In November 2022, we decided to don our green halo, join the club, and install solar panels. Had to do our bit to help save the planet, right? The sales rep interrogated us on the appliances we used and then recommended four panels. I scratched my head at his assessment.
Once we had installed the EDP Solar App on our cellphone, we could monitor usage and production in real-time, and, as I suspected, we needed more panels, which we upped to seven. Laughing, for the first few months, I was hooked, and every time we generated more power than we were using, I immediately dashed around the house, turning on the dehumidifiers or timing the use of appliances such as the washing machine and dishwasher to coincide with the highest production times. Equally, when clouds passed over, and production dropped significantly, I backtracked and turned them off. Good game and an interesting way to exercise!
Goodness, I had no idea just how much energy different appliances used, especially the kettle, toasters, pool pump, coffee machine, microwave, vacuum cleaner and cooker! I am more frugal with the usage now.
USAGE 9th Feb
Moving on I discovered Portugal’s renewable energy production between 4:00 AM on October 31st and 9:00 AM on November 6th, for over 6 consecutive days, set new records, and the country was powered totally by renewable energy (wind, hydro and solar) fulfilling the needs of both domestic and industrial consumption!
Source: https://www.ren.pt/en-gb
I’m not surprised. Everywhere we look, there are wind farms and fields of solar panels; lots of houses have panels on their roof, and what we don’t use is sent to the grid. There are even banks of solar panels on the roofs of covered parking areas.
Do you or are you considering installing solar panels?
Fingers crossed the powers that be need to focus on the drought situation.
Thanks to our host Natalie for hosting the #weekendcoffeshare
Piglet in Portugal 
When my husband was alive, we did consider solar panels. But that was also when we had some of his siblings living in our house. Now it’s just me and my kid in the house. We consume less electricity. If we got solar, it would take a very long time to see a ROI. I am currently updating the house in other ways such as bathroom, kitchen, and windows.
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Yes, it is also about ROI. I doubt we will, in hindsight. But the solar panel olympics keeps me active 🙂
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Good on you Pip. We installed 16 solar panels almost 2 years ago and paid for them outright (3000$) and our electricity costs have halved which is fabulous as prices have climbed quite a lot lately. As Eha said, with all the sun we get in Australia, everybody should have panels on their roof, and there should be plenty of windfarms all over the country, many windy places too…. I hardly ever see them when we travel, unlike in Portugal where we see many dotted around the country.
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Wow, that was cheap! I daren’t say how much ours cost just for 7 but it was way way more than you paid for 16! YEs, those who can afford them have no excuse.
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HI Pip,
No – we’ve not joined the race to solar. It’s fairly political here in California where the best power producer is our one remaining nuclear plant. It’s working so well that Calif. wants to shut it down along with breaking down long standing (and working) dams that also help our water situation.
I hope your experience with solar cells remains good. I’ve heard some stories of others who had different experiences.
Count me as one who is watching this trend rather than marching within it.
Blessings
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Shakes head. Politicians are stupid. What have they to gain my doing that?
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I’m actually interested in installing solar panels on the roof later, but I already have to change my roof (next summer)!
I will soon invest in plug and play panels which would directly allow the basic consumption to be erased, that is to say the CMV, devices on standby, fridge, freezers, TV, computer, charging mobile phone, heat mat(!) dehumidifier etc… i.e. approximately 400W. We’ll see after.
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I don’t understand plug and play but we use more than 500 on basics
This is our usage at time of taking photos.
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A French company (Beememergy ) has developed a plug and play solar panel. Placed on the ground or on a wall to directly produce electricity which is consumed ( less expensive but lower performance than roof panels)
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Unfortunately, it’s not so much the cost of power as the charges before you even use the power are high. Though having said that, I know people here in NZ who swear by them. We housesat for a couple who had extensive solar power in North Yorkshire. A wide range of people in various places. Does Portugal give the homeowner assistance with the cost? Do you get back for supplying surplus power to the main grid? The cost of renewal is an issue and where do all the old panels go? We do have some small wind farms here too.
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Hi Suzanne, when we had the solar panels installed I thought they ran independently from the main supply so even if you had a power cut you still had enough power to run the basics such as freezers, fridges etc throughout the day. Nope … I was wrong. They were not set up like that because any surplus power went back to the grid.
We got a deal from EDP no IVA on the panels and interest free credit for 3 or 5 years. The cost of electricity saved was meant to offset the monthly payments. I’m not sure it does
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Yes, we in Australia read about Portugal’s efficiency with natural energy a while ago and I personally feel quite ashamed that this country with all the sun and wind we enjoy is not doing better! Good on you!! In this country money and politics sadly play far too large a part – as we depend financially on all the minerals, especially coal, we export much of the country is totally hoodwinked re solar. wind etc – money again making the world go round! Yes, it is interesting to see where the power is used! Hope your panels will soon repay for themselves – here many of the firms have special deals upon purchase . . . best . . .
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Yep, money talks. IF they are making good profit from coal then hmmmm. But you guys have so much space for solar and wind, even hydro… it’s a shame they don’t make more of those resources
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Congratulations on your solar panels and Portugal’s alternative energy use!
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