Second Day

Compared to yesterday, today was a cooler day with more clouds. We got, of course, less power from our solar system today. 27.2 Kwh yesterday and 23.4 Kwh today. Actually, our solar cells are doing better on a cloudy day than I thought they would.

The numbers from the net meter tonight (6 pm) are code 14: 36 and code 24: 41. The difference today is 5 Kwh compared to a difference yesterday of 4 Kwh. Keep in mind the net meter gives an accumulation from the time we first turned on the solar system.

There are two ways one can plan usage of the solar system.

(1) reduce our usage of power now so we have a greater credit with the power company for use during December and January. The indication we are doing this is having the difference (code 14 - code 24) increase during the month. This method assumes we may not have enough power from our solar system to handle the increased cost of running our furnace during December and January, plus have our lights on for more time during those months.

(2) Increase our usage of power now such that the difference is zero or slightly negative. This method assumes we will have enough power from our solar system to handle the increased cost of running our furnace during the coldest part of the winter and have our lights on for more time during the shorter days. There may be times when the difference is positive, and we would have to make slight reductions in our usage of electricity.

The predictions made by Synergy Power (the company that installed our solar system) showed that we will have enough solar power to use method (2), but we won't know for sure during this first year. There might be times when the difference is positive, and we would have to decrease our use of electricity to make the difference go to zero or negative, even though we might be in the coldest part of the winter and/or have the shortest days. The good news is that the winter solstice is December 21, and we'll start getting more power from our solar system even though the winter is still cold.