It hasn't been quite a year yet since I had solar panels installed on my home from Sungevity. I have had quite a few people however ask if I've noticed a difference, and at first I had to tell them I didn't notice much, though my bill has been on the leaner side, but we also had a warm winter, so it was hard to tell. But then as the sun got higher and the warm weather moved in my wife and I got to use less of the furnace (which uses gas) and open up the house and turn on the AC a bit. So the last bills I paid were very good, and I will go in to some details on how good they looked. I don't expect every month to look like this, but if even a few do every year then I will be one happy camper for my decision to lease the solar panels.
Lets start with February.
Last year, in 2011, average temperatures were 30.5F. My energy consumption that month was 380 KWh. Not too bad, not the biggest part of my bill as I had to be heating the house then. This year, in February, the average temperature was 31.6F, so a little bit warmer. My energy usage, that is, what I paid for, was 257KWh. So a nice little drop and the bill that month was better for me than last year. Last year in February the cost of the energy we used was $43.80. This year it was $31.59.
Now, lets look at March.
Last year the average temperature in March was 42.2F and we used 406KWh of electricity. The cost for that was $46.27. Not a huge jump from the previous month. This year, however, we averaged a temperature of 43.8F, not a significant jump, but if you experienced the swing you'd know that windows were opened one day and the furnace was working overtime the next, it was a crazy month. But it was also very sunny. We used a total of 65KWh, and no, there is no typo, that is a 2 digit number. That cost me $13.47. Now that to me was something to celebrate, that's a wonderfully low bill. But that month wasn't yet my greatest joy...
Then there was April, I must say I really enjoyed this one.
Last year April was 48.4F on average and we used 369KWh which cost us $44.10. This year it was 53F on average and we used...
0, ZERO, NONE, NO KWh!!!!
Actually, that isn't even true, according to the bill we generated 3KWh more than what we used for the month. Our meter "spun" backwards (it's digital, it doesn't spin anymore). It cost us $7.35. Go figure, still got fees when you don't use any.
May, this is the bill I just got today!
Last year the average temperature was 48.6F, we used 378KWh and that cost us $45.73. This year the average temperature was 59.5F but we only used 94KWh which cost us only $16.89.
In four months that was a savings of $110.60 over the previous year during the same months and it is hotter this year (which would mean more cooling). You will notice I didn't talk about gas as that is my heating cost and is not offset by the solar panels. Out of curiosity I crunched the numbers of all our energy spending since August of last year (which was when we had our first full month of solar) and it shows a savings over last year of $234.25.
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