by Winding Pathways | Dec 4, 2025 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Energy Efficiency
We’ll soon celebrate the 10th anniversary of our solar electric system. Did our decade-old solar arraays investment save money?
The short answer is YES!
Here’s the back story.
Our system is small with only nine panels on the barn’s roof. When we had it installed our intention wasn’t to produce all of our electricity. It was to tame the sting of high utility bills and produce as much electricity from the sun as possible.
Men installing panels.
Our system was built by the Enphase Company and installed by SiteGen, a part of Paulson Electric. At the time it cost us about $9,000. We received about half of that back on our federal and state income taxes, so our net cost was around $4500.
We are “net metered” with Alliant Energy. This means that electricity moves back and forth through our meter. When we produce more than we use, the excess goes out to provide electricity to other users. When we need more than we produce electricity comes in from the grid. At the end of the month, we pay Alliant the “net”.
When we travel and our electric use is low, we push power outward, but most of the time we use more than we produce. We get a monthly bill from Alliant but it’s always lower than if we didn’t have solar.
Was Our System a Good Investment?
Every month we get a report from our Enphase system through a phone app and an Alliant bill. Monthly production varies based on how much solar energy strikes our panels. Long clear summer days boost production, while clouds and short winter days reduce it.
Overall, we calculate our system averages about $60 worth of electricity a month. In a decade we’ve made about $7200 worth of electricity at a net investment cost of $4500. That’s a good return. Lacking tax credits, it would have taken us another few years to break even.
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Impressive graph
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Production
How Long Do Solar Panels Last?
Solar electric companies project the lifespan of panels at 25 years. So, for many years we will enjoy cost reductions on our electric bill. As electric rates rise the value of our investment in solar becomes ever more valuable.
The Indian Creek Nature Center installed solar on its Sunroom 23 years ago. Despite its age the system produced 3055 kilowatt hours of electricity in 2024, its year of best production. There is no sign of degradation in production due to age,” said John Myers, the Center’s executive director.
Here are things we’ve learned from our system:
- Our only maintenance is to use a roof rake to remove snow. Panels make no noise and have survived severe storms intact.
- Annual electric production is a bell curve with its peak during the summer’s longest days and the lowest during midwinter.
- Shade has a major impact. Even one puffy cloud on a clear day causes production to briefly drop as its shadow crosses our panels.
- A big oak tree on our property, immediately east of the panels, got first dibs on sunlight. The tree shaded the panels in the morning. After we removed the old declining tree in early 2025 our morning electricity production jumped upward.
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Low maintenance.
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Full sunlight
Society Going Backwards
The Trump administration and your representatives eliminated tax credits in the latest budget. Next year, credits will no longer be available to help homeowners reduce their electric bills.
Goinig Forwards
Back to the main question: Is investing in solar energy worth it today? Yup.
The payback time is longer but newer panels are more efficient than our decade-old ones and they’ve dropped in price.
We’d do it again, even without the credits.
Want to install solar?
Local companies skilled in setting up systems are found nearly everywhere today. A quick Internet search should yield several companies close to home. For general information check energy.gov solar. We’ve been happy with our Enphase system. Information is at enphase.com.
by Winding Pathways | Oct 23, 2025 | Energy Efficiency
In midsummer we made a major cooking change at Winding Pathways when we bought an induction stove. For 50 years we’d been cooking on a gas kitchen range, so we faced a learning curve.
Induction stoves work by creating an electromagnetic field below a smooth glass surface that energizes magnetic cookware above. Induction heats quickly and precisely.
Motivation to Buy Now
We’d been thinking about swapping gas for induction for some time, encouraged by our friend Sigrid Reynolds. She had used hers for several years. When we learned that the new Federal Budget would eliminate tax credits for energy efficiency items at the end of 2025, we checked around at several stores that sell induction stoves. We chose Slager Appliance store in Cedar Rapids. Their prices are competitive and their information, stove options and customer service excellent. Because we cook simply we settled on a basic model that also has an intriguing feature of an “air fryer”, an easy wash removable oven tray in the conventional oven.
Reasons We Decided to Switch
- First, induction stoves are amazingly energy efficient. We always seek ways to reduce our consumption of fuel, especially fossil fuels.
- Second, we knew that induction stores heat food and water quickly and allow precise temperature control.
- Third, we could capture Federal tax credits.
- Fourth, safety. There is no open flame or electric coils that stay hot. Induction stoves heat cookware and their contents, not the stove surface. The stove surface heats stainless steel pans and contents but quickly cools. Touch it by mistake after removing a pot and a burn is unlikely. If a burner is accidentally turned on without a pot above it won’t heat up.
Induction Stoves promote clean indoor air
For years we’ve used gas fueled camping stoves with instructions stating to only use them outdoors where there’s plenty of fresh air. Why, then, was it safe to burn similar fuel indoors on our kitchen stove? Kitchen gas stoves emit pollutants into a home’s air.
Induction stoves don’t, so our stove promotes clean indoor air.
Smooth top of induction stove makes easy cleaning.
Induction Stove Considerations
Along with the many benefits of induction stoves, customers need to consider the changes involved. The first is visible in the appliance store. They cost more than comparable gas or conventional electric stoves. Since they work by magnetism our old trusty copper bottom pots and pans wouldn’t work on induction. So, we gave them away and bought new magnetic stainless-steel pans. Fortunately, our time-tested cast-iron skillets work great on induction.
Most induction stoves run on 220 amps of electricity. We only had a 110 line to our former gas stove, so we hired a Munson Electric Company electrician to run a 220 line to our stove location.
The Learning Curve
As soon as our new stove was installed, we faced a learning curve. The stove’s quick heating ability took getting used to. It boils water in a flash. However, turn the dial down….or up….and the stove responds instantly with less or more heat without the lag common in other stoves. We learned to stay close in the kitchen and mind the progress of the cooking.
Cleaning and Bills
Another part of the change to an induction stove was cleaning it. We wipe down the stove top and inside after each use, and use prescribed materials to regularly wipe to top. These tasks take only a few minutes and leave the stove looking great. We chose knobs vs. total “push button” so we can look back when leaving the kitcher or house, see the knobs upright and that nothing is left on the stove and know with assurance all is safe.
Our electric usage and bill may rise some. Our gas usage will decrease.
We also make sure nothing is left on the stove top when we are not cooking. This simple technique ensures more safety.
We’re still getting used to it but we like our ultra-modern efficient induction stove.
by Winding Pathways | Jun 5, 2025 | Energy Efficiency, Ruminations
Buying a KIA Niro in the fall of 2024 ended several months of seeking the best car for us. Our Chevy Cruze was serving us well. We liked it but it was a low-set vehicle. At pushing age 76 we were finding it harder to get in and out of it. So, we went on a quest seeking an ideal car.
We wanted a car that was easy to get into and out of, got exceptionally good gas mileage, was comfortable to drive and ride in, and was well built and durable enough to last for years.
EV or Plug-In Hybrid?
Although we were intrigued by an electric car, often travel takes us to rural areas where charging stations don’t yet exist. So, we sought a plug-in hybrid that would let us buzz around town on battery power yet allow us to use gas for longer jaunts.
McGrath Motors
We needed help locating the right car for us. Garrett Ellard at McGrath Motors in Cedar Rapids proved to be an outstanding resource. He listened to our needs and had us try a few models. One was a plug-in KIA Niro, a model we had never heard of. We liked it and purchased it through KIA’s lease-to-own program. This reduced the purchase price, but became complicated and problematic.
Complications
We picked the car up in November 2024 and have been driving it for half a year.
Here are aspects of the car we like:
- It is easy to get in and out of, and is comfortable to drive and ride in.
- The plug-in electric feature is outstanding. We plug it into a 110-volt wall outlet. We didn’t need to hire an electrician to install a faster charger.
- KIA says the car will run on battery power for 33 miles when fully charged. As expected, it does somewhat less than that during very cold weather, but exceeds the range during warm days.
- The car seamlessly switches automatically from electric to gas power when the battery is depleted. It has equal and plenty of power, whether in battery or gas mode.
- When driving on trips with the battery depleted, the KIA gets over 50 miles per gallon on gas. Once with a headwind, it exceeded 60 mpg.
- Safety items are amazing.
Here are a few things we found challenging or perplexing:
- KIA’s lease-to-own program: We were told that we’d receive a purchase price about $4,000 lower if we leased the car for three months and then made the purchase. That is a chunk of money, so we chose this. It became a frustrating, time-consuming process. We thought when we paid for the car in February 2025, we’d “own” it, but it initiated two months of signatures, changing out temporary plates, and just plain aggravation. Perhaps the dealer or KIA didn’t want us to buy the car, but just continue to lease it. This was resolved, but if the option of lease-to-buy comes up in the future, we would approach it cautiously.
- The electronics are amazing and do remarkable things, but many of them we don’t need or use. For example, it’s easier to turn on the radio in our 19-year-old Chevy truck than in the KIA. Feel for the knob and push it. With the KIA, one has to take their eyes off the road, if the driver, to find the radio function, if it is not one, and push the screen. Seems dangerous. The Cruise control is harder to use than in our old car, and when it’s not on, it’s difficult to manually hold the car at a steady highway speed. The car wants to go faster than the speed limit!
- The gearshift is actually a wheel. Again, the driver has to take eyes off the road to determine if in drive, park, or reverse because the gear shift is between the seats. Also, dangerous because the shift can get bumped and then create situation of loss of control of the car. A gear shift lever is safer. We are used to the wheel, but it is unsafe.
- What WERE the engineers thinking? Novelty is one thing, safety another. We vote for safety.
All in all it’s a great car.
by Winding Pathways | Feb 27, 2025 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Energy Efficiency, Trees/Shrubs
After lots of experimenting, we’ve figured out how to create the best woodstove fire.
Wood heat is lovely
For a half century, our stoves kept us warm during winter’s chill. We’ve burned all sorts of wood, ranging from rather low-heat cottonwood to heat-dense black locust. We prefer using a mix of wood from different species to create and maintain the best warming fire.
Sources
The Internet is packed with charts giving the relative heat value of wood based on species. These are great resources that help choose the best wood species. All the charts assume that every species is dried to about the same moisture contact to make accurate comparisons. When given a choice it’s generally the best use of time and storage space to choose dense woods that have high heat value. But we make great use of lower-value woods like pine and cottonwood.
Curing
No matter the species, wood needs to be cured to make efficient firewood. We cut and split our wood and store it out of the rain for at least two years.
Trees Felled
In August 2020 a derecho’s 140 mile an hour wind felled 47 trees on our property. It made a mess. We hated losing shade and privacy but converted the downed trees into cordwood that’s kept us warm for the past four winters. The wind knocked down Douglas Fir, Black and Red Oak, Mulberry, Black Cherry, White Pine, Hackberry and American Elm. We use them all in slightly different ways.
Different Woods
Here’s how different types of wood burn and how to take advantage of their different characteristics.
Woods with Pitch
Douglas Fir has lots of pitch.
Pine and Douglas Fir: These softwoods contain pitch. Highly flammable turpentine is made from pine pitch. It burns like crazy. We split our White Pine into kindling. Finely split shavings are easy to light with a match even without using paper. Once the fire is going, we avoid burning smoky pine.
Our Douglas Fir is denser and harder than pine and holds more heat per pound. It also contains pitch. So, when starting a fire on a cold morning we put a large chunk of Douglas Fir in the woodstove, lean pine shavings against it, and strike a match. Soon the shavings are burning hot enough to ignite the Fir’s pitch and get a hot fire started.
Putting too much kindling or pitch-filled wood in a stove can be dangerous. It burns very hot with a yellow flame and some smoke. So, we don’t load the firebox with the stuff.
Hardwoods
Three types of hardwood.
Oak, Cherry, Hackberry, and Elm: These hardwoods lack pitch but are loaded with heat released during combustion. We put these woods on our chunk of burning Douglas Fir and keep adding them all day. They create a mellow burn that releases heat more slowly than softwoods. The Engineering Toolbox has excellent information on relative values of wood heat.
Relative Heat Values
Here are some relative heat values of the woods we burn.
Species BTU’s Per Cord Cord Weight
Red Oak 24 million 3760
Black Cherry 20 .. 3520
White Pine 14.3 .. 2240
Douglas Fir 26.4 .. 2970
Cottonwood 15.8.. 2272
Benefits of woodstoves
Burning wood saves money and provides ultra-comfortable heat, but it takes plenty of work to find, cut, split, move, and stack it. Then it has to cure and be moved close to the stove. To us, the work and patience have been well worth it, especially on frigid snowy nights.
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Summer project.
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Storing wood.
by Winding Pathways | Jan 30, 2025 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Energy Efficiency
Radon is an unwelcome house guest that we’re careful to boot out. We welcome wild turkeys, barred owls, and a local opossum to visit but radon comes uninvited.
Our house was built in 1947 atop an ancient sand dune formed when the glaciers receded around 9,000 years ago. Fierce Southwest winds blew sand from the Cedar River up to where our house was built thousands of years later. Down in that sand or the rock beneath it is uranium. As it degrades it turns into radon that percolates up and enters our house.
Noble Gas
Physicists consider radon a noble gas, but there’s nothing noble about what it can do to human health. Radon is a stealthy gas that is odorless, invisible, and tasteless. It’s the number two cause of lung cancer in America behind smoking.
Mitigating Radon
When we bought our home in 2010 the former owner had just installed a radon mitigation system. Basically, it’s a fan that vents radon outside. The gas has a half-life of only 3.8 days. That means half of it will have degraded into potentially nasty polonium in about four days. However, these gasses are diluted and break down quickly and pose little danger outside a building. Eventually, they further degrade into lead.
Alpha Emitter
Radon is a radioactive alpha emitter. A single sheet of paper can stop its particles. The particles are dangerous when breathed in and lodged in the lungs. There they can cause lung cancer.
Prevention
Prevention is simple and involves venting radon from the house to the outside. On a December morning Neil McDonald, a licensed radon mitigation specialist, visited Winding Pathways. He replaced our worn-out radon fan with a new one that has more oomph.
“Any house built after 2015 likely has a radon venting system built into it that channels the gas outdoors. Probably the majority of older houses have some radon inside and lack a mitigation system. Radon can be anywhere but many areas of the country have especially high concentrations of it and the Midwest is one of the worst regions,” he said while he replaced our fan.
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Simple replacement
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Neil McDonald, Radon mitigation specialist
Test Kits
Uneven is good.
A few years ago, we wondered if our radon removal system was working so we bought two test kits at a local home store. We ran a test with our system going and mailed it to a lab. It showed a pcl/L level under 2. Then we turned the system off and retested it. Radon levels were about 5. Our system works! The government recommends action in any building with a level of 4 or above. Test kits and electronic testing devices can be purchased at many home improvement and hardware stores.
When Is Radon Most Concentrated?
“Radon tends to be most concentrated in homes during the summer and winter when windows are closed and furnaces or air conditioners are running. Generally, levels are lower in spring and fall when people keep their windows open, allowing the gas to flow outside. Concentrations are usually highest in basements,” he continued.
Replacing the Machine is Part of Our Maintenance
We knew our old radon fan was on its last legs when its noise level increased. That’s when we invited Noel to visit and install a new fan. Switching it out only took about an hour.
Helpful Sites
Helpful information on radon can be found at the Environmental Protection Agency’s website. Googling Radon Mitigation takes a person to many sources. For Iowans, Health and Human Services is a helpful site. Our tax dollars doing good work to keep people safe. Radon mitigation companies operate in nearly all larger towns. We hired MidAmeria Basement Systems to replace our fan.
Making sure radon is not a problem is similar to having health checkups and cleaning the woodstove and gas fireplaces. Maintenance! We continue to welcome our wild turkeys and possums to our yard while kicking radon out of the house.
by Winding Pathways | Dec 5, 2024 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Energy Efficiency, Garden/Yard, Garden/Yard
*Note: Below are just a few examples of several power tools we’ve purchased. They were pricey but made yard work so much easier than with muscle-powered tools. Occasionally, a company asks us to try a product and give reviews.
Yard work was a snap when we were in our 20s. That was a half-century ago! How can that possibly be? Years slipped by. We’re just as eager to mow grass, rake leaves, plant gardens, prune shrubs, and shovel snow, but muscles and joints make the work challenging. Fortunately, we’ve found ways to make yard work and house repairs easier for us as aging homeowners. People with reduced strength or mobility and even younger people with busy schedules will find these tips handy.
Here are some ways we’ve made yard management easier:
Invest in Tools
Tool companies have made yard care easier and safer than in the old days. We used to use muscle-powered tools to trim hedges and shrubs, cut and split wood, rake leaves, move snow, and till the garden. As we got older we began investing in power tools that make the work easier and faster.
For example, an old fashioned “weed wacker”, powered by arm muscles, cut down tall grass growing into pathways and our woods. That got harder each year, so we invested in a Milwaukee brand battery-powered tool that fuels a weed cutter, pole saw, and hedge trimmer. The work is quick and easy. Same with our lopping shears for trimming trees. A battery-powered pruner does the tough cutting easier than hand muscles.
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spring loaded vs battery
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Long handle
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Muscle powered shears next to hedge trimmer.
We always had a gas lawn mower but often struggled to pull the darn starter cord. When EGO came up with a battery-powered mower we eagerly bought one and got rid of the old gas mower. The EGO starts by pushing a button, and it’s self-propelled. We have to walk behind and guide it, but it chugs along under its own power. That’s especially helpful when we mow trails on our hillside.
The EGO snowblower starts with a push of a button.
Snow shovels! Well, we still have a few and use them in tight spaces, but our relatively new battery-powered snow blower makes clearing our 440-foot driveway a snap and eliminates the need to lift heavy snow and pull a starter cord.
Those are just a few examples of several power tools we’ve purchased. They were pricey but made yard work so much easier than with muscle-powered tools.
Hiring and Borrowing
This past season we did a “first”. We hired a young woman to help with gardening. And, we sometimes hire a local teenager to mow our lawn. Years ago we wouldn’t have dreamed of hiring anyone to do what we could do. That’s changing. Having extra hands to help is money well spent.
The tractor made hauling wood easier.
It’s not always hiring help. We swap. By late October Rich had cut and split a small mountain of cordwood we’ll use to stay warm this winter. There was a problem. It was on the north side of our property and down a steep hill. In past years he’s hand carried it uphill. Not a small task to muscle 2000 pounds of wood in 50 round trips carrying 40 pounds up the hill each time. Whew. This year a neighbor came to our rescue. Rich borrowed his tractor and trailer and moved all the wood up the hill in a jiffy. From time to time, we have loaned him some of our tools in exchange. Borrowing works both ways.
We pride ourselves on our independence and take joy in yard work, but we just turned 75 and aren’t quite as frisky as we once were. Using power tools, hiring help, and cooperating with neighbors all make keeping up with the yard easier.
