A couple of 12 months in the past, Mangilao resident Doug Bowling switched his dwelling to solar energy and hasn’t appeared again since.
Doug Bowling reveals how he makes use of Photo voltaic Edge, the app that screens and controls the usage of solar energy on this dwelling.
“I’ve all the time been taken with photo voltaic, all the time been taken with generator backup,” Bowling mentioned.
He makes use of the corporate Era Renewable Inc., and has loved persistently cheaper electrical energy payments and constant energy even throughout an island-wide outage.
“The set up will take a very long time, as a result of there are various permits and processes that they need to undergo. So, I feel we began the method in August, and we did not get it till November. They got here in, the set up was useful {and professional}. They needed to drill a gap, get into our electrical packing containers.
“Once I first received it, I believed we had the facility to energy the entire home, however that is not true. So once we received it, we talked about it and so they mentioned we tightened up the necessities. So we have got our further fridge, our kitchen fridge, the kitchen shops – we have now energy there.
“The shops in the lounge, we have now lights and even our leisure heart is on, and the primary AC, which is like 36k, so it cools the entire front room … after which the washer, a request from my spouse,” mentioned Bowling.
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He recollects how his household as soon as got here dwelling throughout an island-wide blackout to search out that their TV was nonetheless on.
“We sat down to look at it, and the facility got here shortly after that. However we do not have to fret about our fridge, our microwave is working … so I feel we will act in case of an emergency,” he mentioned.
Bowling famous that though electrical energy charges have risen because the summer season, he hasn’t seen any change in his household’s payments.
“Our electrical energy invoice stays the identical, as a result of we pay our firm the identical quantity each month. It will increase by 2% per 12 months throughout our lease, however nonetheless, what we pay now, simply taking a look at our utilization, is lower than what we’d pay at GPA. We nonetheless pay GPA, say, $15 a month to hook as much as the grid, however our electrical energy invoice is lower than it was,” Bowling mentioned.
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He additionally famous that since making the swap to photo voltaic, his dwelling’s electrical energy utilization has been low, though the home has not been reworked.
“We maintain our ACs on on a regular basis, run our washer and dryer on a regular basis. However our utilization is lower than it was underneath the GPA meter.
“It isn’t a lot, and every little thing is sweet,” Bowling added.
He was impressed with how the electrical energy invoice did not change, regardless of his household’s utilization.
“I calculated how a lot, the gas surcharge alone is greater than our electrical energy invoice. However our electrical energy invoice didn’t improve. I’ve heard of individuals turning their air conditioners on and off, which we should not be doing. We do not have to decrease the temperature, we maintain it on the similar temperature on a regular basis,” he mentioned.
Due to the solar energy setup, Bowling seen different enhancements as effectively.
“It produces a variety of energy, far more than we use … most likely about 40% of what it generates goes again to the grid,” he mentioned.
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The solar energy system consists of three batteries positioned exterior the household’s storage, and an array of photovoltaic panels on the roof of the home, which gather energy from the solar.
Since putting in the system, the household has not needed to contact or change something, and the system works wirelessly.
“There’s an app that goes with it, so we will observe the utilization. We will do it each day, weekly, month-to-month — see how a lot we’re utilizing, even evaluating it to what we put in, what we use and the way a lot we get. Now that we have now a 12 months, we will examine to what we used final 12 months,” mentioned Bowling.
