Northern Californians - Have you washed/blown away yet???

[jobob]

Oh, you did not ride up there and snag that shot for us?

Hee hee, nope.

[SadieKate]

That's cuz I know she wants to ride with me here ---



About 11" since Friday evening and a couple more each night for the next couple. Even our long time local resident neighbor sheepishly admitted we no longer were having a "mild" winter. But, yippee!, Bubba found my snowshoes this morning. Halleluyeah!

I'm thinking of you guys. Hang in there.

[michelem]

Our poor "Welcome to Folsom" sign got hit by the storm. The second photo was taken around the bend from my office - don't know if the person driving was injured. Lots of uprooted trees and downed fences, but thankfully our house was spared any damage. Guess we got our dose when we lived in AZ and a microburst downed a power pole and lines on our house. That was NOT fun!

[maillotpois]

wow - great photos!!

we have cable but still no power. last night about 8 a couple of "subcontractors for PG&E" brought up from san diego knocked on our door wanting to quickly check our generator installation (if they're not installed right, they can provide power back up the line, injuring workers. our is done right.) they said no guarantees about when power would come back on. oh well. it's an adventure of sorts.

I wonder if solar could ever really take you off the grid. I don't think it can.

[roadie gal]

We've got a big solar array behind the house. The panels are covered with ice and snow. I tried to knock some of it off, but it's frozen in place, so no solar for us until it melts. Normally, it does cover quite a bit of our electric needs, though.

[sundial]

I'm sick of this wind!!!

I'm ready to have normal temps and winds again--not 37 mph stuff in January. It seems like we are having our March winds a little early.

[KnottedYet]

I wonder if solar could ever really take you off the grid. I don't think it can.

My uncle lives in a 5 bedroom house he built 30 years ago in the midwest, where it isn't all that sunny and it is quite cold. That house has never been on the grid. The whole thing runs on 2 solar panels the size of a queen bed, and a little windmill.

When the power goes out, all the neighbors know to come to his place for warmth, food, and showers.

He built some really cool stuff into that house.

[maillotpois]

Knot that sounds ideal. I don't think anywhere closer to civilization can you really take yourself off the grid with solar these days, though. It's all on the credit system.

Well, we got our power back yesterday. So it was only out for four days. Not too bad, all things considered. Makes me remember how much we take for granted here.

[RoadRaven]

I have been lurking at the edge of this thread and just wanted to say I am thinking of you all.

The accounts and pix in this thread have been fascinatingly scarey - or is that scarily fascinating...?

Just trusting the weather will setlle itself down real soon and you can have some "breeze free" days and no more power losses...

[Trek420]

Knot that sounds ideal. I don't think anywhere closer to civilization can you really take yourself off the grid with solar these days, though. It's all on the credit system.

My brother installed solar but without a storage system. So when the sun's out the meter runs backwards or at least steady.

It would have been more costly to have power over their daily needs in a battery back up. As it is now if the power is out & it's night/dark they are out of juice. This happened recently while their band was rehearsing, they had to switch to acoustic.

But with a storage system .... you're off the grid and at times like this that would be a good idea.

[roadie gal]

That's what we have, too. It would have added another $15,000 to the cost to put in battery backup.

Our meter runs backwards when we create more energy than we use. The local PUD credits us the wattage and then subtracts when we use more than we make (usually in the winter). Generally, we only pay for electricity about 6 months out of the year.

[maillotpois]

Total TD, but this is interesting. I wonder with the battery back up if you have to flip a switch when the power goes out so you don't send power back up the lines.

$15,000 for the back up?? Yowza!

[Trek420]

Total TD, but this is interesting. I wonder with the battery back up if you have to flip a switch when the power goes out so you don't send power back up the lines.

$15,000 for the back up?? Yowza!

1) I don't know but would think it's automatic anyone?

2) Yes it's high but if you're in a home you plan to be in for a long time this may still be worth it. I understand there are some hefty rebates and tax credits now. And if you sell the house this is an improvement you usually get back in the price of the home.

[roadie gal]

My understanding was that it would be automatic.

I couldn't swing the extra $15,000 for battery backup. What I have now is a 12 panel array on a pole. The array turns to follow the sun so we get the most out of it. I couldn't put panels on the roof because there were no snow load rated roof panels 3 years ago when I put up the array. As you might imagine, this was a pretty expensive outlay on its own.

The feds rebated $2000. California was supposed to give some rebate, but it didn't go through. I think it's by individual PUDs and mine doesn't do it.

We were the first people in the service area to create more electricity than we used. It threw the whole PUD into a tizzy. It took about 6 months for us to work out this credit system.

[maillotpois]

roadie I think what you guys have set up sounds great. Ultimately if you decided to, you could probably install the back up later - and maybe the technology would be less $ by then, etc. I wish we could do solar. We have so many trees I doubt we could - assuming our house was structurally able to support it...