Not used to this

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from Pawel, the solar company construction manager.  He started off the conversation saying he has some not so good news and some good news.  Instantly my mood worsened as he told me that they are not going to be able to get the Silfab panels that we agreed to.  Even with going through different distributors they weren’t able to get the 48 panels they needed, despite last week saying they would be able to.

However Pawel then told me the good news.  Instead of using the 300W panels, he convinced the owner to upgrade me to the Silfab 320W panels which are newer and obviously have more capacity.  When multiplied times 48 it adds up to almost a full KWH of additional capacity which is significant, raising the array capacity up around 15.4KWH.  This will translate to more savings over time.  Pawel said despite these panels costing more they are not charging me any more for them, which of course I would have fought anyway, but still a nice thing.

Pawel had one more piece of good news for me.  With the original panels sourced through other distributors we were looking at at least another one to two week delay until they would have them.  The 320W panels are in stock and they plan to install them on FRIDAY. Wow, I am not used to getting hit with so much good news at once.  I thanked Pawel for his efforts.  All of a sudden getting the array up before Xmas actually seems like a possibility.

When I got home I was pleased to see the skeleton of the frame was in place.  It looked like the beginnings of a stadium bleacher section.  The array of panels is going to be huge and the unobstructed view of the southern sky should be generating power at a pretty impressive rate.  Today they are supposed to dig the trench for the cables that connect the array to the house and do some more work on the frame.

Tomorrow for Thanksgiving I would like to start the morning off with some sort of exercise, either a bike ride or run to get a little caloric deficit to offset the huge influx of food that is sure to come during the day.  Originally we were going to have the meal at Katie’s new place but that plan shifted back to our place yesterday which is fine with me.  It’s so nice to not have Thanksgiving associated with the mountain of stress and work that it once held when I was timing races every Turkey Day morning.  This will be our second year in a row that does not involve timing, volunteering or participating in a Thanksgiving race and we are both thankful for it.  Cindy and I are hoping to get Xmas decorations up tomorrow afternoon if possible.

My Black Friday is up in the air.  I’d like to get some shopping in but since the solar panels are supposed to be going up I want to be available of need be.  I guess I’ll play it by ear, like many things in my life.