It was 30 years ago in the 70's and 80's the solar market was saturated with fly-by-nigthers taking advantage of incentives. You can read about it from Mother Earth newshere under the section SMART SOLAR SHOPPING. It also brought some gems and innovative technology as well, which my in-laws were one of the first to get an award winning Hybrid system. That link explains it and that company is the one who installed my in-laws solar back in the early 80's and still in business doing solar and radiant heating. That's who I'm going with. I live in Zone 5, the in-laws who have had Solar since around 1981 live in a colder Zone 4 (Mid-North VT) and I've been hanging out for weekends at their solar house for the past 6 years. Their system is closed and glycol so it can't freeze. When I'm up there, this is what I see. When it's 40 outside, they engage the slab. They have to open windows during the day as the place warms up to 80's inside. I get up in the morning, the house is 75 or so and the windows start to slowly open again if the sun comes out. When it's 20+F they shut the windows and their house holds 73-80 through the night. When it gets cloudy their slab will maintain temps over 70 in their house for a couple days afterwhich they fire up the small wood stove until the sun comes out. For the past 6 years I've seen them heat their house with 20+ year old solar panels using 1/2 a cord of wood/year in mid-upper VT and more often than not I watch them opening windows. They like their solar, but don't brag about it. They pay $120/cord of wood so if you figure that they burn 1/2 cord per year and the solar pump uses my guess $15/month on average they heat their house and hot water for $240/year in mid-north VT. I am not going to be able to get as much out of it as they will. My house is not built around Solar, theres is. I got to the 60% for heating and 90% hot water by the solar analyses. Someone actually went on top of my roof with I think it was called a Theolodite and spun it around marking the location of obstacles on a sun path chart for my location. They then showed me things like, in December that pine tree right there will block the sun hitting 2 of the panels until 10:30am etc. They deamed that I will receive 86% of the sun available. The sun chart being for my area. They then got the sun data for my area available freely from the government who records per month since the 60's how much sun hit a particular solar panel at a particular angle, in my area. Your area as well. You can see which months were cloudy in 1965 and which weren't in 1981, from that data they were able to average the sun by each month for the past 40 years, and come up with how many btu's the solar panels on average will give me for each month in my location compensating for loss. I then gave them my oil bills over the years and saw, that my house in Nov and Feb I will occasionally need so supplement the solar else my house will be low 60's, and December and January more often than not will need to help my solar. It will still be saving me on heat, but it will need a boost. However there should be enough for my hot water use nearly year round. That's how I got the 90% hot water and 60% heating, no opinions or people guessing it was all professionally done from a solar analysis. In the end, I think it's a no brainer like meghane said. If I wait until I have the $, I'll have wasted at least $5,200 paying for oil on heating to save me $600 of interest. Or, I can purchase it on my credit card for $7000, and start saving $1,300/year+ on my fuel - $600 for interest. It's important that people don't think they can be like my in-laws, their house was built around solar first and foremost back in the early 80's. FYI Solar is a low energy form of heat and only applicable to well insulated and tight houses with radiant floor heating. If you want to do Solar with an old house, you need to insulate your walls, replace your windows, add insulation in your attic, air seal, insulate your floors, convert over to radiant floor heating, add insulation under the radiant floor heating, THEN you can think about adding solar panels. It's like a 3 cylinder engine, if your house is very efficient you'll get along just fine. If your house is like an old gas guzzling 8 cylinder Suburban you can't exactly get away with putting a 3 cylinder in it. I don't want to mislead, I have gone through most of the steps necessary for Solar which is why I can consider it.

OOPS this was supposed to be a reply on the "i owe more than my house is worth" thread. computer glitch (or dumb user error) made it post as a new thread...........

Dotz, My post was a rant, a long tired out rant. If you read my first post, I stated therein that he will not return my phone call or call back. The next logical step would be to contact him anyway you know how, I also do not have his address. Which I doubt he will respond to a letter. And I think it is in good taste to try resolve an issue before just suing anyone. And that would cost money hiring a lawyer and taking time off work. OH, and it is like bad credit telling my dad....why would he continue to shell out money to someone who is not using it the way he said he is? About being two adults, yes we are. We also grew up together from young ages and have been stepsiblings for 18 years. It is quite a bit different to say I'm telling on him to his parents if he was just a friend. Don't you think it would cause more of a family ripple and tension when a family member is suing someone unless it can just be solved amicably? Anyway, I guess I have a lot of reasons to tell my dad if I wanted to pursue this. Also, if you read the rest of my posts, you will see that I've explained it was a rant and I will take the high road. So, I'm not sure why you are starting another thread to direct to me?

Parent, I'm sorry to shock you. I have many friends who went to Ivy League schools on full scholarship and one who is currently attending an ILS on full scholarship (and none of them were sports based, all academic) and they went to public schools. Not top-notch public schools either. A family friend's son got into a prestigious college after going to the high school in our town. He just was awarded 10,000.00 of grant money on top of his other aid. If you're smart, you're smart enough to get into ILS regardless of high school attended. When I went to college and got my first degree I was beat out for Valedictorian by a girl from the area I grew up in... she went to one of the worst ranked high schools in the area and I went to college-prep high school. She beat me, and all of the big-city kids. That's what the SAT's are for. To wipe out all of the "an A in one school is of lower value than the B in another school" nonsense. It's the great equalizer. (except if you are of a minority and don't understand that it's racially/class biased) @ Smashly: Exactly. PO1: "What is one to do with the other, how is it even his business?" Its his business because she A) was given all marital assets and B) racked up so much debt DH spent nearly 7 years paying it off and nearly ruined his credit (and, it looks like, ruined hers). ItÂs his business because by asking him to co-sign a loan; rather than discussing it with him and coming to a decision they both feel comfortable with; she commits to something she canÂt deliver and promises SD that she can go "if daddy says yes" so that Dad is a bad guy if he says no. If she were living within her means we might be more inclined to jump in the pool with her. But sheÂs already tried to drown him once. Once bitten, twice shy and all that. "Honestly I don't have much respect for NCPs who do little yet complain a lot." Me neither. I hope you arenÂt assuming my DH does little and complains a lot. He pays child support that was based on his income years ago (nearly double what it would be if it were based on current income), has not gone back to court to get revision even though she does not abide by the visitation decree. We ask for her for every school vacation, to see her on weekends, etc. Mom always has things planned, camps planned, etc. Even if Mom canÂt be with her, she doesnÂt want us with her either. As Mattie said; itÂs not ok to do "what you think is best for the child" and completely disregard what the other parent thinks or worse, not even ask their opinion before committing, and then expect the other parent to pay for your decision. Dad can help with educational decisions. He wasnÂt given a choice, and heÂs not "rolling his eyes". If one parent truly "knows the child better" and that makes it right for that parent to make all the decisions, why aren't stay at home parents given free reign over their children's lives? Why even consult with the parent who has to travel for work or works 80 hours a week? Love, thatÂs exactly it. Many private schools are about prestige rather than education. I do think that is a lot of money for elementary school but if you have it or have the gift of someone footing the bill, by all means, take every advantage!! I paid over $8,000.00 for my ddÂs pre-school and kindergarten. We could afford it. It was the best one I could find. Right now I would put DD into private school if there were one nearby that I thought was worth it. I made the decision, (along with DDÂs birth father!) to not be in the car for 4 hours a day. But her school is two blocks away, I can walk to pick her up, everyone is so friendly and kind and interested in her success. We supplement her education in other ways. IMO, itÂs not about public or private. ItÂs about what is the right fit for the child and for the family. And that can change year to year. When BM is going on vacations with SD during the times in which we should be getting her (but IÂve booked us to Aruba over Christmas!!!) and then putting her in expensive camps over the summer (can you pay for half?) when weÂd LOVE to have herÂ..but now she canÂt visit because sheÂs booked up, and doesnÂt want to because "daddy, itÂs horse camp!!"Â well. I don't care how smart the kid is, I'm not going to take out a second mortgage to pay for her 100,000.00 elementary education.