Solar ?

2014
Your total use: 3,857kWh / approx. cost $572.06

ETA: The biggest user is the electric dryer been thinking of a clothesline. But never seem to get around to it.

 

Curious, how do the solar panels hold up to hail storms? Is the top layer glass or some type of composite?

Looks like it'll work out good for you. Saving a few bucks is always a plus.

Smokey - I figured with all your computers, wireless doodads and DLNA streaming apparatus that you'd have an electric bill that would make people cringe. And here I've been happy with my highest electric bill this summer being $109.

 

I have a bud that I spoke to at the AdirondackNationals and he said the same thing. He and his wife lead a much different life now that we do. It seems the further north you go or perhaps the more rural you go the cheaper electric gets. I guess I'm livin in the fast lane. !!

Doggy

 

Nope most of my doodads are low power devices, router handles the DNLA and one of its radio is on a schedule and the other is off. I'm thinking about swaping it and the cable modem out for a combined unit which should cut the power usage in half over what I have now. My computer auto throttles when the need for compute power drops, my printer spends most of its time either off or in deep sleep mode. The 47" smart tv uses very little juice and its screen can be shut off when I'm playing music.

 

Maine isn't noted for cheap power rates.

 

I replaced the motors on mine with lower power consumption ones.

 

Your Use Last Month 367 kWh
Similar Households 870 kWh

 

They are some kind of composite and there is an aluminum frame around them so they can be put together on the stands. I asked how strong they were and the lead tech told one of the installers to show me how strong they were. He stepped up on one. Slight bending and no breaking. Pretty impressive.

 

Impact resistance is different than what is needed with some weight is placed on the material. Keep us in the loop on how it performs.

 

Micro or edge inverters?

 

hmm not sure its a Frontius Primo 10 k watt. I wouldn't call it a micro. Its got wi fi and works with a transmitter / router to give Solar City and me data.

 

It is a whole system unit. The micro ones are per panel, then there a group of panels ones sometimes called edge. The micro units allow the array to function through certain kinds of faults including shading issues at a minimally reduced output. The edge ones handle a small number of panels are between the micro and whole system units. Another advantage of the micro units is it is easy to add to the array. I don't know what your average sun hours per day are, the often quoted figure for my location is 3.5 hours. So to cover last year's usage I'd need a 3KW array or 12 of those panels. I've looked at this backwards and forwards and a twenty year simple payout doesn't work for us, if I was going to be around until about 95 it would have already been done. The tech needs maintenance, the panels degrade over time, and failure rates of the parts is not zero, did you get the tax credit or does the company you had do the work own the equipment until end of term? That is another thing I try to run a zero income tax scenario this is known as don't empower the idiots in those funny places called legislatures.

 

My average elect. bill from Central Hudson when I was at the previous house w/ the pellet stove was approx. $140/2 months. Dryer was propane. Stove was Jenn-Air electric.

 

Hopefully that means a spot in front of the pellet stove......such cozy heat!!

 

My electric bill is $160 a month or so, and last winter they jacked the rates for the winter and it was over $200.

 

Just checked my bill. My daily usage is 32.1 kWh for a daily cost of $5.78