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Old 08-15-2017, 01:43 PM
 
Location: equator
11,089 posts, read 6,681,584 times
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You think our little solar place has a hard time selling---what would you predict for this wilderness place that has our "problems" much compounded? The listing does not even indicate it is on solar, and "only" a 1.6K watt installation dating back to the early 90's when my husband installed and serviced it till we moved.


1 S Millcreek Cyn, Moab, UT 84532 - realtor.com®


Believe it or not, this was a vacation rental....
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Old 08-15-2017, 02:17 PM
 
Location: Las Vegas
14,229 posts, read 30,070,909 times
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I saw this one when I was looking for yours. I have been to Moab 3 or 4 times and remember it to be hotter than Las Vegas. I can't imagine living there without full on AC. Maybe a swamper could handle it in May and June but the rest of the summer screams AC! But because of the altitude it would cool off at night so at least you could sleep.

I think this is a very cool house. But the first thing I would probably have to do is upgrade the solar by at least a few megawatts. The price per SF is very high.
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Old 08-15-2017, 08:08 PM
 
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,681 posts, read 81,437,637 times
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That seems very reasonable, our average price/sf is $337, and for the size and acreage that house would be closer to 3 million here. Someone with lots of money will buy it for a vacation home, probably from Seattle, Portland or San Francisco.
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Old 08-16-2017, 07:27 AM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,500 posts, read 61,523,940 times
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Some people do love the desert. I do not wish to bash anyone who loves desert. All of that rock makes it look uninviting to me. I prefer dense forest and river-frontage

1.6K watt of solar is pretty small. We have 4.4K watt supplying our home, and it is okay. Now that we have bought a plug-in car, that really sucks up some of our available power. We know people who do okay on less than 1K watt of power, but I would not want to live on less than 4K watt.
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Old 08-16-2017, 08:55 AM
 
Location: The Driftless Area, WI
7,305 posts, read 5,189,207 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Submariner View Post
Some people do love the desert. I do not wish to bash anyone who loves desert. All of that rock makes it look uninviting to me. I prefer dense forest and river-frontage

1.6K watt of solar is pretty small. We have 4.4K watt supplying our home, and it is okay. Now that we have bought a plug-in car, that really sucks up some of our available power. We know people who do okay on less than 1K watt of power, but I would not want to live on less than 4K watt.
Yea, the golden rules of green living are re-use, re-cycle and re-duce. The average American family of 4 uses just under 1000kW-hr per month. In the SW they may get 6 hrs of good sunlight per day, so that average usage would need a 5.5 kW system. In ME, you're probably not even getting 5 hrs of sun a day, so you're doing a good job of reducing usage.
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Old 08-16-2017, 09:58 AM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,500 posts, read 61,523,940 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto View Post
Yea, the golden rules of green living are re-use, re-cycle and re-duce. The average American family of 4 uses just under 1000kW-hr per month. In the SW they may get 6 hrs of good sunlight per day, so that average usage would need a 5.5 kW system. In ME, you're probably not even getting 5 hrs of sun a day, so you're doing a good job of reducing usage.
Our consumption has grown a great deal since shifting to solar power. The issue is in shifting your consumption to during day-light.

Putting timers on our chest freezers helps a great deal.
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Old 08-16-2017, 10:35 AM
 
Location: equator
11,089 posts, read 6,681,584 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemlock140 View Post
That seems very reasonable, our average price/sf is $337, and for the size and acreage that house would be closer to 3 million here. Someone with lots of money will buy it for a vacation home, probably from Seattle, Portland or San Francisco.

They would? With no grid, a 4-wheel drive rutted road that floods, insufficient solar system, single-pane windows, an hour from medical facilities, no jobs, a barely-producing well?


Why do they get a pass on all the deal-breakers re our property?
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Old 08-16-2017, 10:37 AM
 
Location: equator
11,089 posts, read 6,681,584 times
Reputation: 25611
Quote:
Originally Posted by Submariner View Post
Some people do love the desert. I do not wish to bash anyone who loves desert. All of that rock makes it look uninviting to me. I prefer dense forest and river-frontage

1.6K watt of solar is pretty small. We have 4.4K watt supplying our home, and it is okay. Now that we have bought a plug-in car, that really sucks up some of our available power. We know people who do okay on less than 1K watt of power, but I would not want to live on less than 4K watt.

That was my point about the 1.6K watts for a home this size. 3 + times larger than our little place with its 1K that many said was insufficient.
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Old 08-16-2017, 01:47 PM
509
 
6,321 posts, read 7,070,093 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Submariner View Post
Some people do love the desert. I do not wish to bash anyone who loves desert. All of that rock makes it look uninviting to me. I prefer dense forest and river-frontage

1.6K watt of solar is pretty small. We have 4.4K watt supplying our home, and it is okay. Now that we have bought a plug-in car, that really sucks up some of our available power. We know people who do okay on less than 1K watt of power, but I would not want to live on less than 4K watt.
Well, it really depends on how well you conserve energy.

Our home is 1.5K-watt. In Washington state we are so far north and have sunny weather except for the time period between Thanksgiving and Presidents Day means the generator never runs for nine months of the year. Come December-January and early Feb the generator does come on.

The lack of air conditioning is not an issue. Yes, it get up to the 90's n the summer, but at night it comes down to the 40's. So we leave ALL windows open at night and close up the house during the day. Works fine. I suspect Moab is at a high enough elevation that probably is the case there during the summer.

Lots of particularly urban folks have never learned to conserve energy. We had some woman rent the house in July and they managed to draw down the battery bank and get the generator to start on a sunny weekend!! A historic event...they must have used hair dryers for their hair.

I just bought another 1 kw in solar panels that a neighbor was selling. The state of Washington is buying his house and tearing it down. Since it was exactly the same set-up I had I could not pass up the opportunity. I suspect the additional 1 kw will have no significant effect on the generator run times. I might be able to shave a week or two at either end.
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Old 08-16-2017, 01:58 PM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,500 posts, read 61,523,940 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 509 View Post
Well, it really depends on how well you conserve energy.

Our home is 1.5K-watt. In Washington state we are so far north and have sunny weather except for the time period between Thanksgiving and Presidents Day means the generator never runs for nine months of the year. Come December-January and early Feb the generator does come on.

The lack of air conditioning is not an issue. Yes, it get up to the 90's n the summer, but at night it comes down to the 40's. So we leave ALL windows open at night and close up the house during the day. Works fine. I suspect Moab is at a high enough elevation that probably is the case there during the summer.

Lots of particularly urban folks have never learned to conserve energy. We had some woman rent the house in July and they managed to draw down the battery bank and get the generator to start on a sunny weekend!! A historic event...they must have used hair dryers for their hair.

I just bought another 1 kw in solar panels that a neighbor was selling. The state of Washington is buying his house and tearing it down. Since it was exactly the same set-up I had I could not pass up the opportunity. I suspect the additional 1 kw will have no significant effect on the generator run times. I might be able to shave a week or two at either end.
We owned a home in Bremerton for a few years before I retired. I would have liked to retire there, but we could not get the math to work using my pension. We had to move somewhere with a much lower COL.

It sounds like you are nearly doubling your photovoltaic capacity, good luck
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