zero utility bills

[dixie_belle]

First of all, let me say that we are lucky because the house is energy efficient to begin with. And we are really frugal with our utilities. But, having said that, we generate electricity with our solar array and the utility company has owed us $22 a month for the past two months. We'll just let the credit accru all thru the warm months and use it for the winter as we use more electricity then.

Here are some pictures of our solar array. This is phase one, we are actually planning on adding more in the future. It'll be great to actually get a check at the end of the year from the utility company!!! And it's really, really nice to have eliminated our utility bills.

If anyone is interested, hubby LOVES to talk about it and will talk anyone thru it. You just gotta have a sunny place as even the smallest shade makes a big difference in electricity produced.

(We have eliminated the tops of the wooden supports since this picture as it negatively impacted our production due to them shading the panels.)

 

[kaykay]

How much did it cost to put that in?

 

[dixie_belle]

Well, that's an interesting question. The initial cost was quite high....but remember, 30% of the entire cost (every drop of paint, every nail, every screw you get back as an income tax credit - not a deduction, but a credit) PLUS, our utility company sent us a check for $1000 the day we went online and the State of Kentucky gave us $500. So, while it cost us quite a bit up front, when you tally the end result....maybe $9000. This was our first time so it is WAY overengineered and hubby says he could do it for less now, knowing everything he knows from this experiment. And we have a contract for 10 years with the utility company. They buy our electricity and pay us $.12 MORE than they charge. So we have no batteries. We are still connected to the grid. We have two meters on the house. One for the power we use, and one for the power we feed back into the grid. Because they pay us more than they charge, we only have to produce half our electrical needs to break even. Anything over that serves as a credit which we "bank" for months when we will not produce enough. So it's kinda cool because we still use the same electricity we used before we installed the array only now we have no utility bills. And we are 100% electric! I had wanted to install gas heating and a gas stove but why bother because we'd have a gas bill. Didn't make any sense.

 

[candycar]

I sooo want to do this! I have thought about getting solar or wind power for years. What with the EPA shutting down several power plants in our area and the price hikes and brownouts comming I think it would be great! We couldn't do it at our home now, but maybe in the future when we move to the "family farm". It has an open bottom area that always floods and doesn't make very good hay anyway. We might be able to put one up there....

You are so smart for jumping on solar power as soon as you could.

 

[Equuisize]

Fascinating. Good for you for going green, in this way.

I've been interested in trying this for years.

We have a huge barn that sits out in the open away from trees

that I think would be perfect for this.

We are cloudy here though, just 30 miles from the Pacific Ocean

and I wonder if that would impact the production?

If, the big IF, we ever get a settlement on the home and business we

lost in the flood, this would be a good thing to invest in, I believe.

 

[kaykay]

I think where you live has a huge impact on the outcome. Heck here our fall/winters are so cloudy it wouldnt even keep our solar fence working lol.

I did find a map that shows how much solar can accumalte in certain states and Ohio ranked very low. With the rain we have had this year and the horrible winter our number of sun days is very low

I think its great though if you live where you have enough sun days to make the cost worth it

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Interesting concept. How many kWh/kW do you need available to make this a reasonable option? We get considerably more sun here than in more coastal areas but everyone I know of who has tried going solar uses batteries and it isn't very effective.

 

[dixie_belle]

We use roughly 800 KW per month. Since the utility company is paying us so much more for what we produce than what we charge, we only have to produce half our consumption needs in order to break even. We only have to produce 400 KW per month to have a zero bill. These last two months, we have produced more than half our needs, so we have a negative bill. If we sold today and moved, the utility company would have to cut us a check for about $45. How funny is that? And, oddly enough, our best electric producing day was this past winter. It was cold (the panels are more efficient in the cold) and there was snow on the ground. We went out and brushed off the panels (hence not putting them up on the roof), and the sunlight must have reflected off the snow and so, even with it being terribly cold, we produced more in that single day than any other day.

We are actually connected online to the panels. We can view what we are producing at any given moment, we can look at a day at a time, the last 7 days, the last month and a for the lifetime of tbe system. It is fascinating. We can actually see when we had clouds and when we didn't.

Since we aren't off the grid, and aren't actually using the electricity we produce, but feed it back into the grid, we didn't have to purchase a bank of batteries. They are terribly expensive and need maintenance. Our unit hasn't needed anything except the occasional hosing down to clean off dust. Overall, I've been quite impressed. And, since we are retired, we are trying to cut back our monthly bills.

Surprisingly, we are the first in our county to go solar and people from the utility company are forever stopping by, knocking on the door and asking questions about it. We have even had people stop by just to take pictures! Our local church people refer to it at "that jungle gym on the hill" and joke about running an extension cord from the church to the array! They tease us a lot about it.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I am going to have to check into this for our area. I hate getting that bill for power use and it really hurts in January when we live in a frozen wasteland and I have heaters running in my waterers etc. I doubt our government has any subsidies tho so the original outlay to set up a system will probably be prohibitive for us.

Thanks for sharing your success to inspire us to think of our options.

 

[RockRiverTiff]

This is so cool! I've always been curious about solar set-ups, so thank you for sharing.