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Great! I am looking forward to see the video, sounds like you guys had a blast! Safe travelings!!

Bummer I just saw this post today Nov 2
Oh well, hope it was fun. Maybe I can join you all a future occasion!

Here is a little report, movies later .....

FrogRock and Sugarbird were really the stars of the get together. They even purchased a number of items for my house warming. Unfortunately the closing on my house was not completed at this time so I could not take them home and I had no space in my bags to take them to the states. They are holding the items for me, but Frogrock and Sugarbird would not guarantee that one of the items (the bottle a rum) would be intact by the time I pickup the package at a later date.

I arrived just before 5 pm and Frogrock and her brother were there already, not sure which drinks they were sampling, but they were sampling something.

Little by little the rest of the people arrived and we were seated at a long table. The restaurant took our drink orders and soon everyone had a couple of drinks and was in a really festive note. I think we end up with 12 or 13 in the group, sorry I was too busy laughing and talking to count.

That is when Frogrock started passing some papers around and pull out an Ukulele. I will post pictures of the documents also. In short, she had re-writen the words of several songs to make them funny and apply to PR. From there everyone joined in singing (off key of course) while Frogrock sang and played the tunes for us. This really brought the group together and we all had a good laugh. Applause to both Frogrock and Sugarbird for being the real stars of the meet.

Needless to say other patrons of the restaurant were giving us the EVIL eye because we WERE RATHER LOUD, in both Conversation, Laughter and Singing.

After we all demonstrated how good we were at singing, a new round of drinks followed by some appeticers and meals made us pay attention for a few minutes, but the loud chatting never ended, partway thru the meals, we all started moving around to get to sit at different places around the table to have conversations with people we had not been able to talk to at the beginning.

My friend Carlos Torres had joined us around 7 (he is a realtor 24/7 Realty) and he started answering questions of several individuals and joined us in the meals and drinks.

By the time we started to lose some people it was around 8 pm (3 hours), but we still had like 8 more people in the group, so we chatted and made jokes while having a few more drinks. But the loudness never ended. Some people say Puerto Ricans are loud but the truth is that that day we were all Puerto Ricans.

Around 9 pm, the restaurant told us that they were setting up another table for us because they needed to put together a new table for another group. We were by then about 5 people but the talking and joking around never ended. The restaurant gave us a round or two of drinks on the house to keep us from making a fuzz over being moved.

Needless to say the people that moved into the remnants of our table were at least 18 people, but they kept giving us the evil eye as they could not understand how 5 people could laugh so loud.

Well, finally the group broke up around 9:45 pm or 10 PM and we all said goodnight, but we left with a stomach full of drinks, good times and great conversation. We been there at least 4 1/2 to 5 hours!!!!

Pictures and songs will be posted shortly, sorry, I still have a job.
Great times.
Those that have better memory and had less to drink, please post some about the meet and their experience.

BTW, the people running the restaurant (Brass Cactus) never complained to us, they were very attentive to our needs and the food and drinks were good, in my case I think they forgot to charge me for a few beers.

Yeah, successful gathering!

Johnny, Carlos my wife and I were the last ones out, not sure if Johnny stayed longer, but he lives a few streets over.

They didn't forget I picked up the tab !! Remember!! 😆😆😆😆

kayakerpr wrote:

Bummer I just saw this post today Nov 2
Oh well, hope it was fun. Maybe I can join you all a future occasion!

You missed a good time. Need to come to the forum more often.
The Melendezki's may be doing a get together for the holidays when their place is all set.

Johnnyhulk wrote:

They didn't forget I picked up the tab !! Remember!! 😆😆😆😆

Carlos and you payed last If I recall correctly. I think you took care of the last bill and Carlos the tip.
Thanks
BTW desserts and coffee were good!!!!

Want to add more to the party description?
I had a buzz, but you looked fairly straight.

Sorry to have missed it, just saw this post 5 days too late.  Please include us via email on the next one, xxx.   Since there are so many expats in Condado, how about a gathering on Loisa street the week after Thanksgivibg?

side241 wrote:

Sorry to have missed it, just saw this post 5 days too late.  Please include us via email on the next one, xxx.   Since there are so many expats in Condado, how about a gathering on Loisa street the week after Thanksgivibg?

I am not in the island until mid January, but I am sure some here from that area can pickup the ball and run with it.

Sure sounds good !!!

If you are looking for something to do on Thanksgiving, you are welcome to join us for dinner. PM me for more information.

Appreciate the offer thank you will let you know.. Johnny

That is enourmously generous of you to offer!  However, my family and I will be off island over Thanksgiving.  Enjoy your holiday!
Ben

Here is a Google map of the house I am working on getting, as you likely notice, there are not too many houses around it so it is very quiet and breezy. it is about 1000 feet above sea level.


Here are some photos, some of you have seen them.

Very nice congratulations...!!!!

Looks like you have a great view!

Love it!!

Sitka wrote:

Looks like you have a great view!

Yes, mountains and the sea near Roosevelt Road old base can be seen from the house. Also West Northwest is El Yunque, probably 5 miles as the bird flies and 12 miles by road.

It will be a very quiet place until we arrive and start playing loud music by the pool we will be putting in. There goes the neighbourhood!

Really lovely place, Rey, and you probably will have nice breezes there.

What a beautiful property! Congratulations!!!

Ok I added a short video of the get together to the same Internet photo library. I also added a couple of photos of the house warming package I received from Carroll and Penny. Last but not least the lyrics of the songs composed by Carroll and Penny that you will see being professionally song by the group in perfect off-key and off-time as you would expect after a few drinks. You can find it at the same URL as the pictures of the house:

Enjoy the meet-up and hope we have many more in the future!
*** Special thanks to Carroll and Penny for going far and above for me and the meetup.
Rey

haha, looks like you guys were having some fun!  Thanks for the video

Hello,

Looks like a superb location!  With it's breezy location, you probably won't run the AC much and thus will have a low electric bill.  Your roof will fit about 600 sq ft of solar, which will be more than enough if you have normal electrical usage.  I will need to know what your usage, or at least anticipated usage, is going to be to properly size the system for your needs.  My guess is you need 4kW, price would be under $15k and you'll never pay for electricity for at least 50 yrs.  Once you own the home, let me know and we will add solar.  IF you wish to roll the solar expenditure into your mortgage, the let me know that as well.  We do these types of things all day every day.

Thanks

Ben

side241 wrote:

Hello,

Looks like a superb location!  With it's breezy location, you probably won't run the AC much and thus will have a low electric bill.  Your roof will fit about 600 sq ft of solar, which will be more than enough if you have normal electrical usage.  I will need to know what your usage, or at least anticipated usage, is going to be to properly size the system for your needs.  My guess is you need 4kW, price would be under $15k and you'll never pay for electricity for at least 50 yrs.  Once you own the home, let me know and we will add solar.  IF you wish to roll the solar expenditure into your mortgage, the let me know that as well.  We do these types of things all day every day.

Thanks

Ben

That sounds interesting. But house will be pay-ed for at the closing and i will prob just write a check for the solar system and pay it off. Ill let you know the monthly usage. Yes the balcony has strong wings and the house upstairs was confortable, not sure about bedrooms downstairs, they have air conditioner. The likely heavy use will be the pool that I am going to get built and aircinditioners at night.

For the pool, make sure you install a variable speed pool pump, it will save 90% of the electricity of a regular pool pump.  Basically, takes $100mo off the bill. 

*** and good luck in moving to our enchanted island!

Ben

Rey,

Your solar project sounds very interesting.  We have similar plans for the near future, but with new construction and solar install next year if all goes smoothly.    I have family in the solar business so we hope to have great system when it is complete. 

Will your system be off grid? or will you sell power back to PERPA?   I'd like to discuss details with you at some point.

I am not sure which way to go (grid or no grid) but I do plan on having possibly the Tesla Battery packs so it charges them during the day and uses battery at night.

I heard that the electric company was a pain in the rear when it came to connecting solar to their system and accepting to pay for what you overproduce. They been saying that their infractructiore can not take it. Some people say that you need permits from them and that it tajes months to get.
I have been budgeting for a 15-20k system, but there are a lot of unknowns. For example side241 says 50 years of free electricity (i would likely die by then) but I heard that the panels last 15 to 25 years according to somebody else I am also unsure how long the electronics will last and what about the cost over the years for meintenance and upkeep of the entire system. Using my worst month of the year with airconditioners and a pool running 8 to 10 hours a day, it was 1444 KWH for 31 days for each month of July August and September (hottest months here). Average was closer to 800 KWH. Not sure what that would mean in cost of the system or size it needs to be since i do not know the calculations used to size the system with no room for brownouts. The above usage is from Here in MA.

I need to talk with side241 to get more info and let him know that my worst month is 1444 KWH.
But there is no rush since I need to sell my house here in MA, before I can move to the island and install a pool and maybe a solar system. With luck I will be there in Summer.

Good plan, I like the idea of being independent of the grid, if you can not sell excess power back to PREPA during the day, stirring it for your own use after dark is the only option.    But, would installing the house batteries be cost effective at $3000 per battery?   You may need two batteries if you use more than the capacity of one battery.    So you avoid X %  (estimate 50%) of power cost used at night, less the prorated life (10yrs) cost of the batteries.    At current kW cost  what is the pay back period for investing in the batteries?

Sitka wrote:

Good plan, I like the idea of being independent of the grid, if you can not sell excess power back to PREPA during the day, stirring it for your own use after dark is the only option.    But, would installing the house batteries be cost effective at $3000 per battery?   You may need two batteries if you use more than the capacity of one battery.    So you avoid X %  (estimate 50%) of power cost used at night, less the prorated life (10yrs) cost of the batteries.    At current kW cost  what is the pay back period for investing in the batteries?

No idea. There are some different batteries in the market and the Tesla ones to my knowledge are being Beta tested at the moment. But yes I expect that I will need two or three of them. No idea yet as to life of the batteries or maintenance.

The main thing is that the electric company is unreliable, if i can get reliability with solar at a cost that is lower or even similar, to me, it is worth it.
I want my alarm and cameras to work, my pool ro run, hot water even if the electric company goes down for days.

I have water tank in property and plan to also collect rain water in case the water company shuts me out for a few days.

It would be nice not to have a mortgage bill, no electric bill and just an occasional water bill.

I think the warranty was 10 yrs  -  so I projected a useful battery life of 10 yrs, (but your milage may vary).  Still at $0.25 per kW,  if you avoid buying 50% of your monthly usage (estimated at 30kW per day / 2 = $3.75 per day or  $112.50 per month avoided cost ).

So, is it reasonable to say... saving $112.50 per month / $1350.00 per year.  divided by  6000.00 cost = 4.44 years pay back time line?   After that, all savings are pure profit.  If so, the battery plan is a no brainer and you avoid all the red tape and hassle attempting to get into a power sell back to PREPA.



Or is my math all wrong?

In my case is 1444 kwh a month at .25 or $361 per month. That is $4332 avoided a year. So a $25,000 dollar system would take 5.8 years to pay it self.

yes - you are right when looking at the total system costs.  I was just looking at the cost effective aspect of adding battery storage  to your home solar system, and the pay back period it would take. 

The alternative is not using the battery and buying power from the grid when your panels are not functional - night.  If you don't use power after dark, no cost - it just makes it hard to see tv by candle light.  LOL

Why not design your home ele. circuit so you disconnect from the grid except when you must buy power?  The fact that you have a battery system allows for other freedoms too, like freedom from power outages from storms or other breakdowns.   

After a hurricane in Texas in 2007, we had no power (AC) for over a week and that was very inconvenient to say the least, lost a freezer full of food and meat too!

Sitka wrote:

yes - you are right when looking at the total system costs.  I was just looking at the cost effective aspect of adding battery storage  to your home solar system, and the pay back period it would take. 

The alternative is not using the battery and buying power from the grid when your panels are not functional - night.  If you don't use power after dark, no cost - it just makes it hard to see tv by candle light.  LOL

Why not design your home ele. circuit so you disconnect from the grid except when you must buy power?  The fact that you have a battery system allows for other freedoms too, like freedom from power outages from storms or other breakdowns.   

After a hurricane in Texas in 2007, we had no power (AC) for over a week and that was very inconvenient to say the least, lost a freezer full of food and meat too!

All very good points. To watch the tv, hold the candle behind the screen. Or have rhe kids do a play to entretain you. Or even better play cards or dominos by candle light and pass the bottle of rum.
Rooster will wake you up in the morning instead of the alarm.
I remember living in PR with out a TV because we could not afford one of the B&W ones ( no color back then). We all sat outside taking the breeze and talking as a family. It was hard hidding my grades back them since they always had time to review them.
We finaly end up getting a TV and we were the only house in the Bario with a TV, so our house was very popular back then. How things change!