Sun Day

One of my many dreams has come to fruition. Our PV system is up and running. It's not easy containing my excitement. When I started this blog 3 years ago one of our goals was to incorporate a solar power system into our homestead. Well, that day is here! Our 2kW system is generating approximately 1.2kW as of this writing (10:20 AM). This is an on-grid or grid-tie PV system. It does not have battery backup capability. That's something I'll pursue in the future along with going off-grid.


Our local building official inspected the system yesterday, and it passed. Today, representatives from the local power company will come and do an inspection along with replacing the meter with one compatible with monitoring energy production (Customer-sited distributed generation), i.e. spinning the meter backwards. After that we'll have met all of the requirements to obtain a state rebate of $2/Watt. This doesn't include the 30% federal tax credit we qualify for.



One of the cool things about this  particular system is that the inverter (the hardware that converts DC power from the solar module to AC power), in this case, a microinverter (one per PV module), has some intelligence incorporated into it. Inside the home sits a device that monitors each microinverter and serves as a gateway that communicates with a web-based monitoring and analysis tool seen here at the left. So we're able to monitor the system from home or remotely. There's quite a bit of information presented. Guests can go here to monitor the system, as well.




Other news:
There have been numerous bear sightings in our neighborhood. Two weeks ago Christy and I watched an ~250lb black bear cut through our woods, cross the stream and head up the hill. I tried to follow but it was gone by the time I got up the hill.

The second sighting occurred when I was in Durham, and Christy was alone at the cabin. She was in bed when she heard crunching plastic. She came downstairs and looked out the French doors with a flashlight and there were two eyes staring back at her. A black bear was munching on our bird feeder. It proceeded towards the light and then veered off towards the back of the cabin and disappeared into the dark. It took a while for Christy to get to sleep that night.

The latest sighting was of 3 cubs observed by neighbors on their way home.

 This is what Christy has to resort to with desserts that belong to her while in the presence of a different  bear - a Brown bear.

 Life is good great!