
• 04/07/2023 $142.74
• 03/09/2023 $258.52
• 02/08/2023 $236.80
• 01/10/2023 $237.56
• 12/08/2022 $100.84
• 11/04/2022 $33.05

Electric vehicle

We’ve had our Tesla Model 3 for 5 years and 7 months and it just went over 150,000 miles. We have a Level 2 charger in our garage, so with a battery range of over 250 miles we start each day with a full “tank” that will do any local errands and round trips to Salt Lake International, Park City, all the local ski resorts, and day trips to Heber City, Spring City, Antelope Island, Strawberry Reservoir and other fun locations without additional charging. It also takes us on our annual spring and fall migration to our lake house in northern Wisconsin and back without using fossil fuels.

Electric lawnmower

After mowing lawns with 10 different gas-powered lawn mowers for 70 years, I finally switched to electric last fall. The EGO electric mower I bought at Ace Hardware cost double ($697) the ~$350 cost of a gas model, but we don’t have to deal with purchasing and pouring stinky fossil fuel. It’s very quiet and my grandson loves to mow with it.

Electric bikes

Bicycles are wonderful transportation if you are young and athletic and you live in Champaign, Illinois, where it is perfectly flat. However, when you are old (age 85) and weak and live in the Utah foothills where it is 500 ft vertical down to and back up from State Street, for any errand you want to run, an electric bike is imperative. I run the following errands on my e-bike: 1) Prescriptions at Walgreens 2) Grocery items at Walmart, 3) US bank for cash 4) VASA fitness to workout, 5) Timpanogos for bike repairs and 6) Mama Chu’s for Mexican food. I find a full suspension mountain e-bike to be ideal. The full suspension minimizes the jolts from transitions in the pavement and the larger tires make gravel roads and off-road outings possible and pleasurable.

Electric leaf blower

We don’t have enough leaves to need a leaf blower in Utah, however, our property in Wisconsin has hundreds of trees. We never owned a noisy gas leaf blower, but broke down and bought a battery-electric model last summer. It’s light, quiet, and does the job just fine.

What’s left to do

Heat pump water heater

A week ago, our 12-year-old fossil gas water heater pilot light failed to relight and the tank was starting to leak. I must admit that with no hot water over the weekend, I was willing to go with the quickest, lowest cost solution on Monday. It cost $2350 to install a new more reliable gas model with earthquake straps and a pressure relief tank, and to haul away the old tank.

If I had more time and was able to go to a solution that didn’t burn (or burn less) fossil fuel, I would consider three other options:

1) a resistance electric water heater: This would eliminate fossil gas, but the cost of heating the water would be higher. The cost of the heater would be similar to a fossil gas model, but it would also take more time and money because an electrician would be needed to bring 220-volt power to my furnace and water heater room.

2) A tankless water heater: a tankless water heater would still use fossil gas so it wouldn’t meet the green household goal of no fossil fuel use. However, a tankless water heater heats water only when you need it so doesn’t store hot water in a tank which is constantly losing energy. For a 3-bathroom house like mine it is recommended to have a tankless water heater with a capacity of 9 gallons/min. A typical price for a heater with that capacity is $1200. This compares with a typical 50-gallon tank gas water heater at $700.

3) A heat pump water heater: This would be the ideal solution because it would burn no fossil fuel and would be much more efficient than a resistance electric water heater. However, a heat pump water heater requires a bigger room than my furnace/water heater room (at least 10ft x 10ft) or some kind of venting. I would also still have the cost of running 220-volt power plus the higher cost of the heat pump water heater ($1779) and installation.

Upgrade from gas furnace to heat pump

A Google search for the average cost to upgrade from gas furnace to heat pump is $6,000. Our gas furnace is old and it would cost ~$5,000 to replace it, so the comparative cost to go with a heat pump is not prohibitive. Since we already have air conditioning with an external heat exchanger, there would be no additional plumbing or electrical wiring costs. We recently replaced the furnace blower motor for ~$1000, so we are trying to nurse our gas furnace along as long as possible. However, if we added another 20 solar panels to our front roof, we could reduce our heating costs to a very low level.

Summary

I’m retired and except for the nominal amount that I make for writing these articles, I don’t have substantial money available to make home upgrades. However, you can see from the discussion above that myself or a future owner who owns an electric car would not be far from generating his/her own electricity for a pure electric household where I live now.

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