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Old 08-18-2020, 11:19 AM   #132
mswlogo
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Oh I have to mention.

This is long, but I’m sure some of you will get a kick out if it.

One of the biggest reasons we passed on the island was energy.

We bought Solar about 4 years ago with great incentives. Totally out of the blue. Never thought we could have solar because of how house was situated. I got an energy usage monitor as part of the system. That’s where it all started. I went on an energy saving binge. My goal was Carbon neutral (didn’t even know what that meant at the time). Even though Solar was covering everything and excess went to the grid. I hated seeing waste.

Then a friend bought a Tesla Model 3 (he got Solar a few years before me). I loved all the tech. In Mass or NH it does not really pay to own a Tesla because of high electricity cost. But I still wanted it and solar made it a "little" more practical to own. I still had a Jeep Summit and needed that for lugging the sh$t that washed up on my beach. Loved that Jeep Summit though. Could not use Model 3 much traveling to the lake. So I decided I wanted to go full EV. Traded the Jeep for a Model X (it could tow). And swapped the Model 3 for a Chevy Volt. Yes, this guy is crazy. Yes, the island part is coming. I didn’t want to own two Tesla’s and it was cheaper to trade it. My wife also refused to drive the Model 3, which didn't help matters. She will drive the Model X though.

So now with incentives on Solar that profit paid for all other carbon fuel we used. Not Carbon Neutral but close.

In the mean time I sold my awesome Tige Full inboard. Loved that boat to death. Paid $32k and sold it for $20K after 17 years. But my daughter rarely came up. Mainly used it to water ski. Hard finding someone to ski with at 6AM. Didn’t use it enough for all the work of maintaining it. 2-3 weekends used just for getting boat ready for spring and winter. I do everything myself. That’s just how I am. And that boat was not great on any chop. So selling it also got rid of another carbon burner and it freed up some weekends. I knew it was dangerous selling it because it was a big anchor in keeping the house. We also had recently bought a Hobie Tandem island and preferred be on the water with that most of the time than the motor bought. But I sure did occasionally wish we had a motor boat. But it was so infrequent a need to justify.

Now comes the island. Had to get a BIG Carbon eating machine. That we would need to go grocery shopping with. We really really had a hard time getting past that. It really feels good living literally off the sun. I'm sure a big boat would have been fun. But burning that much fuel for pleasure bothered us. It was not the money at all.

We might put Solar in at the new house too depending on how things go.

Last edited by mswlogo; 08-18-2020 at 03:25 PM.
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