Cold Air, Rain, Broken Clouds and Solar Peak!

The cold air and rain of this weekend, and the broken clouds today, created ideal conditions for the solar cells -- and we peaked out at 2510 watts, riding at peak most of the day. Of course, our system is only rated at 2403 watts, and the inverter at 2500 watts, so we can't do much better than that!

When we had a gravity feed heater, and no air conditioning, we used a little less electricity than we do now. Last year when we installed the solar cells we were looking at doing 100% of our electric usage, with little or no compromise in terms of lifestyle. (We are a family of 5 in a somewhat drafty 1903-built house.)

With the new baby last June we installed central air and a new forced air furnace. We still don't use it much. In winter, we keep the house at a comfortable 65 at night, 67 tops during the day (although the south facing windows keep the house at 70-74 most winter days when it is not super cold outside) and around 78-80 for the AC setting in summer).

April 7, 2006 is our one year Net-Metering Anniversary, and will be getting our first electric bill in a year. (Well actually, we have had some tribulations with the billing, but we haven't had to pay one yet.) On that date we will close out our one year contract and see how much we owe for the past year.

Right now, with our peak production yet to come, we owe about $50 for the whole year. At the moment, even if we peak out every day from now until April 7, we will not likely hit 100% of our usage. But we may yet come pretty close.

Actually, if I used the older microwave a lot less, and used the electric coffee maker a whole lot less, we'd probably get even closer. And we haven't run around pulling phantom loads offline, or even always turning off the computer printer, or dealing with insulation and leakage at unsealed doors.

As BP says, "energy doesn't grow on trees -- it falls from the sky!"