Just Gadgetry

While holding a yard sale today, trying to destroy the evidence of two decades of my family's heedless, mindless consumer consumption, I had an opportunity to speak with three neighbors about my solar PV system.

One worked for SMA, the manufacturer of my Sunny Boy inverter, and the other two were just interested neighbors, with one going home and returning with his recent quote from a solar installation outfit.

Based on that recent quote, I am seeing that prices are coming down to levels that compete with my own self-installed system, at about $3.50 per DC watt. I am also discovering how my own solar panels (Sharp NE165U1) aren't even manufactured anymore, not 3 years after installation. The SMA guy even said my own inverter is also obsolete -- that is, it's just not manufactured anymore...although mine has been flawlessly working since the moment I flipped the switch.

There have undoubtedly been many changes to solar retrofitting, and admittedly I am not at all up to speed on what's out there. With my inverter, I understand that there are new means of access via the web and wireless connections, able to gather all the production data off the inverter. Truthfully, though, this is just gadgetry. I can read if off the meter via a short forty five foot walk. It's the same as getting an OnStar in-car navigational aid-- a $1.50 paper map works just as well, slick. It might take a little bit longer because of all that bothersome folding, but hey, think how much less you'll have to work in your lifetime while not having to pay for all that superfluous shit.

Speaking of superfluous -- through a half hour converstation, I discovered how the guy with the solar quote has been trying to negotiate a writedown/modification on his housal unit mortgage from his lender, and if he's successful he'll go solar. The guy has lived in the same housal unit for twenty one years. He's a good fifty five years old. How is it that he's getting "screwed" on his mortgage? The thing would be 2/3rds paid for and less than a thousand a month had he not fuckered it all away by buying gadgetry via housal unit cash-out re-fi's. I tried to convince him that it is still far more cost effective to reduce energy consumption first before going solar. He really didn't seem to care much about any of that.

I won't regret my own solar installation even as/if prices continue to fall. People have to start somewhere with these things, and while I wasn't a pioneer, I did take that second step which is more than most Americans will ever do. Most are thinking about that one step forward but are still taking two steps back regarding their energy consumption.