A solar system for the planet

There's always some ecological endeavor going on in my existence, but since January, I've been keeping mum about my biggest, most serious investment in the environment yet. It's something I've been hoping to do ever since I moved into this house, and it finally happened! Can you guess what it is? I'll give you a hint: you probably won't find it too shocking, but it will certainly be electrifying!

Do you give up? (I'm pretending you haven't read the title of this post).

OK!

It's that I got my house hooked up with solar panels! I'm officially running on renewable energy!

Here's me sunning myself on my newly multipurpose roof!
(I really was up there for a legitimate reason, not just a needlessly risky photoshoot!)

The plan had been in the works since summer of last year, but good things take time. It wasn't until late January that I had a functioning rooftop solar array. I'm now almost 7 months into my solar-powered life, and I can tell you it's stellar.

Get it? Stellar? Huh huh huh?

The actual process of getting solar panels was so uninteresting that I won't detail it here (it mainly involved signing a lot of contracts and forking over painful amounts of money every few months), but I'll happily field questions from anyone who's interested in setting up their own home solar system (planets not included!).

Now that I think about it, the period after going solar was also uninteresting. My panels basically just sit up there on my roof and, well, sit there. The first few months, I wasn't sure they were even working because I was unclear on the complex financial dance between me and my solar cells, the power company, and the free market. But after a short delay, my electric bills went way down. And then a few months after that, I began receiving payments for all the surplus power my system was generating!

You'd think that with all that free money rolling in, I'd be ready to cut loose and burn electricity like there was no tomorrow, but, if the initial estimates hold true, I still have 8 years before I'll break even on my initial investment. So until then, it's business as usual. In fact, I'm bound and determined to conserve electricity more than I did before—because once you go green, why not go greener? So it's been an interesting summer—thanks to coronavirus quarantines, I've been home twice as much, but trying to use half the electricity.

2020 is the year we'll all remember as the one where COVID-19 ruined everything. But at least I'll also be able to remember it as the year I finally achieved my goal of going solar. I kind of always thought of it as a pipe dream, but now it's real! So 2020 does have a bright side, and that bright side is as bright as the sun!