Cool! I'm Solar!

The final completion of my project was this week, on Monday, although it started late last year.

I went to a meeting of the local solar power cooperative a couple of years ago, and it all seemed like a good idea.  But I sort of wasn't ready enough, and I didn't feel like spending the money, so I just waited.  Last year, I saw a sign for Goldin Solar in the yard of Mike and Melanie Oliva.  I think I bumped into Mike not long after, and we talked about his project.  He was very pleased.  So, I called Goldin, got my consultation (sales pitch), and decided to go ahead.  I chose, over the conflicting advice of Goldin, to get some panels in front of my house (the north-facing roof, which gets most of the direct sunlight in the summer, when I most need the power), and most of them on the south- and east-facing parts of the roof.  The Goldin people say that in the northern hemisphere, the sun is south of us more hours of the year than it is north of us, so panels in this hemisphere should all and always be south-facing.  I get it, but my reasoning was different.  Also, they say that during the winter, even though I don't need as much power, I'll be collecting more hours of the day with south-facing panels, and FPL will pay me for the power I put into the grid.  True, but they pay less for electric power than they charge for it, so if I can get it directly when I need it, it helps me more financially by reducing my summer bills, than if I just remember I banked something in the winter.

Anyway, we eventually began, or tried to begin, my project.  And there were delays.  Some of them were caused by Goldin Solar, which had some turnover in project managers, and some were caused by our dear Village of Biscayne Park, which has a Commission and administration that wreaks whatever vengeance it finds available on people who criticize the current Commission.  These acts of vengeance can take the form of something like forgetting to put my variance application on the Commission agenda.  But I eventually got through all that.  I was assigned a new project manager, who was in satisfactorily close touch, and the Commission made the mistake of relying on an attorney-- soon dispatched-- who said the Village could not stop me from having north/street-facing panels.

Eventually, the brackets that attach to the roof, and that hold the solar panels, were installed, then inspected, and after that, the panels were installed.  They were eventually inspected, too.  The final act was for FPL to change my meter to one that reads both usage and production(!), and then for Goldin to flick the switch.  I think all that happened on Tuesday.  (Today is Friday.)

Ta-Da!  My "dashboard" says I got about 25kWh of solar power on Wednesday, and about 29kWh on Thursday.  My usage was about 30kWh on Wednesday, and about 36kWh on Thursday.  And keep in mind that I collect solar power only during daylight hours, but I use electricity all day and all night (especially AC).  So, when I'm collecting, I'm collecting more than I'm using.  My FPL chart shows that surplus during those middle of the day hours.  I'm feeding the grid then.  Obviously, I'm very eager to see what my next bill will look like compared to the same month last year.

In today's mail, I got a very nice hand-written "thank you" card from the Goldin Solar project manager.  You're doing the right thing...smaller carbon footprint...we'll monitor your system periodically...we hope you'll be pleased...blah, blah, blah.  Very nice.  For what it's worth, my project manager ended up being Yesenia Adams.  Very nice woman.

At the end of the thank you note was a little kicker for me.  "We have a promotional program available to customers in which we offer a commission for any referrals that materialize into a contract."  I did mention the Olivas when I called Goldin Solar, so maybe they got a commission.  But here's the thing.  I don't know what the commission is, and I'm not in this for that.  So, if you contact Goldin Solar, and you decide to get solar panels, you and I will tell them to apply my commission to your bill.  It depends entirely on how many panels you want, but I'll tell you that I got 20 panels, and my project cost me about $18K.  It wasn't cheap.  But I already agreed to it, I already paid it, and I don't expect the price of what I already did to go down.  I paid $18K, and if no one I know gets panels from Goldin Solar, I will always have paid $18K.  So, if there's a discount available, you should get the discount.  I'll tell Yesenia Adams to see to it.