 After months of producing more energy than we used, last month's bill arrived and we had to pay the electric company this month... The chart above compares our total power production, total power use as well as the amounts used by our cars, HVAC system and major appliances (except for the clothes washer).
December was a terrible month for production. It was very cloudy, and we lost a couple days due to snow. The January data is through the end of yesterday, the 17th. Our solar production is much better this month, as long as the rest of the month is average, we should have more solar generation. Our power use is very close to last month, just a little bit more. If we have average temps the rest of the month I am hoping we will come in less than 10% over December. Our solar inverter issues continue. Our calculations now show about an 8% loss due to these resets during peak hours. Our installers are working with both the inverter manufacturer and our power company (Xcel). Currently we are all eagerly awaiting a response from the engineers at Xcel. Paperwork is continuing on the various certifications, but they are looking good. As soon as those are official I will post a blog about it. I have also been working on revamping the web site and blogs. It has been very interesting reliving the experiences of the last couple of years. I have also started a FaceBook page. If you haven't, please stop by and visit (and feel free to 'like' it :)). |