[Tell It Right]

My solar isn't just a "solar generator", at least not as the phrase is usually used (for backup situations only). Our solar provides 80% of what our home needs through the year (less in the winter, more in the summer), including charging our EV, in our all-electric home. Basically from mid-March through mid-November there are only 20 or so days I need to pull power from the grid.

It'd be cost prohibitive to be 100% grid free (particularly in the winter). Basically I don't want to fight the law of diminishing returns. But I've run over the stats from my solar inverters to see what would have to be done to get there in case the Dims go full mark-of-the-beast style control over energy. It'd be about as much on improving the home's energy efficiency (i.e. take down sheetrock to put in more insulation) as it would be on adding to the solar system.

IMHO, if you're interested in solar, the first step is to do common sense things to make your home not need as much power anyway (i.e. caulk seal cracks, add insulation, if you live in the south replace your A/C with a variable speed heat pump, replace your water heater with a hybrid water heater and duct the air intake of the water heater to pull warm air from the attic and duct the air output from the water heater into the intake of your HVAC -- but be able to redirect it during winter months). I'm embarrassed that I waited until I was looking into solar before I realized that half the battle is making the home operate more efficiently. I should have done that part many years ago without thinking about solar.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“...half the battle is making the home operate more efficiently.”

Excellent advice. We live in a farmhouse from 1900. While Beau has re-modeled it all from scratch, that was 30+ years ago, so we are continuing to make improvements.

One super simple thing I suggested (and he did) was to insulate the inside of the north-facing cabinet under the corner kitchen sink. The kitchen was added to the 4-square house at some point in it’s history. It sits over a crawl space. Beau cut pieces of rigid foam insulation board to fit. It’s nice and warm under there now and no more frozen kitchen sink pipes in sub-zero weather!

Such a simple thing! We also replaced all the weather seal strips around the kitchen door. Granted, the door is hard to close now, but that baby is air tight! :)

New windows are needed, but they are many, so that’s going to be a ‘few a year’ thing...until we die, LOL!