Vacation Time Coming Up.

August is approaching and that means family reunion and vacation time for us. This year we chose the North East for our Vacation. Our family reunion is in the Erie Area and then it will be a Canadian trip, to see Niagara Falls. After that it is off to the Poconos for some R&R at the Lodge. I will be sharing some details on my At Home blog this next week. Been working on an icon to go with this trip. Had a contest for the name back in May. The name is... Northern Sun Loop, given by Sandy over at Traveling Suitcase.
It will be interesting to learn about the Falls and how the Power of Water is good for the environment.
I read somewhere that the power generated from water is actually better for the planet. The USA is building and using more Hydro-power than ever before. In the past few years we have increased our usage to around 49%( a new 2010 update). We are the fourth leading nation in the usage of Hydroelectricity to date. China being number one, Canada number two and Brazil number three. The total Numbers were reported in April 2010, The United States numbers were 81,636 Thousand Mega watt hours. With Washington State producing the highest amount of 19,001. Hydro-power had been the largest renewable source since 2003 for the US.
Canada's Hydro Plant(Sir Adam Beck) in Niagara Falls area will be one stop for me to see.

Information resources:/eia U.S. Energy Information Administration

S-RECs IS GETTING AT BOOST.

I mentioned RECs (Renewable Energy Credit) for the Thermal Solar heater, in a previous post. Some folks are not aware you can sell these RECs. They do not even know that Thermal Solar has RECs. Well they do. RECs are based on a RPS, Renewable Portfolio Standards , system. It varies from State to State. There are many States coming on-board to allow outsource buying of these RPS in RECs. There are some companies that will buy these RECs. One of them is S-REC TRADE AN ONLINE TRADING. This is a portion of their question and answer section.

"......Are solar thermal SRECs valued the same as solar photovoltaic SRECs sold in auction?
Yes, in DC and NC, solar thermal facilities can be approved to generate SRECs that have the same value to buyers purchasing to meet state compliance requirements. Any auction for SRECs in DC will include solar PV and solar thermal SRECs sold at the same price
Both DC and NC allow out-of-state facilities to qualify, so many states are eligible to sell into these markets. If your state is not eligible to sell into DC or NC, then the RECs produced by your facility have no value to buyers in the state compliance markets (i.e. our buyers). You may still however be able to find ways to sell the RECs in voluntary or non-solar compliance markets – also known as generic REC markets. There are companies out there that may help...."

We are with a company that will also buy our Thermal RECs based on the RPS of our system. We have a bill in our legislature right now that is on this very subject. Our hope is that Maryland will come on board and allow the companies in Maryland to buy the Thermal S-RECs.

The Solar Inverter

The electric part is now complete. So, What does the Solar Inverter look like and what does it do? The photo on the left is the final look.
How does it work? The solar panels collect energy from the sun and stores it as Direct current(DC),like the power from a battery. Since home power is run by Alternating Current or AC, the energy needs to be converted to be used. The Inverter work like a transformer, turning the transistors rapidly on and off and feeding two different sides of the transformer tricking the transformer into thinking it is getting AC.
Our system is a Grid feeding one. That means the energy being collected that is not being used in our home at the time, will feed the power companies lines. Giving them a cleaner reusable source, we are doing our part to lower the CO2. You can see this by viewing the Meter box. As seen in the video below ours, in test mode, is going backwards.

What does it do? Besides the turning DC into AC the Inverter box supplies information to the consumer. We can see how much energy is being collected, the amount of CO2 being saved and other stats that are helpful. Now we must turn it off until it is hooked up to the grid. A few more days to go. The inspectors and Utility company to make their showing. A meter to be swapped out and an inspection sticker to be placed. Just a sneak preview for you all.


As I stated earlier the meter is going backwards. Here a short Video: