While I realize this pales in comparison to Heather's big announcement of last week, I've got some news of my own (drumroll please…): Our photovoltaic solar system is on the grid! Since last Wednesday, we've generated 39 kWh. Many of which I've used to can peaches!
Wanna take a little tour?
Here are the 10 SolarWorld panels on the roof. Our installer was a total champ, leaving room so we could still access and clean our gutters of the troublesome needles that rain down on our roof with regularity. He also had to work around two skylights. A geometrical thing of beauty. Since our neighborhood is very hilly, the panels can only be viewed from our next-door neighbor's upstairs windows, and just barely from across the street.
Here is the new PGE bidirectional meter. This allows us to pull energy from the grid, and put energy onto the grid (a program called net-metering). If I've got it figured correctly, the teeeny arrow pointing left means we're sending power onto the grid (personally, I could use a few more flashing lights, bells/whistles, etc., but of course those would USE power, so forget it. I'm happy.):
This is the PVPowered inverter and solar kwh production meter. It's in our basement, right next to our new, up-to-code electric panel. I'll spare you the picture of that. The inverter hums quietly, and I enjoy looking at the total number of kWh we've generated when I'm doing the laundry. Or just passing through the basement. I intend to waste lots of time, staring mindlessly at this meter.
A couple of things I didn't expect but warmly welcome from our solar installation:
- Now that we are generating power, I feel protective of it. I don't want to waste the tiniest watt. I had heard that conservation hits home strongly once you go solar, and I'm a fine case in point.
- Having the solar panels on footings, elevating them off of our roof, has majorly taken the heat off our roof and consequently out of our upstairs' rooms. Granted, this was a pretty chilly summer. But on those few hot days, the panels took in the heat, and our house stayed so much cooler. We have an older house, and we've blown in insulation and replaced some windows, but all past efforts have failed to make our upstairs bearable in the really dog days of summer. Now the addition of the solar panels has changed that for the better.
I had really hoped this would get put in right at the start of summer. Ha, ha. There was also this big hullaballoo (how's that for a grandma term?) about the state being no longer able to afford to give the tax credits they'd offered for solar in the past. But all that worked out. And the work eventually got done. And the inspection was finally passed. Amen. For now, the sun's still kind of hanging around.
PGE sent us a letter stating that our "2.350 kW system will help reduce our household's carbon dioxide emissions by 2119 pounds every year." And a nice little window cling that says "I generate renewable power." Right on! Let the sun shine in!
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