This week the Housing Authority where I moved into a few months ago is holding info meetings to inform all the tenants we are going Solar. I live Close to Vandenberg Air Force Base, about 50 miles north of Santa Barbara, in Lompoc, Ca.
The HUD staff told us they were converting about 100 units locally. Using Stimulus money amounting to around 14 Million dollars HUD will be buying locally made panels, brackets, and using Local Labor.
We are a pretty foggy community in the morning and nights, but we have a strong breeze that blows through almost every afternoon. We rarely top 75 even when surrounding areas are much hotter, yet we still get plenty of sun.
My current electric bill runs about 125 a month, mainly because my wifes O2 generator runs 24/7 and costs a fortune to run. Our local Electric Co. gives no discounts to the handicapped like our Gas does. Being on a fixed income besides rent the electric bill is a huge expense every month so I was thrilled when they told us we could end up having a zero electric bill every month. We will be selling back into the grid or storing what isn't used every month so unless we get a really rainy month our bills should be drastically cut. This is real Change I can believe in!!
Of course there is always a catch, no free lunches and all that. After about 3 or 4 months of having our new state of the art solar system HUD will be deciding how much they will be charging us for administrative and maintenance fees. According to the staff our worth bill should never be more than half of what it would of been and probably less, but I have a wait a see attitude. HUD has hit me with extra bills 2 months out of the 4 months I have lived here and we cannot get any explanations of the charges/bills. They come with the Rent Voucher and you can't pay your rent without paying the extra and yet unexpectedly larger rent bill. Again, on a low fixed income, things like that really screw up our budget.
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It really is too bad that information of jobs like this did not make the daily News cycles, or the pocketbooks if the voters that will benefit from this changeover. I tried to tell some of the other tenants that they had Pres. Obama to thank for this but few believed it.