Residential Solar

I remember back in the 70's when electric coop's and commercial power companies were asking people to cut back electricity usage to save money. The end result of that was the coop's and commercial companies weren't drawing in enough money to pay their bills. The charge for their product went up rather quickly. Consumers only save money until they aren't paying enough to keep their suppliers afloat.

 

I changed to CFLs where they worked. (not on dimmer switches) but when LEDs came out with really good lighting, I changed over most every light to LED. Dimmer switch friendly. I don't like the daylight blue. More a fan of the yellow hues, or soft white. As for the solar panels, I would switch if it were not for the fact that I'm 76 and have been in the hospital three times this winter with a chronic condition. If I were to do it, I wouldn't finance it with a loan. Just pay for it and forget paying interest which just bleeds you out.

 

Same is true with the transportation sector and the increasing fuel economy.

 

I got a .99% loan on my panels but will still pay it off much earlier

 

With that rate, you could earn more with the right investment with your money than you would by paying down the loan.

 

Yeah 2 year t bills were 5% a month ago

 

Very true and even though it may not be the smartest thing to do, I just don't like owing money if I can avoid it.

 

I don't like debt either. I can see it for a house or new car, but not for cc purchases. My debts are very little. Still have a small mortgage, but nothing else. I have more than enough in savings to cover that in the event there comes a need. Just trying to have a nest egg for extended care should that come up.

 

Yep That 70's fiasco with the save energy backfired rather spectacularly on the consumers - boy was I ticked off by that, in particular when the ceo got a 100k / year raise plus a very hefty bonus in the 6 figure area as well. Everytime someone mentions that my blood pressure goes off the scales to this day.

 

So this happened yesterday, should take care of that underperforming panel . However, at this point, with the sun much higher in the sky, it won't have much evident effect until next October or so.





When my water heater crappped out in February and I gave up throwing money at it, I decided to replace both it and the 30 year old boiler with a direct vent high-efficiency combi-boiler. That made the chimney useless. I really would have loved to take the chimney all the way out, but there were way more complications (and money) involved than I wanted to deal with to add a couple of square feet to the kitchen and basement. When I talked to the guy who did the work he said it would be better to just take out the damaged sections, plus another layer down to the roof and cap it, just in case it's needed down the road. At the very least, no more snow and rain entering.

 

Saturday after driving home from the carwash to get all the pollen off (plus, it still had some winter salt on it), I saw my solar panels were covered (not that I should have been surprised, it is now covering everything with the dry week we just had). Wondering how much that affected generation of electricity, I looked up my production for yesterday. It was the best day of generation so far - and I'm still loving that west side production (and Sunday was at just under 46kwh).

You can definitely tell which panels get shaded at times now that the trees are leafed out. I'm glad that I made them raise that east side from being at the edge of the eave to just below the roof ridge.



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Now getting 11 hours of solar production (actually more, I just am not counting the very the first and last couple of bars that are barely there.

 

I was curious about all of the pollen on mine as well but had the same experience as you which was my highest production day yet. Last Wednesday was wall to wall sunshine all day long and my system produced 112kwh. Saturday which was a day of thick clouds and drizzle all day, the panels produced 30kwh.

 

Yesterday was dark, but no drizzle so only produced 18.5 kwh. Of course it was laundry day and I managed to run the biggest electricity hog (dryer) during the darkest part of the day. Literally, during the 45 minutes the dryer ran, was when the solar output was the lowest . Couldn't put the clothes out on a line as they are doing site work next door and the dirt and sand are a-flying. Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things - I'm just trying to be mindful now that I can actually see and track my usage in close to real time.

 

Ok Bogie I’m confused. Assuming dryer uses same energy and production would be same for day, what difference does what time you run dryer make?

Is it just you would have needed to pull less from grid, A new englander thing of self reliance

Are we tracking transmission loss and generating efficiency

 

It doesn't really matter, but I prefer to draw directly from what is being produced versus draw from the grid during the day. Most days (at this time of year), I draw roughly 2 kwh from the grid (for night time use). That particular day I drew 4.9kwh - the extra directly related to the dryer use. If I had timed it better, say around 3pm, my total draw would have been 3.0-3.5 (it was dark that day, on a sunny day I would not have drawn any extra juice).

There are a couple of charges from the power company that are not directly offset by what I push to the grid. The Strnded Cst Recovery Chrg, and System Benefits Charge are based on kwh drawn from the grid and don't go negative if I push more than I pull. Sure, it is only a total of $2.30 (for April's bill), and compared to the standard customer charge to be hooked to the grid at all ($13.81) that is small potatoes.



Between my growing up in farmer country, working 2 jobs most of my adult life (or massive OT at one job), and New Englander self-reliance rubbing off, it bothers me that I can't get those two numbers down to zero, but not enough for me to buy $30k worth of battery backup that would store my daytime energy and return it to me at night.

 

Stupid “delivery fee.” I should be able to charge them when I deliver more than I use.

 

I've always said.. those lines from the house to the pole are the most expensive wires ever created.

 

I agree. But, that is up to your state's regulatory commission. As far as I can tell NH has one of the best plans going (for the biggest supplier anyway - Eversource). I looked up a local coop (trying to help a local person understand their bill without actually seeing their bill) and their structure for net metering isn't nearly as advantageous as mine. Of course their energy charge is less too, so it may even out in the long run.

 

There was a glitch on the one panel on the east that is showing 3.67 kwh. There is no way. That should be 2.67 kwh max - and I don't even see how it could be more than 2.27 (and probably closer to 2.17 - should be close to its neighbor). There are a good amount of trees back there, and I have a flattish roof, so it can't even be blamed on reflections from vehicles.