02/22/2014
Anonymous
Everything about the installation was positive. Some of things I liked:<br /><br />1. Willingness to speculate on how fast PNM's rates would increase over the next ten years.<br /><br />2. Gently urging us to install a system that would cover our current use and cover a little bit of growth. Our first year we produced about 14,000 KWH and consumed about 12,000. So, although this winter was unusually warm, we used a little bit of our surplus to run an electric heater in the bathroom and shut down the forced hot air, propane furnace. We've only run the furnace maybe 8 days all winter. This saves us a bunch of propane and the house is still comfortable.<br /><br />3. Forced us to think about our biggest energy losses. We ended up replacing the windows (two of which had failed) in the greenhouse. We'll also get the solar hot water up and running to extend our green strategy.<br /><br />4. We also replaced our Camry this year. We thought long and hard about a Volt or other electric car, but decided to put that off until the plug-in hybrid electrics are mature and more affordable. The thought of using our solar electric for transportation was very seductive.<br /><br />5. Finally, although it was expensive to go with the German ground mount, non-tracker, it was the right decision for our site. I've gone out when the wind was howling and put my hand on the panels. No a hint of vibration. I expect that the installation would survive a tornado.<br /><br />Although you never used the words, the truth is in this technology, you get what you pay for. I've looked at a few Amenergy installs and feel that my rig is in another league. I'm playing with the big boys.