Sustainable Neighbor

As of March 31th  18 Panels for a total of 5.76 KW Installation costs of $16,468 tax 26% tax credit brings the net cost to $12,186 Break-even point is 10 years 3 months 7.27% IRR Lifetime energy in 6.35 MWh and $562 saved. March was a great month for solar energy. With all the sunny days in March, I am now at 102% of project production. I even had a record day of 40.478 which beat out June and July. The 820 kWh produced in March covered 76% of my electrical needs including two electric cars. Overall since installation, the panels cover 50% of my electrical needs. With solar how much does it cost to Drive my Tesla Model Y per mile? My solar panels are estimated to generate 235,000 kWh in their 30 year lifetime at a cost of $12,363 that is a cost of 5.19 cents per kWh.  My cost per kWh buying with the grid is 8.53 cents per kWh The average cost is 6.36 cents per kWh since I get half from my own solar and half from the grid. My Tesla is reporting 276 watt-hours per mile, let's ad...

I just closed out February and I thought I would provide an update on my solar panels. Here in Southwest Ohio, we had a period of 25 days of at least an inch of snow on the ground, the longest run since 1985. So I had several days with snow on my solar panels that did cut a bit into production but I still managed 355 kWh of the 380 I was projecting. I'm at 98% of the estimated production. I'll have to wait a full year for a full assessment. But so far I am very pleased.  18 Panels for a total of 5.76 KW Installation costs of $16,468 tax 26% tax credit brings the net cost to $12,363 Break-even point is now 10 years 3 months 7.26% IRR Lifetime energy in 5.49 MWh and $483.09 saved.

 My family of 4 lives in Southwest Ohio. We have a nice 2100 square foot house that is heated with Natural Gas. Our tankless water heater is also natural gas as well. Otherwise, the rest of the house is powered by electricity. We heat our house at 68F during the day and 66F at night. Our natural gas utility bill tells us that in the last 12 months we used 699.357 Therms of natural gas.  So how many trees are required to capture the CO2 generated by the natural gas we use?  Natural Gas is one of the 'cleaner fossil fuels' so that is good news and natural gas will provide a great bridge to carbon-free energy. So one term of natural gas burned created 11.7 pounds of CO2.   We also know that a tree uses 53.8 Grams of CO2 a day to grow the trees. Trees by far are the best carbon capture thing we have. The CO2 basically becomes the tree. Here's to my high school biology knowledge of photosynthesis. So now have enough data to answer the question.  Givens Yearly ...

Trip overview Our family of four took a 859 mile road trip from our home in Xenia, Ohio to visit family near Roanoke, Virginia. This trip involved crossing the mountains of West Virginia. We had a wonderful time and the Model Y did great, other than the time it did not. Below is a full account of this trip from the perspective of driving a Tesla Model Y and staying overnight. We left Friday morning at 8am stopped twice, once at a rest stop, and once at a supercharger for lunch for us and electricity for the car. We stayed for two nights at a hotel with a Tesla Destination Charger. We drove back home Sunday after supper and stopped once for a bathroom break and once again for a supercharger. As for convenience, the trip down was on par with or slightly better than a gas powered car, since it took us longer to eat than to charger. This trip back was less convenient since we had to spend 30 minutes recharging and didn't need to eat. Also, we had a scary few moments where the car's...

My Solar Panels have been operational for 6 days now. I love looking at all the production stats. Feel free to look at them yourself and the Solar Edge Kiosk .

Yesterday we finally got our solar panels installed. The timing was great because today has been really sunny. It is like the sun is beaming me down money. The purpose of the solar panels are threefold, to save money, to help the environment (part of loving our neighbors), and to enjoy the technology.  Technical Specs of my solar panels  18 Panels for a total of 5.76 KW  This is 24 amps at 240 volts.  My Nissan Leaf has a max charge rate of 6.6 KW or 27.5 amps at 240 volts This should provide 2/3 of my electrical needs for the year.  18 Panels fit nicely on our south facing roof I can expand the system if I want. I might build a solar pergola in the future especially if we buy a second electric car. Ohio Power Solutions estimates the panels to produce 7972 kWh annually  Ohio Power Solutions installed the system in one day. Location I live in Xenia, Ohio. The math behind solar panels varies greatly by state, no only for the amount of sunshine but the wa...