Solar Photovoltaic Power

March 2010:

With our solar hot water and a very modest 1KW solar PV array, we have belatedly received an electricity account:

Instead of us having to pay, we have a credit with the supply company! We thought it was a long time since our last electricity account. Seems they had not sent us our previous account since it was also in credit (compounding with this one). 

I won't try to calculate just how it will take to break even since electricity prices are going to rise significantly in the near future.

February 2010:

We have now reached 1 megawatt-hour with our rooftop silicon solar panels. It is only a modest 1 kilowatt system that links into the main power grid.

1 Megawatt-hour took seven and a half months.

With a grid-linked system, any excess power is exported to the grid (typically at peak utilisation times for the grid) and we take power from the grid when we are not producing power (i.e. at night) or our power requirements are in excess of our production.

We won't know until the next bill from the power distribution company as to how it is all balancing out.

With our electricity consumption already drastically reduced with our solar hot water, the next bill will make interesting reading.