News and Views

The doctor said to come back in 8 to 10 years. Glad to hear I won’t have to go through that prep again for a while!

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Our solar energy system finally became active today. SRP (the local power company) was here at 9:00 am, and did the final connection.
Since then (it’s now 3:00pm) we have generated about 24 kWh. Of that, about 14 were sold back to SRP, and we have used about 10.
They installed a new […]

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SRP, the local power company, sent me an email today scheduling the “commission” for next Wednesday, Dec 21, 6 days from now. So it’s nice to finally have a firm date, but it’s hard to understand why it took so long.

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Nothing big, just a few updates:
The solar power system has STILL not been turned on. We have been waiting for just a month now since the installation was complete. Every month that goes by costs me between $100 and $200 in electricity costs. Most of the time has been waiting for the […]

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Gisele got a new car to replace her 2003 Honda Accord.
After more than 2 weeks of researching and test driving, we decided on a 2012 Hyundai Sonata. We got all the cool options, including navigation. It is only a 2.0 liter 4 cylinder, but turbocharged and delivers 274 HP, more than most V6 […]

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Devon passed round one of the singing contest, and is going on to the next stage, which I think is next weekend. Here’s a picture of him someone took from the TV:

Here’s a picture that was in the local newspapers, with a caption from the English language paper:

I didn’t understand this before, but apparently […]

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The contractor was out today doing some painting and checks, and briefly activated the solar power system. It was generating about 5000 watts, most of which was flowing back out of my house into the power grid. No air conditioning or TV was on, so besides my computer, refrigerator and some lights, we […]

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They didn’t quite finish today, but all that’s left is some trim, wire termination, and a little roof repair.
Here they are installing the first solar panel:

Here’s what it looked like with several panels installed:

And here’s the finished job:

Here’s a close-up, looking up the array:

And here’s a close look at one of the clamps holding the […]

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The past couple of days, Devon has been in most of the Taiwan newspapers and and TV news shows. I think it’s some kind of publicity push by his agency to try to make him a star. He is getting ready to participate in a Taiwan “American Idol” show, or similar contest.
Here’s an […]

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Looks like there’s going to be a “Day 4″ post. They didn’t finish today. I guess the rain Friday and Monday set them back a little.
Most of the work today was wiring, in and out of the attic. Not much to show, but I’ll post some pictures anyway.
Here you see where the […]

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