Meet Joey - my 18 month old rescue dog. Part lab, part greyhound, part kangaroo. He weighs 30kg and loves eating, playing fetch and chasing ducks. Why am I telling you about him? Read on to find out...
My solar panels were installed this week! We used Australis Solar, and all in all I must say they did an excellent job. It took most of the day to do the install, and at about 4pm they flicked the switch, the clouds parted, and a beam of heavenly sunlight immersed the smooth panels in golden goodness. Angels appeared and harp music swirled around us... OK maybe I imagined some of that, but thats how it felt! Anyway, I quickly connected myself to the 'Sunny Places' app, logged in and found the graph showing energy generation - and have been glued to it ever since. There is something magical about seeing free light energy being converted into free electricity in real time, and knowing that the background hum in your ears from the dishwasher is carbon free! So why I am on about saving my dog?
Well, the next day dawned bright and (reasonably) sunny in Perth - a nice treat after 3 weeks of near endless rain - and I was excited to see how much energy the system could generate. After a slow start (due to the panels being predominantly west-facing), things started cooking at around midday, and by the end of the day we had generated 21 kWh of power. After another 2 mostly cloudy and rainy days the total had crept up to 42 kWh. I noticed a stat on the app that showed my total CO2 avoidance in kilograms - mine was just on 30kg! Yes you guessed it - the weight of Joey my crazy dog! Suddenly it all became just a little bit more real - I had saved my dog's weight in CO2 from being pumped into the atmosphere. When I told my wife this information her jaw literally dropped, and she asked me to install the app on her phone too!
According to Statista, the CO2 cost of electricity is set to drop over the next 30 years in Australia from 656g/kWh in 2020 to 98g/kWh by 2050. Thats a big drop. I hope its big enough..
Until next time!
Doug
aka The Regeneralist
I reached a milestone today (1st Nov) - and have now saved 2 tonnes of CO2! That is 66.66 Joeys... assuming he still weighs 30kg. I think he may have gained a few sneaky kg's lately so perhaps it is a few less. What does 0.66 of a Joey even look like? Urgh..
Hi regeneralist, I would love to hear your thoughts on Piezoelectricity. Here is a link where I have learnt a bit about it http://scienceindia.in/home/view_article/88
lekka