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We just got our first electricity bill with the grid connected solar in place $26.22

Nev

You don't say for how long a period of time that is for but it sounds bloody good anyway!

wow! How long is that for? a month, a quarter or a year? I really want to get solar hooked up, our monthly bill has just gone up to £90!!! Of course we should look at reducing our energy consumption further but as my DH couldn't live without the biggest TV known to man, it's difficult, it uses so much energy it actually heats the front room quite nicely in the winter, oh well, cuts down on the gas usage I guess!

Mint! that's fantastic!

Lucky bugger!!!!

I'm still trying to work out how we can get wind power installed here, without falling foul of all the planning permission and such rubbish

That's for a quarter! It includes contribution by the fridge becoming 12 volt too. The last bill was a composite because they wouldn't step over some brush and twigs to read the meter and was over $300 so I am pretty pleased!

Nev

Well done you jammy b*gger! We could do with some of that here! No matter how economical we try to be the bill seems to be going up - they've just put the monthly payment to £71

thats fantastic!! although I'm guessing that the fact you get way more sun down your neck of the woods will help that sum! I'm still thinking that it would be worth getting a loan to pay for some solar paneling and use the amount that we would save on electricity to pay off the loan, just a bit scary in case we get a shocking summer again & it doesn't save us enough /

Green Aura wrote: Lucky bugger!!!!

I'm still trying to work out how we can get wind power installed here, without falling foul of all the planning permission and such rubbish

Install first, let people/planners ask questions later. You can always apply for retrospective planning afterwards if someone compains and if it's up for more than 4 years without anyone from planning knowing it can stay for good. Plus local authoritys are supposed to be pushing renewables so it's unlikley you'll be turned down on retrospective unless you're putting a turbine on big ben or buckingham palace. Plus, if you're mounting your turbine on a tower, you should be anyway, you can argue that its' a temporary structure, also anything under 4 meters you don't need to apply for either.

Wombat wrote:That's for a quarter! It includes contribution by the fridge becoming 12 volt too. The last bill was a composite because they wouldn't step over some brush and twigs to read the meter and was over $300 so I am pretty pleased!

Nev

It seems that the electrical appliance using DC power will better fit for the solar power system. I'm not sure if all our appliances can change to DC power supply.

nice one mate

Not bad, not bad. I think I'm staying below £10 this month. OK, I've been away for a week of that...

Thanks guys!

The next bill will be a winter one and we have been using the heater a bit, and there has been less sun to generate power. It will be interesting to see how it all comes toghether.

I had to get a couple of extra solar panels to run the fridge, but now with the extra generating capacity i want to look at a 12volt freezer as well. Unfortunately the one i want is $2000.

Nev

ouch

Oh yeah! It is a good one though Russ!

Nev