I recently got my November electric bill, but set it off to the side until I had the chance to open it on camera. Since installing solar, my electric bill has often been NEGATIVE, but with the bad weather and short days, what would it be this month!?
After opening the bill, I saw that my usage was 538kWh of energy. That’s how much I used EVEN INCLUDING what I produced from the solar! Basically, we used lots of electricity this month and produced very little. I think the main factor was just how cloudy November can be in my area. Some days, the sky is just an opaque white, where you can’t even see where the sun is.
My cost for the 538kWh came to $64.38. Fortunately, I had already racked up credits all summer with the power company, and they still owed me $80.25.
Even though I had to “pay” this month, all of that came from existing credit. They STILL owe me $15.87. Of course, that won’t be enough to pay for the December electric bill. Looks like I won’t make it through the year without owing a little something.
Even then, my solar has saved me about $1,000 this year, and is still on track for a total of about a 6.5 year simple economic return on investment. Of course there are other reasons to invest in solar than the ROI, but it’s good to know that it IS SAVING ME MONEY!
Until next time, stay charged up!
-Ben Nelson