Monthly Archives: January 2018

2017 Solar Year in Review

Time for my third annual Solar power progress report.  Overall, I saw in increase in solar production in 2017 over 2016, likely all weather related.  Below is a chart of my 3 years of production by Month:

A long stretch of sunny weather in the summer helped me beat 2016, even though the other seasons seemed cloudier than normal.

Payback Update

I had originally penciled out a 6 year payback when I made the decision to move forward with this plan.  Now that I have a better feel for my annual production, assuming the production credits stay above 40 cents thru 2023, I think I can achieve an 8 year payback, recouping by investment by the end of 2023.  Of course that 40 cent number is probably optimistic, though I am hoping the production incentive credits do get grandfathered for those of us that took the risk early.  And the fact that it seems every year I stretch my estimated payback a year, doesn’t give me a lot of confidence yet in this estimate.   At any rate, I was pleased to see no significant drop in solar power production as the panels aged a year, so that is a promising sign.

Regarding maintenance, I have settled in to a pretty comfortable schedule.  In the spring as the days start to get longer and the weather better  – usually May’ish, I give the panels a good cleaning with a sponge mop and a squeegee.  I may clean them a couple months later if we have a heavy pollen outbreak that coats the panels in pollen.  But for the most part I can occasionally just spray them with a hose from the ground.  The panels are very little maintenance in the winter, as the production is so low it doesnt really matter if they are clean or not, and we get so much heavy rain that it keeps them pretty clean.

Power Use Report

Being the power geek that I am, I also updated my power usage report for the year.  My total household usage for the year was the lowest on record (well… since 2015).  Usage was down 7% after being up 4% in 2016.  A couple theories on why.  I have continued to replace bulbs with LEDs as they burn out, we had a very moderate summer requiring very little air conditioning, and we were also out of town on vacation a few more weeks last year than previous years.  I also added more lights to my Wink Hub, which I think managed my outdoor lights more efficiently.  For 2017, I don’t have as many vacations planned, but I plan to continue adding LED lights, as well as possibly hook up my furnace to the wink hub to better manage when the heat is on.  Overall, I am guessing the vacations had the biggest impact, so I would guess my power usage for 2018 will increase slightly.

My long term plan has always been to upgrade my panels once I have my investment back.  However, if the panels continue to perform, there is likely no reason to.  Interestingly, on Amazon, the price of solar panels has not dropped over the last year, in fact they have gone up slightly.  I would look to see that change in 2018 though as there are more advanced solar panels that should be coming online this year.  On a related note, Consumer Reports did an interesting payback analysis on Tesla’s solar roof – it appeared to be pretty encouraging.

Overall, still happy with my investment, and I still think residential solar / utility scale wind and solar is the power model of the future.

My Best Reads of 2017

It’s time for my second annual ‘Best Reads’ of the year post.  This year, since I didn’t read much, I decided to expand it to all the books I have read this year – so I am exposing how little reading I get accomplished in a given year.  These picks are ranked in favorite order, though I could be talked into the top two being a tie. So without further ado – here are my quick opinions of the books I read this year:

1.  The Pope and Mussolini:  The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe

An interesting book covering the rise of Facist Dictator Mussolini from the 1920’s til his execution during WWII.  Even if you have no interest in or understanding of the Catholic Church, this book provides an interesting look at how the church saw Mussolini as a partner in helping control the populace. A worthy read.  Readers of this blog may recall that last year I promised myself I would stay away from World War II histories, but I don’t count this one, as it covers more pre-war stuff, and more focuses on the rise to power.

2.  Carthage Must Be Destroyed:  The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization

I really enjoyed this – it covered a period of time that I knew very little about – Carthage and the Roman expansion in the Mediterranean 0-300BC.  Well written and very understandable (even if everybody was named Hannibal back then..) and it provides a great understanding of the politics of the time.

3. Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates:  The Forgotten War that Changed American History

  A real quick read – a nice break from some of the longer dives into a historical period.  Interesting story about how American forefathers were no strangers to getting involved in foreign war for capitalist reasons.  A nice little intro into the Ottoman empire of the late 1700’s also.  Recommended.

4.  Liars Poker

 I had been meaning to read this book for awhile – a lookback at the Wall Street excesses of the late 20th century.  Found it an interesting look into the culture of Wall Street then.. and likely now..  If investing isn’t your thing, this could bore you. This was the first Michael Lewis book I had read, and his style is very readable, so I will likely try another of his books in the future.

5.  Stranger in a Strange Land

 I decided to do a quick science fiction read before heading back into historical non fiction, so I chose what was considered Heinlein’s best book by a number of reviewers.  In short – this book just didn’t connect with me.  I had a hard time immersing myself in this book.  It may be characters were dated (this was written in 1961, and the characters felt to me kind of caricatures of that time), or it may be Heinlein’s writing style just didn’t agree with me.   The next time I read science fiction, I will probably try a different author, to see if this was a problem with the book or if I have just lost my ability to enjoy reading science fiction.

For 2018, I could see myself sticking exclusively to history this year, and I might sprinkle in a World War II book – old habits die hard. In case you missed last year’s reviews (and if you have read this far you may be interested) – here is my list for 2016.