When I mention that solar panels blanket the roof of my house, the first thing people ask is whether I have an electric bill.Well, yes and no — but that's only part of the story.Here's what I've truly gained from rooftop solar.
I now drive for free The closest thing you can get to having free gas Electric bills are high seemingly everywhere, and now gas prices are shooting up too.But don't ask me what they are.I don't know, since I haven't had a reason to look for years.
I sold my gas car for an EV the same year I first installed rooftop solar.Just like that, I exchanged paying hundreds of dollars in gas for a modest increase to our electric bill of only around $20.Now that we have enough solar panels to cover 100% of our home's energy usage, we have enough excess in the late spring and summer months that we also drive around for free.
When I need to go somewhere, I factor in time and my own energy levels, but cost is no longer a concern.I've been driving this way for so long that I sometimes forget gas used to be a constraint.Not having to pay an electricity bill at the end of the month is one thing, but it is meaningful on an entirely different level to completely separate the cost of travel from whether I go somewhere.
I've learned how to keep track of electricity Fewer people understand watts and kilowatts than you think Close There are many reasons to be angry at a power company, but I've heard people make the false claim that electric companies make up numbers and charge whatever they want.That is easy to believe when electricity is harder to gauge than something like gas.It's not hard to explain how many gallons of gas you need to buy to fill a tank.
It's harder to grasp the difference in electricity usage between a microwave and a table lamp when they both use the same plug in the same outlet.To purchase rooftop solar, you need an understanding of how electricity works.People ask me how many panels I have on my roof, but that doesn't actually tell you how much energy my system produces.
A house with 20 300W panels produces less power than a house with 15 450W ones.To properly size the system, you must understand that this number refers to how much power each panel can produce per hour of direct sun.20 300W panels add up to a total system size of 6kW, which is how much power output it can produce under perfect circumstances.
Multiply that number by the amount of hours of sun in a day, and you have a gauge of how much energy your system can produce by sunset.In the process of learning how this works, I started to understand how much energy my microwave, fridge, and water heater use.I now use this knowledge in all areas of my life.
Part of the reason I prefer gaming on a Nintendo Switch 2 instead of a desktop PC is the giant difference in electricity usage between the two when playing the same game, even when the Switch is docked.My house is now a power plant My relationship with the electric company has fundamentally changed Close With most homes, the power plant supplies electricity, and a home only ever consumes it.My home's relationship is different.
When I get a bill each month, it shows how much energy the power company sends me and how much power my home sends them.Thanks to what's known as net metering, I am only required to pay the difference if there is a deficit on my end.The power company won't pay me for months when my home produces more than it needs, but they do give me a credit to put towards future months.
It's by overproducing in the sunny months and using those credits in the winter months that my home electric bill has all but disappeared.This changes the way I think of power generation, especially when it comes to storing the energy we produce.We don't have a home backup battery tied to our rooftop solar yet, but that's the only addition we need to gain energy independence.
In the meantime, we rely on an abundance of portable power stations, big and small.The more independent my home becomes, the more I think as a power company does.To go off-grid, I need contingencies in place to manage energy-intensive tasks like taking a shower or cooking a meal.
I now understand why mornings and evenings are the most difficult for the grid to manage, since I have first-hand experience trying to do these things off battery power and solar myself.Installing rooftop solar has done more than save me money I love not having to think about energy usage when running appliances and devices in my home, but that's just the beginning of what solar has done for me.Energy is no longer a scarce resource that eventually runs out and always costs money to get more.
While there is a limit to how much power I can use, if it does run out, it will come back on its own, just like the rise of the sun.
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