LESLIE: Mark in North Carolina is looking to go green with the energy that they use at their house. What can we do for you today?
MARK: Well, I am actually a rather ingenious, inventive type of person. (Leslie chuckles)
TOM: (chuckling) OK.
MARK: I’m trying not to blow myself up in the process of doing this.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) If I don’t say so myself.
MARK: But I’m trying to create a proof of concept and part of my proof of concept is going to require that I backfeed the system with electricity. In order to backfeed the system, I know that I have to run my electricity back into the main panel where my power meter goes so that I can, in essence, make my power meter run backwards.
TOM: Right.
MARK: Now, my calculated output is going to be approximately 11 to 12 megawatts a month.
TOM: OK.
MARK: Which is about 10 megawatts more than I use.
TOM: OK.
MARK: So the question I have is, what product or what company would I look at on the web that could help direct me to the correct equipment to do that with?
TOM: Ah, good question. I’ll tell you a good place to start is North Carolina has a state energy office that – have you talked with these folks yet?
MARK: No.
TOM: Because they’re totally set up to deal with sustainable-energy questions and you might want to start there. That website is EnergyNC.net. That’s EnergyNC.net.
The equipment that you’re talking about is, you know, fairly commonplace; used for zero-energy homes, used for homes that have wind generators and things like that and you’re correct. It essentially safely feeds the power back into the grid. It’s sort of like a transfer switch that you might use with a backup generator but designed just a little bit differently.
MARK: OK. Is there any particular – other than just the state energy office? Any other advice that you would have for that other than to make sure you adhere to – meet or exceed codes? (chuckles)
TOM: Well, tell me about this proof of concept idea. You trying to convince a spouse or other significant person that this is a good idea?
MARK: Oh, no. My wife is all about doing (Tom and Leslie laugh) – anything I want to do, she supports.
TOM: Alright. Well, it sounds like a great project. Good luck with it. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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