I have Solar!!!

[kerravonsen]

Solar electricity, that is.

The friendly workmen finished installing it yesterday. Now I have 18 panels on my roof, three new boxes in the garage (the inverter, the gateway, and the battery) and a new app on my phone. The app is the Tesla Powerwall app (the battery) which not only shows the status of the battery (charging, discharging, % full) but also the way the power is flowing between the solar, the battery, the grid, and my house. It is SO COOL! Right this minute, with the lovely blazing winter sun, the solar is generating 3.4kW, the house is using 0.7kW, and the battery is being charged with the rest. Squee! Whee! (dances a virtual sun-dance)

Even if I don't generate enough to put it back into the grid (and thus be paid for it), it does look as if I will be pretty close to self-sustaining, at least on sunny days. Because the battery charges during the day, I'll be using it at night instead of taking power from the grid. I'll have to look at the pattern of it, how long it takes to fill the battery completely -- it's currently at 44%, the time is twenty minutes past noon, and it's wintertime, so the light will be fading around 5pm, so I don't think it will fill up completely today, and then it's going to be being drained tonight, but I don't know if it will be drained completely... as I said, I'm going to have to observe the pattern of it. Which of course will also vary depending on the weather.

But it is SO COOL!

Comments

[lizbee]

Aw man, I'm a bit jealous -- we have solar, but no battery storage. The house is self-sustaining and more during summer, but weeks of grey winter days can be a bit expensive. (I bet your system will charge faster than ours, too! You'll be up and self-sufficient before you know it!)

[kerravonsen]

Yeah, one of the reasons I kept putting off getting solar was because most of the easy-install options didn't include batteries; because of my CPAP machine, I absolutely positively wanted a battery so I could be self-sufficient in case of a power failure at night (so I could actually sleep instead of waiting for power to be restored). Fortunately, Powershop facilitated getting set up with a local installer who would (a) talk with me about my needs and wants (b) allow me to request what I wanted, and (c) would take care of everything, including the paperwork. Win!

Mind you, the battery was just as costly as all the panels.

[lizbee]

You know, I really like Powershop. I've been with them for a couple of years, and although that state government electricity survey gave me two cheaper options, I doubt they offer such good customer service.

[kerravonsen]

Indeed.

(icon love)
(I want new fic with Romana in it, dammit!)

[vilakins]

[envies] Go, you! That's our plan. We have 7 solar panels but this country doesn't have Tesla batteries yet - they're on hold - and plan to get two (maybe the new power wall by then), plus more panels to suck it in.

We get peanuts for selling back to the grid which is why we're not getting more panels till we have the batteries to store power. However on sunny days we pretty much operate free (servers, washing machine, cooking...)

[kerravonsen]

No Tesla batteries? That's sad. Do you know why they are "on hold"?

I'm more interested in being self-sufficient than selling back to the grid, so I wasn't really paying attention when they were talking about the sell-back rates. Just the fact that I won't be paying much for power is a financial win anyway. 8-)

[vilakins]

We're going for self-sufficient too, especially as we're getting an electric car.

Apparently the batteries are on hold while they put more resource into car manufacture. I'm not sure why we've missed out though when you have batteries. I do get sick of living in the arse-end of the world.

[kerravonsen]

We're going for self-sufficient too, especially as we're getting an electric car.

Cool.

I'm not sure why we've missed out though when you have batteries.

Yeah, I would have expected us to miss out too.

[persephone_kore]

Oooh, that sounds so neat! (And very wise with the CPAP machine.)

There is a house in our neighborhood that's got a sign up advertising the place that installed their solar panels. Something to look into.

[kerravonsen]

8-)

[cesy]

That is so exciting!

[kerravonsen]

8-)

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! No wonder you sound so excited - this must be really great!!!

[kerravonsen]

8-)

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

That sounds great!

[kerravonsen]

8-)

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

This is brilliant! If I ever own a place, I'm definitely looking into solar energy (not that we're great about how to use that here in the States, but we're working on it).

[kerravonsen]

We're better than we were, and we're certainly well-placed for solar, we get a lot of sunshine, except maybe in Tasmania.
Unfortunately our current government is attacking renewables because they're in the pockets of the mining giants. *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk*