However, when I talk to others who have put solar on their roofs, most have the same obvious thing that I used to: They realize they have more water. they expect. And it has the same emotional effect — going from guilt and weirdness to demonic interest.
Consider the case of Christopher Coleman. A digital artist who teaches at the University of Denver, he uses enormous amounts of power — sometimes running the computer at full tilt for a day and a half to render a piece of digital art. “It really burn the GPU. My computer is on 24/7,” he said. If he relied solely on sources of greenhouse gas production, he would be annoyed by these energy needs. But his household’s solar array is so efficient, it covers his entire budget.
“To be much looser and more comfortable,” he said.
I polled my Twitter followers, asking if yes residential solar panels changed anyone’s relationship with their energy use. The majority said it gave them a similar sense of well-being – and many joked about turning on the air conditioner without thinking twice.
“We have these 90 degree days, I walk into the house and the house is cool, I smile and say, ‘I don’t care,’” said Sandy Glatt, another Denver resident.
Many people also tell me they are shifting energy use to daylight hours, so they can use all those photons themselves instead of putting them on the grid (which, alas, we usually ripped off by our utilities, who buy our electricity at a cheap rate and resell it for use at a higher price). So they’re charging Teslas and running all of their major appliances for the day, and installing electric water heaters to generate enough hot water for the day while the sun is shining.
Once a household receives a panel, “their energy use will increase,” said Charlies Collier, project manager for solar installations at Imperial Solar.
With all the political hurdles renewable energy faces, it seems odd to talk about Emotional influence.
But sentiment drives politics. This is why some renewable energy advocates are now trying to advertise — the bigger the better — that a world powered entirely by renewables would be a full-blown whistle, with Fast, sporty cars and comfortable homes.
“It’s a rich agenda,” Griffith said. In electrificationhe argues that the massive construction of solar, wind, and energy storage mechanisms (including millions of electric cars, twice as much as batteries) will make renewables equally reliable. much cheaper than what we pay for electricity produced from fossil fuels today.
He got a glimpse of it in his native Australia, where 30% of the homes have solar power, and the arrays cost a quarter of what I paid myself. In the US, things could be just as cheap, Griffith noted, if towns eased red tape (primarily zoning laws and building codes) and states reformed their liability rules and connected to the power grid. The price barrier in the US isn’t labor or materials: “It’s all about regulations,” he said. “It can change quickly if people want to.”
We should. Because take it from me: It fun.
