It's been quite a while since I've written anything here - August of 2015, to be exact - to the point where I no longer live in Massachusetts! I've been busy...
In February of 2016, I met the love of my life, Jen - we moved in together in April and got married in July 2017. We're unbelievably well matched and we couldn't be happier.
At that time, we were living in downtown Milford, MA, upstairs from a fairly raucous bar. The landlord threw us out because I didn't think Brett Kavanagh belonged on the Supreme Court, but that's another whole story. Suffice it to say that I should thank him, because that started us on the journey to where we are today.
We got an apartment in town when the dust settled from that, and I had gotten a better job with better pay than when we first met, so we decided we had to start saving and house hunting. My job allows me to work from home full time, so where the house was didn't matter so much, and with real estate prices in Massachusetts just about out of reach, Jen started researching northeast CT. She found several great places, but one in particular that we loved, so we made an offer, it was accepted, and we were homeowners! We moved in on Nov 15, 2020, the proud owners of an 8 room, three bedroom raised ranch with 2 full baths and an outbuilding on almost 2 acres of land. Best of all, I had lived in this town when I was in college, a lifetime ago, it's great to be back.
The house was heated by oil with forced hot water, and did not have central air. Our first major renovation was to install a ground-sourced geothermal heating and cooling system - we removed the oil furnace (it was only 3 years old) and donated it to Habitat for Humanity. I knew about geothermal systems from my years of environmentalism, but I wasn't up on the latest trends - Jen was bubbling over with info about how great they are today, and I was stunned at the newest info. The system went live in late February, 2021, along with an electrical service upgrade to 200 Amps.
The system uses a ground loop filled with anti-freeze so that there's a constant heating/cooling source at 55 degrees F. They drilled a single well 380 feet into the front yard and trenched over to the side of the house where the furnace room was located. In the winter, the system will cool that antifreeze and use the heat to warm the house, through ductwork we had installed along with it. In the summer months, the system is reversed and it uses the ground loop to cool the house VERY efficiently. Our first summer, we kept the house at 73 degrees 24 x 7, and our biggest electric bill was $150 (we used just 768 kWH of electricity that month). We also have a super efficient air-sourced heat pump water heater, with a pre-heat tank and a de-superheater so that any heat left in the system pre-heats our hot water before being applied to the ground loop. Essentially, we get free hot water all summer long by running the air conditioning.
About a month after the geothermal system went in, we had the house insulated through a state/utility program. We had to pay $3,500 for over $7,500 worth of insulation - $500 out of pocket, and $3,000 financed at 0% on our electric bill. Part of the financing for the geothermal system is also on a loan paid on our electric bill, and part of that is a bank loan at 3%. Heating in the winter is still expensive - about $300 more on every electric bill - but the price of oil went over $5.00 that winter, and we didn't have a 275 gallon tank to fill any more. Heating oil right now is still around $4.00 per gallon, meaning we would be burning over $5,000 per year in oil costs - I'd much rather make loan payments on a piece of equipment that I own and will provide heating and cooling for the next 50 years with minimal maintenance.
In June of 2021, I got tired of fixing yet another cracked thermostat housing on my 2012 Chevy Cruze (it was number 3 or 4), so Jen and I went looking for wheels. We found a used Hyundai Ioniq, an EV with decent range, for $19,000 - sold! The electrician who worked on our geothermal install came back and installed an outlet for the car charger in the garage. The car is great, and it's perfect for the type of things we need to do in our area, but we do need to plan our longer trips by where we can stop for a charge.
Next up was solar power. I work for a solar power firm in MA, but we're not licensed for work in CT, so I went in search of a good company to do business with. I found Aegis Solar, and they took excellent care of us with a system with 30 LG 375 watt panels and Enphase micro-inverters, the best in the business and the same products we use where I work. We financed it through a state program at 6% interest, and in mid February of 2022, that system went live. The system generates about 11,000 kWH of power annually, and we get to bank credits in the summer for use in the winter when we don't generate as much and the heating system will be running. We also have a wood stove that we use in extreme cold weather to keep the geothermal from running too much.
We also had new windows installed. We found an installer who did Pella windows at a reasonable price - 10 new windows installed at just over $1,200 each. These windows should deliver excellent performance versus the 30 year old wood frame windows we replaced - those are stacked outside for use in an eventual greenhouse. And check out what we've done with our fire pit:
Earlier this year, we traded in our Ioniq for a 2021 Hyundai Kona EV - all the same features with twice the range, great car! The only carbon footprint we have left is the LP gas on our BBQ grill and a couple of butane lighters. We're looking at electric and/or wood pellet BBQ systems to replace the grill when it finally quits, but we'll make do for now with LP gas.
Our combined payments on all of those - geothermal, insulation, car, solar panels, and new windows is under $1,600 monthly - the insulation has less than 3 months left, while the others are 6 and 10 year terms at various points - for example, we're three years into the ten year term for geothermal, while we have over 2 years paid out of ten for the solar loan. We're a couple of months in on the six year term for the car.
These energy improvements to our home are, in essence. my retirement account. I lost everything and went bankrupt in the crash of 2009, so it feels really good to be back in control of my destiny like this. Once the loans are paid, we will live here without heating and cooling costs and a minimal electric bill. I can live with that!
One more thing to note — we got tax credits for a lot of this! As a result, we really haven’t had to pay much federal tax these last few years. Thanks for reading — let me know in the comments if you’ve done anything similar!