Introduction to Solar

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the weekend warriors home improvement show, built by bar lumber. When it comes to big or small projects around the home, Tony and Cory have got the know how and the answers to make your life just a bit easier. Here they are, your weekend warriors, Tony and Corey. You know, Tony, I put solar panels on my roof about four years ago. [00:00:32] Speaker B: I think they're awesome. I'll be honest with you. It is one of those things that I think a lot of people wanna do, but fewer people actually pull the trigger and do it. [00:00:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a pretty big decision, I would say, and there's a lot that is involved in it. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. We're gonna talk about what solar is to start, and then maybe some things we need to consider when buying solar panels. [00:01:02] Speaker B: Well, there's a lot to talk about. I don't understand a lot of it, but I do understand that it's a major investment. You actually can invest in these panels. They cost money. You buy them, and then they replace the energy that you have to pay for from the suppliers of energy. And so. But you kind of end up trading off your payment on the loan that you took to pay for the panels. And. And you're paying that instead of paying your. Your electric bill. [00:01:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's, uh, it can be complicated. And these are the things that we're going to talk about today. Let's. Let's get a little nerdy, though. Let's talk about solar energy. It's. It seems crazy, right, that there's light rays that come from the sun and are just somehow converted? [00:01:54] Speaker B: No, yeah, it's true. As a matter of fact, as I was reading some of the specific definitions of words and the descriptions of how it works, it's very interesting to me. Listen to this. Photovoltaic cells. Photovoltaic cells, commonly known as solar cells, can converts sunlight directly into electricity through the photovoltaic effect. I've never even heard of that before, really, but it makes perfect sense to me. When sunlight hits these cells, it excites the electrons, creating an electric current. And that, of course, runs your lights and your radio. [00:02:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Kind of like. Have you ever heard the term, and I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly, piezoelectric. [00:02:43] Speaker B: I have not, no. [00:02:44] Speaker A: It is when you. They take crystals and when you crush them, when you apply physical force to them, they produce current. [00:02:54] Speaker B: Pisio. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Yeah, pisio. [00:02:56] Speaker B: Interesting. [00:02:57] Speaker A: And I actually saw this thing. I thought it was very interesting how they were trying to produce these tiles that they could embed in freeways, and as you drive over them and crush them, they would produce electricity. [00:03:13] Speaker B: Interesting. [00:03:13] Speaker A: That was super cool. Yeah. [00:03:15] Speaker B: There is. Obviously, there's a lot of ways that energy is created or electricity is created, and they all amaze me. You know, wind turbines, hydro turbines. It's all very, very interesting to me. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Yeah. The people that have spent, the scientists who have spent their time figuring this stuff out, ways to produce electricity. I mean, you could put. You could take a potato and put a couple wires in it, and it produces enough electricity to power, like, a small clock. [00:03:53] Speaker B: Really? A potato? Yeah. [00:03:54] Speaker A: It's pretty crazy. I mean, you think about a lead acid battery. Yeah. It's just the things inside the battery that are producing electrons with dissimilar metals. It's. It's crazy, and I love it. I don't know a ton about it, but I wish I did. But anyway, today that we're just going to talk about solar and things that you should consider when buying solar. I put solar on my house, and I've got some interesting perspective when it comes to. [00:04:26] Speaker B: I can relate to the electrons that are inside of solar panels. I am also excited by the sun. So me and those electrons are, you know. Yeah, I'm kind of a solar panel myself. I am excited by the sun. [00:04:43] Speaker A: I am, too. Cause we only see it here in Oregon, maybe 30 days a year. [00:04:49] Speaker B: There are. This is something else that's interesting. You live in the city, you've got a good job in the city, and you have. And you have solar panels on your roof. So you are what they would refer to as you are on the grid. Yes, you're part of the grid. And one way that solar panels are used is they get installed on top of someone's house. And while they're paying for those, they are replacing the need to pay for energy. And then after 20 or 30 years, you've paid off your loan. You own them free and clear, and they're providing you with free energy. There is also the situation where you have them off the grid, where there isn't a power pole or electricity that's available to you, and the only way you can use it is by creating it. And so you get solar panels for an off the grid situation, like a. Like a homestead or, you know, a farm that's very rural or out there. [00:05:52] Speaker A: Rural. Yes, that word. [00:05:53] Speaker B: Rural. [00:05:54] Speaker A: Rural. There's an area here in Oregon called three rivers or Lake Billy Chinook. It's very popular. People go there and ski boat. It's a really fun spot. But that area has no utilities. [00:06:12] Speaker B: Oh, really? [00:06:12] Speaker A: So there's all kinds of cabins and houses and trailers and things with solar panels. [00:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:18] Speaker A: You buy these properties, and then you put your little cabin on it. But there's, like I said, no electricity, no gas, no water. So you. It's up to you to produce electricity for your cabin if you so wanted it, you don't need it. [00:06:33] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:06:34] Speaker A: But, yeah, a lot of people there put up arrays, solar arrays that are trackable. So they actually move with the sun. [00:06:42] Speaker B: Oh, interesting. Okay. [00:06:43] Speaker A: And they produce electricity all day, and then they put it into a battery bank and store that electricity so they could use it at night. [00:06:52] Speaker B: Yeah, that's that. Those are the two different ways that that solar panels are used. [00:06:59] Speaker A: On grid. [00:07:00] Speaker B: Off grid. So we're going to talk about some of those situations today. [00:07:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So the very first thing that you would want to consider when purchasing solar panels or solar, which are expensive system. Yes, they are expensive. You would want to consider your energy needs. So, for example, when I got my solar system, the size of my roof that's facing south, that gets complete sunlight from, you know, morning till evening. [00:07:33] Speaker B: Right. East to west. Right. It rises in the east, sets in the west, and on the south side, it's getting sun all day. [00:07:38] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. So here in Oregon. [00:07:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:40] Speaker A: The south facing would be the best. So they pulled it up and they did the calculations, and they gave me this design and said, this will give you 100% of all the electricity that you use. They did an analysis of my electric bill and how many kilowatts that I use monthly, and they said, if you get this system right here, this will produce enough electricity during the summer that you will have a zero bill, and then you will produce more, and then that electricity will be sold back onto the grid. So it goes negative. [00:08:20] Speaker B: So you get a credit. [00:08:21] Speaker A: So you get these credits. [00:08:22] Speaker B: They're paying you to have solar panels on your roof, correct? [00:08:25] Speaker A: Yeah. So all the electricity that I'm not using during the day, it's getting used by somebody else goes into my account. [00:08:30] Speaker B: Right. Okay. [00:08:32] Speaker A: So at the end of every year, you know, or say, in the wintertime when it's raining and we don't have sun in my solar panels, the sun's just too low, and they're not producing much of anything. Then those credits come back. So my bill in the wintertime might be $200, but with those credits, it would drop it down significantly until the credits ran out. [00:08:54] Speaker B: Right. Okay. [00:08:55] Speaker A: So this is the thing that you need to consider for yourself. One of the questions the guy asked me is like, do you have an electric car? Are you going to plan on getting an electric car? Because if you do, you're going to be using a significant amount more energy than you would now. You know, I have a hot tub. So that was another significant amount of electricity that I'm using to heat that thing. So anyway, that's the thing. You want to really look at what you use and what would make sense to you. You wouldn't want to go into a situation where you're producing way more electricity than you're using. You would think, well, it just goes on to my account as credits. So depending on the area that you're in and the power utility that you're linked up with, you would need to make sure that you're, a, going to get credit and b, how long those credits last. So that was one of the things that was surprising to me, was that when I got the system, he told me that all these credits would come in to my account. But the 1 march every year, they would get erased. [00:10:12] Speaker B: Oh, expired, huh? [00:10:14] Speaker A: They expire. So say I produce so much electricity during the summer that it would keep me going for years. Well, the first, like I said, the first of every march, they clear them out and they get deleted. [00:10:28] Speaker B: That doesn't seem fair. [00:10:29] Speaker A: I know. Well, they say that it goes towards helping people in need who don't have the ability to purchase power. Well, green. Green power. [00:10:41] Speaker B: Okay. Sure, sure. [00:10:42] Speaker A: So with our utility, PGE, you can opt in to buy green energy. [00:10:51] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:10:52] Speaker A: You know, I see. Which is interesting, because most of the energy produced here is green, either by hydroelectric or solar or. You know, we have so many dams here in the Pacific Northwest. [00:11:06] Speaker B: Right, sure. [00:11:07] Speaker A: So anyway, it actually costs more to get the green energy. [00:11:10] Speaker B: Oh, does it? Okay, that makes sense. As with anything else, right? I think that it's interesting to me. I mean, you were saying, be cautious not to get a larger array than you need because even though you will create credits, you may not get a chance to use them all. If you're buying a larger array than you need, then you're spending more money than you need to spend even upfront. You want to get the size of array that fits you just right. And then if there is some extra or short, it's a smaller amount and it doesn't affect you so largely. So knowing how much you need for me, I like to shower for 3 hours at a time. So I would need, you know, a hot water heater that can really pump out the hot water. I gotta be hot water all time. Lots of showers. Showers, yeah. [00:12:01] Speaker A: I mean, that's the thing. You can do whatever you want. I mean, you could put in $100,000 in solar panels. [00:12:09] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:10] Speaker A: And produce enough electricity to power you and your neighbor's house. [00:12:14] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:14] Speaker A: But it's just. Does it. Is it right? Is it helping? [00:12:18] Speaker B: Is it cost effective, is the question. [00:12:20] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:12:20] Speaker B: Right, yeah. Roof suitability. Your roof, it turned out you had, oddly, you did not have enough roof vents on your roof already, which is one of the things that might have kind of gotten in the way of a. Of a solar panel install. And then what you ended up doing to supplement not having enough roof fence, you sort of added a lower kind of continual vent, which is underneath your solar panels. And that worked out really good for you and your situation. But really a large section of roof on the right side, or. Correct side of the house that is not littered with vents and. And. Well, well, yeah, I mean, roof vents and also plumbing vents. [00:13:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Vent stacks. Yeah. I mean, there's that. There's definitely that. One thing to keep in mind is most of the panels, they have standoff, so they sit off the surface of the roof slightly. So if you did have a vent, I think they could maneuver around it pretty easily. The one thing that you have to consider, though, is your roof strong enough, they actually have to go into your attic, look at the framing and ensure that the. [00:13:35] Speaker B: It can carry the weight. Yeah. [00:13:37] Speaker A: The framing that you have can support the amount of weight because those solar panels are heavy. There's the frame and then the panels themselves that are encased in glass that's tempered and all that stuff. It's pretty heavy. [00:13:52] Speaker B: What is the pitch on your roof? Is it a 412, 512? [00:13:54] Speaker A: I would say it's a 412. [00:13:55] Speaker B: And did they have to add pitch to the panels, make them a little steeper? [00:13:59] Speaker A: They did not. You're right. Probably would be. I don't know if there would be a minimum pitch, because depending. I mean, most roofs have a minimum pitch, depending on the type of material that they've used. Yeah. [00:14:14] Speaker B: You can have a one or 212 pitch, but it's gonna have, you know, probably metal roofing or metal roofing. Otherwise it's gonna be 312 or torch down and. [00:14:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, if you had a. More of a flat roof style, like maybe some modern houses, I have seen solar arrays that have. That are pitched. [00:14:33] Speaker B: Stood up. Yeah. [00:14:34] Speaker A: Tilted face more. [00:14:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:36] Speaker A: Towards the sun. [00:14:38] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Well, you know, your. The other thing you gotta watch out for, of course, is trees. Right. [00:14:42] Speaker A: You. [00:14:42] Speaker B: I know that you actually have a tree that kind of casts a shadow on one of your panels and kind of. [00:14:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Well. [00:14:50] Speaker B: Inhibits your ability to produce electricity to maximize what you could be producing. [00:14:55] Speaker A: Yeah. And really, at the heat of the summer, the middle of summer, I'm not seeing anything. But as the summer fades and gets into fall and the sun drops in the sky, that shadow creates more and more problems for me and reduces my electricity production on the back. [00:15:12] Speaker B: Interesting. [00:15:13] Speaker A: But there is one more thing in regards to the suitability of your roof, and it's the integrity of your shingles. If you've got a roof that's old and you could potentially need new roofing down the line, you would definitely want to get a new roof before you get solar panels. [00:15:32] Speaker B: Interesting. [00:15:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:33] Speaker B: Because you don't want to have to take the solar panels up and off in order to re roof and then just install them again. Correct. That's way more work than is absolutely necessary. [00:15:41] Speaker A: It'll cost you way more money. [00:15:45] Speaker B: Well, let's talk about local regulations and permits. Did you have to go get a permit in order to have solar panels installed on your roof? [00:15:53] Speaker A: Absolutely. There is a whole system. I hired a company that came in and did it for me. They set up, they pulled the permits because they have to hook up to your power grid and they have to wire everything. And it's high voltage. So it comes in, I have a separate panel, and there's an inverter there that takes the direct current from the solar panels. It produces DC direct current, and it has to change it to ac to alternating current. [00:16:25] Speaker B: Sure. [00:16:26] Speaker A: So all that had to be wired together, and then it also had to. They had to put this switch in this thing in this box that when I'm producing more electricity than I'm using, that electricity goes the other way. So it's. It's fairly complicated, and you want to make sure that it's all done professionally. So that requires a permit. [00:16:50] Speaker B: When you made the decision to. To make the purchase and you knew that you were going to have to get a loan and make this purchase, but that ultimately it was going to be saving you money monthly on your energy bills, was that a big decision for you? Do you feel like it was like, oh, yeah, that's what I want to do. I want to do my part to reduce carbon footprint, and I want to. I want to be giving back, so to speak. Would you say that was largely your motivation for getting solar panels? [00:17:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So, I mean, that's the next thing on the list is the budget and financing. You know, you have to determine what your budget's going to be for the solar system. You want to look at financing, incentives, rebates, and really look at the investment to see if it's worth doing right. So it. Yes. Basically, for me, I took out a loan. Technically, it's a very low interest loan on the solar system installed through this company. And the amount of electricity that I produce during the summer, well, throughout the whole year, if I were to take my electric bill pre solar and multiplied it and came up with a number, now my electricity bill added up is quite a bit less, but then I add in the solar payment. [00:18:18] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:18:19] Speaker A: So it's about the same. So I'm paying about the same right now for electricity that I would be paying with or without solar panels. [00:18:30] Speaker B: So you made a decision to spend the same money that you would have been spending otherwise, except unresponsible renewable energy. [00:18:39] Speaker A: That's it. [00:18:40] Speaker B: Green energy. [00:18:40] Speaker A: That was 100% the only reason I chose to do it. [00:18:43] Speaker B: That was your contribution? [00:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah, it didn't. I mean, I wasn't saving money at all and I wasn't spending any more money. So I thought to myself, well, I might as well help. Right? Add to the grid. [00:18:58] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Yeah, that's good. And then it also doesn't hurt that over the years, as you pay that loan down and those panels become paid for, they continue to do what they're doing today, except for later down the road, you're not still making the payment. [00:19:15] Speaker A: Well, and, you know, totally. And one of the things that the person that we had out, the salesman that worked with us for the system, said that is electricity always goes up in price. And here in Oregon, we literally just felt that a few months ago, big increase, big increase in electricity. So over in the next 1020 or 30 years, you know, your average system, solar system, you're going to get 20, 25, 30 years out of it from producing electricity. But after those things are paid off. Yeah. Then it's all rent free, just producing electricity for free, and it's reducing my electric bill. And the more electricity goes up, the more I'm saving. [00:20:03] Speaker B: So did they offer you, like, a good, better, best sort of option? I mean, I know that some solar panels are more efficient than other solar panels, some provide more than others, and cost is probably relative to that. So tell me about that. [00:20:20] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, that's the next thing on this is panel efficiency. When you're considering buying solar, you want to choose a panel that makes the most sense for your investment. And if you have limited roof space, there's technically there's a lot of different types of solar, but the two most popular are monocrystalline and polycrystalline. And with monocrystalline, it's a single structure, crystal structure. They're highly efficient and space efficient. They have a uniform black color. The advantages are they're much higher in efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity. They take up less space, and they perform well in lower light. The disadvantages are that they're more expensive than polycrystalline. So polycrystalline has got that. Those blue speckles, you're probably more familiar with those blue speckle. Yeah, they're lower efficiency, but the advantages are they have lower manufacturing costs and they're more cost effective. So when choosing a solar company, I did not get this choice. They did not even give me a choice. [00:21:42] Speaker B: Oh, really? [00:21:43] Speaker A: I have the polycrystalline panels on my roof. [00:21:45] Speaker B: Oh. [00:21:46] Speaker A: And that was the route that we went. [00:21:49] Speaker B: Got it. [00:21:50] Speaker A: I could have chosen another solar company that we could have gone with to get Those higher performing panels. We just chose not to go that route. [00:21:59] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that makes sense. I get that. So what is. Did you recognize. You told me the name of the company was blue RAVEn, or at least the contractor. Is that the manufacturer of the panels? [00:22:12] Speaker A: No, the contractor. [00:22:13] Speaker B: So Blue Raven was the contractor. Do you recognize the brand name of the panels that they installed for you? [00:22:18] Speaker A: I don't. I couldn't tell you. I could probably dig up out of my paperwork and look at the actual panel manufacturer. I didn't. For instance, TESLA. TESLA makes solar panels. [00:22:29] Speaker B: Nice. [00:22:32] Speaker A: The inverter. There's lots of different brands out there. Mine is enphase, and they manufacture high quality stuff, from my understanding, and everybody that I've talked to says enphase is great. So the system that they put in for me was, it's hooked up to my wifi, and I can actually go onto the app and see the output of my panels. [00:22:56] Speaker B: Oh, nice. You totally monitor it. Oh, yeah. [00:22:58] Speaker A: And I can look at every single panel. The array is on the phone. I can click on the panel and see if one's producing less or more. And it makes it kind of cool. Yeah, that does. [00:23:10] Speaker B: It seems like. I mean, I know this is probably assumed, but you have to maintenance them, right. You have to keep them clean. Uh, you know, if they get debris or, um, you know, organic materials that stack up on there, you got to keep them pollen so that they'll keep working. Right. [00:23:28] Speaker A: Absolutely. That is one of the things that you need to consider when doing a whole solar system is, if you're putting it on a second story of a house that you don't have access to, you really do need to keep them clean. So I'm not saying all the time, but maybe once a year you need to be up there cleaning those panels. Oh, there's just. They're just not going to be performing at peak performance. Right. Yeah. [00:23:56] Speaker B: Plus, I think probably, if it's like anything else expensive that you buy, you have to do regular maintenance in order to. In order for your warranty to stay in effect. I assume that these have got a warranty and that, uh, in order for the. Them to be warrantable, any, if any damage to workmanship or whatever were to be warrantable, you would have to have been taking good care of them. [00:24:20] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. And that's the thing is, like, in my area, we have lots of pollen. I've got these pine trees around me that just spew that yellow pollen all year, it seems. Uh, but, yeah, they get covered and I'll go in the backyard and I'll look up there and I'll see them and they'll all have, like, this brown, yellowish. Yellowish hue. [00:24:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:42] Speaker A: Of dust. So I gotta. I get out my hose. I actually bought a really long extension pull. [00:24:49] Speaker B: So you can wash them from the ground. [00:24:51] Speaker A: I can almost get all of them from the ground. [00:24:54] Speaker B: Wow. So you got to be tired at the end of that, though. [00:24:56] Speaker A: Yeah, it takes. It takes a little bit, but it's something to consider. Otherwise, if you're not doing it and you're not maintaining them, they're not going to last as long, they're not going to produce as much electricity as you think they will over the time period. So you might have to hire people. If you can't get up there and clean them, you might have to hire someone to come out and do it. [00:25:16] Speaker B: You mentioned earlier that there is. You said that there was a lot of parts and pieces, but you said that there's an inverter. The inverter is what's changing the energy from DC to AC, right? Correct. [00:25:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:30] Speaker B: And so were there options there, are there inverters that are better or not as good, more expensive, less expensive or. [00:25:39] Speaker A: Yeah, there are a few options there when you're pricing out and doing your system. There's what's called a string converter, which is probably the most popular. There are some pros to it and some cons to it. The pros are that it's tried and true. It's been on the market for a very long time. [00:26:02] Speaker B: The original technology. [00:26:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And it works, and it's inexpensive, comparatively. So the cons, though, are they're reliable? They are reliable, but it's less efficient than the other version. So you can get a string converter, system. [00:26:22] Speaker B: Inverter, right? [00:26:23] Speaker A: Yeah, inverter. Sorry. The string inverter, when you say so, say shade covers up one of the panels. Well, it reduces output on the entire string. [00:26:35] Speaker B: Oh, instead of just one. [00:26:38] Speaker A: Instead of that. Just one. It cuts. It can't separate the board. [00:26:41] Speaker B: Can't separate that. So that's kind of a problem. Like we were mentioning, you have one panel that gets some shade from a tree, you know, later in the year, and if that's the case, you're really. It's detrimental to your whole array. [00:26:55] Speaker A: That is correct. [00:26:56] Speaker B: If you're using a string inverter. [00:26:59] Speaker A: Now, if you have a string inverter, you can also get what's called a power optimizer. They can optimize the DC electricity produced by each panel, and they decrease the impact of shading on the individual panels. [00:27:18] Speaker B: Oh, that makes sense. [00:27:19] Speaker A: So if one solar panel is partially shaded, it won't degrade the output of. [00:27:24] Speaker B: The other six ranger panels. [00:27:25] Speaker A: Correct? [00:27:26] Speaker B: Right. Yeah, that makes sense. [00:27:28] Speaker A: The bad part is they're more expensive, of course. And then the other. The last one is microinverters. You know, microinverter, it's handling the conversion from dc to ac at each panel. So that allows the system to be minimally. Minimally impacted by shading of individual panels. [00:27:48] Speaker B: Oh, interesting, interesting. [00:27:49] Speaker A: So if shade covers one panel only, that panel will produce less power. Microinverters are the. Are more expensive. [00:27:58] Speaker B: Of course they are. [00:27:59] Speaker A: Actually, they're the most expensive. [00:28:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, you know, the more. The more they do, the harder they work, the more they cost. It's just the way that it is. [00:28:07] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:28:08] Speaker B: I wish it was that way at my work. [00:28:12] Speaker A: All right, the next one on the list is installation. You know, you want to make sure that you're hiring out an experienced solar installer. You know, look at their reviews, talk to the references, call them, and verify that that solar installer has the proper certifications. The company that I chose, I had some issues with mine in the very first year that I had them, where the certain bracket that they used to fasten them to my roof was a different sort of metal than the panels. So they creaked. [00:28:55] Speaker B: Oh, they made. They made. Oh, yes. [00:28:57] Speaker A: So when the sun hit them, they would expand at different rates. [00:29:01] Speaker B: Okay. [00:29:02] Speaker A: And it would. I would get these creaks and pops. It was crazy. [00:29:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:06] Speaker A: And the company that I hired, they came out three different times, but they ended up fixing it. So it wasn't that big of a deal. But if, you know, if you hire some fly by night company. [00:29:18] Speaker B: Right. [00:29:18] Speaker A: You don't know what you're getting. [00:29:19] Speaker B: Right. No, that's notable. Good that you had the recourse to call and have them come out and square it away. Absolutely. That's great. [00:29:28] Speaker A: Yep. [00:29:29] Speaker B: So you chose not to go with any kind of battery storage. Right. If you have. You're making extra. It's going back to the grid and you're getting the credit for it. That was an option for you. [00:29:38] Speaker A: Yeah, because the. The system that I chose, and this was based on a lot of discussion that I had with friends and people that knew a lot about solar systems, because the 100% system that I was quoted was about $15,000 more than the system that I ended up going with. [00:29:59] Speaker B: Okay. [00:30:00] Speaker A: So I didn't want to go that more expensive route, because, again, the more electricity you produce and if you don't use it, it's kind of a use it or lose it. [00:30:09] Speaker B: Right. Right. [00:30:10] Speaker A: So the ROI on that. That bigger system just wasn't there for me. [00:30:16] Speaker B: Right. [00:30:16] Speaker A: Just didn't make sense, not in my particular situation. So not only that, I'm not producing enough electricity, really, to worry about having any sort of storage so you can get. I mean, you've seen those Tesla walls. That's another big one. They. They have this lithium ion battery similar to the ones they put in their cars. [00:30:35] Speaker B: Sure. [00:30:36] Speaker A: But it goes inside your. Your house, and your solar array charges it. And it will power your house. Yeah. I mean, in the event of a power out. [00:30:45] Speaker B: Similarly, not to go down a rabbit trail, but you have a solar panel that you use when you camp. You have a. You have a trailer, a travel trailer, and you have a solar panel. And that solar panel, does it charge the battery that you have on your trailer? [00:31:03] Speaker A: It really does. I have, yeah, it's. It's basically just a solar panel. [00:31:10] Speaker B: Like four foot by four foot or something. [00:31:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. And I keep it inside the trailer, and then when we park, I pop it up on top of the roof, I plug it in, and that goes to an inverter, and it directly charges my battery. So it keeps my. My battery kind of topped off. Right when we're boondocking. [00:31:27] Speaker B: And it also allows you to do other things that you would normally use ac power for, like charge your phone or play a radio or. I mean, you have, like, you doctored it all up. You did. You went to I don't know, radio Shack and bought a bunch of stuff and you kind of. Radio shack, you kind of rigged it, but your thing's pretty cool. Your situation's very cool. [00:31:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it worked out pretty well. [00:31:50] Speaker B: It doesn't have to be this giant array on top of your house. It doesn't have to be, you know, an off the grid homestead. Sometimes it's just a little solar panel that sits on top of your travel trailer and charges your cell phone. [00:32:04] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%. So, I mean, that's the last thing on the list, is your long term goals. You need to consider what your goals are. You know, are you putting it up there to get started? Because you can, down the road, you can add more panels. Depending on how they wired your system and the size of the inverter that they put in, you can come back. I could call the company and have them come out and install more panels if I decided to buy an electric car and needed to charge an electric car, or if I started getting to a situation where my power went out all the time. There are people in certain, say, more rural areas where their power goes out all the time. [00:32:43] Speaker B: Right. [00:32:44] Speaker A: So you either do one of two things. You get a generator, a whole house generator, or you have backup batteries. Yeah, backup batteries. [00:32:52] Speaker B: Interesting. [00:32:53] Speaker A: So it just kind of depends on your ultimate goal. I would say for me, again, the only reason we went with the system was it wasn't to save money. It was to. It was environmental. That was. That was our biggest driving factor. [00:33:14] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you. Everyone has to at least consider that possibility. If it's not going to cost them more money than they're spending on power from the power company now, then why wouldn't they do something sustainable? [00:33:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:29] Speaker B: If it doesn't cost them more money. [00:33:31] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:33:31] Speaker B: I mean, I'm on board with that 100%. I absolutely think it's great. This is a great topic. I'm glad we talked about this. [00:33:37] Speaker A: Yeah, this is the. This is the next episode in our, our long line of energy efficiency that we're talking about. We've been doing that for the last several weeks, and we've got quite a few more coming up in the next several weeks. So stay tuned and tune into our next episode next week. [00:33:54] Speaker B: Here's your challenge. If you have solar panels and you haven't washed them in a while, get up there and get it done. [00:34:00] Speaker A: Oh, man. [00:34:01] Speaker B: Go wash those solar panels. [00:34:03] Speaker A: Only if you feel like you can. [00:34:06] Speaker B: Thanks so much for tuning in. If you liked this show and you want to share it with somebody else, you can let them know they can find it. Of course, on any wherever you get. [00:34:16] Speaker A: Your podcast, Spotify, Apple podcasts, anywhere. [00:34:20] Speaker B: You can check out our other social media sites, WWh home show, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, WWh home show, and also YouTube. Armbru. [00:34:33] Speaker A: That's right. Thanks so much for listening. [00:34:36] Speaker B: Have a great week.