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Saving Twice with Solar

10/10/11 - Having gone over the 2 mega watt generation with my new Solar Installation I found another source of saving money with the system.

As you may expect when a new system gets installed, there is a lot of monitoring of the results. We have a Wattmetrics (http://wattmetrics.com) internet device and account setup that is always running on the home computer. Every morning we are collecting the readings on the Net Meter as well as the production meter inside the house.

While all this monitoring has provided a wealth of knowledge of the savings basically by the hour, we have noticed an equally beneficial side effect.

Everyone in the house wants to see the Net Meter have a lower number than the day before! The household has taken this almost to an extreme!

Never before in our house did you hear, “Turn off that light”; “Who left the TV on”; and once even there was a comment to cook outside on the grill rather than use the electric oven. (I'm not sure this would save me any money but it's the thought that counts.)

My best guess is that we are saving many a kilowatt just in lower demand, which of course makes my year over year savings even better than expected.

The lesson I want to pass on is: Get everyone involved! … use the opportunity to modify your home life and you’ll see benefits far above those provided you when your system was spec’d.

10/23/2011 - Many people are un-aware that there are two ways you can payoff your solar project. The first is obvious. The sun interacts with your solar panels and the electricity you generate is free for your use. When the utility company installs a Net Meter you actually sell the un-used power back to the utility, so your bill is only the difference between what you used and what you generated.

The second place you save is by getting paid for your capital investment. Of course there are tax breaks and grants but I’m talking about SRECs. These Solar Renewable Energy Credits are a way that builders of solar systems can recoup the money they invested into their system. Each Megawatt is traded by owners of systems like you and I, to utility companies. You see our state government has set goals for a certain percentage of electricity to be generated via solar. Companies do their investing via these credits and we get paid. Each SREC (1 mega watt) is worth hundreds of dollars paid quarterly. The nice part is that these are measured directly after your inverter has converted the DC current to AC but before your panel (and before you’ve used any electricity)