Solar update - first full bill

A few weeks ago we received out first bill where we'd had solar on the roof for the entire period. We were $170 in credit, which is nice!

For the stats geeks out there:

• from our 3kw system we exported 823 kWh of energy over the 94 day billing period - almost 9 per day. We got paid 60c per kWh for these. 
• In that same period we generated 1922 kWh - or an average of 13 per day.
• Average daytime consumption is 4kWh - although this obviously varies. 
• Our average daily buy-in from the grid was 7.6 kWh of premium (ie peak energy), and 6 kWh of super saver energy (hot water only, and not many baths were had in Oct-Jan, so you see why we need to get a new hot water service at some point!!)
• We're on a green power tariff, so some of our savings went on that extra cost, otherwise our bill would have been over 200 in credit.
• The minimum power produced by our panels since they were installed is 2kWh, and the maximum has been 16.
• By using the solar power during the day (av 4 kWh) we've saved $64, plus the power that the panels have generated has more than paid for the bill, with some credit to store over for winter, when there will be less sunshine.
• With savings and power generation payments, we've "paid off" about 5% of our outlay in this 3 month period.

All in all a good start!

How about you - do you have panels? How are they performing?

Quick solar update

On average over the last 2 weeks we've been exporting 10kWh per day - max of 15 and min of 2. In total we've produced 133 kWh in that time, and exported 112 of them. Since the meter has been installed and we've been on the new tariff (2 weeks) we estimate that we're cost neutral one electricity - including the standing charges for just having a power supply. Of course, we have to buy in power at night and for the old hot water service (off peak), but that is a lot cheaper (17c/10c).

We're pretty happy with the results we're getting so far (although of course there's the very large hit of installing the system in the first place) - and the novelty of daily meter readings hasn't worn off yet!!

In other news Freddie has made it his personal mission to flatten out the topsoil on the ex-front garden bed :-)

Got my bread making mojo back

Hurrah! A loaf of sourdough I'm happy with! I pretty much followed the no knead bread recipe featured in the NY Times a few years ago, but added the starter (my new one) in the first step. It has a fantastic flavour, and the chewy crust we like. The only issue is that it was, I think, still a bit 'damp' so next time I'll reduce the water. It was a bit of a gamble as I didn't know how much water to remove to compensate for the water content of the starter.

In other good news, while we were away our new bidirectional meter was installed (only took a week - what's the story SPAusnet? :-)  ), and on wednesday the electricity company confirmed they'd received our tariff acceptance, so our solar is installed, running and making us money. From signing the order and paying the deposit to now it's been less than 2 months. We'll be eligible for the 60c feed-in tariff until 2024. Gotta be happy with that! In the past week we've fed in around 58kWh. Stay tuned - I'm sure there will be a chart or 2 coming up once I have a few months of meter readings :-)

We also took delivery of an important part of our "let the grass win" veg garden and orchard strategy - a Fiskar's momentum reel mower. Funky looking eh? It's still a bit wet (we've had over 70mm rain in the past 3 days) to give it a really good test, but we had a play with it today and I think it will be great. I really like the fact that the wheels are behind so there's no missed bits of mowing under the wheels, and it gets really close to the edges of things, It's light to push, quiet, and - even better - it throws the clippings forward so it kinda mulches the clippings as it goes and doesn't give you grassy feet. Will certainly be quieter, more fun and more environmentally friendly to use than the strimmer / whipper snipper. But no, we're not planning to mow the "home farm" acre+ with it ... although we probably could, but the ride-on is more fun for Jerry.

 Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Solar update

Well, it was definitely worth getting the installers back to lift the panels to the tight angle - it's meant an extra 2kw per day -we're now averaging 15 rather than 12 (across days with the same weather - clear sunny skies). Very happy with this result and can't wait to see what they generate in summer.

Today I also got into the greenhouse (it was lovely and warm!) to plant my tomato, pepper (capsicum) and chilli seeds - they are now on the heat mat in the house for germination. I also pricked out and re-potted the cabbage seedlings (bekana, green acre and cuor varieties).

It's nice to think that this year's growing season is under way - even though it's just in the greenhouse.

Not quite so ta-da

I now know the reason for the panels to hardly stand out at all on the roof - they were installed "flat" on the roof - giving them an elevation of about 12 degrees - they should be at 26 degrees for optimum grid-connect performance across the year given our latitude (36 south) (see here for more details). So the installers will be back on Friday to fix this. I could have a nice rant about how it shouldn't be up to us to find out the panels were not at the optimal angle, and that this surely was the most important part of the whole process....but I'm going to take a deep breath and let it go. OK so maybe a deep breath and a glass or 2 of wine and THEN let it go  :-)

However, in spite of the less than optimal angle, today, on their first full day, our system produced 12 kwh. Given the installer estimated 10 for this time of year I'm quite chuffed by that!

Ta-da!

They are hardly noticeable on the roof from the front of the house, but I'm loving watching the meter spin backwards.  The great thing is that because we have an old dial style meter, they were able to plug the panels in straight away and we're already feeding power into the grid, and reducing what we will have to pay next bill.

Today in the 4 hours since installation they have generated over 6 kw, and our meter has rolled back about 4kw. Loving it!

Watch this space