We have all been brainwashed to avoid and look down on solar power, or any renewable energy source for that matter. And I mean ALL of us, including the most leftist, tree hugging, Greenpeace and Sierra Club loving liberal. How can I make such a bold statement?

We now have had a completely finished and functional grid tied, battery backed up, solar electric system for over four months now. We have received four power bills during this time. For each of these billing periods, the electricity we generated was more than we used, so we have paid nothing for electricity from the power company over this period.

So, we now had a working grid tied solar electric system. But at the time Harrimans installed the grid tied portion, Harrimans hadn’t received the battery backup inverter, an SMA SI5048 yet. So, a couple of weeks later they received the SI5048 and proceeded to install the battery backup portion of our system.

The salespersons for these solar installers usually claim that after installing their solar electric systems, your power meter could run backwards. This may be true of the old spinning-aluminum-disk type power meters. But it isn’t true of the typical new digital readout power meters, at least the ones Progress Energy uses. The new standard digital meters can’t tell which direction power flows. So you get billed for all the power that flows through the meter, whether you are consuming electricity or you are generating electricity and putting it back on the power grid. You need a special bidirectional meter installed which can detect which direction the power is flowing.

So, the last week in October, 2009, I gave Harrimans Inc the go-ahead and a down payment for installing a solar electric system on our house. Three weeks later they notified me that they had all the plans, permits, and parts with one exception: They still hadn’t received the battery backup inverter, an SMA SI5048, which wasn’t expected for another couple of weeks. So they planned to install all the grid tie stuff first and add the battery backup stuff after the SI5048 was received.

You could find an installer by doing a net search for your area, looking in the telephone book, or attending various home shows or environmental expos in your area. The problem with these methods is that anyone can present their business through these methods, including amateurs and fly-by-night outfits. It would be better to select from a list that has been at least somewhat prescreened.

The most common question I get is some form of: “When will you get your money back from your solar power installation? How long will it take to break even on your initial investment?”

My question is: Why are you adding this extra condition to anything that helps the environment? You don’t do this for most of other stuff you do.

In this age of concern for global warming and talk of carbon footprints and carbon taxes, much of it coming from our own President of the United States and his staff, we should be doing all we can to encourage all people to conserve energy and our resources. But we are also faced with massive budget deficits. The above suggestions allow our government to encourage energy conservation at virtually no cost.

Contrary to what some may believe . . ., these photovoltaic (PV) panels are SOLAR panels, not SKY panels or UP panels. They won’t work too well unless they are directly and completely exposed to the sun, not just facing the sky or facing up. Even if a small corner of a panel is shaded, that panel will have reduced output, if it isn’t completely shut down. And when that panel is part of an array of panels, if that panel has reduced output or is completely shut down, in most cases the entire array that this panel is part of will also have reduced output or be completely shut down.

Now that we have decided now is the time to buy, what kind of system should we buy?