PhoenixHamRadio.com

I've taken the final steps in going green, actually for more than my radio equipment which is only a pair of Motorola mobiles but for my entire house. The restrictive costs for this project were overcome by the solar leasing program provided by http://SolarCity.com who make going solar affordable to almost anyone.

This week I received the blueprints for my solar power system which means, the design of my PV system is complete and has gone to the building permit office in Maricopa county. In the end, the roof allows for 17 panels on my southern roof over my garage which are the bread and butter of the system, especially during the winter months when the sun is lower and in the southern sky, combined with 37 panels on my eastern roof which provide for true sun-up to sun-down solar generation!

The 54 Evergreen 205 watt panels will generate 11,070 watts of power at peak generation basically exceeding my power consumption during daylight hours to where I will not be purchasing any power from APS if the sun is shining. Thanks to the design, I will be pushing excess power onto the grid where APS will be giving me a credit for every kilowatt that I supply to them that they can in return sell back to other users under their green energy program, so in the end everyone wins!

Next we move to the install phase early next year, if the time line holds, this system will be up and running by March 2010 and I’ll be living off the grid, goodbye 500 dollar summer electric bills!