Solar Energy Anxiety: Winters

I’ve shared how living on solar is an energy feast or famine - one thing I realized is that my system is under capacity for my usage.

Well, I would say for 95% of the year, I’m generating over-capacity because there’s too much sun during the day. When my solar system’s battery is full, the extra energy generated is not going anywhere - my electricity provider doesn’t accept net-metering anymore.

😒

So, for energy, I am in a use it or lose it situation.

The 5% of the year, that’s when the anxiety kicks in. I’m constantly looking at the sky for cloud coverage, trying to figure out what energy hungry appliances to use or not use.

It’s a bit stressful!

When the weather is bad here, my system barely generates electricity and the house uses a lot of energy to heat water for showers. The other major usage is the dryer, which we slow down from daily to twice a week (yeah, don’t even ask how often I was doing laundry when I first got my system online!)

With the energy generation directly at home, the fluctations in energy generation affect our lifestyle more than expected. I really notice when I haven’t done laundry for more than a day. I am staring at the weather forecast, the skies, and the solar energy app to see what’s going on so I can kind of plan out the day.

It’s those 5% days that make me wonder whether to increase my system size so I can handle them better.

When those 95% days come back, I totally forget about the 5%.

😅