julie78787's Q&A

Yes.  Proximity to Tampa Bay and frequent Gulf storms means that flooding can be expected.Compared to the cost of replacing a home, flood insurance is a bargain.  Remember that home owners insurance typically only covers water that falls on a home, not water that rises from the ground.

Many factors go into determining home value, including the appraiser themselves.Unless your house is completely and totally, exactly the same (and few builders will build two identical homes immediately adjacent to each other), there can be significant differences based on interior and exterior decoration, maintenance, remodels, and even the original choice of colors.Ask your real estate agent for advice.  It could be that the other house is appraised too high, or that there are cosmetic changes your could make to improve your appraisal.

You'd have to look at all of the sales transactions for the home.  Typically they are recorded with the tax collector's office.Sometimes homes sell for $1 when ownership is being transferred under some legal agreement, such as a divorce.  The $1 sales price is a nominal 'consideration' and usually a legal fiction -- the value of the home is much greater, but there is no transfer of cash, only transfer of ownership.

Ask the solar installation companies for recommendations.  They may have a bank they do business with that offers favorable rates in order to gain business.My installer two years ago made a recommendation.  My credit union (you should belong to a credit union -- much better rates on most loans) was able to beat their rate, so I went with the credit union instead.

The fastest way is to contact a reputable solar power installation company in your area.  They will have all of that information at their fingertips.Beware of promises of "free", "cheap" or "easy" green power.  If it was free, cheap and easy, companies would be undercutting each other like mad and reaping the profits.  Many of the "do-it-yourself" projects are unsafe, don't work, or aren't rated by the appropriate agencies, such as Underwriters Laboratories.

Another way is to use the Google "street view" or satellite image viewing tools.  Solar panels typically show up as dark blue or black rectangles when viewed from above.

Many of the Home Owner Associations in Central Texas have deed restrictions against solar hot water collectors.  Changes in state and federal laws are removing those restrictions, so it will hopefully become more popular.

It depends on what you mean by "Solar Heat".The most cost effective method, "Passive" solar heating, requires significant work at the house design and construction stage and may be fairly impractical afterward.Other approaches, including solar water heating, can become cumbersome when large heating demands exist due to limited hours of sunshine, or limited space for the solar thermal collectors.

The specific technology that is going to cure our reliance on fossil fuels depends on the part of the country (or world, for those outside the United States).  In West Texas, and north to the Plains states, there is abundant wind power.  In the desert Southwest, clear skies makes an ideal environment for solar.  Some parts of the United States have hydropower, and projects are currently underway to explore generating electricity without damming rivers, such as using submerged turbines in the Mississippi river.However, the single greatest contribution to solving the problem of dependence on shrinking oil and coal supplies is conservation.  I founded my company (don't know if I can mention the name, so contact me directly instead) to do exactly that -- aggressively reduce wasted electric consumption without impacting quality of life.  For clients who are interested, we are also able to design solar power systems either for producing power or emergency standby needs.There is no one solution -- each home and home owner is unique, but there are enough different solutions to solve the growing energy problems.