You can see how excited I am to use the energy created by our pv solar panels. They had been charging the batteries for the last 48 hours. Solar power is a sort of use it or loose it thing. Once the batteries are charged up the panels energy will go to waste (unless some other load is in place). Today I shut off our grid power, turned on our solar power. I proceeded to run inside our trailer and turn on a air conditioner and swamp cooler. Now we are using our solar setup to its full potential.
6 comments:
Isn't there some sort of thing where you can sell excess power back to the utilities?
Congratulations! That must be hugely satisfying!
Cap'n
It is federal and state law that any "power company" buy back energy from those who produce it. However, Truth or Consequences does not have a "power company". The city sells us energy. I actually made the checks for my electric bills out to "The City of Truth or Consequences". Cities are exempt from the power buy back.
Now....If I were to just turn on grid power breaker coming into my property while generating electricity it should roll the meter backwards and I could get a negative bill from the power company. This is illegal in my town at the moment.
terrie - yeah the PV setup is really satisfying. Partly because it took me a year of looking at all the gear and scratching my head about how this is ever going to come together. The other part is the guilt free lifestyle once it is done.
I didn't realize how much better I would feel about using electricity that I worked hard to pay for and setup. Much like driving a grease car across the state. It used to kill me to drive on gasoline to the point that I would virtually never leave town. I feel better now that I have to get dirty every week and collect grease from the restaurants, then filter it out, and deal with all the ramifications.
Both solar and grease are a pain in the ass, but they have taught me a lot.
I think I know that feeling! I am a webdesigner, and I have a tendency to watch my website traffic in realtime. It feels calming :)
But for you it is even better, because you are saving money at the same time!
In 22yrs I will be saving money. Right now the PV system is just paying me back. Now if the price of power should go up 5x then I will pay it off in a little over 4 years.
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