Last July, we had an array of 27 photovoltaic panels installed on the roof of our house. I wrote about their installation and early performance back in August. That was back before I had gotten any electric bills, or had witnessed seasonal variation in its performance. Now that we’re in the depths of winter, I think it’s time for an update.
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Among the issues that we were concerned about was how would our photovoltaic system affect our electric bills? Predictably, they have been much lower. In fact, since the system has gone on-line, I have not paid a cent to our utility for electricity. The utility does charge a minimum monthly fee of $26, but there has been no net transfer of electricity from them to us during that period.
I was not extremely surprised that we had no net electrical usage in August or September, but I knew that the period of significant photoelectric generation would come to an end as winter approached. The person who installed the system had, of course, provided projections showing that generation would fall to zero during the worst of the winter months, particularly when the panels would be covered in a foot of snow. (Our region is subject to lake-effect snow.) So as the fall progressed, I anticipated that some bill or other would actually show a charge for net use of the utility’s electricity. However, even through December, that had not happened. Our monthly electrical production since installation up to this point has been:
August 2015: 1043 kW-hrs
September 2015: 886 kW-hrs
October 2015: 635 kW-hrs
November 2015: 532 kW-hrs
December 2015: 228 kW-hrs
Of course, we had the remarkably mild fall to thank for this. Just this week, however, we have had our first blast of real winter weather, accompanied by a foot or so of snow. Now the challenge is to try to keep the system productive in some way despite the snow. Fortunately, there is a product designed to remove roof snow quickly and easily without threat to life and limb. It’s called the Avalanche, and it operates like this:
One model of the Avalanche (with larger wheels) is specifically designed with removal of snow from solar panels in mind. So I bought one, and I have used it for the past couple of days on the panels. Verdict: It’s not a panacea; it doesn’t (and, by design, can’t) remove all of the snow to lay the panels bare to sunlight. However, reducing the snow coverage to an inch or less makes the panels responsive to even small amounts of light that diffuse through that snow layer. (Yesterday, we managed to produce all of 0.42 kW-hours, not much when compared to 50 kW-hrs generated on a sunny summer day, but it was more than nothing.) Further, a thin layer of snow will melt faster than a thick one, so the panels will become productive sooner after the snow is removed. Unfortunately, the handle on my Avalanche is too short to reach the top row of panels, but I have in mind to order an extension.
The other issue to be dealt with was certification as a producer of electricity, such that our excess can be sold. I received a certificate last October declaring that we are certified to produce electricity in Ohio (the Ohio border is about 30 miles away), and I have been assured by our electricity broker that we are now certified in Pennsylvania as well. Of course, in the depth of winter, I don’t expect the bucks to come rolling in immediately. I really have no idea what to expect in this regard. On the other hand, the projection provided by the installer was that money money made from our excess electricity would about cancel what we’d have to pay for electricity use in the winter. At this point, we’ve done quite a bit better than expected on the utility use side, so we may end up making a modest profit over the course of a year. I won’t know for months yet, which means you can count on another update to this series some months hence.
And now, on to the comments!
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From Terre:
While there have been many, many, witty replies on DKos over the years, this comment has got to be THE FUNNIEST reply I have EVER heard. In the diary "Hillary Doubles Down on Disingenuous Attack on Bernie's Single Payer Plan" by FishOutofWater, Tony Situ asked, "What’s a 1993 photo signed by HRC thanking Bernie for supporting HillaryCare have to do with today, though?" Colorado is the Shiznit replied:
"Oh, oh, oh! I know this! Pick me, pick me!
I’ll take flip-flopping and untrustworthiness for $1000 a piece, Tony."
From SottoVoce:
Both eggarratt and I wish to nominate this comment about Carly Fiorina from "Six Republican Junior Varsity Debate Open Thread"
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