Paul and Hawkeye: well, my wife and I have done about all we can to reduce our energy requirements, and since there is a Federal tax credit and a Maryland tax grant or credit for solar system installs, we decided to take the plunge. We understand that technology is always improving, costs coming down, etc., but we are getting older, so why wait? I installed a solar space heating system for my shop building last year which should mostly keep me warm over there for not much money. There is a requirement for utility companies to buy renewable energy credits, too, so we should get a bit of money every year thru that. I don't know what the rates will be over the next few years, or what our usage might be, but we sort of figure that the system will cut our bills way back, and after 7-9 years will be actually paying us- seemed like a safe and useful investment!
I should add that my wife runs some university environmental science and studies programs, so she (we) walk the talk or whatever. She has had a Honda Civic hybrid for about 7 years now, and gets upset when she gets less than 50mpg on a tank of gas.
Our 13 panels should generate about 85% of our annual electric usage. Whenever it makes more power than we are using at the moment, we will get a credit for it from the utility. And yes, watching the meter un-wind our electric bill is very satisfying! The panels only weigh about 50lbs each, so most roofs should handle the extra weight without a problem. Everything is aluminum (well, except the SS fasteners) and they are engineered to handle wind and hail, etc. and should produce for 25 years or more. I will attach a foto showing the underside of the panels, where we had a "micro-inverter" installed for every panel- that way, when one or more panel is in shade, the system will still produce power from every panel in light, unlike the systems that have a single big inverter. Trees are a big consideration between the roof and the sun here. A side benefit of the micro inverters is that we will have an online monitoring ability to see what each panel is producing, system performance averages, anything you would want to know.
I keep hearing about new wind systems that make power in 5 mph breezes, so that is an exciting field ripe for development. I keep hoping our government will get off its collective butt and start encouraging solar and wind improvements. The potential is great, we just have to engineer our way into it. If we spent half the money we spend on making war on this, we'd be home free for electricity in 10 years, I'd bet.
