Getting The Most From Your Solar PV Investment

You want to save the planet right?  So you buy a solar PV system and install it on your roof.  But how do you get it to pay itself back quickly and still receive the lowest electricity bill possible? 

Glad you all asked because I received this email today from a reader who asked exactly that.  She wanted to know why her power bills were still very high when she received a feed-in tariff, and followed the recommendations of her Solar installer.  Over to Pam.

Hi Gavin,

 

Quickly caught your segment on ABC Local Radion yesterday, and felt you may be able to help answer a couple of solar/grid questions that have perplexed me of late.

 

We are in a rural area in northern NSW, with three electric pumps to deliver water from tanks and for us in swimming pool, plus fridge, freezer and usual domestic appliances including electric oven and gas cooktop.Country Energy is our grid supplier.  Our annual electricity bill hovered around $2000 per year. 

 

Our household consists of three people, plus a fair amount of hosing etc is done outside as we have quite a few domestic animals.  (While we do also have livestock we use a petrol pump to draw water from a creek, which is then gravity fed to their water trough.)

 

We installed a 1kw solar photovoltaic system, grid connected, in September 2009 (2 ks inverter).  Following installation, and advice that daylight power usage will be through the solar panels, we changed our methods so that all washing, ironing, vacuuming and other household activites would be done during daytime while nightime use is restricted to electric oven and water consumption, plus the frige/freezer burbling away at night.  Hubby switched the running of the swimming pool pump to daytime only.  Naturally I turn off standby lights as much possible in the evening, very Gavin-like!  Lower energy light bulbs are used, however I do find that the resultant loss of brightness is irksome, especially in winter. 

 

Due to a mix-up with electricity bills for the first six months it was difficult to ascertain actual grid cost-savings, although summer did appear to be slightly less than usual.  I understand our solar panels generate 9 kWh per day, while our bills suggest our consumption is 21 kWh per day.   (Although their graph states 24.9 kWh)  Very disappointingly, our recent bill, for three quite wet months, was $630.  (Credit for Solar Bonus Scheme Net was $13.20)

 

I have thought of utilising some water containers besides the sink and hand basins to avoid pump usage at night (family not too keen on idea, however). 

 

We have been quoted around $4000 to increase our system to 1.5 kw

 

So, if you Would be so kind, I hope you can answer some of my questions:

 

a) Is is true that (on sunny days) all power usage should be from the panels?

 

b) Can our fridge and freezer really then use all of the remaining 12 kwh overnight, whilst we sleep?   Wouldn’t this be off-peak, if that term still exists?

 

Other than building gravity fed tanks, at great expense, I can’t think of any other ways to save energy, without greater minds than mine stepping in! 

 

Cheers,

Pam

Q2  Yes, the fridge and freezer could use that much electricity, as my old pair used to draw 10kWh per day.  Also if they are old models they tend to be heavy power users, with newer models being at least 4 times as efficient.  My new fridge (2 years old) only uses 2 kWh a day and it is a large model split fridge freezer.  Maybe check if the seals are in good condition, because a lot of energy can be wasted via leaky seals.  If you have a co-gen meter or smart meter installed by your energy wholesaler, then it is more than likely that you will be paying the same tariff from the grid all day long.

I hope that answered you questions, and has helped all those people who own or are thinking of installing a grid tied Solar PV system.

May the Sun shine on your panels for eternity!