I am Dook and so can you.

Solarize put in my 15-panel rooftop in November. It’s a grid-tied system with no battery storage, although it has a grid-failure outlet that provides up to 1500W while the sun shines and the grid is disconnected. I like it, it seems like it will be fantastic investment, given that is should produce almost $2000 worth of juice a year at a cost of about $6000 net of tax credits and utility rebate.

Got the first bill from Duke/Progress under the new grid-tie agreement. Being winter, there was not a lot of difference from last year, although it was a bit lower. Next winter the bills should be offset by credits from summer production. Duke uses a spreadsheet to calculate the production part of the bill, which is somewhat mistake-prone. They have used spreadsheets in their nuke operations too.

Today, Feb. 26, is the first major power outage since the installation. Unfortunately snow is covering the panels and it’s cloudy, so only a few watts are available. Maybe the grid failure outlet wasn’t such a great idea.

A few days ago the roof had it’s first $1 production day as the days lengthen. That’s 12 kWh, at about 8.5 cents per kWh. I check the inverter regularly and any production, especially record wattage (3300+ so far), feels good. I have the means of production. I am The Man. Doook.

And America so can you. This is no longer a 1 percenter thing. Loans are available. It’s an awesome investment, “better than Buffett”, for now; Federal tax credit is set to expire after 2016 and the NC credit is at political risk too.