Energy Audit

Getting solar panels will reduce/remove my electric bill but they won't make my house any more energy efficient.  They won't do a thing for the gas bill either.
I recently had an energy audit from a company called "Green Label Solutions".
They came over on a Friday morning and for 2 hours took thermal images of my entire home.
They measured everything from the flame in my gas furnace to the ice cubes in my freezer.

They suggested I have the following things done to my house: 

• Seal all the air leaks around my windows and doors. 
• Put foam pads behind all exterior wall plates. 
• Put in more baffles for my soffit vents in the attic. 

I was kind of on the fence with having these things performed until a few weeks ago when the outside temperature got down to 2 degrees F.  Our house was not cold but I could feel drafts coming from our windows.  Specifically the crack between the vinyl window casing and the wall itself. 

Why don't home builders spend an extra $2 per windows and install them correctly?  Insulate and air seal please.  Also, why put in an energy star vinyl basement window only to have them set into a steel frame?  That defeats the whole reason for having a vinyl casement in the first place.  Now I have Energy Star windows being nulled out by thermally conductive casings. 
There is nothing I can do about my 7 basement windows without first removing them and re-doing the entire install.  What a pain. 

While I'm on the topic, I have a gripe about Energy Star Windows.  In order to qualify for energy star, they must be able to leak less than 0.3 cubic feet of air per minute.  This spec is like an ice cream shop advertising that their milk shakes are guaranteed to contain less than 0.3 cups of poop per serving. 

It is beyond me why they continue to produce such windows and call them energy star.  Give me one that carries a zero cubic feet/min leakage rate please!

Solar Panels 3 months later

Well, it's been over 3 months since I first tied my inverter to the grid and my solar panels started producing electricity.

With my net-meter, I get a 1 for 1 credit for all excess electricity I make. It has not been sunny enough to roll my meter all the way back to zero. Over the past 3 months, I've used 524KWH more than I have produced.

In December (the darkest month of the year), my usage exceeded production by 310KWH.
In January, I exceeded by 110 KWH.
In February, so far I have a surplus of 67KWH.
My meter got as high as 590 KWH but over the past 4 weeks is making its way back down. And the days are only getting longer.

Though I am months away from actually making more than I use, it's looking like I will have an excess of nearly 100KWH/month on average.  This will come in handy to reduce my gasoline consumption when my number comes up on the Nissan Leaf Electric car waiting list. 

http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/index#/leaf-electric-car/index

Imagine, powering your whole house and driving to work all for free using just energy from the sun.  No pollution, no foreign oil, just clean, sexy, solar power made in your own backyard.