Installation Of Photovoltaic Panels

Photovoltaic panels are less detrimental not only to the environment but also to our utility bill. Though it is said that the single most important contribution to combat climate change an individual can make is lessening the amount of meat consumed which we do, we also embrace the replacement of oil and gas with electricity every chance we get. Chez nous, all power tools, including garden ones are electrical. Our car for the last five years has been a Zoe, an all-electric Renault vehicle. Installing the panels is just the first step in our grand plan to go all electric in our home. Next will be getting a storage battery so we can use what the sun gives us during the day after when it sets. Following that will be getting more panels; we have eight presently, the section of our roof exposed to the south can take a total of sixteen.  And in the hazy future, we envision the banishing of the gas boilers, both for heating the house and water, along with the gas stove, from our domain.

Our jumping through both financial and bureaucratic hoops⁠—our city's approval was required to ensure that no historic building would be defaced⁠—took a couple of months. Thanksgiving sales, even though France doesn't celebrate La Grande Fête Américaine, are referred to as Le Black Friday/Weekend Soldes, the only french words being le and soldes which means 'sales' in that phrase. We of course were too broke to partake, but feeling so self-satisfied it was because we saved our pennies for solar panels. The installation crew arrived the beginning of December. The day was a gloomy one and would prove to be very noisy also as drilling through our house's two-foot stone walls was a rumbling, vibratory affair, but I focused that this project was all about the sun. In the below photo, if you look hard enough, past the leafless trees, you will see the expanse of panels across the roof—a cool glimmer as if we dementedly agreed to putting up an ice-skating rink up there.

That dark hose coming down through the eaves and then entering the house wall into the garage holds the electrical wiring connecting the panels with . . .

. .  . with various meters, here's one, . . .

. . . and another . . .

. . . and yet another one. They are adorning the cellier's wall and keeping the wine bottles company. Instead of trooping down there only to get confused by what these meters are metering, we can comfortably gaze at a web page replete with charts showing the ebb and flow of our little home solar energy production. We can't wait until the days get longer and hotter.

So far the only adjustment made in our routine, is instead of using delayed settings for our washing machine so the laundry will be done by early morning, I try to run it when the sun is shining. As with most European models, this washer has its own built-in, electric heater.

À la prochaine!