Our last bill was for November.  On it we show a huge CREDIT left on our bill.

We haven’t paid anything yet.  Because we have solar power we settle up yearly.  Every month we get a statement of how much power we used and what we have to pay.  It’s OK for us to pay monthly – if there’s money due – or we can wait and just settle up next September.  WOW!  How would you like to pay a year’s electricity all at once?

December is cold for Southern California.  It’s in the 50′s and 60′s most days and lots less at night.  The meter spins forwards when the heat is on or when I’m running something that takes a lot of electricity.  But during a sunny day, and we have lots of them, the meter runs backwards for a while.  Even with the sun laying low in the sky and with shorter days, we still run backwards at times.

One day, when it was overcast, the grid electricity went out.  My husband called to me to come and look.  Even on that gloomy day, our solar was putting out enough electricity that the lights came on dimly.  We had a little power when no one else had any!

We are really sold on solar power.  My husband tends to be a bit fanatical about it, but I work to keep him steady.  I would recommend it to anyone who can afford it.  I especially recommend it for new construction.  There are still government incentives out there to help with the cost of installation.  Even a solar water heater would help.  Solar water heaters are less expensive than an array of solar panels on the roof, yet they provide hot water for the household, saving lots of dollars.

So happy winter to you all.

Marilynne

Here’s my answer:

Preparing the roof for solar panels

We are in Southern California, USA. We did a most of our research on the web.  There’s a lot of information out there.   Once we felt we had enough information, we began going to classes and talking to people who sell the solar installations.  It was great to have a place to go where they are selling the concept, not the panels.  That’s The Center for Sustainable Energy .  It’s just in California, but they have a lot of  information available.

You need a large area exposed to full sunlight – like a south-facing roof, but panels can also be set on the ground.  It takes a lot of solar panels.  We have a 2300 sq. ft. home that’s just one story (a lot of roof).  I believe we have 42 panels on our roof and porch roof.  You would go for more or less panels depending on the amount of power needed.

You need to live where there are a lot of sunny days. We discovered that it doesn’t depend on how hot it is, just on how long and bright the sun shines on the solar panels.

You have to wash the panels twice a year. I suppose a good heavy rain would qualify as a washing.

I’m not sure what your situation is.  You could possibly be self-sufficient if you had a lot of sunlight all year round and could store power in a bank of batteries.

It’s expensive. However, we expect to break even (power not purchased) in about nine years.  Not showing in the calculation is that I don’t feel guilty now for turning the air conditioning down an extra notch.

I hope this helps you.  We looked at solar a long time before we were able to buy.  Now we’re investigating whether it would be useful to add a solar water heating device.  We’re already running solar power to our existing water heater.  Would solar water heating be a benefit?  We don’t know yet, but we’ll let you know when we do.

Marilynne

I suggest you visit Val at her Monkeys On The Roof blog.  She lives in a very interesting part of the world.

In remembrance of cool wet days long gone

Our solar power is in full gear racing the electric meter backwards.  We haven’t lost our fascination with watching the meter run backwards.  We are always running out to check.  In our experience, we’ve only seen it happen since we put in solar – and we have a lot of years behind us.

One of my readers said “Thank you.”  Thank you for putting power back into the grid for others to use.  I hadn’t thought about it that way.  My kids, of course, are asking me to send some to their homes – or to send them a chit for the extra electricity.

Now wouldn’t that be a neat idea?  If the gas and electric company noted how much electricity we sent to the grid and gave us a chit we could give to someone else so they could get credit on their bill?  That would really be neat!  Our kids, our friends, our favorite charities.  Think of the pleasure of handing someone a chit good for air conditioning all summer.  I would really enjoy that.

But no, the electricity just slips anonymously into the grid, running my meter backwards annonymously.  Maybe in some better day.

Marilynne