The Solar Industry
Smart Energy Today, DECA, Lift Energy and AKE merged to form this company.
What is Lumio?
After I proposed to Emily on Halloween, it seemed only logical to get married on the next occurrance of this.
What is Friday the 13th?
This solar-adjacent product comes in three levels or "phases," but the third is more of a commercial option.
What are electric vehicle (EV) chargers?
The most well-known government incentive for solar, this was raised back up to 30% in 2022.
What is the (Solar Income) Tax Credit?
They aren't lunar panels, but Stanford engineers added a Stirling engine to create solar panels that generate electricity during this.
What is night(time)?
This company's portable panels can go camping, boating or on vacation. Let's see Tesla roof tiles do that!
What is Bluetti?
After the birth of our first child in 2002, Emily and I moved to this Florida city for the next 15 years. It's great to be back.
What is Jacksonville?
Enphase Encharge, QBond, Bluetti EP900, and Tesla Powerwall are examples of these.
What are (whole home) batteries?
The Department of Energy, Appraisal Institute, and Berkeley Labs all agree that, on average, solar adds more to this than is spent on installation.
What is home (resale) value?
YouTube ads bleating about your "last chance to go solar" are actually trying to warn you about potential changes in this utility practice.
What is net metering?
Now that it's finally legal in WA, customers need to know they don't own the panels if the get them through one of these contracts.
What is a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)?
Also acceptable: lease
At noon on Thursdays, you can usually find me at the Kitsap Mall, running AV for this club.
What is (Silverdale) Rotary?
This smart home option--briefly made available after the Lumio merger--is available again, at a much lower cost.
What is a (SPAN) smart (breaker) panel?
Also acceptable: breaker box
Financing solar creates a hidden form of savings, because it serves as a hedge against this.
What is inflation?
Solar loans run long because lenders know panels still have 85% of their production after this length of time.
What is 25 years?
A popular fantasy, but currently cost prohibitive unless the home was designed and built for that purpose.
What is going off-grid?
At a court of honor, I'll see you in the Eagle's Nest, because as a teen I earned the highest award from this institution.
Who are Scouts BSA?
Also acceptable: (Boy) Scouts (of America)
A 2006 documentary asked "Who killed [it]," but a sequel in 2011 declared it was back...for revenge!
What is the electric car?
While a grid-tied system can't eliminate a power bill entirely, it can cut it all the way down to this fee--$7.49 with PSE.
What is a connection (fee)?
The sun isn't always friendly. These phenomena are expected to peak within the next 2 years, and could damage the power grid.
What are solar flares?
Also acceptable: Coronal mass ejection, EMP
A Nov 2023 article in this magazine criticized the sales culture of solar and rallied more support for regulation.
What is TIME (magazine)?
Our firstborn, pictured here at his UW graduation in June.
Who is Benoni (Ben)?
By adding load controllers, Enphase microinverters allow this option unavailable with other products...so far.
What is a daylight-only system?
Also acceptable: (daylight) power during an outage.
In the Tax Secrets of Solar webinar, it was estimated that this could net customers an additional 24% back on their taxes, above the 30% for the SITC.
What is (Rapid) Depreciation?
Lumio's Hanwha panels work with invisible wavelengths, which may have inspired this futuristic technology now operating at the University of Michigan.
What are solar windows?