Author Topic: Zero dollar electricity bill  (Read 4167 times)

msilenus

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 524
Zero dollar electricity bill
« on: June 24, 2013, 02:06:01 AM »
We bought a house with a solar installation, which has been keeping our electric bills low, but we never hit zero before.  Last month I did an energy audit of our place, and we just got our first zero dollar energy bill.

That's mostly a symbolic milestone, since we were pretty close in the summer anyway, but I also figure we cut about 3.5 kWh/day, which is a decent chunk of our total grid usage for the last year.  I think that some heating/AC adjustments should get us to net neutral.

These are great, by the way:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035GAXA8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i04?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have one on a receiver that draws 22 watts when off, but I didn't want to have to plug/unplug it all the time.  That little guy keeps it off when I'm asleep and at work, and should pay for itself in about a year.  (I have another one power-cycling the DSL modem once a week at 4 AM, which did wonders for my internet connections' stability.)

nktokyo

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 370
Re: Zero dollar electricity bill
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2013, 02:40:38 AM »
Awesome!

BZB

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 409
  • Location: Houston, Texas
Re: Zero dollar electricity bill
« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2013, 11:08:54 AM »
very cool! One day I would love to have solar power in my house!

George_PA

  • Guest
Re: Zero dollar electricity bill
« Reply #3 on: June 24, 2013, 09:24:46 PM »
very cool, just curious as to how large an area these solar panels take up at your house?

Since we are talking about a completely replacement of all energy use for the whole house, I imagine half a football field full of solar panels in your yard in CA or Nevada needed to generated this much power.


happy

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 9293
  • Location: NSW Australia
Re: Zero dollar electricity bill
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2013, 10:41:08 PM »
Good grief half a footie field of solar panels! The answer is:  depends how much power you use,  and what sort of house/roof you have, but you can usually fit them on your roof.

msilenus

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 524
Re: Zero dollar electricity bill
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2013, 01:24:11 AM »
The footprint is pretty small.  We have something like ten panels on the roof of our townhome.  It could probably fit twenty.  We do live in CA, and our roof is flat and unshaded, which is pretty much ideal.  They generate about 12 kWh/day, averaged out over the year.

Rooftop solar is amazing.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2013, 01:26:15 AM by msilenus »