In the summer of 2017, we had a 6.3 kWh photovoltaic system installed on the roof of our house. We have had the system for over a year now, so I will use this post to go over the process of getting the system installed, lessons learned and analyze how much money we actually saved on solar in our first year. The Purchase and Install Process We shopped around a bit with other local installers, but at the time, none…
Whether we are talking about money or energy, a big part of keeping costs low is being able to track them. To accomplish this, I have a spreadsheet that has different tabs for each of the sources of energy inputs and outputs that we track for our primary residence. Grid Usage – Our utility company allows you to track how much energy we used on a daily basis, and is usually updated next day with information from the former. So…
Before we get too deep into the trenches here, I will readily admit that there is no one size fits all answer for “Will solar panels save me money”? The best way to find out if a photovoltaic system can work for your property is to have some installers come out and do quotes. But here are some quick guidelines: Do you have trees shading your house that you can’t or don’t want to remove? Do you lack one continuous…
