Hot water heater relief valve

rick81721 said:
Some bury a tank in their yard to fuel a gas stove and generator. Our plan is to go solar with sufficient battery storage to run everything.
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I know someone in CA that has 3 Tesla powerwalls and a bunch of panels. He runs his whole house including 2 zone AC and all heat. He has to pay CA utilities $30 a month mandatory for required hook up. He also "sells" his power back to the grid and gets that $30 back.
I am hearing more cons than pros when it comes to selling the power back. It is not worth having the utility control your setup for the low amount of money you get back.
 
JerseyPete said:
I know someone in CA that has 3 Tesla powerwalls and a bunch of panels. He runs his whole house including 2 zone AC and all heat. He has to pay CA utilities $30 a month mandatory for required hook up. He also "sells" his power back to the grid and gets that $30 back.
I am hearing more cons than pros when it comes to selling the power back. It is not worth having the utility control your setup for the low amount of money you get back.
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Haven't read much about how it works here but this is the Q and A page from our company (Florida Power & Light)

https://www.fpl.com/clean-energy/net-metering/faq.html
 
rick81721 said:
Haven't read much about how it works here but this is the Q and A page from our company (Florida Power & Light)

https://www.fpl.com/clean-energy/net-metering/faq.html
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He was a part of the Virtual Power Plant thing in CA.
www.tesla.com

Tesla Virtual Power Plant With PG&E | Tesla Support

Participate in the Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP) pilot offered by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and support the grid while also earning compensation and maintaining your energy security.
www.tesla.com www.tesla.com
 
JerseyPete said:
I know someone in CA that has 3 Tesla powerwalls and a bunch of panels. He runs his whole house including 2 zone AC and all heat. He has to pay CA utilities $30 a month mandatory for required hook up. He also "sells" his power back to the grid and gets that $30 back.
I am hearing more cons than pros when it comes to selling the power back. It is not worth having the utility control your setup for the low amount of money you get back.
Click to expand...

Check this out

https://electrek.co/2023/02/09/tesl...e-500-idollar-first-year-virtual-power-plant/
 
Solar in NJ doesn't make much sense to me as you can't store your own power. Maybe somebody knows better. We looked at a few homes with solar. I'm aware that you can buy or lease, but both seem to be with downsides. In one example, the solar lease was to be transferred with home purchase with like 17 years left at around $140 a month. Of course the savings were nice in the winter when you see a $2 electric bill, but that still means you were really at $142 that month. In the summer they averaged maybe $100 a month to provider, but again that's really $240 with the solar included. On a lease you are in this cycle all the time. At least if you buy, I guess eventually the $2 a month is nice, but from what I've heard the panels won't work as well so that number may be much higher. Also adding to this is the potential for roof leaks since you now have a bunch of mounting points, especially if installed on a non-new roof.

With states that let you store power, at least then you can hopefully function off the grid or at minimum run off battery during the day and then top up at lower rates.

Santapez said:
The laundry room setup is pretty interesting!

@Patrick Yeah I should have mentioned it's probably an easy install for me with the venting. I think with the current location of the tank I can just go up 2-3 feet and pop out the exterior wall with the PVC piping.

I know upsizing the gas line can be a concern but it is fed right off the main and I can't imagine the BTUs are higher than my furnace. And if I ever replacing my furnace I'm going down 20kBTU or so on a new one.

For the time being I'll probably get an water alarm to put on the floor and change the anodes every few years. If I see water (or hear an alarm) I'd just shut the main water valve.
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Tankless is great. My parents put one in themselves probably 15+ years ago. The PVC concentric intake/exhaust is pretty neat. Their house is on the smaller side and have a combination Navien unit for baseboard and hot water.

I'd like to eventually swap my natural gas boiler and water heater for two Naviens. Right now I have a power vent on a controller that turns on automatically when either the boiler or water heater turn on, and that makes more noise than either unit itself. They also take up so little space wall mounted.
 
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Magic said:
Solar in NJ doesn't make much sense to me as you can't store your own power. Maybe somebody knows better. We looked at a few homes with solar. I'm aware that you can buy or lease, but both seem to be with downsides. In one example, the solar lease was to be transferred with home purchase with like 17 years left at around $140 a month. Of course the savings were nice in the winter when you see a $2 electric bill, but that still means you were really at $142 that month. In the summer they averaged maybe $100 a month to provider, but again that's really $240 with the solar included. On a lease you are in this cycle all the time. At least if you buy, I guess eventually the $2 a month is nice, but from what I've heard the panels won't work as well so that number may be much higher. Also adding to this is the potential for roof leaks since you now have a bunch of mounting points, especially if installed on a non-new roof.

With states that left you store power, at least then you can hopefully function off the grid or at minimum run off battery during the day and then top up at lower rates.
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So, we just bought a house in October with solar and took over the financing for it. Solar was put in in 2019 and will produce SRECs until 2029 (not sure what they offer now, as I think the SREC program may have ended). Our financing goes until 2040 I think. We pay $207 for the system a month and as of January 6, have made $820 off of SRECs. Have maybe paid $20 to AC Electric in that time. Over the 12 months prior to us buying the house, the previous homeowners made an average of $7 a month accounting for all the bills and SRECs for electric. So I guess they were planning on having free electric until 2029 when the SRECs run out and then just pay the $207 until the system was paid off. I'm taking a different approach and putting everything from the SRECs into principal payments on the system to knock off a bunch of interest and pay it off earlier, hopefully by the time the SRECs run out. So that I could have some free electricity while it's still under warranty. Then I'll think about getting the latest and greatest solar shingles and moving this system to a future workshop somewhere else on the property with battery backup that'll be completely off the grid. Still need to build said workshop, lol.

I'm pretty sure NJ let's you store and use power with the battery back up. I almost bought the battery system to add onto the house, but it would have been another $156/month for 25 years. A whole home natural gas generator would cost significantly less, so I passed on it for now.
 
johnbryanpeters said:
I have an array of Enphase panels and inverters.

In the future I won't purchase Tesla anything on a bet.
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Are they less costly and better specs than the Tesla stuff? I have not priced anything out or started looking at the specification of what is out there.
I've looked at some forums but a lot are about being completely off the grid and I am not looking for that. More like a supplement and whole house back up without the generator noise.
 
JerseyPete said:
Are they less costly and better specs than the Tesla stuff? I have not priced anything out or started looking at the specification of what is out there.
I've looked at some forums but a lot are about being completely off the grid and I am not looking for that. More like a supplement and whole house back up without the generator noise.
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I haven't researched it since all my stuff is functional at present.
 
OK. So I have an 8yr old Rheem 50gal Water Heater. I did not know the anode needed to be replaced until this thread. Turns out that there was not enough room to replace with a rigid anode so I got a flexible replacement. Hard to find the correct one; no plumbing supply houses within 30 miles carry the flexible type and Rheem does not make a flexible replacement. I guess that they would rather sell new water heaters rather than replacement parts. Bad for me; good for them. It was impossible to remove the anode with a breaker bar or pipe. Had to use a 1/2” drive pneumatic impact wrench at full force to crack the corrosion. My anode rod was totally shot! Check the photo out. Thanks for the advice. My only small concern is that a medium sized chunk of magnesium broke off the end and fell into the tank despite my best efforts. I hope the debris will dissolve and not damage the glass or create a clog. It was pretty soft and crumbly so hopefully it will not cause issues. Thx for the info!

8A41AE12-8575-4609-B23A-58260C172E15.jpeg
 
I guess it's time to replace it. I've done zero maintenance to it. Has to be 13 years old maybe older. I put it in 2008 or 09.
I don't think tankless works in my home without major plumbing ,gas and water line adjustment.
 
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Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST said:
I guess it's time to replace it. I've done zero maintenance to it. Has to be 13 years old maybe older. I put it in 2008 or 09.
I don't think tankless works in my home without major plumbing ,gas and water line adjustment.
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Is the government giving $$ for switching to heat pump hot water heaters yet?
 
Mahnken said:
So, we just bought a house in October with solar and took over the financing for it. Solar was put in in 2019 and will produce SRECs until 2029 (not sure what they offer now, as I think the SREC program may have ended). Our financing goes until 2040 I think. We pay $207 for the system a month and as of January 6, have made $820 off of SRECs. Have maybe paid $20 to AC Electric in that time.
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I would be interested to see what your net electrical payment is. What you outlined above is way more than I pay for electric (thinking we both have large, 4-BR homes).
 
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