Solar Panels

solar2013

In May 2013 we installed 12 Solar Panels on the roof; 6 north facing, 6 east facing. Because we have lots of trees providing shade which affects the ability of solar panels to generate power we went with Micro Inverters, so for every 2 panels there is a separate inverter converting the sunshine into amps. I had a look at our last power bill and the effect of the solar is clearly visible - while the off peak consumption is almost unchanged from a year ago (because let's face it - not much sun happening between 11:30pm and 6am), the peak consumption is halved, which not only reduces the need for more greenhouse emissions from power plants, but also saved us over $250. On top of that we also got a credit of $260 for solar contributions we made (where we produced more electricity via Solar than we actually needed). Total savings of over $500 for a quarter. Even assuming that in Winter the solar output is quite a bit less, it should only take about 4 years to get the investment in the solar equipment back. I'm not an expert and I don't pretend that there isn't environmental costs involved in producing these panels, but they would have to be pretty high not to make this a worthwhile exercise both environmentally and economically for lots more people.