Welcome to the club 37chief! I've been using solar I guess for 25 years or so now. It wasn't always pretty at first but that was because I could only afford to go at it piece meal. I would advise those who are thinking of going solar to go all in at once if you can. Sounds like what you did. Sounds like a pretty big installation, how many kilowatts is it rated at? You're going to meet a lot of people who will tell you it can't be done; it's the surest sign that you're dealing with some one who has absolutely no experience or first hand knowledge of solar. Some people are just ornery and want to argue about every thing.
One of my favorite myths is: ' it's not economically feasible" then they add 'maybe in the future when the price drops or they get more efficiant". Well panel prices have been dropping steadily, while efficiancey has steadily gone up. Solar is actualy competive with natural gas, well it was until our national imbarrasment abitrarely added 30% to the costs.
Geo in TH, Panels are quite durable, they undergo rigorous testing. They use tempered glass that is similar to the glass in the windshields of cars so while your roof was damaged did you also have to replace your car windows? Another thing people don't realize is that even if the glass gets a crack in it it doesn't just stop working. I've heard of a panel that was shot thru with a .22 cal. and was still in service. My own panels have withstood 1/2" hail, luckly that's about as big as it gets around here. As for lightning that's what they make lightning arrestors for. One more thing, when they give a lifespan rating, that is for a certain rated output at that year. For example a panel might have only 80% output of it's original rating at say 20 or 25 years. After that they're still cranking out the power, just not as much as they used to.
Is solar right for everybody? No it's not. A friend ask me how many panels it would take for his house. When I crushed the numbers it was 38-200wtt panels. Well he is one of those indoor farmers and all those lights and fans and humidifiers take alot to run! His monthly usage is three times the normal of a family of four. The point is it's not going to be one magic bullet that'll solve all our energy problems, it's going to be a combination of every thing, geothermal, hydro, tidal, wind, etc.
So if you don't want to go solar then don't, but don't go sniping at people who do. Nobody's is forcing anybody to do anything. It's still a free country.....for now anyway.
Congrdulation 37chief! you proved that you don't have to be a full blown bonified tree hugger to do your little part towards leaving an inhabitable planet behind for future generations. Er...you're in SoCal??? My apologies if you are a tree hugger.
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Today's Featured Article - An Old-Time Tractor Demonstration - by Kim Pratt. Sam was born in rural Kansas in 1926. His dad was a hard-working farmer and the children worked hard everyday to help ends meet. In the rural area he grew up in, the highlight of the week was Saturday when many people took a break from their work to go to town. It was on one such Saturday in the early 1940's when Sam was 16 years old that he ended up in Dennison, Kansas to watch a demonstration of a new tractor being put on by a local dealer. It was an Allis-Chalmers tractor dealership,
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