Sustainability has become a passion. The goals are:
– Learn about sustainability.
– Make our home in Durango an energy producer with off grid capability.
– Make our home in La Jolla more sustainable.
– Actively volunteer with, and donate to, Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
– Act in a more sustainable manner at all times.
Durango:
The above picture (click to expand) shows the 30 Schott photo-voltaic (PV) panels on the hillside in Durango. The PV system is rated to produce 7.200 kWp of electricity. We have an SMA Sunny Boy inverter along with an SMA Sunny Island battery backup system in case of a grid failure. The Heliodyne solar thermal system is on top of the house. The solar thermal system heats up glycol and then transfers the heat to both the hot water tanks and the in-floor radiant heating system for the house.
Please browse the following interactive online reports to see the performance of the PV system. This system, from SMA America, has been fully operational since Jan 11, 2013. The battery backup system failed in December of 2017 and was not fixed until February of 2018. During this time, the PV system did not produce any usable energy. Instead, all the energy went to charging failed batteries.
PV Plant Profile
PV Plant Overview
PV Energy and Power
PV Annual Comparison
PV Battery Backup
La Jolla:
In 2018, Kathy traded in her 2005 Honda Accord Hybrid for a 2017 Prius Prime. The Prime runs on pure electric for about 25 miles, so for local driving, it does not use gasoline. The charger plugs into a regular 120 volt outlet. That purchase led us to research PV systems for our La Jolla home. We ended up with system comprised of 15 Panasonic panels and a Solar Edge inverter. The system was installed on May 25, 2018 and is rated to produce 4.95 kWp of electricity. We decided not to install a battery backup.