We Got Solar

Peco was here yesterday morning to plug in their meters. Within 20 minutes, he was done and I fired up the system by 8:30 am.

By the time I had left for work around 9:15 am we had already produced 1kWh.

After nine hours, the system produced a total of 35 kWh. We put 5kWh back to the grid and consumed 24kWh from the grid.

And Abigail says so what Dad?

She’s right. So What?

Here’s some more numbers.

24 + 35 = 59 – 5 = 54 kWh used in 9 hours yesterday. 24 – 5 = 19 kWh consumed from Peco.

By my calculations (using my bill – like anyone can understand them anyway), Peco charges roughly $0.17 a kWh. That means we saved roughly $5 yesterday.

Hmmm. That’s a little anti-climactic isn’t it?

Ok, $5 x 30 days = $150 a month. That’s not bad.

Now consider nice sunny days where we’re not running the AC and the pool’s closed, that’s even less of our own power or Peco’s power consumed and more to the grid (not that we get paid for what we put on the grid. In all likelihood, we’ll probably get charged transmission fees for that – more on how we get paid later). Anyway, $150 off a summer electric bill isn’t bad. Does it cover my payment for the panels? Ummm not quite, but again, more on that later.

So let’s go back to the original numbers for yesterday. In nine hours we consumed 54kWh. This summer’s current daily (an entire 24hr period) average for us is around 74.5 kWh. That’s a lot in my book, but this year’s been really hot (avg daily temp this year has been 82 over 76 of last year) and we have a baby now – inside environmental comfort has taken a new priority for us.

Yesterdays solar output was a little under half that. Eh. Not what I really want, but like I said we have new priorities – this year.

Last year we were averaging around 41 kWh consumed per day. We didn’t have a baby and it wasn’t as hot, but the sun was just the same. If we’d of had this system last year it would have covered nearly our entire consumption (not quite, it only works when the sun is up, we’d have put a lot more back to the grid is what would of happened)!

I think I’m just rambling now (have I mentioned I got a kegerator?). The truth is, we’re excited we have this cool gizmo creating electricity for us. It’s never really been about the money saved, etc. It’s just neat and makes sense for our lifestyle. As I’ve said before (not here, but to nay sayers that are all like “What’s your ROI?!?!?!), some people buy BMWs or other fancy cars for whatever reason. We bought a solar PV system and that makes us smile.

– b