Reflections on the Second Week of Spring - Comparing LED Lights to Candles (A Postcard from my Jane Austen and Friends Postcard Journal)

Jennifer's Solar Technician Wiping Snow Off Her Solar Panels - photo by Jennifer

3-31-19 & 4-1-19

Jennifer’s House in Novelty, Ohio

Hi, Julie.

I lugged 5 bags into my friend Jennifer’s house in Novelty for an overnight visit. She led me to the master bedroom and bath complete with a bathtub the shape of the copper tub Darcy used in the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice TV miniseries.

Next, she took me downstairs and through the stacks of Jane Austen Books to a closet that housed an efficient Tesla Powerwall 2 battery for her solar panel system. Jennifer touched the plastic cover of the slim rectangular prism, that stood a little higher than her waist. Spence and I’d investigated batteries 2 years ago. A bulky, inefficient battery was installed in a wire cage to prevent accidents. Technology had changed!

Back upstairs, we fetched laptops―mine from one of the bags―and sank into her soft sofa. I clicked a mouse, she tapped her screen, and we studied graphs.

Jennifer said the kid who’d installed the panels got up on a ladder and wiped snow off them so he could show her how the website works. Her site records each panel’s production, the amount the battery charged and discharged, and how much electricity flowed to and from the grid. Unlike the Wells Wood system, she didn’t turn switches. The battery controls the electric flow. Of our two websites, one reports the whole array’s production. The other calculates kilograms of carbon dioxide we offset. Her 45 panels could produce 70-some kWh a day. Our 30 peak in the low 50s. Comparing systems was like comparing LED lights to candles.

The next morning, I overslept. Not enough time to luxuriate in the Darcy bathtub. I took a shower in the glass stall. And, before hurrying to breakfast, I removed the camera from one of my bags to photograph the Darcy tub.

Love,

Janet

 

The Darcy Bathtub

If you are interested in seeing all six postcard stories of my Jane Austen and Friends Vacation, click here.