Introduction

My wife and I have been concerned about our cost of electricity. Our house was built in 1994, and the construction of the house and the use of insulation are typical of that era; we opted to use natural gas for heating and cooking, and we opted to have a high efficiency furnace installed in the house. As we became concerned about the cost of electricity, we made changes to the house, including the replacement of tungsten light bulbs with CFL and later LED lights, plugging air leaks around doors, increasing the insulation in the attic, and changes to thermostat settings. These changes brought our electrical bill down to about $120 per month. One thing that we have not done is the replacement of windows.

The next step, we decided, would be to produce our own electricity, and we've recently had a photovoltaics solar system installed on our house. We live in northern Utah, USA, along the Wasatch Front of the Salt Lake valley. Our children are interested in our experience with solar, and I've created this blog to keep them informed of our excursion into solar power. In addition, other people are becoming interested in solar power (the man from the local power company who installed our net meter said he installs 4 or 5 net meters every day), and these people might be interested in our experience. The blog presents hard facts about our solar system, and people who visit the blog can use those facts in their investigation of solar power. These people should, of course, realize that the data about our solar system are peculiar to our house and location and may not directly apply to their situations.

The estimated time for payback of our solar system is about 14 years. I may not live that long, but who ever gets our house will have the advantage of solar power. A big expense will be when we (or who ever gets the house) have to put new shingles on the roof and pay to have the solar panels temporally removed. After living in the house for about eight years, we had the shingles replaced with better quality (and more expensive) shingles, and I hope it is a number of years before we have to have the shingles replaced again.

Navigation in the blog is best accomplished via the navigational bar at the top of each page. People can, of course, start with the Home page and scroll through all of the pages, but use of the navigational bar will help them quickly access pages discussing topics of interest to them.

You are invited to ask questions and to leave comments about solar systems. Your questions and your past experience will help us have a wider perspective about this new source of energy.

This blog gives visitors a good view of using solar power in the Wasatch Front of the Salt Lake valley, and I am not updating this blog to give further information.

Snow on roof + cold = Almost no solar power generated

We had days when our roof was covered with snow. The daytime temperatures were below freezing, and the sky was cloudy. All of this meant there were quite a few days when little solar power was generated, usually 1 kwh or less. We need about 17 kwh of solar power to break even with daytime use and nighttime power drawn from the grid.

Its warmer and the snow is melting

We've had several days of almost no solar power due to snow on the roof. We started to get some power yesterday and today, due to snow melting, but the sky is overcast, and that reduced the generation of power. Because of the warmer days and evenings, we're not using our electric space heater as much.

Pre-Installation Checklist

This checklist, which will help people evaluate solar power, was provided by Rocky Mountain Power.

Who is responsible for obtaining permits and authorizations? 

Who is responsible for post-installation roof inspection? 

Who is responsible for post-installation roof repair? 

If there are structural damages other than to the roof resulting from the installation, who is responsible?  If there are consequential damages, such as ceiling damage, from the installation, who is responsible? 

If there are injuries to the crew or the public during installation, who is responsible? 

Does my homeowner’s association or another entity have covenants or restrictions with respect to installing rooftop solar? 

What safety standards must be followed and who provides oversight? 

Who is responsible for removal and reinstallation of the system when your roof needs to be replaced or repaired? 

If there is a warranty issue, can you coordinate repairs or do you have to let the manufacturer or installer have an opportunity to resolve the issue? 

If there is a hardware warranty issue, who is responsible for the costs of removing the old panel and installing the replacement panel? 

Who is responsible for equipment replacement while the hardware is under warranty? 

What are the consequences and remedies for the installer’s warranty if the installer goes out of business? 

What are the consequences and remedies for the hardware warranty if the hardware manufacturer goes out of business? 

Who is responsible for the lien disclosure?

What are the insurance requirements to have a system on your home? 

Who is responsible for satisfying applicable electric codes for any existing and new wiring? 

Who provides notice and what other provisions apply if the installer or inspector needs access to your home? 

Who is responsible for making sure the installation meets any applicable re department policies? 

Who is responsible for ongoing maintenance and what are the maintenance standards? Who controls customer data derived from the installation? 

Finally, the days start getting longer....

Phew.... Made it to the winter solstice. Now, we'll start getting more power generated, though this week will be bad due to winter storms. So far this month, we've had three days with no power generated due to snow on the roof. The snow is gone, and we got 5 KWH generated yesterday.

This picture is from the web, but it shows the amount of snow we're had so far -- about 6 inches.

New all-time high

My solar system generated 52.9 Kwh today, and I think this is an all-time high.

Water pump running longer during the night

According to Rocky Mountain Power, the temperature during June was about 8 or 9 degrees hotter than it was in 2014. This means that my air conditioner ran more than normal during June, and it also means that my sprinkling system ran more during the night. Usually during June, I would run the sprinkler about four hours, but I've been running it for six hours. I don't remember the HP of the pump, but it is a hefty motor and draws significant current, probably close to as much as the A/C. If July cools down to normal, I may find that my electrical costs go down, causing my excess solar power to increase. In the past, August was the big month for electrical costs, and it will be interesting to see what the temperature is this year during August.

Solar didn't quite handle the A/C during June

The numbers are in for my electric bill for the last three and 1/2 weeks of June and the first 1/2 week of July, and my solar system didn't quite generate enough energy to cover my usage. The total excess energy was reduced by 29 Kwh. In contrast, during the preceding month, when the air conditioner (A/C) wasn't used, the excess energy was increased by 468 Kwh. If this pattern holds for the remaining summer months, I should go into the Fall and Winter with close to enough excess energy to handle the days that are cloudy and snowy. During this past month, I kept the thermostat at 76 degrees during the daytime and off during the night. Last year, before I had the solar system, I kept the thermostat at 80 degrees. The weather during this month was hot with few clouds. I thus generated more energy from the solar system, due to the cloudless days, but the A/C was running more.

Solar Power Generation Going Down

There were no clouds in the sky today, but my solar system only generated 49 Kwh, down from a peak a few weeks ago of 52+ Kwh. The lower production might be related to shorter days and dust on the cells. We haven't had rain for a week or so, and dust could be a problem. Also, the ozone level is high, but I don't know if that affects the solar energy reaching my house.

Longest day of the year

Today was the longest day of the year, but I still generated less than 52 Kwh. Production will now slowly go down. We've had hot weather the past week, and I've run the AC a lot. It will be interesting to see the effect of the AC on energy consumption. I checked a couple of times to get an idea about the effect of AC, and in the middle of the day, when a lot of solar power was generated, energy was still being put into the grid even though the AC was running. But, around 6 pm, when less solar power was generated, energy was taken from the grid. Without the AC, energy is put into the grid until sundown, but with the AC running, more energy is used.