Backyard Renovations – Installing the Solar System

It’s time I gave an update on what’s been happening here at the ranch.  Exciting changes for us!

Our backyard in April looked like this.

But then inspiration (through the form of my sister) came and we decided to bring the upper level down to the grass level.

And now we have our own pond… that is when we have rain and until we finish our renovations then it will be something else entirely!

One thing that I need to do is plan how we want to use this space. I have some ideas but I need to really think it through before we start.  So that project (backyard) is awaiting completion and we’ve moved on to other things. 🙂

The next project that was started was our solar system. We’ve had solar panels for years but only a few. When we first built our house 19 years ago, solar panels cost $4.40/watt but now the price has gone down to $.58/watt. A true savings for those who are wanting to move towards solar power!

Instead of purchasing a custom-made rack system for our solar panels, my enterprising husband made his own using metal building studs. By doing this he saved about $2,000.

My hubby and son worked together on the project.

But installing the solar panels wasn’t the end of it.

Wires had to be ran to the controllers. And then on top of it all, the inverters and our battery for storing power were taken out of the garage and moved to their own little shed which my husband also built.

And there’s more… but that will have to wait for another day.

It is so exciting to be running our entire house using solar panels! If it’s cloudy out (doesn’t happen a lot in Arizona) or we draw an excessive amount of power (which will happen when we have large crowds) we have the generator that will automatically start and keep us going with power but it’s looking like that may only be 5-6 hours a month versus 120 which results in a huge savings of diesel fuel costs.

We are so pleased and blessed to be able to do this!