Up and Running

Southwest Electric arrived at two in the afternoon in two vehicles.  There was a lot of confering involved and clipboards were used near the electric panel. 

Then they went over to the panels. 

Finally they were done.  That's when Mike began watching the meter.  It flashes between two screens.  One shows the electricity being delivered to us and one shows the amount of electricity being received by the electric company.  Our favorite is the second one.  It was such a sunny day that within a few hours it showed that we were generating (or the electric company had received) more electricity than we were using. 

Later in the week the Solar company gave us an app to be able to watch our electricity usage without standing in front of the meters in the driveway which is what Mike had been doing.  According to the app, after two days of using our solar panels, we had reduced our CO2 emissions by 230 pounds which is the equivalent to cleaning up the air by planting 5.8 trees.  Very exciting and intoxicating stuff. 

Supposedly there is no upkeep involved in maintaining our solar panels.  However, to ensure the panels don't get hit while mowing Mike went ahead and put rock underneath them. 

Now we are enjoying our efforts to reduce our electricity cost and help the environment.  Mike is already researching (per Emily's suggestion) adding a Tesla battery for solar power storage to our array.  He is such a forward thinker on this that our solar company has never actually installed one.  I think we will save that addition for another year.