Day of Disappointments

This morning, I finally got the final paperwork for submitting the rebate request through our electric co-op for the new HVAC system we got in February. Once I got onto the site though, the application link was gone and, instead, I saw this:

I called the co-op and and she didn't have any information as to when it would go live again, but it's already been 3 months since we had it installed, and the deadline is 60 days. However, we had the heat pump put in on February 13. It was listed as "pending" in the city's building code inspection unit until... they were no longer allowed to do in-home inspections anymore because of COVID19. Then once they finally got out here, PEC has closed down the program.

Granted, it was only $300 on a substantially more expensive project, but still... we were certainly expecting it.

Then later this afternoon, I was brushing Mal's hair and he was mad about it, as usual. I was doing it while he was watching videos so he'd be distracted. He decided to play LEGO Star Wars instead, and instead of choosing "Load Game," he selected "New Game," and clicked on the game slot we have been playing for six months. We have 68% of the game completed. The warning popped up, "This will delete the data for the existing game. Do you wish to proceed?" Before I could stop him, he pressed, "Yes." And it wiped out every bit of progress in the game. We had to start all over. All of the levels were locked, all of the characters locked. No coins, no accomplishments. Nothing.

There was a lot more crying involved in that than in the $300 thing, I can assure you.

It's been a few hours, and we're both coping okay. We've played a lot of computer games today, as I promised to help Mal catch back up to where we were.

Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is

(I suppose we have a collective mouth? That sentence doesn't make sense, but I wrote it like a week ago, so I guess I'll keep it.)

We've been bandying this about for a while, and it seemed time to put up or shut up.

I'll admit that I dragged my feet on the global climate issue for quite some time. But now, we're at a point where it seems like a lot of action needs to be taken (ESPECIALLY by the something like 100 giant companies that produce 71% of our earth's greenhouse gases).

But, honestly, we can all act in small ways that might make a difference. You know, lots of people doing lots of small things can be a big thing.

Anyway, something I didn't even know existed and am, frankly, skeptical about, is that our electric co-op has a renewable energy rider. If you sign up for it, it costs less than $1 a month extra, and they provide your electricity strictly from renewable sources (water, wind, solar, bio fuel). I have a lot of questions about this: Is there an external source monitoring this? Do they guarantee it? Why, when it's so stupidly cheap, doesn't just everyone do it? Why didn't I know about it until I searched for it? Maybe they can't accommodate every single person choosing that? Anyway. Lots of questions. But we did sign up for it, anyway.

And now, we've decided, after ruminating for a bit, to take the plunge and get solar panels. We're aiming to produce about 90% of the electricity we use, so the financing should be about the same price as our electric bills would be during the summer. It'll be a little higher during the milder months, but also hopefully our net metering, wherein we earn credit for excess energy we produce that our electric company buys from us (at half what we pay them for their stuff, but that's business for you), will help make up for that at that time.

Regardless of if we end up paying a bit more out of pocket, James and I have both been trying to figure out ways to reduce our impact on the environment. Hopefully this will help.

Honestly, committing ourself to MORE debt (all we have otherwise is our house and car, but still...) and ANOTHER monthly payment has me all up in "buyer's remorse" territory, even though we still have three days to back out. But, again, the net is negligible. AND this is, for now, anyway, the last year the government will give us a tax credit for 30% of the cost to install. Next year, it goes down to 26%, then in 2021 to 22%... then it goes away. Also, existing and potential tariffs are affecting and threaten to affect pricing. So, again... we're kind of in a sweet spot.

In other notes, we placed one of our apple trees in a bad place, solar-wise, so we'll just have to be sure to top it in a few years, and every year after. James said that no one wants to climb 40 feet to get an apple, anyway, so this is probably just a super practical idea on its own merit.

That's it for now! Keep going, earth!