A blog about my life, fitness and fun! (...and maybe a few cat pictures...)

A blog about my life, fitness and fun! (...and maybe a few cat pictures...)

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

We're going SOLAR!

Hey guys! I can't remember if I have mentioned this yet but...

WE'RE GOING SOLAR!!!!

That's right! Yesterday, our solar panels from Solar City were installed! I'm excited to help the environment by using renewable energy!

Yesterday morning, after my run, I took one last picture of our house before the solar panels were installed.



While I was at work, a crew of 5 men installed our panels. Their team name was called Hannibal and they were from Maryland. I told Paul to ask them how they got their team name but he forgot!


Jelly was a little concerned with the noise...



The team started at 8:30 and it took them about four hours. Here's some pics of the process...







And the final product!



We don't own the solar panels, Solar City owns them. We do not need to pay anything for these panels. We don't pay for installation, insurance, maintenance... nothing! It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? We do pay for the energy.

People ask, what's in it for us? Well, our energy bills will be a little cheaper. (Not a ton, we have a small house, as you can tell, and it doesn't take a lot to heat/cool it) and we are helping the environment. AT NO COST! If anything, our energy bill will be cheaper.

Our home will be about 76% solar energy and 24% from our normal electric company, PP&L. Any energy our panels produce that we don't use will be kicked back to the grid for our neighbors to use. We won't pay for power we don't use.

Also installed was a Nest thermostat. Now we can control our heating and cooling when we aren't even home. Nest also informs Solar City if there are problems with our panels. We don't have to check for problems or inform them. They will know because of our Nest and they will take care of it.





Unfortunately the power went out on our street on the day our panels were installed. The power outage had NOTHING to do with our installation though, so I hope our neighbors aren't mad at us!

If you're curious if solar panels are right for you, contact our field consultant, Chuck Westerlund- cwesterlund@solarcity.com. 



Have you ever considered solar panels?

If you decide to get solar panels from Solar City, be sure to mention that you heard about it from Paul and Megan! We get $400 for every referral! 

(That's a normal thing, not something special I get for blogging about it.)

13 comments:

  1. This is cool! Not only are you helping the environment but it would be awesome to see a decrease in your electric bill this winter when it gets colder out. Do you normally heat with electricity or do you have an oil furnace?

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    1. We do normally heat with electricity. Our house is small, so we don't use a ton of energy, but every little bit helps. Plus with all the Christmas lights I'm putting up this year, I won't feel as guilty!!

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  2. Very cool! My parents have solar panels on their house. They were installed back in the stone age though, so it was some combo of a home DIY project. Note, my dad also constructed a DIY solar heating system for their swimming pool back in the day too. Solar is a great thing, good for you! We did reduce our electric bill slightly by installing all LED bulbs in our house. Amazing what even a little change makes. (And from yesterday: love the new hair cut you got!!)

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    1. That's so cool your parents were able to make that investment back in the day! Did it end up being worth it in the long term? I assume they were expensive to buy.

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  3. Megan - We got solar in January of this year - we had the same situation, cost us nothing! and we are saving about $75 a month. Our company is local, but many of our neighbors used Solar City. We were very happy to go solar! Kristen

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    1. TThat's s some nice cash you are saving! Isn't it great it's so affordable now and you don't have to buy them?

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  4. I will definitely let you know how it goes!

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  5. Yay for solar. That is so awesome. I grew up in a solar home (my dad still lives there). Such a wonderful way to help the environment. I'm super proud of you guys!

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    1. I think it's so cool you grew up in a solar home. You hippies!!! :)

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  6. That sounds great! I would have thought that it would cost money to install so thats really interesting that its free. Our house is supposed to be energy efficient but I bet solar panels would help even more.

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    1. Yep, doesn't cost us any money to have them, we just pay for the energy.

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  7. That is so AWESOME!! If I ever buy a house, I'm going to do this!

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