5,000 kWh

Yesterday the solar electric system passed the 5,000 kWh milestone since we first came on line. This is about 9-1/2 months of production. I'm now guessing we may be headed to a first year production of 6,500 kWh! Another guess is that we'll end up with a usage of about 4,000 kWh, so a net export of 2,500 kWh (currently close to 1,800 kWh, dating from the meter switch on 5/25/11, a couple of weeks before the PV system came on-line).

It becomes an interesting question - what to do with the surplus? And what to do if we follow through with our original intention to install a wood stove (which still is a good idea, since it provides heat in a power outage) and build up even a larger credit? The credit can be allocated to another meter, of course. Perhaps I should encourage Jill to take up arc welding....

Comments

[John Romkey]

Now that's an image!

[David Fay]

Buy an electric car? Donate the excess to a non-profit and take a charitable deduction? Donate it to your town government?

[Andrea Lemon]

Do you have room in the yard for a couple of these?

http://www.lod.org/Projects/LightningFoundry/LightningFoundry.html

[Marc Rosenbaum]

Whoa! And some people are worried about EMFs - pshaw

[Don Matheson]

With the same problem I bought a Chevy Volt, have logged 5400 miles on 18 gallons of gas, including the 8 gallons used driving to BE12.

[dana]

It takes quite a lot of arc welding to come up with that amount of raw KWH use, despite some pretty intense peak loads. A rack of network servers or something running 24/365 could eat through the surplus pretty quickly though. :-)

[Tom]

I like David suggestion of buying an electric car, that seems to be a practical idea if affordable.