Hello all
Sorry I haven't been around this forum much, but life has been busy. I'll update you on the solar system since it's been working a couple of months now. It's working very well. It's extremely efficient and like I said before, the meter runs backwards sometimes.
It is already paying for itself. To answer some questions you all had:
- It does have batteries. That really is the only way to go. My wife and I both work during the day, so most of our power use is in the evening when we're home, but there isn't much sun. Gotta store the juice.
- System is 4 kW and cost about $22,000 installed. There are good tax incentives right now for improving your home's energy efficiency ( or at least there were last year )
- System is grid tied meaning we're selling excess energy to the electric company. The meter will run backwards when our energy production exceeds our consumption
The one issue I've had recently is snow on the panels. We got about 6 and a half inches during the last storm last weekend and the panels were somewhat covered for a couple of days. They need to come up with a way to integrate a heating coil in these things that you can turn on to melt the snow off.
Johnny- what kind of water heater do you have? Gas, electric, or some kind of solar system? If you have an electric, how efficient is it? Now that we're solar I'm considering swapping out our gas water heater for an electric one to save on propane.