It’s official! We’ve got solar now! Installation was completed a few days ago and the County inspection was signed off. The decision to improve our green co-efficient is fueled by both economics, good sense, and the idea that we are improving how efficient we can make our home, green-wise.
Here are some photos to show you the process.
First, the solar company installs the mounting system which looks like this:
It is important to hire a reputable company. The company we hired had also installed systems for two families that we knew:
Our solar system is tied into the PG&E grid, so we are also able to sell unused energy resources back to them to offset our annual electric bill. Here is where they are installing the converter and other equipment inside our garage:
Here is the finished project:
When we built our home, we took some emerging building trend ideas that made good financial sense as well as reducing our energy use. A radiant roof barrier product was used for the roof sheathing. Read about it on Green Builder Magazine website. I knew this was a fantastic product as soon as Woody installed it. It dropped the temperature in the shade under this product at least 20 degrees or more.
This year, Joe and I are doubling the size of our vegetable organic garden, and I’m going to can the excess vegetables for consumption later in the year. In California, free classes are offered by the local University of CA (UC) Extension office on how to can and store food using a variety of techniques. UC Extension also offers free Master Gardener classes, too.
Joe and I both are interested in improving the quality of the food that we put in our body. We have been influenced by Michael Pollen, and his best selling books, The Omnivore’s Dilemma:
and his latest book, In Defense of Food:
Another interesting read in a similar genre is Barbara Kingsolver‘s autobiographical Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life:
All 3 books are terrific reads. I’ve been a longtime Barbara Kingsolver fan, and Joe stumbled on Michael Pollen- who coincidentally is now a UC Berkeley professor, which is Joe’s alma mater- when he read an article in New York Times Magazine.
Any comments on my solar install or book recommendations? I would love to hear feedback. Regards, Carla
