Solar / Photovoltaics is a project that I started a LONG time ago. The story started like this. I had a weekend/summer getaway house, and inside the community, we all drove around on electric golf carts as they were quiet, smaller, and safer for every member. But they were electric…Same problems we have today. Where and when to charge up?
The plan was to use solar to charge the golf cart batteries to save money. So I decided I would make some of my panels. During the week when I was at my regular home, the golf cart would be sitting charging all week. Even if I were there and used it over the weekend, it would charge up the cart “a little.”
I wasn’t sure what I was doing or getting into, but I made some of my own for starters. I love learning things, and working with power and electronics was fun.
I need to look back on my photos, I thought I had kept them around here with my photo archive, but I can’t find them. Here are a few videos I made of my experiments many, many years ago if you get bored.
I no longer have that golf cart, but my need for electricity didn’t dissipate; it increased with my own home office/data center and crypto mining.
So, fast forward to today and what I currently have on my roof. (see what I did there?) I have only started with this; the solar system was installed in late August 2021. The power company would not let me “grid-tie” and turn it on until November. That irked me, but oh well. I am interested to see how it works with net metering, my power consumption vs. production, and ways to save energy to be more efficient.
Drone photos compliments of “k1e7”, thanks, buddy!
Thanks for letting me share; I will keep notes and post if there is anything interesting to share updates on with you all.
