I am fascinated by the concept of producing electricity from a photovoltaic array. The technology is awesome because we simply will not run out of this power supply while there is life in this universe. I've heard a group of scientists wanted to release particles into the atmosphere to partially block the sun's light to stop global warming, which thankfully was stopped by the public outcry in the UK, but even if people do something that short-sighted, we can still have solar power generation in space. So every penny invested in this tech now can reap benefits for the rest of earth's history. There are no moving parts, very little maintenance, and no emissions or waste (after manufacture).

Back to my situation; in Manitoba there is little incentive for any of this due to our very profitable hydroelectric dams, but thankfully Manitoba Hydro at least allows grid tie-ins. There was some bureaucratic hassle because mine is the first grid-tied photovoltaic array in my municipality (and I think in the whole region of the South East), so the inspectors were totally unfamiliar with this. Installation was definitely the simplest part!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, EvolveGreen, an importer of green-tech, helped me plan my system. They recommended a rail-mounted array for the simplest installation. I bolted some mounts onto my roof, and then attached the railing to it into two sets of two parallel rails. These rails are kind of like complicated C-channel - there are special clamps that I can fit into grooves, and basically screw them in wherever I need to along the length of the rail. So I clamped each panel tightly on, and the spacing occurs naturally because most of the clamps are "T" shaped - the stem of the T acts as a spacer. Once the panels were all in place, I screwed on an Enphase microinverter to each panel, and the wiring for them is incredibly simple: it clips right into the panel, and then each inverter clips to the ones adjacent so it forms a parallel circuit. The only part I needed an electrician for was to then get these wired into my electrical panel, so they basically ran wire through my roof down to my utility room and then connected it up to my circuit breaker panel. We did have to wait before connecting it up, for MB Hydro to provide me with a bi-directional meter, and their inspection.

So, currently I am producing power each day from sunrise to sunset, although cloudy days are much less efficient. The energy produced feeds into my circuit panel, and powers my house. A lot of the time I still draw hydro from the grid, but at peak production I feed back into the grid because I'm producing more than I use. I find that this number is low in winter - around 10% of my power feeds back right now. In summer I infer it will be significantly more. The goal in Manitoba is to produce less than we use in a month, because if they start paying me it is the base rate, and I get taxed on "income" - but while I'm only reducing my bill, every kWh I produce is worth the base rate + taxes. Because our rates are among the lowest anywhere it will take me about 17 years for the panels to pay for themselves, assuming rates don't go up, but I'm estimating it will be closer to 14-15 years since the rates went up this year, and there is government approval for hikes for the next 2 years at least. My system has a 25 year warranty, so it will eventually be profitable. It's nice when a hobby can at least be profitable in the long run!

One last thing I'll mention is that Enphase provides what they call the "Enlighten monitoring system" - basically a box I plug into the wall near my circuit breaker panel that can detect what each individual inverter is producing. It collects data and sends it to my Enlighten web page and it can generate reports for both my entire array and each individual panel. Here's your reward for reading until the end: I've made this available for anyone to see: my Enlighten page.  I hope that someday everyone with a house can have solar!

Supermarkets have a supply system designed to be economically efficient, usually meaning dealing with as few suppliers as possible in as large quantities as possible.  That means the big chains ship the same apples across the country. This is incredibly inefficient from an environmental viewpoint, since good quality apples can easily be grown in every province in Canada, and long-haul trucking means apples are often picked unripe - they can be in transit for several days and then be stored for months in altered environments before they are allowed to ripen.  This works if one just cares about "fresh" apples available at any time of the year, but a specific variety will taste the best if allowed to ripen on the tree (like most fruit). Because these storage systems often require specific levels of oxygen and nitrogen, and particularly a specific temperature range, they consume electricity as they sit in storage, unlike many root cellars, which is a great "pioneer" technology that I'd love to use myself... if only my water table was deeper!  I am looking at the possibility of an earth-bag root cellar, though. 

When most people think of pest control we think of pesticides or ways of killing bugs and critters that damage crops.  While this is one aspect, there are several other directions to come from.  One is environmental control.  That is, instead of killing off the pest, I look at the world around the orchard and see what I can do to change the situation to prevent them from enjoying the area.  So, for example, that could mean planting marigolds around the perimeter - several bugs and small animals apparently detest the odoriferous vegetation.  Of course, they don't smell great to humans either, and it doesn't work in winter. 

I just finished phase 2 of a fence.  I started with stucco wire at the bottom to help keep out the rabbits, and above this I used a deer-fencing material from Lee Valley -  a fine black polypropylene mesh which is invisible from 20' away.  It looks like giant spider-webs in the morning after a frost - really neat.  I dug in a few 6 x 6 posts, but mainly stapled the fencing to sturdy trees around the perimeter.  It isn't very noticeable from the house, and I'll be able to grow grapes and other vines on it, which will further discourage animals from trying to push through.   The deer test the fence about 3' above the ground, which is still the very sturdy stucco wire, and they can see the fencing go well above their jumping height, and so leave it alone.  I'm sure if a full-size buck went charging through it could take it down, but unless one builds a fence across a deerpath that isn't likely to happen.

I've read about several other remedies to keep deer away - soap hanging from trees, various ways of spreading human smell around the yard (hair clippings, or spreading , and other sprays, but most seem to be temporary fixes (rain washes away scents, etc.)  What are your remedies that work well?

I've been busy installing solar panels on my roof these last few days, and it's been surprisingly simple.  As far as I'm concerned, every building should have solar on its roof - cost is the only issue - although if you think about it, it's a guaranteed, if very long-termed investment. Mine will likely take ~18 years to make back my investment, so if I was doing it only for $$ I wouldn't bother.  More to come once winter sets in and I actually have time to blog!