Solar Project

In early July, Sol Luna called us to let us know that they’d be installing our solar panels over the next couple of days. It was a welcome surprise, after months of waiting for approvals. A few weeks later, while my sister and brother-in-law were visiting, the power company finalized its inspections and the solar panels were live. That was almost a month ago. 

The solar panels installed on the garage roof are rated to generate over 7kw in perfect conditions, which haven’t yet existed. On a good day, we can generate about 50kWh, and they’ve produced just over 1000kWh so far. Some days we produce more than we use and on those days our meter runs backwards. We get credit for the power we supply to the grid and that credit offsets the power we use. The best we can do is a $0 bill until, in theory, we close the account and a net positive balance in our favor would result in cash.

Most mornings I take readings of our energy production and usage. From the graph above we can see that the cumulative solar panel production increases faster than our cumulative draw from the grid. Most of our power, but not all, is locally produced. I don’t think we’ll need to worry about getting cash when we close the account. In total, we’ve consumed 1341 kWh since late July, 216 of these were used charging the car.

Hopefully the solar panels will pay for themselves eventually. Unfortunately, when the grid goes down, as it does from time to time, we still don’t have power. Living “off grid” would be more tenuous, especially in winter. So, the main benefit will be cost savings, if that happens. But it’s also been a good source of entertainment and it feels good to do what we can to help the environment.

What are your thoughts? Have you considered installing solar panels?