Although the calendar says there are still almost three weeks until the beginning of winter, the weather in our neck of the woods says otherwise. It has been cold, dark, and snowy for the better part of the past several weeks.

While it was nice to experience a “White Thanksgiving” this year, our solar energy production took a big hit in November. In fact, the monthly production from our rooftop solar panels was the lowest we’ve ever experienced, as we generated about 6% less electricity last month than we did in December of 2017.

Consequently, we needed to make our second-largest withdrawal ever from the bank of solar energy credits we build up when the weather is sunnier to keep our electric bill as low as possible.

As we head closer to the actual start of winter, the good news is we still have more credits built up to offset our electricity usage than we did a year ago at this time.

How long those credits will ultimately last, however, is the big question we’re now facing.

Our 2018 solar power production has been lower than our 2017 production for four consecutive months, so there’s an argument to be made that we’re due to get some sunnier weather soon!

Moreover, back in October, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast that our area of the country could experience warmer than normal conditions during the coming winter.

While that hasn’t happened so far, and the ten-day forecast doesn’t suggest that warmer temperatures and clearer skies are headed our way any time soon, we’ll continue to hold out hope that at some point in the coming weeks our home solar energy system will start delivering more robust production to help keep our electric bill low!