We've been exploring the idea of photovoltaic (PV) solar for a while, but are now pulling the trigger. Of course, the Coronavirus pandemic hasn't made this easy, but hopefully we can start to compile a team to get panels on our roof sometime this year. I'll create a few posts to try to keep things in one place for all of the parties involved.
Step 1 // Identifying the goals
There are a lot of reasons people might choose to install PV-solar. For us, the primary driver is cost-savings. Our average electric bill is about $300/month — higher in the summer with air conditioners and lower in the winter when the gas kicks on for the boiler. With solar, we'd opt to use more electricity and less gas (i.e.: use the mini-splits in the winter for heat) — then there's the eventuality of an electric car at some point (for everyone — not just us). If we were to boil down our motivating factors into a list: