We are spending like drunken sailors, but at least half of it is forward looking and should reduce expenses down the road.
For example, we spent a silly amount of money on geothermal (technically a ground based heat pump, but I digress). That should last 25 years or so, with markedly reduced run rate. Ditto solar batteries. Ditto our ADA compliant first floor. And so on.
I would not be surprised if our run rate in retirement is a third of what it is now. We hope to spend the savings in a world where we can travel without COVID worries.
Geothermal from what I know is a good LONG term investment. The issue would be if you needed to move unexpectedly. Youād leave all that value behind. If I were building a house, weād put in geothermal.
@ucbalumnus Actually, weāve found from selling our previous houses that people expect utility bills to be in line with normal expectations. IF they are lower you donāt get a bump. We had a Viessman system in our last house. IT could be oil or with a switch gas. It was extremely efficient and the costs were super low for a huge house and it didnāt raise the price. The system costs about 30-50K.
I think in a lower cost home things like that might make a difference but in some instances, the expectations are that the systems are high end or specialized ( if the home is expensive). In a normal home, the expectations are that the systems are in line with the home,
Depends primarily on the costs of Utils in the local area. For example, electric is extremely high CA, MA and HI, so solar and HPās can add value to a buyer as it would reduce future utility bills. OTOH, LA and WA have some of the lowest costs in teh country so less money to save, and thus, less financial value.
All kidding aside, with wells for water, septic for waste, solar and batteries for electric, ground based heat pump for HVAC, we have not paid a utility bill since the systems went live. We still use propane to heat our hot tub (heat pump is not suitable) and for our extreme safety net (grid is down for multiple days, batteries ran down, sun hasnāt come back out) and the propane generator was already installed.
I donāt know the financial payback period (probably longer than I will be alive), but there are off spreadsheet benefits. I think economists call them externalities. I know my power is clean (save for the small amount of propane), the system is very quiet, it doesnāt smell like oil, the temperature is very constant, and we are oblivious to even extended grid outages (assuming the sun shines eventually).
We built a very energy efficient home (with 2 X 6 walls instead of 2 X 4). When we do go to sell, it may help us sell faster - I am not sure how much better price. We have the newer energy efficient HVAC. People here often gauge home price/value by $ per sq ft. They may not see where the costs are cut for builder profit - on HVAC units, how the duct work is run, how well things are done behind the walls. We tried to do very well on thinking things out. However the new home smell is a very big allure to people who think they are purchasing āno problemsā.
Builders here who sub out various parts of construction can have various defective things (one friend had a AC unit on top of her house, but the condensation drainage was never done, so she had a water leak in her kitchen ceiling). Another friend (who had the house built by the builder) had a 2nd floor water pipe leak because the seam seals were not properly done. Another friend bought a new home with a nice sod yard with sprinkler system, but the landscaper didnāt do the ground soil preparation under all of that, so water would run off instead of staying below the sod - and to keep the grass green it cost $$$ over the hot summer months (she was annoyed at a monthly water bill over $400 - which was about 15 years ago).
Having all the main maintenance and freshening up finishes so that we can compete well with new home construction comparison (and the new homes are adding at least a half hour commute each way - which doesnāt bother some people - but H and I always enjoy living close to stuff and not wasting more time driving places and the wear and tear on vehicles).
Not selling until we know where we want to move to. Now a little over 12 months to retirement.
The community we live in is being run as a solar farm in conjunction with our power supplier. The houses in the first two phases of the build featured leased solar systems that provide for zero electric bills other than the $18/month connection charge through 2034. Having no AC bill in the desert is huge, and those homes do command a premium. Our house is not on that lease, but we have an āownedā solar system that cuts our electric costs by more than half what it was in our old house (average monthly bill is less than $100). Of course, we are still on the grid and will lose power if our part of the grid goes down. We are seriously considering the Tesla Power Wall for self-sufficiency. Were we ever to build a new house, a geothermal pump would be top of the list. It just makes so much sense in this climate. Kudos to you @IxnayBob; my husband is jealous.
@ChoatieMom , I warned my wife that, if she continued to work, Iād find a way to spend the money ?
One thing I couldnāt do as a retrofit is something I would do if I ever build a new house: connect pool and HVAC. How silly to simultaneously heat my pool and cool my house. I investigated and it was prohibitively complicated as a retro fit.
The Tesla PowerWalls are a great solution to a flaky grid and/or Time of Use Charging. We had Tesla out multiple times, but they just couldnāt figure out how to get the cables through our conduit and would have required a lot of trenching; we went with another solution that has the batteries in a dedicated closet inside the house. We still might install Tesla PowerWalls for the (detached) garage.
@IxnayBob, how do you connect pool and HVAC? Would doing so save money on either one? Weāre planning to build what we hope will be our last house and it will have a pool. Currently we have a gas heater on our pool and itās not uncommon for me to need to run the pool heat on days when we need A/C in the house.
My husband, who had to take early retirement, is concerned about the upfront costs of some of our choices but he also places a high value on comfort. The project will be challenging.
The idea is that a heat pump moves heat from inside the house, where you donāt want it (in summer), to the pool, where you do want it. Itās like a fridge, which moves heat from food to the kitchen (where you might want it, or at least can tolerate it).
It doesnāt replace your ground loop, but is an addition to it. We have 2000ā feet of ground loop, and did dig up our yard quite a bit, but the logistics of pipes from house to pool were daunting.
The GSHP has been a revelation. I monitor electric use, and it is shockingly efficient. In a heat wave, it had no problem keeping our bedroom at 67 (I know, I know, but I make up for it in winter when I set our bedroom to 60).
I wish weād started building a couple of years ago and am having a hard time not saying that to my husband since heās the reason for the delay. Materials prices are up significantly and there are much longer lead times on many things. Heās going to be shocked when our overall cost comes in at least a third higher than heās estimating.
Iām becoming even more jealous @IxnayBob especially if you were able to have a heated pool and AC house under that system.
@bluebayou I think there is a certain type of buyer who likes clean systems like solar etc and are willing to pay a premium for it. Though it also depends on where you live. Our house with the premium system was in MA and no one would pay a premium. Also, I would imagine if the systems were a high % of the value of the house then maybe a higher price would be relevant. Houses are expensive in our area so systems are a very small % of total costs.
Maybe in CA or someone who wants a green house or something along those lines. When we were looking for a new house a few years ago, we noticed that āgreen housesā were sold at a higher cost per square foot and we also noticed they stayed on the market much longer. A friend of ours who is an architect told us, the issue often is, people want the latest and greatest systems and so putting in unique things which take time to cost absorb can be a sunk cost that you canāt get back. Iād love an outdoor heated pool but I think that would be something that wouldnāt add value to a house.
Not to be a jerk, but I remember saying what we needed was a good recession to get return calls from contractors. COVID hasnāt improved contractors, our GC canāt hire enough subs, and, as you say, materials cost more even when theyāre available. Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for, even in jest.
@Happytimes2001 , to be clear, we have GSHP for the house, but the pool is heated with a ānormalā air sourced heat pump.
We are in MA, and might never get out what we put into the systems if we are just running numbers. But, to play on the ad: hearing birds even when AC kicks on, never smelling oil again, setting the thermostat where you want it, not being afraid to open a utility bill: Priceless.
@IxnayBob Did you put the system in when you built a house or did you put the system into a home that was already built? My spouse wants to put solar in our beautiful 3 acre field.(eyesore v. savings =inertia). But I like your system idea better. Iād be more inclined to go that route if it can be done for a home thatās already been built.
Depends on the type of recession. The 2008 recession was real estate / construction driven, so contractors were hungry for jobs. The COVID-19 recession did not seem to hit the wealthy so much (stock market is holding up, even though unemployment is high), so demand from the wealthy may still fill contractorsā books. In addition, when commercial spaces are being used less, it may be a good time to do any needed maintenance or any desired upgrades that may be more difficult to do when the space is being filled with people. COVID-19 itself may also cause some workers to be sick and unavailable some of the time, and social distancing measures may reduce the speed at which jobs can be done.
The issue is that most everyone is home and not spending money traveling, eating out, going out, etc., so they have disposable cash. Moreover, sitting at home everyday, people notice all the projects that they were previously ignoring, so they are using that new found disposable cash to fix things around the house stead. Yes, good contractors are extremely busy right now.
Getting work done is slower and probably more expensive because of COVID.
We are planning to use solar power to both run our pool heater and most of our AC (though at some point we would want to convert a gas unit to a heat pump that would run on electricity).
