Got it.

Yeah, all the crummy cal-shake and Cemwood roof homeowners are out of luck at this point.
There is a new product on the market called “Cedur” but i anticipate its will meet a similar fate.

36" from the ridge for venting. Some FDs are ok with only one side a ridge having this, some say they want to be able to vent either side because the way the wind is blowing matters. 3' clear up the sides to walk up. 18" on both sides of a hip or valley if panels are on both sides. Some will let you have no setbacks if you cover less than x% of the roof.

In CA 10 years ago there were lots of cities with no setback requirements, but it's been fairly standard since the state put out some fire marshall guidelines.

FD is also concerned with DC wires that are always live. There's a new requirement that there has to be a rapid shutdown device that kills any wires that extend outside the array (certain distance - I forget what). Also wires in the attic need to run 18" below the deck so as to avoid getting chain sawed.

For commercial buildings and large arrays there are more setbacks. Usually 4' around the perimeter and pathways every so many feet with bigger clear areas every so often. It's all about venting the roofs.

thx

Yeah, I was a little surprised they went so close to the edge as well. Guess they wanted to get as many as they could facing that way -- there's another 10 panels on the front of the house too.

Right now I'm just happy it's on/working. quite a bit of red tape they have to go through post-installation, then the bad inverter, etc etc. one of the installers did comment about how good the condition of the roof was -- which, it obviously better have been, but that comment made me think that the install must have been pretty straightforward.

Thanks for the advice during this process, microbet!

billdacat,

Happy to help.

On the refi front, went and checked with PNC, who basically came in $1k lower on the closing costs, and got 3.125% with no points, as opposed to 1 full point - so that saved nearly $4500 there.

lol coordination fee

Update on my refinance: they are taking their sweet as time in underwriting, my rate lock has a week left and interest rates are climbing because Trump is a dummas.

My appraisal came in at $11k higher than the appraisal 6 months ago with 2 of the same comps used. I refinished the kitchen cabinets, replaced all the sinks/faucets/countertops and lighting fixtures, and painted for approximately $5k leaving a potential $6k return.

I signed an agreement that said the interest rate was subject to the house apprasing at x value.....it came in lower than I expected , so my sweet 3% might not go through.

Forgot to mention, you'll probably also have to replace the quarter-round that hides the edges of the wood floors, as it's usually removed when they carpet over hardwood floors.

Interest rates have actually come down in the past week .. though they did certainly jump since the beginning of the month. Sept 1 I was quoted 3%, now I'm at 3.125%, but it was 3.375% around the middle of the month ..

Personally I don't care if it drifts back down to 3%, I mean I'd take it, but there's only so much lower they can go -- not going to play chicken with an eighth of a point when the upside risk is so much more. I'd imagine whatever you could lock in now would be pretty solid.

Probably matters what % equity MLY assumed she was going to jump to, vs what % it turns out she has. If her anticipated value was going to imply 40% equity v different than 22%.

Didn't realize that. Figured anything above 22% equity was treated the same. Learn something new every day.

Bilda,

I literally don't know. My guess would be that there's tradeoffs and such and that increased equity can offset other things that might be less awesome about the property or the rate. Like I'd guess if you had 80% equity you'd be able to have a slightly lower credit score than you might otherwise require to get the best rate at 20%. But yeah, I have no idea and mostly am extrapolating from M's general lack of candor about anything that's not 100% glowing light on herself.

IIRC 1/8th of a point is like $12/$100k financed/month on a 5 year. So I'd guess that on a $300k loan over 15 years it's something similar. So M shouldn't really sweat the 1/8th of a point. Nice to save $150-200/year but not game changing at her income and expense level.

Looking closer at my energy usage, and decided to see what the average usa#1 person uses. Around 900kwH a month, so 30 kwH a day.

That seems insane to me. I'm usually double that at a minimum, and i don't go crazy on heating/cooling either. 2k sqft split level, nothing huge. What are you all averaging for a day/month of electricity usage?

I'm replaced my HVAC system, had an energy audit, blew in new insulation, etc etc. Something is either still quite wrong with my house, or these average figures are wrong / skewed..

I use about 10kwh a day, but I live in an 1100 sf house, almost never use heat and don't have air conditioning. I think all our light bulbs are LEDs at this point. (very close to the beach in SoCal - don't need heat/ac)

microbet skewing the average

We were at 2200 last month and 1900 the month before for around 2400 sqft. That's with the AC running pretty much nonstop the entire time as we live in Hell. Looking at the graph on the bill I'd guess our yearly average is somewhere between half and 2/3 of that. Our winter usage goes way down due to gas heat.

I'm assuming that they will try to increase my interest rate because they had me sign a letter saying I understood that the interest rate was subject to the house appraising at a certain value.

This agreement could mean one of the following:
-Equity is included in their risk equation: higher equity=lower risk=lower interest rate

Or

-It's a ploy for them to put a stipulation on a locked rate to then increase the rate near the final steps of the approval process. My guess would be they have a good success rate as it's impossible for a homeowner to access their home at the same value as the appraiser and people are so worn down by all the paperwork that they don't bother starting over with another lender.

Wife stopped by yesterday and pulled some carpet.
Looks to be in great shape.

I also live in hell, so take that into consideration.

My 1yr avg for 1100sqft, 2story, 5yr old home, tankless water heater was: 954kWh

My last 8month avg for 1650sqft, 1story 30 yr old home, running 2hp pool pump constantly is: 2018kWh

Both places have all electric and no gas and are slab foundations and brick exteriors.

Covering that floor with carpet should be a crime.

This.

Might make a temporary exception for toddlers but that's about it.

Most people in MN and I would assume a lot of the northern part of the country uses gas heat so electric is quite a bit lower during the winter, that might be part of the discrepancy.

We averaged 36 a day last month. Most days the high was in the upper 90s. Thermostat set at 76 during the day. It is a new house.