Saturday, March 06, 2010

My roof goes photo-voltaic

If you follow me on Facebook, you already know this, but this past fall I added the first of 15 photo voltaic panels to my roof. Another 15 coming in the next few months.

The system was "sized" to produce about 14-15KWH per day, but I'm usually producing between 14 and 18KWH per day. And that is in the winter time!

My daily electric usage averaged around 40-45KWH per day. The pool pump is the biggest offender (at around 10KWH per day), but I'm putting in a more efficient pool pump this month.

The system has been operational for the last 3 months and I'm VERY pleased at this point. Here is my the average daily usage for my last bill. I'm down to about 20KWH per day that I have to "buy" from the electric company.

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8 Comments:

At 3:57 PM, Blogger Jonathan Merrill said...

Do you have to clean the solar panels? I've been hesitant to take the solar plunge because getting up on our roof is.... not easy.

 
At 7:22 PM, Blogger Jim McBee said...

Thus far, I just washed them off once with the hose. They are actually REALLY sturdy, though. The installers actually sat on them and walked around them (on the edges).

 
At 6:16 AM, Blogger mkline said...

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At 6:17 AM, Blogger mkline said...

Very cool, how long until the savings from your electric bill equal or surpass the cost of the solar panels.

Thanks

Mike

 
At 8:13 AM, Blogger Jim McBee said...

At the current cost of oil, around 7 years. That is, of course, after including the tax rebates in the equation. State of Hawaii offers a 35% tax credit and the federal government has a 30% tax credit.

It is a better feeling to know that I'm not contributing as much to the purchase demand for foreign oil. This is more for socio-political reasons than environmental reasons, though.

 
At 5:52 AM, Blogger Damian Flynn said...

WOW; quite interesting

Do you have any specifics on the technologies you have used; this is very interesting, and in the West Coast of Ireland a technology that is not discussed at all.

 
At 3:47 AM, Blogger - Matt said...

I'm interested to know where you purchased the panels and how you decided on the unit you purchased.

 
At 9:32 PM, Blogger A+F said...

It would be great to have some kind of numbers. and yeah, how did you come up with this brand of solar panels?

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