Alternative Energy

There was a protest against nuclear power policy in Yoyogi, Tokyo, on February 11. It was one of the numerous demonstrations against nuclear power plants since the catastrophe in Fukushima last year. 

After the earthquake in March, I wrote about some solar energy gadgets that we acquired during a period of power outage in response to the crisis in Fukushima Daiichi. In that blog entry, I also mentioned our purchase of solar panels and a turn to solar energy. I haven't had time to write about it since, but it has been working effectively well. 

After the instalment in March 2011, the house has benefited from the solar panels tremendously. Except on rainy days, the house was always fully self-supplied in summer. 

It is the first winter that we have after the solar panels were introduced. I was a bit concerned in the beginning about possible high expense of electricity that we would face if the winter was too harsh. 

This winter has been cold, the coldest over the past few decades. We have been using heaters of different sorts so that at least we would be able to work at home. The number on electricity bills in winter has increased as expected; however, we still manage to sell a considerable amount of electricity to electricity company. The  margin between our purchase and sales still leaves us some tiny amount to pay for gas. 

Today is very sunny. The following picture is an animated image on the monitor for the solar system of the house. It shows, as the picture itself illustrates, that at noon when the picture was taken the panels were producing 2.2 kw, the house was consuming 0.3 kw, and that allowed the house to sell 1.9kw to be used in the neighbourhood. 

As daytime is shorter in winter, it is quite rare that the panels can produce enough to support the entire house everyday. However, take yesterday for example, it was sunny and the production of electricity started since the sunrise and ceased around 4 pm at sunset. We still managed to reach 76.1% of self-sufficiency. Of course, much of the consumption of electricity took place at night when there was no solar power to use.

The picture below explains the extent to which the house is self-sufficient over the past week from February 5. It rained from last Monday to Wednesday and was cloudy on Thursday. Despite all that, the solar panels still achieved to produce 52 % of the energy that we used. 

Undeniably, we have tried to be more economical and efficient in power consumption since the instalment of the panels. It is probably because every watt of power that the solar system produces is now considered and imagined in terms of its monetary value, and we do want to save as much as we want to sell. This simple formula of energy and monetary gain may sound materialistic; however, I am very surprised at the ways in which this practical equation has helped boost the awareness of energy saving in our house. We do try every means to save while the solar paddies are working hard. 

The solar company with which we made contract provides monthly check up on the system. According to the technician 2 months ago, we sill manage to sell more than other households in the same neighbourhood. 

Before the system, we did not know how much energy we had wasted. Given that alternative energies are still expensive, saving is the best way to produce.