I just got my electric bill for this past month. Let’s open it up and see what it comes to!
August was relatively cool, so we didn’t use the air-conditioning much. That’s important, as what I PAY for electricity is simply the difference between how much I make with the solar and how much I use in the house.
Keeping out energy use low means we can earn a CREDIT with the power company. On opening the bill this month, we earned a $5.96 credit. That brings our total credits for the summer to $37.57.
We did have our meter fee go up recently by five dollars. I guess we can’t complain too much, as our meter fee with our local public power company is STILL less than it would be with the large for-profit power company we would otherwise have!
Our net EXPORT (overproduction) back out to our neighbors this month was 160 kWh. Last year, we overproduced 212 kWh. I think it was sunnier this same month last year.
We’ve had the solar now for just over two years. In that time, we’ve produced over 16 MEGA-WATT-HOURS of energy. At 13 cents per kWh, that’s over $2,000 worth of electricity. We paid about $6,500 for the entire system (after taxes and incentives.)
Overall, I’m very pleased with our solar.
If you are interested in solar, give a call to a professional solar installer in your area. If you’d like to install your own, it can certainly save you money and might not be as hard as you think. Start with this video of what I did to install solar at my place! Or watch the entire video playlist of what it took to build this garage! https://bit.ly/2KgQpS5
Until next time, stay charged up!
-Ben Nelson
On and off-peak production and use 
Production report of dates covered with this bill 
Over 16 MWH produced so far
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice credit on the bill. In one of your videos you mentioned you might sell some extra batteries – if so email me info, I’m in IL
thanks
I don’t have any batteries available, but you can get them from Muller Industries.
https://www.mullerindustriesusa.com