A few weeks ago, Mark and I finally fulfilled a longtime dream — we had solar panels installed.
One of the perks is that we can now see on the Evergy website how much energy we produce and consume.
It has long bothered me that our A/C runs day and night—even when the nighttime temperature drops below our thermostat setting.
The thing is that our house is so well-insulated that the indoor temperature still stays warm enough for the a/c to keep running at night.
blue = energy delivered from grid ~ green = (solar) energy sent to grid
In order to protect the instruments in the studio, we need a consistent temperature, day and night. For us, that’s between 72 and 74 in the summer, 66-68 in the winter, and 68-72 in spring and autumn. If we had separate A/C systems – one for the upstairs, one for the studio -, we would keep the upstairs colder on winter nights.
Two days ago, it was finally cold enough for the house to cool down so the A/C didn’t run anymore, but not yet cold enough to need heat. And look at that difference!
Our house faces SSE, which means we get a lot of solar gain in late autumn and then winter—so much that even on cooler days (well below 68 °F), we don’t need to run the furnace to keep the house at a comfortable 72 ºF.