Suntastic Solar Power!

When we signed our solar panel contract we were told it would be about six months before they could be installed.  Sure enough six months later we had a total of 14 panels secured to our roof, but still had to wait about a week and a half for the panels to be operational. This past Wednesday, only a few days after the power company "ok'd" our set up, the City of Phoenix gave us the thumbs up and initiated our green power generation.

Our panel set up works like so.  The bright and glorious Arizona sun beats down on our panels creating a DC current. I'm not entirely sure how said current is created, but its created, which is good enough for me. The DC current is then transformed in our inverter to an AC current, which provides power to our house.  Our power demands initially consume the power that is created, after which, excess power produced is sent out to the energy grid.  I will not say we are minimalist power consumers, but we certainly make a concerted effort to keep our power use to a very reasonable amount.  Because of our consumption pattern, we will likely be giving back to the grid most of the year, with the exception a few summer months.  For the brave souls who have visited us in the summer or even late spring months, you'll be glad to know that with our green energy production comes a slightly reduced guilt regarding the use of our air conditioner to make our house a bit more pleasant than before.  I have no doubt Jackson and the kitties will also be delighted with this anticipated temperature adjustment.

We can monitor our power creation on a website that shows daily, weekly and total power creation. To the rightt are two days, Saturday which was a lovely warm, sunny day, and last Wednesday, a very gray day that included snowfall. I'm impressed that we still managed a minimal amount of energy production.

For instant gratification we can also sneak a peak at our digital power meter to see if we are consuming or producing power.  When an arrow is pointing to the right it means we are receiving power from the utility company, but when its pointing left it means that power is being received by the utility by our panel's generation. 

Can you imagine if every house in just the state of Arizona required owners to have a few solar panels?  Heck, the state would power the nation!