Let the Sun Shine In

Who would have thought that ten sections of silicon, wires and metal would have been so beautiful? The fact is that these solar panels are going to change our lives. Oh sure, it sounds like hyperbole, but think about it for a moment.

The direction of the roof at this point is south facing. This part of the roof probably gets about 8 hours of sunshine during the winter and about 14 hours during the summer. While everyone else is complaining about the 100+ degree heat in the summer, we'll be thinking about all that lovely energy we're harnessing. It'll make turning on the A.C. so much more bearable. And even on a day like today, which was cloudy and overcast for much of the time, the sun still poked its rays through the clouds long enough for me to take this photo.

When we decided to go with solar panels, we had two basic choices: lease or own. We decided to purchase them outright because ultimately it made more sense assuming we'll be in this house for a long time to come. Plus we were tempted by the rebates from DWP and the federal government (more on that further down the page). We also had to think about how many panels we wanted. Some people mentioned that it's possible to make money off the panels if you manufacture more energy than you use. We looked into that idea, but it's really not that straightforward. Basically, if you end up sending more power to DWP than you use, they will use it themselves and compensate you in "future energy usage" which really means "thanks for the free electricity, we owe you one." So we looked at a year's worth of electricity bills and calculated how many panels we'd need to make the same amount of energy that we use.

Next, DWP had to install the new electrical meter and our solar company had to connect the power. Sounds simple enough, right? Oh, but when you're dealing with a utility company things just aren't that easy. The meter is there, the power is connected, the panels are soaking in the sun . . . but the energy isn't being generated yet. Apparently DWP needs as much as four weeks to "confirm" the solar use and rework our bill accordingly. Let me tell you, it's so frustrating to look at the sky and think about all the electricity we should be generating that's just getting wasted. Of course, the cynic in me thinks that as soon as DWP starts using our meter, they'll stop getting any money from us so they're definitely not in a hurry. Sigh.

As for the rebate, apparently DWP has changed their policy on that too. In fact, by the time they approved all of our paperwork, their rebate had dropped by about $1000. Hmmmm, I wonder why it took so long to approve? Again, my cynical brain pops up. On the other hand, we're getting a great rebate from the federal government because we put on a new roof along with the panels and we can get a percentage of that back too. Swings and roundabouts I suppose.

And when I think about the sun, the sky, the air around us, the future of this house, I know it's all worth it. Now if we could just turn it on . . .