Liz Robinson’s Experience with Solarize Philly

Summary

 My house has too many huge oak trees, which we use as our air conditioner whenever possible, so I was very frustrated that we could not install solar on our own home and have wanted solar for many years. But three years ago, my husband and I bought the little house, the little row home at the corner, and it has no trees.So it’s absolutely perfect. So once we put on a new roof, it’s a rental property for us, it’s a little row home with two units, first floor and second floor. I was able to catch the second round of Solarize Philly and participated in the Solarize program and it was wonderful, just absolutely a breeze.

Everything went perfectly well. Solar States was our selected contractor, which I was delighted because I already knew Micah and the gang through training.. I used to direct the Energy Coordinating Agency and we met through solar training for minorities in underserved communities. So I was really delighted to have Solar States.

The process was absolutely beautiful. I must admit, I was very pleasantly surprised. Everybody showed up when they said they would show up, even the inspector for License and Inspections turned out to be a fabulous guy, a really highly skilled person, and even PECO came when they said they would and installed the bidirectional meter. So everything has gone beautifully. I did sign up to sell my SREC and so I’ve already sold 12 of them. And it’s always a little bit of a thrill when I get an email from SRECTrade saying, bingo, you sold another megawatt hour!

So that’s fun. And the whole experience, to be frank, was much better than I was expecting. And the system is performing a little better than I was expecting. So I should explain that the reason I installed it on this rental property is because in Pennsylvania we have something called Virtual Meter. And simply means that if you have more than one meter in exactly the same name within a two mile radius, you can put solar on whichever, whichever meter you choose. For me it was the best meter, the sunny one, and if it produces more than that meter requires you get credit, full credit at full net metering on your other one. So this system that we installed, which is 5.4 kw provides more than a hundred percent of what the apartment on the first floor apartment requires. And my husband and I, who live right up the block, we get credit for, it’s about, it’s offsetting about 70, 75% of our annual consumption at our own house.

So this one little row house solar system is providing enough sun for two properties and it’s quite thrilling. So anyway, it’s worked out really beautifully. I highly recommend the Solarize Philly program.