Power from the sun

Facing south-east

We have had solar panels installed on our house and we've been doing quite well - mostly generating more power than we use. And it's still winter and the sun is low. I should have written about this when we first did it. As it is, I'm going to have to update this post when I finally get around to taking pictures of our set up. We have two sets of panels. One facing south-east and one facing south-west. So, we get pretty good coverage. There is an app or smart phones that lets you track how much energy you are using and how much you are producing. It really makes you aware of what is going on and helps us conserve.

There are more and more options for getting solar power for your house. But the two main groups are that you can either buy the equipment yourself or you can have a service provider install the equipment and buy your power from them. We opted for the second one and decided on Solar City as our provider. It really is a no-lose proposition. We didn't have to pay anything. Let me emphasize that. We didn't pay a penny for this. There were no hidden costs. The salesman came to our house and asked some questions about our usage and looked our place up on Google maps and did a preliminary estimate on how many panels we could install and how much energy could be produced by them. He gave us an estimate for how much power we'd get from the panels versus how much we'd still need from the power company. Then, a more exacting survey is done where they draw up the final design and then they start applying for permits from the town and state. Once those are done, the work crew comes out and does the installation. They were very fast and neat and left nothing laying around after they were done. Then, the big wait was fro the power company to come and install a different kind of power meter that can run backwards. Yes, as it is now, we are selling power back to the power company most days.

Facing south-west

So, this is how it works. We buy our solar power from Solar City at about half the rate we were paying the power company. Then, we get credit for power we sell back to the power company. And we don't have any maintenance to do. I have heard people say that they are better off with their purchase of the solar panels and other equipment because the power is essentially free. But they do have to buy the equipment and maintain it and we never have to worry about that. But you can look into those options yourself. Just be prepared to deal with your state and town, though. But maybe you can find a company that will help you with that. With Solar City, we had to do nothing but turn on the switch.

I added the pictures of our collectors on March 6.