Having a vision is easy if you have right background, friends, education and community that supports it. The not so easy part is “taking action” to achieve that vision. Taking action can be fun and exciting yet sometimes difficult and frustrating. Action is the one that gets things done though. Thinking and some more thinking will get someone only so far. The steps to get to required outcome especially something new can be intimidating.. Recently, getting a puppy and returning it back to breeder in ten days taught me a whole bunch of things about myself. It was a failure on my part with lot of learning lessons. The biggest one in those is that one cannot completely know oneself if one doesn’t try. I tried and discovered flaws and strengths in me and in future will work on those.
However, there is one more short term and long term goal that I am trying to achieve. My long term goal is to do something that can reduce carbon footprint. Short term goal- installing solar panels. I did take an action with support of my husband and encouragement from my kids. Here are different steps/ side hustles that I needed to do to meet my vision. The project is not yet complete and their are still ways to go. However, just to get to initial start I had to go through following steps. I wish this will help and give general guidelines for someone with future interest in solar. My research is related to where I live and for specific info please feel free to contact me in person. However, the guidelines can help in general for everyone at-least in US to get a start. Once project is complete will share my experience. If it fails, which I doubt, will still happy to share the failures. So here are the steps.
1. I did research required to have better understanding of how solar system works. I read different articles and now I know much more regarding how solar energy is produced ( feels like sitting for a physics class). Kids especially in middle school and high school grades can find this information very informative and interesting.
2. I did do online research to find local businesses who install solar panels who have excellent reviews. I wanted to go with local company to support local businesses and they do have better pricing. Also, I did try to dig in information regarding resale home price post installing solar. According to my research, home value does go up in our area if we decide to sale home. Again, it will be draw of luck but with better probability to cover all our installation cost. Solar panels are more sleek and can look pretty good. Some companies like Tesla can offer panels that do look like shingles but are a bit expensive.
3. I did take quotes of four companies and compared their Panel quality, warranty and efficiency. Solar companies did give me understanding of our roof structure with best possible panel positioning for best solar output. My husband created an excel sheet showing timeline to recover money. Generally it’s around 7 years on an average that it will take to get the installation cost back as one doesn’t have to pay monthly electric bill. The good part will be our solar output will be used by our utility company so that when we will produce extra energy our company will give us credit to use that extra energy and we can use this credit for cloudy/ rainy days. We went with solar company with good reviews and good panel quality/ warranty with best price. They were going to do paperwork for city approval and homeowners approval. I am grateful for our neighbors who signed the papers to allow us to install solar. Solar companies do offer online App to look at your own solar output. One can take initiative to save more energy as the visual graph can be a good biofeedback.
4. I did dig into which panels are good, their warranty, their own recycling ability. I found out how installers companies work with solar panel companies and how it’s an interdependent business chain. I feel that renewable energy business is a great business for any interested entrepreneurs especially with engineering background and good marketing skills. It will also support to reducing carbon footprint and improving planet's health. So definitely a possible profit making business for a noble cause.
5. The federal tax rebate and utility rebate are big help to reduce solar cost. Basically a huge initial installation cost can be tamed down with all the rebates. Again one has to submit forms on time to get utility rebate on time.
6. I did call our home insurance company and I am happy to report that solar panels are covered with home insurance free of charge and are included in our policy. Between- solar panels are in itself strong enough to bear heavy storm and big hails. However, just in case if something happens, insurance will cover it.
7. I did try to encourage friends and neighbors to install solar. Some did show interest. I have few friends that I have installed solar in the past and I am taking inspiration from them. Hopefully, once ours installed, I can arrange open house for people to come and check our solar panels which hopefully will encourage them to go for renewable energy in future.
My dream is to run our family needs with minimal impact on environment. Solar energy definitely will help us to address this. In future, buying electric cars will make it even more possible to assist with decreased carbon emissions.
If installing solar is not feasible, people can certainly buy renewable energy shares/ mutual funds to help the cause and along the way make some profit. I am not expert in this regard though.
The experience of doing something that is aligned with my vision and taking efforts to make it happen is a true delight. I have met so many people including neighbors, different company representatives and owners while being in this journey. It’s happy to see that all of them share the same goal. If things go as planned, will happy to share any helpful info with anyone interested. The main goal is to do my part to reduce carbon footprint.
The occasional frustrations and worry to put significant amount of money to achieve this goal is definitely worth noting. But that is the risk I have decided to take and I am happy to take blame and learn from it if desired outcome is not met. This is just the foundation and start of something with good intent. Actual practical application - outcome/ results are yet to be found. I did my part and I am happy for the experience and knowledge that I gained along the way.
Again this wouldn’t have been possible without my husband’s support. My parents were happy as well with this decision. I am truly grateful to have this support system.
With lots of love to planet earth , my kids and all the future generations,
Praj101
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