Weekly Explosions Vol 7: Making yourself more energy independent

I think we have all just about heard enough about:

• the green new deal
• getting rid of fossil fuels
• soaring gas prices
• natural gas shortages.

Time to have a good look at yourself. Are you:

• All talk, no action
• A constant complainer, or
• Action orientated

To be honest, I personally tend to transition through all three stages:

• Initially I talk about a problem, but really do nothing about it.
• Then when the problem does not go away, I start to complain as to why somebody does not fix the problem,
• Then when the problem still does not go away, I finally get motivated to see what I can do about it.

And I gotta say, I am a bit of a cheapskate:

• I drive small cars because I prefer them to large cars, but mainly because the are cheaper to drive - no matter how cheap the price of gasoline is.
• I drive a hybrid mainly because I got a really good deal on it when gasoline prices were cheap and nobody wanted to buy them. It cost me about the same as a normal car.

Living in a sunny climate - I figured I should take a serious look at putting solar panels on the roof. After all, most electricity is generated by natural gas and coal - so if I could swap some of that out for solar - then in an ever so small way ( a mere drop in the ocean):

• it would help reduce the demand for natural gas
• less demand means lower prices
• lower prices make it more affordable for people that do not have the easy option of Solar energy
• less demand frees up natural gas for areas experiencing genuine shortages.

I had looked at them in the past but did not move forward because:

• I was worried they would stop working in a few years - long before they had paid for themselves, and
• the economics did not seem to stack up. It always looked like it would cost me more then normal electricity (remember I tend to be a cheapskate)

Times have changed - Solar Panels are now a viable choice.

Affordable First lets deal with the money side. Many solar systems offer a 25 year parts, labor, and performance warranty. With interest rates still low, if you finance it over 25 years - the payments work out less then I currently pay utility company. The cheapskate in me is happy.

Warranty I would not consider financing the panels over 25 years unless I felt confident they would last that long - or be covered by warranty if not. Here is what made me feel comfortable:

• manufacturer's warranty covering parts, labor, & performance for 25 years
• Installer offering a warranty for 40 years covering anything the manufacturer does not cover. Belt and suspenders - I love it
• Lots of people have been using solar panels for many years now and they seem to have worked on a lot of the kinks - I won't be on the bleeding edge.
• I know I am taking the risk the manufacturer won't be around in 25 years to honor the warranty - especially if they have a lot of warranty claims. Same goes for the installer's 40 year warranty - 40 years is a long time. But in the end I decided to take the risk.

Nasty Surprise I was surprised that most solar systems connected to the utility companies power grid (so you can draw power at night or on cloudy days as needed) do not work if the power grid goes out. I would really not be very happy if I had solar panels sitting on my roof capable of producing electricity - but I had no power because the utility companies grid was down. That would not make me anymore independent then I am now. I had to do some hunting around and eventually found a solution called a Sunlight Backup.

The Sunlight Backup will only work when the sun is up and only provide as much energy as currently being generated - less if it is cloudy etc. But hey, if you have your fridge, microwave and a place to charge your phone - you are in a much better position then a total blackout.

I was told it will not power an air conditioner because the start up power requirements are too high. But I still have some homework to do because I found a Soft Starter that claims to solve that start up energy problem. I will update this note when I find out one way or the other.

String versus Mirco-inverters I am told you want micro-inverters so you can easily add panels in the future if you need to. And if one panel goes out, the others keep working. Apparently with String - one panel down knocks out the whole system

I am told it all should be up and running in 60-90 days. If all goes well I will be a little bit more energy independent and no worse off compared to if I kept paying the utility company.