Solar Panels

Our solar photovoltaic (PV) electric generating system has been installed! We contracted with NamasteSolar to install a SunPower system which we are leasing for 20 years. 

Our lease payment will be a fixed $62 that will stay the same for the next 20 years (with no 5% to 10% inflation rate that most electric utility customers will experience). Our equivalent rate is approximately 7 cents per kilowatt-hour produced compared to our previous utility cost of about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. Since we are still tied to the electric grid for backup purposes (and so our surplus power can be fed onto the grid to help supply our neighborhood's electric needs), we will still have to pay the power company's monthly service and meter reading fees, but we are expecting to use less electricity each month than our system will produce.

Here are some technical details for the solar geeks reading this: there are a total of 24 SunPower 327 watt modules for a total of 7.85 kilowatts. The system also includes a SunPower Inverter (manufactured by Fronius) that converts the DC (direct current) power produced by the panels into AC (alternating current) power so it can be used in our home or fed into our neighborhood power grid. The power from the inverter is fed through a production meter and then to a circuit breaker in our electric panel. Xcel Energy (our electric utility) will read the production meter and our net consumption meter each month to determine how much to bill us. If we produce more than we consume over the course of a year, they will pay us at the current wholesale rate for the overage.

The panels outside the house show the meter readings and inside the house control the system.

We are expecting to produce enough power to cover our electric consumption as well as offset our natural gas consumption, and still have enough to power two future electric plug-in vehicles. This will make our house a net-zero energy usage home if everything works as expected. We will keep you updated with the actual results.