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The first of our certifications has arrived!  Our Energy Star Home Report is now final. This is the one with the HERS rating, which is basically a measurement for homes similar to MPG is used for cars. For a great summary of the HERS rating, check out this video: You may ask, "what in the world is the negative value rating for, didn't you go overboard?". Well, while I do often get carried away, in this case I didn't. We wanted the house to produce all the electricity annually both our house and cars use. So we sized the solar array to provide enough power for the cars, and the HERS rating takes into account all of the solar panels, but not the electric power used to charge the cars.  Now that February is in the history books, here is an updated graph of how we are doing so far. If I do say so myself, it is looking very, very good!
February was extraordinarily sunny and warm. As such, we had our highest production month yet (measured back through October) and the heating system took much less energy than a typical February would. More certificates should be complete soon! I'll be attending a Net Zero open House in Minneapolis tomorrow (Friday, March 3rd from 3-8pm) at 2021 Harriet Avenue, Minneapolis. Our architect, Marc Sloot, will be giving a short speech at 5pm. Stop on by, if you are in the area, and see how they renovated a very old house to the Net Zero standard, it is pretty amazing:)  Near the end of January we started using more energy than we had produced since October 1st (when we started tracking). Thanks to a bright sunny start to February, we are back in the green!
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