My electric bill was $27 last month!!! (221 kwh)

[sid]

how much did it cost to do that sid?

How much did it cost to do what? The solar photovoltaic installation cost less than $26,000. 30% I get back from the feds as a tax credit. I'm in line to get another $8000 back from the state of Florida, if they ever get more funding for their solar incentive program. More about my system can be found here.

My system includes battery backup, which accounts for about $8000 of that cost. We have hurricanes here, so I figure this is better in the long run than a backup generator.

How much did it cost to get my electric bill so low before adding solar power? I don't know. Like getting good gas mileage, the majority comes from educating the operator and good habits.

[sid]

how much did it cost to do that sid?

How much did what cost?

The solar installation cost less than $26,000. Details may be found here.

How much did it cost to get my electric bill so low? I don't know. Like getting good automobile fuel economy, most of it is due to educating the operator and good habits.

[sid]

That's interesting. This site locked up on my computer on my attempts to send both of the above posts. I didn't think either got sent. So I gave up.

[Angelus359]

Was the solar panel set worth it?

[Dave's Civic Duty]

The cost is what kept me from doing the same thing. Here in Ohio, not the kind of Sun you get in Fl., so solar & wind might make it better for me. I got a quote for 30K, so if I live for another 25 years I wouldn't get that back in savings. I can't wait for the price of this technology to be more affordable.

So what was used to make the bill cost $27?

Dave

[endurance]

We're settling into a home built between 1920 and 1954 in several phases. When we moved in it was a thin-skinned heat loss nightmare, but despite a lot of work, we still have a long way to go. So far we replaced the electric baseboards with a 91% efficient boiler and tankless hot water heater with a mixture of hot water baseboards and kick heaters (blower through radiator coils). We've replaced the worst door and window, but still have about a dozen single-pane windows to replace and one more door. We had 1.5" of vermiculite and 5-6" of very compacted fiberglass in the attic, but had R60 fiberglass blown in. Now we're building an insulated wall in the garage to separate the car portion from storage and hold more heat under the house, where it's currently leaking out the ancient garage doors. Someday we'll replace the garage doors with insulated ones, but at $1,200 a piece, the wall, at just $450 was a much better way to seal off the are under the house (most of the space over the garage/basement is deck, only a small portion is under the house).

It's a labor of love as we watch the transition. Last month was $69 combined, gas and electric and I expect the colder months will work the bills into the $150 range until we can replace the windows and insulate the walls in one room (all are insulated but one room that was either the first or last piece built). I suspect we'll get it to about $100 a month with those steps, but at a annual high of 250kwh, I think doing solar would be reasonably cheap. Also, we're considering adding a wood stove, which would all but eliminate our need for heat. We'll see; the last six months have been a mix of planned improvements and putting out spot fires. Fortunately with the new boiler and tankless system, the biggest expenses are behind us, but with these older places, you just never know what's next.

[WisJim]

We installed our first PV panels around 1982 or so, when the dollar was worth a lot more and PVs were a lot more expensive, so that the effective cost was a LOT higher than it is now. And the utility charged 3 cents a kw-hr back then, too. They still work fine, should continue for decades, and have paid for themselves in the value of energy produced. If you wait until they are as cheap as they are going to get, you will wait forever, and then discover that you missed the opportunity. The way prices are going now, and rebates etc are dropping, it is a good time to get started today.

[sid]

Was the solar panel set worth it?

In what sense?

I feel it was worth doing. It makes my comfort less dependent upon the government, power company, the weather, terrorists, etc.

Will I ever get my money back in my lifetime? At today's costs, probably not. But it is virtually guaranteed that electricity costs will go up in the future.

Also, the cheapest solution is not always the best. It would be cheapest to dump our household sewage into the local stream or the street gutter. But past experience has shown us that these seemingly cheap solutions usually lead to major problems later. Many of us just choose to ignore the problems being caused by our cheap solutions to obtaining energy and just hope the nasty consequences won't occur in our lifetimes or pretend that nature will somehow clean it up. Nature could clean it up when there were less than 50 million of us. With over 7 billion and counting, things are getting pretty iffy.

I also feel the grid is going to be less reliable in the future. 30 years ago, there was typically about 18 to 20 % margin between electricity demand and supply, both generation and transmission. Now, most areas of the US have less than 10% margin, with some areas, like California, having much less than 5% margin, particularly in transmission. We are becoming more and more vulnerable to upsets in the system, from weather, breakdowns, whatever.

[nemo]

Originally Posted by sid

My highest electric bill ever was less than $45 (I'm 54 years old). My average electric bill the previous three years was about $18 a month, with $8.03 plus tax of that being a fixed monthly hookup charge. Rates are about $0.125/kWh in my area. So I was averaging about 90 kWh a month, or 1100 kWh a year.

January this year I finished having my house converted to run on solar photovoltaic power. To date, I'm generating over three times as much electricity as I'm using and selling the surplus back to the power company. More info on this system may be found at Stone Marmot goes solar.

My house is about 1100 sq-ft, of which 900 sq-ft is heated and cooled. I have over 30 years worth of mods, too many to list, to get the electric use this low. But some include:

Extensive effort in insulating
Ground water referenced (geothermal) heat pump
Solar attic fan
Awnings or roll down shutters on all windows (partly for hurricane protection)
Compact fluorescent lights
Extensive effort in eliminating phantom loads
Careful appliance choice (not just Energy Star, but the lowest energy use on the market)

Some other articles on the above website discuss some of these things.

And I'm still making mods (presently fixing some weak spots in the insulation and sealing my ductwork).

I live in south Florida
My house is painted white and I have a very light color roof.
Attic Iinsulation.
Also several large shade trees on the southern exposure.
Upgraded my AC, (died after 15 years) that took another chunk out of my FPL bill. But less is better.
So I've been looking at solar attic fans. Is yours quiet? Is it temperature controlled? Is your roof mount or gable mounted? Any thing in particular to look for? Thanks

[sid]

Mine is a roof mount, since I have a hip roof with no gables. There is no temperature control, though I have modified mine with a remote on/off switch which I can control from inside the house so I can turn it off in the winter. You can't hear it operate unless you are within about six feet of it either on the roof or up in the attic. It definitely can't be heard inside the house.

This is my second solar powered attic fan and the solar panel included with both was a little on the weak side (both 10 W). I added a bigger panel with my previous fan and it ran much faster with much more airflow. I'll probably eventually do that with this fan, also. They are usually designed to handle as much as 36 Vdc.

I removed my first when I had my cement tile roof replaced (after 44 years). I still have my first fan and will probably add it to my roof this coming spring.