UPDATE: California Home Owners Property Tax Exemption

So I checked on my parcel information at the county web site to see if my exemption had been applied since I didn't get any response in the mail. I could see that a $5600 exemption had been applied but my property value had been increased. So the net result is a higher taxable value than last year. I wasn't expecting that.

I contacted the county office and the very nice lady explained that under Prop 13 they are allowed to raise property values by 2% each year which explained my increase. I guess no one has really cared for a few years since the property values were going up way more than that. She also explained that I could request (by asking on the phone) Prop 8 which means they will do a market valuation of the property. Whichever is less (Prop 13 or Prop 8) value is what will be used. However I'm too late as this years roll is already closed. So I'm down for 2008 and I should find out July'ish next year. Here's hoping there is a plummet in market value when they do the valuation and a sharp rise afterwards.

Proposition 8 Decline in Value Reassessment Program

Original post California Home Owners Property Tax Exemption

Citizenrē REnU - Perfect home solar solution or perfect scam?

Everyone agrees solar is a good thing free electricity with no pollution. However of course the equipment is expensive (about $40,000 for a home) so even if the the tempting federal and state incentives half the cost of installation your still looking at 10 years to pay it off. Not many people can be sure they'll be in the same house for that long.

Citizenrē has a great solution with their REnU program. Instead of buying your own system Citizenrē will install one for a $500 deposit. Then you just buy the electricity the solar system generates, from Citizenrē, at the same rate you currently pay your electricity company. The rate you pay is fixed over your 1, 5 or 25 year contract. So that means in your first year you may not save anything but as the years go buy your rate stays the same as the electricity companies rate increases. Your saving is the difference between the two. Over that contract Citizenrē is responsible for all maintenance of the system. There is a lot more detail on their web site Citizenrē REnU.

However it is possible that all this is too good to be true. Jeff Wolfe certainly thinks so. I have to say that as soon as I see multi level marketing especially with large commissions I get worried. If people have to work that hard to sell something how good can it be?

I think procrastination is definitely an asset on this one. I'll be waiting to see how it pans out. I do hope it succeeds.

ConsumerSearch.com - My first stop for product research

If I'm going to buy something the first thing I do is go to ConsumerSearch.com They aggregate and analyze reviews for many different products and provide detailed write ups of their findings. They also weight reviews so for example Consumer Reports reviews are given more credibility than Epinions. So at the very least you can find links to all the review sites for a given product at best you just go ahead and buy one of their aggregated recommendations. It cuts out a lot of the analysis paralysis.

ConsumerSearch.com

ING Direct Electric Orange better than NetBank NetValue Checking

I used NetBank NetValue Checking as my primary checking account for over 5 years. I liked the fact it is free with easy online access and there is some interest. However there were a few things I did not like.

What I didn't like about NetBank Checking
Although I could link to other accounts and transfer money into the account I could not transfer it out. I guess they prefer money coming in to going out but that feels like cutting off your nose to spite your face. It was a number of years before NetBank managed to get it together to enable linking to PayPal. Finally I received SPAM email (cheap meds, penis enlargements, Viagra etc) from the email address I gave to them. This was a unique email address I setup specifically for NetBank and did not give out anywhere else. So I know the source of the leak and I was rather concerned about this problem. I hope no other information of me was leaked.

What I like about ING Direct Checking
ING Direct Electric Orange checking has everything I like about NetBank, it fixes what I didn't like and has some additional bonuses. I can transfer money out as well as into the account (instantly between ING accounts a few days to others). It was able to link to PayPal right away. I have never received SPAM email from the unique email account I setup for ING (I have had a savings account with them for longer than I had the NetBank account). As far as bonus features go the interest rate is high (currently 3.93%). Many other savings accounts don't even offer that.
Another bonus feature is that they belong to a free network of ATM's which happen to be 1 in 12 of all ATM's.

If you want $25 to get you started for singing up for an ING Checking or Savings account send me an email to ingreferral AT thislooksinteresting DOT com . I'll get $10 as well.

New Tivo HD but it's still broken

So Tivo finally released a HD version of Tivo that mere mortals can actually afford Tivo HD. It looks great. They don't seam to have to have missed out anything from the $800 Series 3 that really matters in this $300 version. Sure the hard drive is smaller but of course that can be upgraded if your tech savy or you can buy one already upgraded from Weaknees and still keep well below the Series 3 price. It's all good and very tempting.

However until the CableCARD 2.0 mess is sorted out it's still a broken solution. Without CableCARD 2.o I will still have to keep (and pay for) my existing cable box so that I can still access Pay-Per-View and OnDemand. So in addition to paying $300 for the box and $8 - $17 for the Tivo service I still have the $12 fee for my existing cable box. But really I just want everything to work with 1 box.

So I'm going to continue to wait impatiently for the Comcast Tivo thats been coming soon for at least 2 years now. Unless CableCARD 2.0 is available before then.

Spa Wars

There's a battle going on out there. It's between the spa dealers, spa owners and Costco. You only have to go to a Spa forum like www.poolspaforum.com to see this battle being waged. Any posts that mention Costco Spas or in particular the Costco Platinum Elite I, II or II which are manufactured by Hydro Spa quickly turn into a holy war. The problem seams to be that Costco is undermining what appears to be an almost 100% markup by the spa dealers. The reaction to this from many spa dealers is attacking the Costco product.

A $4,000 Spa can't be anything close to a $8,000 one... right?
This would seam to be a logical because you don't get anything for free. However it seams like the Spa industry is very much like the PC industry. Most of the components are standard and produced by a very small selection of manufacturers. So Spa's are very modular and a Spa manufacturer just selects from a catalog of components and assembles those to make up their particular spa. Kind of sounds like a bike.

So what does this mean?
My Costco Spa which was around $4,000 has the same features and is made from the same components as many other spas costing double or more from a spa dealer. The jets and plumbing manifolds are from Waterway Plastics. The same for the audio speakers. The pumps are Aqua-Flo and so on. So how can my spa be that different from the others?

It can't all be good.
Of course there are benefits to buying from a dealer. You can go to their showroom and actually try out the Spa's. They will often include delivery and installation (sub-contracted out). You will get help with service and parts later on if you have problems (also sub-contracted out). But don't expect to be able to price compare. Your unlikely to find 2 dealers locally selling the same spa.

The question you have to ask yourself is what is this worth? Are these benefits worth the 100% markup?


I spent $200 for delivery (same guy used by most of the local dealers) and $800 for an electrician to install the electrical supply which is 125 ft from the main electrical panel (most likely more than the standard included by a dealer).


P.S.
I also learned the correct use of the various words people use for Spas.

• Jacuzzi/Whirlpool - Brand names but generally used to refer to indoor bathroom jetted tubs.
• Hot Tub - Essentially just a big tub of hot water with no jets.
• Spa - Outdoors above or below ground with jets etc (what I'm talking about here).
  

UPDATE: New generation of Whole House Fans - Installed Airscape 1.7

So I still haven't bought one but my brother bought 2 of the Airscape 1.7 Whole House Fans. He is the proud owner of a 3,400 sq ft home and a $700/month (summer) electricity bill.

Installation
After a quote for $800 for installation of one of the fans he decided he liked the idea of installing it himself. So he placed an order for the 2 fans on a Friday and received them on the Monday. I went over to give him a hand after work and by the end of that evening we had one of them installed. It took us no more than 4 hours. We like to think of ourselves as being handy but we certainly are not professionals. The installation was very straightforward. We did install it near the attic opening and an existing electrical outlet which eased the installation.

First Impressions
The fans are surprisingly compact but they certainly seam to do the job. His house was down to 72 degrees in no time. Anyone sitting near an open window complained of being cold. The fan is also very quiet and you may wonder if it is on. Certainly nothing like the ratter tat tat and rumble of other Whole House Fans. No one had problems sleeping. Stand underneath it and the draft created will let you know its on.

Does it save money?
It's early days right now. Stay tuned for another update...

Original post New generation of Whole House Fans

Double-DIN car stereo

Like 51% of cars (TWICE Double-DIN Share Gaining) mine came with a Double-DIN sized stereo. This means that it is twice the size of the average after market stereo your probably used to seeing.


Double DIN


Single DIN





What can you stick in that hole?
If you want to replace your stereo you have 2 options. Buy a regular Single DIN stereo + an adapter that usually fills the extra space with a cubby. Otherwise find a Double DIN after market stereo. I think the space may as well be used as intended so Double DIN for me. However there is not much of a selection. You most likely won't find any in Best Buy, etc. Kenwood are the only ones I could find that had up to date features (e.g. MP3 playback rather than a Tape Deck). Kenwood has 4 models to choose from.

What did I get?
I went for the Kenwood DPX-301 as I liked the USB/MP3/WMV feature. This means I can connect any USB drive with any number of MP3 or WMV files and play them back via the stereo. As this is a digital connection the sound quality is great and I don't have to mess around with tuning in a FM radio transmitter. Also the stereo can read all the ID3 tags so that it can display the track, album, artist and genre. An added bonus is that if you fill the drive with the included software utility it also creates voice prompts. So you can navigate all that music while keeping your eyes on the road.

The Kenwood DPX-301 also has the usual features. Single CD player (surely there is room in there for a changer but with MP3's thats a moot point), Radio with RDS (displays station name etc) support for Satellite and HD radio, etc.

It can't be all good
This is a great stereo however it's not that intuitive to use. I challenge anyone to work out how to turn it on/off without the manual. Turns out you can cycle through the sources to standby or hold down the standby button to turn it off. Obvious eh?

The other problem I had was the time it takes to be ready to play from the USB drive. It was painfully long. The solution was to switch from my aging USB 1.o hard drive based MP3 player to a super fast Corsair Flash Voyager USB drive which solved the problem.

Buying a bike - why is it so hard?

Should be easy... right? If you want something cheap you go to Target if you want something a little more durable you go to a bike store. But nothing is ever that easy.

Good luck trying to comparison shop
No two bike stores in your area will have the same brand let alone model of bike making comparison shopping almost impossible. You also won't find any "bike shop bikes" available online for sale or even a mention of the cost. So this means this must be a cozy agreement between the manufacturers and the bike shops. All this sounds like a great deal for the manufacturer and the bike shop but it's bad for the consumer. This undoubtedly keeps the prices nice and high and make research from the comfort of the home PC very hard.

But don't get me wrong I think it's great to have a local store for this kind of product. But is it really necessary to go to these lengths to protect the stores?

You saw a bike from where?
The other problem is the snobbery. Try asking a bike shop about a bike that is sold in a big box store. They won't be too complimentary. But aren't there only about 3 companies that make the components (Shimano, Suntor, SRAM I believe) for all bikes? I don't think there are many companies that actually even manufacturer there own frames. So how much worse can they be? I know they must use the lower end of the manufacturers lines but this doesn't make them incomparable.

So what did I do?
When we first decided we wanted to try biking we started out with some nice cheap ($100 each) Huffy mountain bikes from a big box store. After a couple of years of a reasonable amount of use we traded up.

We budgeted $300 each that compared to what we previously had seamed like a big step to us. We were disappointed when we visited our local bike shops to find that this would only get us one of their most basic bikes.

What we really wanted was the flexibility of a hybrid bike that has the riding position of a mountain bike but many of the components from a road bike. That would be ideal for our mostly paved trail riding and occasional light off road riding (despite being told at one store they were for old people).

Specialized Globe Hybrid

However $300 doesn't get you a "real" hybrid bike but a comfort bike. We found the riding position of comfort bikes too upright and the suspension too soft. They didn't feel like serious bikes to us that we could use for getting fit but more like something to cruise around the neighborhood.

Specialized Crossroads Comfort


So we went for hard tail mountain bikes instead (no rear suspension) but with tires that have a center road ridge. We found good quality hard tail mountain bikes (Diamondback Sorrento) for $300 available at one of our local bike shops.

Diamondback Sorrento
(yes I really did get that color.)

We very much enjoy our bikes especially once we picked up some nicer seats from www.nashbar.com But of course we don't ride them nearly as much as we should.

New generation of Whole House Fans

If you live in a warm area where the temperature drops at night you know this is a good idea as it will save you a bunch of money. But they're noisy, expensive to buy and expensive to install... right? At least that was my excuse for not having one. Well maybe not anymore. There is a new generation of whole house fan out there that look as if they fix those problems.


Noise
They've done away with the big noisy single belt driven fans and instead they use multiple smaller fans that they say are much quieter. Apparently not much more than the average refrigerator.

"In a real world setting, with the AirScape 1.7 on low speed, some effort is required just to hear it. Sound level is rated at two sones — just above a modern refrigerator (three and a half sones on high). So the unit is QUIET."

Installation Cost
Since they don't use 1 big fan the unit is now small enough to be installed between standard joists which makes mounting the unit much simpler. It also comes with a standard electrical plug so that it can be plugged into the nearest outlet. This adds up to being within the skills of the average handyman. So I DIY install saves a lot of money.

Airscape Installation

Installation Video

Fan Prices

• The AirScape 1.0 for spaces up to 1,500 sq ft is $479.00.
• The AirScape 1.7 for spaces up to 2,500 sq ft is $769.

Each one as an optional hand held remote for $69.

I'm not sure these fans are much cheaper but at least buying them direct online means there is no dealer or installer adding on a mark up. I find it hard to believe that the $1,000 + more I was quoted for was all installation.

Why don't I have one still?

Good question and I don't have a good answer. I'd better get my finger out and buy one. Stay tuned for an update when I do.

AirScape Whole House Fans

Free Annual Credit Report

www.annualcreditreport.com is the annual credit report site created by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion to comply with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act). You can request all your credit reports here once a year for free and not worry about being hounded by email.

California Home Owners Property Tax Exemption

I received a letter the other day from a company telling me I'm missing out on the California Home Owners Property Tax Exemption. For a fairly small fee they we're offering to process the exemption for me. I looked into it and found that it was not bogus.

"EXEMPTIONS HOMEOWNERS: A property owner may claim a Homeowner's exemption in California on a residence that is both owned and occupied at 12:01 a.m. on January 1; or files within 30 days of a change in ownership or new construction for which a supplemental assessment is levied. The exemption reduces your assessed value by $7,000 and reduces the tax bill by at least $70. It is the homeowner's responsibility to apply for the exemption. To receive the full exemption, you must file with the Assessor's office between January 1 and February 15, or within 30 days of a Notice of Supplemental Assessment. (A late filing is accepted from February 16 to December 10 for 80 percent of the exemption). Your exemption automatically continues each year as long as you continue to own and occupy the property as your primary residence. It is also the homeowner's responsibility to terminate the exemption when no longer eligible. Please contact the El Dorado County Assessor's office for the Homeowner's Exemption form at 530-621-5719."

El Dorado County Assessor's Office

Fair enough I thought, they brought it to my attention and if I haven't found this in the 2 years I've been a CA homeowner I probably never would have. One problem though... they need the SSN's of the homeowners. Screw that, I'm not sending my SSN to some random company. So I called Assessor's Office myself and asked them to send me the form. A very simple form arrived in the mail withing days and I posted it back within weeks. I'll update when I hear back.

So if your a California Home Owner contact your county assessor's office and get your exemption sorted. If not maybe your state has something similar.

Buying a new TV?

When you spend a bunch of money on something like a new TV you go to the store and test them out right? And you know what to look for? Well maybe not the latter but if you go to the store armed with a test disc you stand a much better chance of making an informed decision.

When You Can't Trust Your Eyes, Trust A Test Disc

Yodlee.com Manage all those accounts

Checking, savings, mortgage, car loan, credit cards, insurance, cable, telephone the list is endless. Too many accounts too many places to login too many passwords to forget and who has a clue what the whole picture is? Many banks allow you to link other accounts so you can view them all in one place but what if you don't bank with one of those banks? Well why not go direct to the source of who probably provides that bank the functionality in the first place?

Yodlee.com allows anyone to create an account and link up all your accounts so you can view them in one place. The only thing scarier than seeing the ugly details of all your finances in one place is the thought of someone else being able to do the same. However it looks like Yodlee can be trusted to do security right judging by the companies that use their services Yodlee Clients & Partners.

Adding accounts to Yodlee is very easy and they seam to have pretty much every company covered. Once you've done that you can setup alerts, transfer money and even pay bills till your hearts content.

Modular Homes - no it's not a double wide

Modular Homes seams like a great idea to me particularly as I get daily updates from a friend that is having a house built the traditional site built way. Why drag a bunch of materials and people outside in all kinds of weather to build a home when it can be done in the comfort and order of a factory?

The homes are subject to the same Federal and State building codes and are actually structurally stronger than a site built home as they have to survive delivery on the truck. They are also built faster, to higher quality and are better insulated as the manufacturers can take advantage of equipment in the factory that is not viable in on site.

There are not many houses that cannot be built Modular so you can take your own plans or modify those offered if you do cannot find what you like in one of their existing plans. While wishing for the day I can have my own modular home built I often look the web site for the modular builder close to me. www.altamonthomes.com I'm sure I could find something to make me happy there and one day I'll finish reading this book. Then I just need to find that perfect lot.

Tankless Water Heaters

I'm originally from Europe where higher energy costs and space restrictions have long since persuaded people to move over to tankless water heaters and even heating. I have often looked into doing the same thing since I moved to the USA. It still seams to be a relatively new idea here although there are many products available. But I guess that is unsurprising since energy is much cheaper and most people have a basement or garage to install those large hot water tanks. However as energy prices are rising even in the USA and with the increasing focus on protecting the environment I think they are sure to become more popular.

What are the benefits?

• A traditional water heater stores hot water in a large tank (40 gallons +). That water is kept hot 24x7 whether you need it or not. That wastes a lot of energy however well the tank is insulated. A tankless water heater heats the water on-demand so there is no energy wasted heating water that you are not using.
• When you take away the tank you greatly reduce the size of the water heater leaving you with more precious space to store those things you just can't live without.

What are the options?

• Natural Gas - If you have Natural Gas in your home this is the best option.
  
• Electric - If like me you don't have Natural Gas in your home all is not lost as there are also many Electric Tankless Water Heaters available.

How Much will it cost?

• Natural Gas - $800 - $1000 + installation should cover most homes.
  
• Electric - $500 - $800 + installation should cover most homes.
  

How Much could you actually save?
Tankless Water Heaters should save 10-20% in energy costs. How about looking at some real figures created by the people selling them?

"The United States Department of Energy has calculated that a family of four will use 64.3 gallons of hot water per day, not including dish washing or clothes washing. The chart below provides an approximate monthly operating cost comparison between a 40 gallon hot water tank and the TANKLESS™ Whole House Electric Hot Water Heating System."

120 Gallons Per Day Monthly Cost		60 Gallons Per Day Monthly Cost	30 Gallons Per Day Monthly Cost
40 Gallon Hot Water Tank	$112.25	$56.20	$28.10
-VS.-	-VS.-	-VS.-	-VS.-
TANKLESS™	$26.95	$13.48	$6.74
Savings	$85.30	42.72	21.36

paragraph and chart from here

That's quite a saving. If you take the middle example of 60 gallons the new Electric Water Heater should pay for itself in 2 years.

So why don't I have one yet?

If my current Water Heater goes up in smoke then this will be a no brainer. However I'm not sure I can bring myself to throw away a Water Heater that probably still has many years left in it.

GE, Kenmore, Hotpoint and Eterna Dishwashers recalled

Dishwashers are going up in flames so they are being recalled.

2.5 Million GE Potentially Flammable Dishwashers Recalled

Is yours on the list?

List off General Electric Recalls Dishwashers Due to Fire Hazard

Why yet another blog?

A combination of researching everything to death and an interest in many things means I often find myself with a web site/insight for the conversation de-jour. So rather than promising to send someone a link and 90% of the time forgetting I thought it might be nice to be able to send everyone to one place.


No one has thought of this before... right?