Here is a little secret: Aaron and I are not particularly skilled in the realm of 'electricity'. We are not the type to solder in our spare time. And yet, we just installed our own solar panels! Here is what it involved: 472 trips to Home Depot. (By "Home Depot", we mean "Home Depot and Lowe's and our local Electrician's supply store, because none of them ever had all of the things we needed, and they all thought we were loons.")
We wanted to do the work ourselves because we are stubborn that way. That, and there are very few solar installers in our area. Also, if something starts acting oddly or shooting out sparks, we know what to do (RUN!!!). We read a bunch of books, talked to some experts, then took a deep breath and flipped the switch. Then: power! It's kind of a giddy feeling, like picking the first tomatos of the season in your garden.
There is, of course, a learning curve.
- First lesson: charge your batteries fully before using them.
- Second lesson: pouting will not make the morning fog clear any more quickly.
We will learn more lessons, and we'll share them with you here when we do.
Comments
Jason
September 25, 2007 6:42 PM
That's awesomely hardcore. Do we get to see some pictures of the solar array?
Also, thanks so much for the baking tips. I'll be trying them tomorrow.
Aaron
September 26, 2007 11:51 AM
Hey Jason, we have a couple small pictures of our array on the Home page and the About Us page.
If you're looking for something a little more racy, then we can perhaps include some pictures of our charge controller, inverter, power disconnect, and/or batteries in future posts.