LMAO. I DO turn it off most of the time....and I DO save a lot of money, even with recently-higher electric rates. You really should stop grasping at straws......those straws are running out.

 

For sure, bring on the nuclear.
Not a dirty word to me. 😀

 

This isn't accurate. Property taxes here are ~ 1% of a house's value and they are mostly under assessed, property taxes in the DMV are low compared to many places in the country coming in middle of the road (meaning 50% of regions have higher tax rates). This is also not the #1 or #2 largest local economy, its #6.

 

I BLAST my AC in the summer. All hail SUNPOWER 😎

 

I blast my AC and just pay the electric bill LOL

 

Any ev owners not running solar?

I need someone to blame for my sky high electric bill! Haha

 

Talk to Bit, he just installed solar on his property. He produces more electricity in the winter than I do all year

 

Here in the California Bay Area, we are paying ~1.3% I would say on average, some counties pay more or less by a little. It is quite prohibitive when house prices are commonly around 2 mil. That's 2K a month on top of a 10K mortgage. Really a tough area.

But back to the grid. At least in California, we thankfully haven't had any blackouts due to pressure on the grid in a while.

Someone correct me if Im wrong, but at least in California, we can no longer sell back our unused/generated energy to the utilities at a good rate (if at all). Something recently changed. So the only best bet is to tack on the battery storage. A whole new unit can easily run 40K. Just a really long term return here...

But all newly built houses must have solar. I went to a few new properties recently, and of course developers are just meeting the bare minimum requirement on the number of cells, without the storage.

 

EVs use <1% of the America's power production. People should redirect their concern/anger about this to AI data centers (~5% of the nation's power and growing fast), the value of which flows to a handful of wealthy investors while putting creative & white collar workers out of jobs en masse and filling the internet with slop. Or crypto mining (2%) which provides nothing of use to the world other enriching the owner.

I find it strange that people are expected to "pick a side" with regard to EVs vs Gas cars and then defend that side all-or-nothing. I own 3 gas cars (including an LC500) and 1 EV (and previously a different EV). I defend gas cars as being more fun to drive, better for long road trips, and more suitable for anyone without a home charger. I defend EVs as being more practical and cost-effective for almost everyone else. And they keep the air in our neighborhoods cleaner, which is good for the health of the community.

The fact is that the growth in energy consumption is gradual enough that power plants are able to add capacity just as quickly as it is being used up. EVs can be programmed to charge whenever the rate is the cheapest, which spreads out demand for power..

 

Yep, no need to pick a side. Just buy and drive what's best for you, your needs and family. Period. 👍

LC500 = ❤️

 

$2k a month on a $2M house is not bad at all. Compare to NY/NJ where they pay $2k a month on a house less than $1M.

 

y'all have 2% property tax in the east coast? Well I'll gladly take that if house prices are under 1 mil. lol

 

My property taxes are ~$22.5K a year. That said, my township has really well maintained roads & public spaces and above average schools. PD is pretty friendly too

 

Fairfax County's tax rate, where I live, is $1.12 per $100 assessed vaue, or 1.12%. Montgomery County, where you live, is a little lower.....0.89% to 1.11%. Still, the high assessed-values here mean a LOT of tax.. Some single-family homes in my neighborhood are paying $15,000 or more a year on real estate tax alone....my small condo, of course, is a lot less than that.

I did not say it was the LARGEST local economy....only one of the most prosperous, even with the recent Federal-Worker layoffs. The huge Federal presence here has traditionally made this area at least recession-resistant, if not recession-proof. The large number of new and used vehicles of all types sold here of all types also reinforces the big vehicle-market here.

And, since we are on the thread-subject of power-grids, a lot of the electricity-demand for the growing number of AI centers is also here in Northern VA.

 

Do we need a new thread on this or can we make it relative to power grids?