When we moved into our house a year ago, we were really excited at the thought that, with the solar array (free with purchase!), we'd be generating most of our electricity and selling back whatever we didn't use (net metering). Now we actually look forward to the electric bill. No, really! It includes a bar chart so we can track our usage, cheer when the month's bar is short, boo and turn off more lights when it's up.
Based on our true-up statement, I'd say we've done pretty well. Actually, gloatingly well.
The way the net metering program works is that we select a payment rate at which we both buy and sell electricity. So whatever we generate and don't use, we sell to PG&E for, let's say, 10 cents per kilowatt hour. In the winter months, we buy whatever extra electricity we need at the same rate. The fun part is that, with all of this buying and selling, we actually only pay a monthly pass-though rate of $4.70. The rest is settled up at the end of the year (July, in our case), less the $4.70 per month already paid. If we owe, we send a check. If somehow we manage to have a credit, it rolls over to the next year.
Now, when we bought the house, we already knew that we totally lucked out. The general thinking is that it takes about 15 years to recoup the costs of installing a solar system (pretty cheap if it actually includes Pluto) But because our house came with a good system already installed, we immediately began to realize the savings.
Now we get to the gloating: The last couple of months at our old house, we were running the air conditioner non-stop because 1) we were selling the house and, 2) we were in the middle of a heat wave. So our electricity bills were running around $200 a month. Which would explain why I was so immensely pleased to open the true-up statement today to find that, for the entire year, our electric bill is only $173.88.
Hopefully, it won't be long before solar becomes more affordable and a viable option for more people. In the meantime, I think I'll use some of the savings to do a little economy-propping shoe shopping.
1 comment:
I think that is so great. I really wish 1) installing solar were easier here and that 2) it would be cost efficient to do so. I hear about communities pulling together and getting deals, but after doing the research it's just not anywhere near cost efficient for us! So we live floor by floor in the dark with ceiling fans on in the summer. This house is much better than the last, but still.... I dream of every rooftop in SV being solar panelled. Wouldn't it be great?
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