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

[Brandi]

Hey guess what????? It's raining again! I still have a leak in my roof.

[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!