I got solar!

OK, I really got solar one year ago. I just finished my one year period and according to PGE over the course of 1 year net I generated more than I consumed! That is right my total usage for one complete year was negative on electricity.

This is kind of bad actually, here is why. PGE doesn’t compensate you for generating electricity and they don’t roll over your net. That is right at the end of the year the counter resets to zero and I start over again.

Here is what is surprising, I tried to undersize my system so this wouldn’t happen. I have a family of 4, two adults and two kids. I also own an electric vehicle that consumers 14kWhr every day typically. All the lights, air conditioning, car charging, plasma TVs, computers and I still came out negative. It looks like I need to use more electricity.

This next year I am going to keep the house a little cooler and I switched my clothes dryer from gas to electric. The price of natural gas should be really low but PG&E doesn’t agree. Since I am apparently giving electricity away I might as well use it. The electric dryer should help with energy consumption.

I believe everything that Elon Musk is saying about solar, if we wanted to convert to 100% solar we can. Humanity can do this, it is very possible. Should we?