Earth Day Plus One

So I can now officially declare the renovation of Rancho La Luz completed as this past Monday we cut over from using electricity generated by non-renewable sources to electricity generated by solar panels.  Yes all of our electrical requirements for our house are now provided by renewable sources and that means an end to the various voltage regulators and UPS units, standing in line at the CFE offices to pay our bill, the various fluctuations in power supply, the numerous power outages and best of all not having to race home to unplug the computers when we see lighting on the horizon.

Both Jo Ann and I have wanted to do this since we lived in the Bay Area but we never had sufficient sunshine or financial resources to accomplish our objective.  But now we can say that we really made a committed effort to help sustain the source of our lives. 

We have always tried to implement Earth sustainable techniques in our orchards, gardens and landscaping, using native plants and trees, composting methods, solely organic fertilizers and insecticides, drip irrigation and lots of mulch, but we have always been tied to one of the power monopolies (PG&E, MP&L and lately CFE).  Now we can say good bye as long as we keep our systems well maintained and functioning.

We used a local contractor to do all of the work, Solar and Heating Solutions here in San Miguel de Allende and they were great to work with.  The installation went very easy and the cut over almost seemed anti-climatic, I guess I expected fireworks and parades but all we got was a big drop in the spinning of the CFE meter.

Alas, this is not to say that the entire rancho is now on solar.  I still need to replace the pumps for our main well and irrigation systems so that they can also be added to the solar system, but I need to find more money before I can even think about proceeding on that next phase, but it is a big step for us here at Rancho La Luz.