Solar Energy: The Equivalent of Planting Trees While Sitting on My Ass

Nine solar panels on the dormer's south facing rubber roof

    Joe and I finally bit the bullet.  We invested in solar panels for our home. He had been trying to convince me for years, but I'd held out, hearing mixed messages about the use of natural resources and energy to make the panels vs their benefit. Also, our house was designed for passive solar heat and I feared solar panels would thwart that effort, adding yet another layer of material for the sun's rays to penetrate.  My husband, a mechanical engineer with a minor in alternative energy, explained that the sun heated the interior of the home through the windows, not through an insulated roof. I didn't believe him and I really wasn't interested in spending thousands of dollars to find out if he was right.
     We looked into geothermal heating and when that estimate proved to be much more cost prohibitive than imagined given the necessary retrograding of our duct system, we opted for the installation of two Mitsubishi mini-split heat/AC wall mounted units. Since their installation five years ago,  we've been able to reduce our reliance on oil heat almost entirely, resorting to it only on the coldest days of the year when the ductless units are the least efficient.
    Inspired by friends that had gone solar (Thank you Johnny Coletta, Kathleen Sousa, Terri Berns and Tom Jones) I finally succumbed to the solar movement.  The rapid disappearance of federal tax incentives with Donald Trump at the helm helped to light a fire under my ass.  We set out to get bids from three solar companies.  Joe was exceedingly thrilled  with my change of heart, and we agreed to spend some of our nieces and nephews' inheritance to foot the bill. Thanks, kids, hope you will be able to enjoy more life on Earth instead of whatever might be left over in our estate?
     We set out to get bids from three solar companies this spring, and by August 26 at 3:30pm, we had 17 solar panels up and running. Only one of the three companies, Revision Energy was willing to install panels on a rubber roof section of our house, making the decision a little less complicated. And as of today at 6PM on Sept 16, our data shows we have collected 509 kWh, sparing our atmosphere 788 lbs. of CO2, the equivalent of planting twenty trees in twenty-two days.

A complicated system of gadgets between the solar company and National Grid, but the meter on the right  currently shows a 98 kWh surplus after twenty-two days of our energy use since the solar panels were installed.

     We downloaded the Solar Edge app on our phones that recalculates that data every thirty minutes. Each night, I record our daily kWh consumption shown on the National Grid meter and the number of kWh collected each day form the solar panels. We heat and cool with electricity, run one of our cars on electricity and all of our appliances are electric so our usage is always quite high, anywhere from 350 to 1000 kWh per month.  We currently have a surplus of 98 kWh. That gap will narrow and reverse as the days get shorter and we'll have to turn on our mini-split heaters, but nevertheless, the sun should provide an annual average of anywhere between 50 to 75% of our usage, depending on car mileage and weather conditions. Without moving a muscle, I know that we are doing the equivalent of planting almost one more tree per day, the single most cost effective and beneficial remedy any of us can do to slow and hopefully reverse catastrophic climate change. A small contribution to the trillion needed to reforest our entire planet.
      Many homes are not well situated to access the sun's energy, but solar power and other renewables can be supported by converting international and domestic mutual funds to ETFs that are devoid of stocks in fossil fuels such as Vanguard's ESGF and VSGX funds.  It's also worth noting that in 2018, only 1.6 % of U.S electricity was generated by solar power. Mexico has now created aggressive incentives to become one of the top ten countries in solar production while currently Germany, Italy and China are the industry leaders. Poco a poco.....

Eight more panels were squeezed onto the main roof of our house. The front porch is of aluminum construction and would not support the weight of panels. There's still plenty of room for Rudolph and company. Hopefully, no coal again this year!

Completed solar project

Kim Kudym is a former member of Friends of Newburyport Trees and the Newburyport Tree Commission. When she is not walking her dogs or looking at her solar app, she is sitting under the shade of a tree in her yard. Kim occasionally contributes to another blog, Walking With Dogs in Greater Newburyport, a photo guide for the best dog friendly places she has discovered since retiring from teaching Spanish at Triton Middle School in 2011.