Meter running backwards

After 18 months of promoting solar energy, I finally got my own solar power system installed. The first full day of it running produced 11.1kWh. My mind jumped ahead: “11.1kWh in a day multiplied by 365 is 4,051.5kWh. We are with Origin, so we receive 50c per kWh that goes back into the grid. That means, if we achieved a 100% feed-in rate, we’d receive $2,025.75 per year!

How quickly can I get more panels on my roof?”

Then I looked at my meter. And as so many of our clients had told me, it was really running backwards:

Assumptions are Exciting but Wrong

Of course, the calculation is not correct. Firstly, this first day was a beautiful cloudless day, not too hot, so the solar power system would have produced close to capacity. On cloudy days it is going to be significantly less. In winter with shorter days it is also going to be less. It might be a little more as the days get longer, but extrapolating from one day is just not realistic.

The next wrong assumption is that we can feed 100% of the produced power back into the grid. For Queensland with its net feed-in tariff that will not happen. When we have out new meter from Energex, I’ll update you on what is realistic for us.

The other thing is that we have a 2kW system, so it is larger than the 1.08kWh or 1.6kW that most people have. However, our roof is East facing, rather than the ideal North. We had to go for that as it is the roof with the least shade (it hits about 2.30pm in the afternoon, but by then, the angle of the sun is not producing much power anymore anyway).

It is so worth it!

We also have one of the Climate Smart home meters. From that I know that our average daily consumption is 5.5kWh – less than half of that during the day. So we should be able to export two thirds back into the grid. That would still be over $1,000. Plus the savings of our own electricity.

We got the old $8,000 Federal Solar Rebate, so our return would be close to 20%. This would be one of the best returns on any investments we’ve made. Without this rebate, it should still be over 10% return, better than any bank offers.

What the actual financial outcome will be, I won’t know until in a year. But the joy and excitement of having our own power produced on site, clean and green that is great. And it has really renewed my excitement about what we are offering.

Related Topics

• Considering the cost of running a home when buying or selling
  From January 2010, anyone selling a home in Queensland must provide the buyer with a sustainability declaration, which specifies the sustainability features incorporated in the dwelling. The two page document...
  
  

Tags: power meter, solar power

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 8:43 pm and is filed under solar power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.