NJ BPU Commissioner Walks the Talk
New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Commissioner Connie Hughes is the first state utility board commissioner in the country to install a solar electric system on her home. (Press Release)
Her home includes a 9.9 kW solar electric system, a thermal solar system for her pool, and passive solar features on the south side of their house. She shares the home with her husband, James – a Dean at Rutgers University (our alma mater!).
I wonder how long it took her to get the various approvals required?
UPDATE: 7/7/2004 – They have pictures up on the NJ BPU Home Page, at least temporarily. It looks like Sharp panels, and almost definately the same inverters that we have (she has 3).
Some Early Numbers
We officially turned our solar electric system on last Monday evening. As of last night, we have some early production numbers.
For the past week, our system produced 210 KWh of electricity. It was a particularly sunny week, including the longest days of the year. Last month while we were in test mode, we produced 183 KWh during a cloudy week.
For June of 2003 (reading on about the 20th of the month), we used 790 KWh. For June of 2002, we used about 900 KWh.
If you multiply the 200 KWh by 4 (for four weeks in the month), we’re due to produced about 750-800 KWh. That is well over the 2/3 of usage estimate, but it’s only one month.
July will be tougher – with the air conditioning requirement last year we used 1460 KWh, against which we’ll probably produce about 750-800 KWh.
Looking good so far!
Web Stuff
