Decisions, Decisions

I'm determined to get our electricity bill down this year. Last month's bill was a whopper—$420. I know we're in south Florida and we're going to use more A/C than other parts of the country. And I know our house was built in the early 1970s, so a lot of changes need to be made to help green it up, like replacing the windows, replacing the water heater, adding insulation, etc., etc. We've been good about replacing any appliances we've had to replace with Energy Star appliances. I actually saw a difference in the electricity bill when we replaced the washer and dryer last year. Amazing.

But a lot of these changes come with hefty price tags. New windows, forget it. We just don't have the money right now, even with a 30% federal tax credit. I'd love to replace the old 30-gallon electric water heater with something bigger and more efficient. It's got to be on its last legs since we've been here for 8 years and the people we bought from were here a year and they didn't know when the water heater had last been replaced. My dream would be to put in a solar water heater and we made room for it when we bought the new washer and dryer (we bought stackable), but, even with federal and state rebates, tons of money has to be laid out to begin with. Something like $6000. Ouch. And who knows when the state money gets sent out? From everything I'm reading, the state is about 2 years behind in the rebates. I don't know if we can afford to wait that long for the money, though I think the federal money is just taken right off the taxes. And I'd love to either add or totally replace the insulation in the attic. The price for that depends on the type of insulation we choose. I'd love to do something nice and green like putting in spray foam or denim, but, again, the price tag starts to grow the greener the product. And since we'd like to put in solar attic fans and solar tube lighting, don't we have to do these before we do the insulation?

My brain cells are starting to mush trying to decide what to do. Whatever decision is made has to be balanced with the fact that we need a bigger chicken coop now that we have 7 pullets getting close to merge time with the 4 already-laying hens. While we didn't spend huge money on the first coop—$400, we will spend a sizable chunk on the new coop. I know it's possible to build one, but we are not carpenters and every time we attempt something that is way beyond our capabilities, we end up fighting and then hiring someone to finish what we couldn't, usually making it more expensive than if we'd just bought the thing in the first place. So I'd rather just buy it. I was thinking we could barter the old coop for something else, but then I started thinking that we might want to keep the smaller coop in case we ever have a need for separating a sick hen from the main flock or decide we want to raise a couple of turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner (it's a valid thought).

So I'm left still deciding. I'm leaning toward compromising and putting in 2 solar attic fans and a bigger, maybe 50-gallon, Energy Star hybrid electric water heater. The attic fans are about $400 a piece not including installation and labor (30% of the solar parts and labor get the federal tax credit) and the new hybrid heat pump electric water heaters also qualify for the 30% federal tax credit and cost about $2000 with installation and labor included. Knock 30% off that and it sounds doable. I don't know. My brain cells are still mush.

What would you do?