Yes that’s better.

Here are my last 8 months power bills.
I am still hoping for a netzero year.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...7&d=1415314265

Just a little more than 18 months and we just hit 30 mwh @.10 kwh this is $3,000 worth of power.

They say this would power a NFL stadium two days.

17.9 mwh is just this year. This year we are averaging 55.9 kwh a day.

here are a couple live links to the system production.

Flynns Arcade 12.560kW | Monthly


Keep in mind this charges our car 2 times a day for about 15k-17k EV miles a year and heat and cools our house. It covers everything but hot water.

Thats really good. :thumbup:

My total average kWh/day (which includes natural gas for heating) for the 6 years I've lived in my home is 67 kWh / day. My actual electric usage is only 11.8 kWh. The heating is killer. It would be very interesting to add my car (gasoline) usage into those calculations. My cars are efficient, but they're no Volt. :)

Congratulation.

You have made some serious energy in that time, it would power my full electric house for 3 years.
My next house will be Solar and Passive as feasible for me. Being i do not have a Family I could get by with 3000w or so of panels as yet to be determined. The property will not be grid tied.

Thanks guys we are excited about changes we have made.

I recently held up my part of a deal with my wife to help pay for the solar install. I sold my most prized pinball machine. The sale covered all but $600 of the solar install after the tax breaks. I made good on a deal if we get solar it will sell this to help pay for it. I got the machine about 6 years ago and it increased nicely in value but its value was topped out anyway.

It really think it was well worth it.

That is why I pointed out the Volt and lots of EV miles we drive. To show why we use so much power. We take our kids to school every day it is about 80-100 miles a day. Down the road we will not need to do this so this will cover any panel losses as they get older or maybe a 200+ EV someday.:)


It is funny my neighbors ask me if my barn uses all the power form the solar or if my house can use some of the power also. You should see their faces when I tell them they actually use a lot of the power I make. Because I make more than my house uses.

Solar panel prices are looking better.
http://www.gogreensolar.com/collections/solar-panels

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1417466027


We had a good solar month in November. We made 1,348kwh year to date is 18.6 MWh
This will be 9 months with 0 usage to pay for from the power company.

Making sense of the numbers for Nov. (elec bills are no longer straight forwarded)
We made solar power 1348 kwh
We put back to the grid 857 kwh
The solar power we used is 491 kwh (this did not go back to the grid)
The grid power we used was. 1190 kwh (from the grid)
Total usage was 1,681 kwh (from the grid and solar we used)

We used 333 kwh more than we made. But we had a surplus 3,866 kwh so now we have a surplus 3,533 kwh to carry us through the winter heating season.

This covered charging our Volt lots this Nov.

We did not use natural gas heat at all this month
We used 21 units $33.45
The year we did not have the mini splits we used 71 units $93.77 bill for Nov.

This yes we have an extra person living with use so we used more hot water.

How did you guys do with solar this month?

2014 Good Year for Solar for Me
 

http://tackyted.com/storage/solar/Up...nt%20Solar.jpg

Ted sent this on December 2, 2014 at 9:04 AM Central Time (USA).

I'm up 8% for 2014 :)

SideNote: I'm adding 3-255 panels to feed my electric water heater, will post on the out come.
------------------
"Every day is SUN day"
Crossville, TN 38571
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=36.0169,-85.0355

Prospective by TackyTed - Solar
Upper Cumberland Plateau PV Solar Map http://goo.gl/maps/uqA4F

It is good to see you putting up good solar numbers this year.

One more month with net zero use. We have been charging the car more than two times lately.
This year we are heating with electric so far anyway.
One more month closer to netzero.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1418315624

Actual power bill.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1418315624

I have some good news they agreed to grandfather the current solar producers until Dec. 31, 2025.

This is great news and will give us current solar producers the ability to pay off our systems.

I was writing and calling and posting everywhere that they get their long term investments paid off. But they would not do the same for us.
Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets greased.

“The parties to the settlement have agreed to revisit net metering in 2020. The new net metering tariffs approved in 2020 would apply to new customers who elect to net meter after Jan. 1, 2021, and existing customers after Dec. 31, 2025.”

I borrowed this but I like it.


http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1419276585

If you have a solar array you probably want to see what the weather looks like. The best weather app I have seen so far is MSN weather the cloud view is very good. I also like the precipitation view on the map.

Other maps have a satellite. that really does not always tell the cloud story.

Gray Court, SC - MSN Weather

Everyone, have a great Holiday and New Year!

Rob

I was a great solar year. 19,542 KWh Total for this year.

We are at 10 months with on bill except meter fee $8.29. and we still have 2,829 kwh credit to heat with the next two months.
We get zeroed out March 1 so our solar year runs March 1 to March 1.

I feel blessed with the sun providing us fuel for our home and car.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1420066368

Congratulations on all that energy production - that is great stuff!

Thanks how did your brothers system do?

December 2014: 422kWh

It's 2015, time to design the 4.6kW array for 45.8°N, and see what we can collect there.

His produced 7.3MWh in the first year of production. His is slightly less than it otherwise would be because of the ~210W micro inverters. The panels are 240W, so they cannot work higher than the 210W. But they will last longer, so that is okay in the end.

10 months without a power bill and we still have 2813kwh credit. So far this month we have uses 712kwh of that but that ok because it will get zeroed out on March 1.
We are on track for our first netzero year.
This year it is covering natural gas bill we are using Mini Splits to heat with now.
Car Gas about 17k EV miles.
And house power.
(Our hot water is natural gas nothing else. Backup heat is natural gas.)

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1421339180

Mark,
We had an abysmal month last month (about 4 days of sun) but we're so far ahead that it doesn't matter. Still way ahead on our net zero too.
Rob

Rob
That is great on the netzero. This month has been really cloudy so far.

This is our first year after upgrading solar and moving to Mini splits for AC and Heat. So I am excited.

They might pay us this year at Zero out wholesale rate but that would be better than just zeroing us out.

We have chickens for eggs and this coming year a want to grow more food that we can maybe preserve for the winter.

I little more independent each year is the goal.

That's how we did it, a little every year. Hopefully this summer I'll get the wind and microhydro in. Maybe a new greenhouse too, I'd like to get something I can grow all year in. There's a guy in Maine that does it with hoop houses.

We're seeing sun now but the other night it was 14 below. Stopped the tower clock I'm working on in the village square. During WWII all the German machinery froze up in the Russian winter. I think that's what happened, I machined the tolerances of new bearings too tight and every time the temp drops below zero the clock stops!

One step closer to Netzero. It looks like this year they are going to pay us wholesale price for extra power at the zero out date. This will help pay for the meter fee.

11 months so far with 0 usage from power company. We get zero out in March. We are still carrying forward 1807 kwh.

It is all coming together it is hard to wait a year to see if I upgraded to the right amount of solar.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1423345213

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1423345213

Mark,
Very impressive!

I'm still several hundred ahead on my electric bill but the last two or three months have been the worst since the initial system went in but I'm making a profit every year that keeps adding up. The difference is I don't get zeroed out which I think is really wrong for your supplier to do.

In 2020, when my payback goes from 10.7 cents a KWH to what the power company pays for electricity my grant becomes my own and my modules become mine. I'm already working on ways to profit from my system. Heck, I'll plug in a P3, throw a power cord over the fence, and sell power to my neighbors at a lower rate then the power company! Another option is to start a company that makes products that are energy dependent. Run it at the end of your term before you get zeroed out and use all the power so you're zeroing nothing. Maybe something like an EV charging station that charges cars for half the grid cost. As electrics keep growing that might not be a pipe dream.

I don't know exactly what I'm going to do but I'm not giving my power away for nothing even if I have to use it to distill water and sell it for 10 cents a jug. It's 10 cents you lose if you don't utilize it and someone paying for power to distill water won't be able to beat your price.

Rob

I am thinking baking products to sell could turn the unused energy into dollars and cents.

maybe organic cookies and bread and gluten free treats and bread. It is expensive to buy gluten free and organic baked goods. although you would need to find someone willing to participate / cook and sell.

Using a kiln to consume the energy could pay off as well. Molds can be bought or made once you have them you could be printing money.

I also like the idea of setting up a charge station , anything to turn the energy into money makes sense.

Good idea!
Energy is money, whether you're saving from it or profiting from it.

Maybe we have to start seeing the energy we're creating in a different light because, again, I'll be darned if my provider thinks I'm going to dump my energy because they want to leverage the sunlight for their profits alone.

Rob

Back to making some better solar numbers. Today we made 70.3 KWH a very good solar day in FEB.
I am ready for spring!
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1423783659

Our house is funny today. We zero out on March first and we have 1800kwh extra power on the books.
We have used 644 kwh of that so far this month so we still have 1156 extra. Yesterday today we have been doing all laundry we possibility can. We washed and dried everything we can think of. We are on to all the blankets now.

This is the first year they will pay use wholesale rate for the extra power on the books at zero out time.
But that is about ½ the price so we are using so of it on a ½ off sale right now.

Your neighbors should be so lucky. 1156kWh would be roughly 29% of the total energy I bought from the electric company last year!

We did NetZero. March 1 is our Zero out date.
Actually we ended up with 1097 kwh left over. But next year we will use that up with our passive solar greenhouse.
My sweet wife made me a cake for the netzero occasion.
It has our solar install our Chevy Volt and a Mini Split.
I love it!
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1425421321

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1426102319

.

Congratulations... :thumbup:


>

Wow, thats awesome, congrats!

Now, I believe you also used some gas right? Does your 1000kWh cover your gas usage?

Thanks.

We are now only using natural gas for heating water. We use about 9-14 units a month @ 1.26 a unit.
I did not include that because we are covering our car most of our cars gas with solar power.
That far out weights the amount of natural gas we are using.

We made enough power to cover a heat pump hot water. I like having the backup natural heat and we have how water at our barn I don't think a HP tank would keep up with that. We only use hot water at the barn in the winter and not very often.

Chart from the power company 12 months 0 usage.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1426102319

Congratulations on getting to Net Zero!

I've got 12,000kwh to go myself and with an estimated surplus of about 1,500kwh yearly, I figure I'll be there in half a decade. Unless I add another person to the house, add an electric car, or supplement/replace methane heating with a mini-split heatpump (albeit far less cooling kwh though). Hard decision for me to make because I'd love to bake myself a cool cake like that but an electric car might be my go-to prior to breaking even and a better use of my sky juice versus pumping it back to the grid. I've got 221kwh surplus over the past 30 days so I feel I've got a good start. ..if only I had more space so I could have more from the front half of the garage roof than 220sq ft to go larger than 3.36kw.

We were zeroed out March first. So March has to stand on its own.
We had a cloudy March but we still made 1,438 KWH.

We have an extra person living with us right now so we are using more power than normal.

We ended up using 110 KWH more than we made. Still not bad we pay .10 KWH $11.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1427864063


How did your solar do this month?

Wow! That's fantastic!

We had a horrible winter here for power, seems like every time the sun came out my panels were covered with snow. Even with that we are still ahead several hundred dollars coming into April.

We're going to test drive a Volt and a Leaf tomorrow. We're thinking about leasing as the Leaf is really low now.

Chevy is coming out with a totally new Volt this year (later this summer?) that goes 50 miles before the engine kicks in. They're changing the drive train so the motor can charge the batteries, drive the car or both which ever is more energy efficient. Actually I like the Volt technology more but I'll see which one I like driving more.

Rob

Rob

God luck on the test drives. The one thing I don’t like about the leaf is the air cooled batteries but you are not in a hot climate and leasing really kills that worry.

I would love to hear your reviews after the test drives. We drive to far so we could not even consider the leaf. The Volt can be your only car where the leaf is better as your second car. That attractive lease rate is hard to pass up when leasing.

Exciting times we are living in that you have two good choices. I can’t wait until there is even more good choices out there. Both cars have very high owner satisfaction ratings.

It looks like they did a really good job on the new Volt. they really listen to the current owners and made most changes they asked for.

Yes it saddens me to see my 1099 KWH zeroed out. I still don’t know if they will pay us whole sale for it this year.

I did run my welder a lot last month I am sure that helped in using up some power. I welded up two pounds welding wire.

@Rob
Did you do your EV test drive?

How was everyone else solar production for March?
Post your numbers.

I test drove the Leaf. I liked the drive train a lot - smooth and responsive. However, the short wheel base bothered us, it made the ride 'choppy' but remember we're coming off a relatively heavy Subaru Outback with a very good ride.
The materials felt cheap to us and something we didn't expect in a $32k car. Also I just don't like the styling of Nissan cars. I was talking to my friend and he said it's most likely because of the French influence - Citroen was never a very attractive car to me.

The car was fully charged when we started out, drove about 5 or 6 miles but the mileage range indicator went from 116 to 99. Nissan advertises the car at 84, if you sit in the car and turn the heater on it drops from 116 to 84 with a fully charged battery. The thing is that the Leaf isn't the only full electric on the block anymore and its range is not the best. With the new Volt coming out having a 50 mile range before the gas kicks in seems to be a much better option to us. I'll drive the 2015 Volt first to get a perspective but the new 2016 Volt is supposed to be vastly improved... we'll see. One of the things I like about the 2015 Volt is that the engine only runs the electric. The new Volt the engine will drive the electric or the the wheels which ever is more economical according to GM. I'm concerned they may be getting too complex and at a gain of 12 miles range it may not be worth it. I looked at the styling and the new Volt looks pretty darn good though!

So we left the Leaf a little disappointed, we wanted to like it but couldn't completely. We'll update you on the Volt if we get a chance to drive it next week or maybe the Prius if we drive it first but at a range of 13 miles before the gas kicks in isn't making us run the dealer for a test drive.

The roof PV was covered in snow most of March and all of February, thank goodness for the pole modules they got us through the winter and still way ahead on the bill.

Next up windmills and water wheels!
Rob

We feel the same way about the leaf looks. It is very lacking in that department.

The new and old volt only uses electric until the battery is depleted. Then both will switch back in forth between gas generator and electric. The new one has the transmission integrated so it can also do a hybrid mode or gas /elect.
Another way they got more EV miles was they let the batteries discharge some more before they switch to gas generator. They found the Volt batteries where holding up really well and they could safely let the batteries discharge more. The new Volt does not require premium gas and it gets better MPG on gas only operation.

The new volt motor can go into an atkinson cycle like the Prius.
The plugin Prius does not qualify for the full $7,500 tax fed tax credit. 13 miles just does not seem worth it.



Even if you lease this will come into play because the leasing CO. gets the rebate and that helps drive down the lease payment.

Our 2013 Volt we are at 35,225 solar powered EV miles with a total miles 43,222.
we have driven 7,997 total gas miles so far with only one oil change.

We still charge 2 or more times day on the weekdays.

The Leaf has much more room than the Volt, especially in the backseat. We drive both a Leaf and an e-Golf. Solar panels are yet to come ...