our photovoltaic solar panels are now installed! here's some fun facts about them.
it's easy.
you can do it all yourself if you want to, but in our case, realgoods solar took care of everything -- the paperwork, the permits, the state rebate, and the
installation.
it's not expensive.
with state rebates in place, the system will entirely pay for itself in about 7 years. but you don't have to stay at your place for 7 years, because realtors
now have an established formula for the amount of value a solar power system adds to your dwelling, meaning you're sort of at breakeven, even at day one.
PLEASE NOTE: i wrote this before the cool new california solar laws went into effect in jan 06, so the payback time is even quicker!!
it's possible even in the heart of the city.
most of the solar catalogs highlight suburban and rural systems -- but you can do it in the city, too. even if the building is
old, even if you're in a condo,
and even if you're not on the top floor.
there's no reason not to!
this is one way to have a very personal effect on global warming, energy wars, and nasty enron-induced PG&E price gouging. and if you roll it into a mortgage, a
refi, or a home-equity loan, there's really no upfront cost.
it's incredibly reliable!
once it's installed it just goes. and goes. and goes. there's nothing to fuss with, no maintenance (other than wiping them off once a year), and no interruption in power (even during the installation!). we've just passed the 5 megawatt hour mark on our system and it's working like a dream.
{ pictures } { movie } { our story } { FAQ } { moblog } { solar webcam (now offline) }
our story
well, when i was 12 i won an award from the oregon museum of science and industry for a solar oven i had designed... so i think these panels were destined to happen from a very early age. i'd been
reading homebrew solar magazines at the bookstore and drooling over items in the real goods solar catalogs for as long as i can remember, so i already knew who i was going to call to see about putting
in a system on our home.
in mid 2004, caltrain launched its express service to the southbay -- enabling kelly to take the train to work in a reasonable amount of time (50 minutes instead of 85). so now we had this car sitting on the street collecting parking tickets. so we sold it (as city carshare members, we didn't really need to worry about those 2 or 3 times a month that we still needed a car). so then we were like, "hmm... what should we do with this $12,000?" after living thru PG&Es rate hikes, blackouts, and being generally pissed about the US not joining the kyoto treaty, we decided to put our money where our beliefs were and go solar.
it's exciting to now be in california (i'm originally from the NW), where the state is willing to rebate a huge portion of the cost back to you. (we got a check for almost $10,000!).
we live in the heart of san francisco in a 3-story, 100 year old victorian that's been converted to condos -- solar isn't just for people in the burbs with big backyards and their own roof.
FAQ
- how much did it cost?
- when will it pay for itself?
- how much of
your electricity needs will it cover?
- how long did it take?
- how did you finance it?
- does it need batteries?
- What happens at night?
- What happens when the power fails in your neighborhood?
- I don't own my own home. what can I do?
- The weather isn't so good where I live. Can it still work?
- doesn't it take a lot of
electricity to make solar panels?
links
did you know? if every dollar spent on Gulf War II had been spent on solar panels, we could have bought enough of them by now (5/2005) to power the entire state of california. sigh.
we got a somewhat larger-than-normal system, so our system cost us about $20,000 out-of-pocket ($30,000 minus a $10,000 rebate from the state of california).
with the california rebate, and current energy prices, about 10
years. However, if you assume a 8% annual rise in electric utility
rates, the payback is about 7 years. The system is designed to last
30 or more years, so thats 20+ years of free energy.
we got a system that should cover 100% of our usage. (big enough to make a $130/month power bill into $0).
total time from first phone call to finished install was six and a half months. most of this time was spent waiting for the state to process our rebate check. the actual installation took about 5 days.
we sold our car and the rest came from a home equity line of credit.
no. though we could have gotten them if we'd wanted. while rural and, uh, "radically self-reliant" people might want to live 100% off the grid, it makes no sense to do that in the
city. you just get a meter that runs forwards AND backwards, and you only pay for the difference between the two. (the official word for that is an 'Intertie' system).
batteries are expensive, require maintenance, and have to be replaced.
During the night, our meter runs forward, and we draw power from the
grid, as if we had no solar panels. Because we have a time-of-use
meter, we pay less for our power at night than most people do. But
during the day, the meter runs backward and PG&E has to pay us
top-dollar for the power we make.
For safety reasons, the system must sense power from the utility
company to operate. So if there's a blackout, our solar array
doesn't keep our lights on. If it did, a utility worker could get
electrocuted while working on power lines near our house.
If you own a condo, you're free to do what you want as long as the
roof it deeded to your unit. If you're like us, and the roof is condo
property, you can probably easily get your fellow owners' approval
by amending your CC&R's to hold your unit liable for any damage.
That's what we did with our condo association and it cost less than
$1000 to have an attorney update the CC&R's.
If you rent, your Landlord is entitled to the same rebate any other
homeowner is entitled to. Its an investment, just like stocks,
bonds, and real estate, and that could very well appeal to your
landlord.
San Francisco summers are famous for cold and fog. Don't assume that
because you live high up, or far north, it isn't economical. Germany
is the world leader in solar power production, and they are farther
north of the equator than Seattle! A solar installer can tell you
what's possible where you live.
yes. but the solar panels "pay back" their electrical manufacturing cost in about 3 years. and they'll last for 30 years or more
- solar economics
- americans for solar power
- renewable access
- great news on new incentives in washington state!
- powerlight
- borrego solar
- berkeley university info
- spec sheet for our DC/AC inverter (PDF)
- our panels (sharp 185W)
- norcal solar
- SMA (sunny boy inverters)
- cool example of real-time inverter graphs
- solar incentives & rebates, state by state
- most info about economics of solar and rebates
- california solar rights act
- information on the akeena - los gatos lawsuit (legal challenge of calif. solar rights act)