We’re putting on a metal roof next summer. It will cost about twice as much as an asphalt roof. Even the 30 year roofs around here tend to get damaged easily. We get strong winds through here in late winter and spring that rip off the best laid shingles, and being in the Pac NW in a north-facing house, the moss is a constant nuisance that also shortens the life. One of our neighbors went metal 15 years ago and they have never had a problem. Plus, it will work well with out rain harvesting system we use to irrigate the back garden. There’s supposedly some energy savings in there as well, according to the lit. The ROI is the basic increased home value, energy savings, maintenance savings, but it’s beyond that. Part of our FIRE plan is to have a paid-off house with most of the major stuff taken care of for life. The biggest ROI is not having to worry about the roof when I’m 70. We need a new roof, so we’re getting as close to a permanent one as we can.
We’ve also done the other basic stuff — increasing attic insulation, choosing a house with steel siding instead of wood (70 year old siding still looks brand new), better windows. So far those have paid for themselves with just the energy savings. Same with the programmable thermostat.
We were considering solar, but this far north there’s only a few hours of sunlight during winter, and we are cloudy for six months of the year. Hubs recently met someone with a small wind generator on their roof in conjunction with some panels (when it’s cloudy, it’s windy). He’s researching that, but we aren’t yet sure if it’s worth it. We need more data for our area before we jump on that one.
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