Living with Solar Power

A Shooting Star Inn is powered by a 48-volt solar photovoltaic system.  That means all of our electricity comes from the Sun.  In Arizona, this usually means that we have all of the power we could possibly want.  There are times, however, when we get a long span of cloudy days (usually in the winter).  When that happens, the house uses more electricity than the solar panels can create. 

Because it is not good to drain the batteries of a solar-powered house down to empty, there may be times when guests are asked not to use hair dryers or curling brushes, or when the espresso machine will not be available. Once you are a guest here, you will see that these very infrequent inconveniences are more than worth the price of being able live in such a beautiful place.

(We do have a generator for emergency situations, but the air and noise pollution it causes means that it really is used only for emergency situations.)