| June 16, 2013 | Contact | Calendar | The Mix | Archives |
These three envelopes are what it takes to put solar panels on our roof and tie it into the grid. One is the contract with Revision Energy; two is the application to Central Maine Power to tie the panels to the grid; three is the application for a hefty rebate from Efficiency Maine. In addition to the rebate, we will get a 33% federal tax credit. Those envelopes were mailed last week and we are scheduled for an August installation. We will get 20 panels with micro-inverters which we can monitor individually with a web connection. For those who are unfamiliar with grid-tied solar, here is how it works. We generate electricity, use what we need, and send the rest into the grid, earning credits. In winter we will use those summer-earned credits to power high-efficiency electric heaters. If this works well, we will consider putting a couple more panels for a hot water system. Way in the past when Melissa and her mother were building this house over the phone, Melissa insisted that it have a south-facing roof. A felicitous choice.
And hopefully a choice that is building a good flock: Its no good to complain about your flock, she advised. A flock is nothing but the put-together of all your past choices. I've just finished my first Barbara Kingsolver book, Flight Behavior, her latest. The most patient of writers, witty, and loving of her characters and the natural world. It's the kind of book you want to immediately hand off to someone else, but alas it was a Kindle book. No more. I will save Kindle for just those Jean Books that no one else wants to read. Here are a few more quotes from it: "Her life was unfolding into something larger by the day, like one of those rectangular gas-station maps that open out to the size of a windshield." p 216.Last week Melissa and Peter visited one of the new greenhouses at Hinckley that Shirley left money to build. 
|