Solar power usage

[Chrisc]

Hi all
I’m new to solar panel and have only recently had some panels fitted .
I was lead to believe that what I produce during the day I would use and save from my electricity suppler.
the reality to that is what ever I produce disappears and my electric company still charges me for a full day of use .
Am I missing some thing ?
The app I have says I’m making 15kw a day
and my smart Meter is say you have used 7 kw today
thanks for any help or advice on this
regards
Chris

[Mike 134]

You'll always have a "base meter charge" from your utility that you can't get around. You said your meter shows your using 7KW a day with your solar install working. What was your usage before installing solar?

[Chrisc]

Before the install our usage was 7kw

[azdave]

My initial thoughts are that the meters or account properties were not set up correctly to give you proper credit for the PV generation. Have you called your POCO to see if all is ready? My POCO took about 2 weeks to get the account working properly after the PTO was issued.

[bcroe]

The app I have says I’m making 15kw a day
and my smart Meter is say you have used 7 kw today Chris

That makes no sense, do you mean KWHours? Bruce Roe

[Chrisc]

Sorry yes kWh very new to this the install has only been in a few months

[AmitBajpayee]

Solar power usage is on the rise worldwide, and for a good reason. Not only does it have a low environmental impact due to its reliance on renewable energy sources, but it's also affordable compared to other forms of electricity. Several benefits come with using solar power, including reducing your CO2 emissions, preserving resources (like water), and helping reduce your reliance on fossil fuels. Not only that but installing a rooftop or small-scale system can be relatively easy – even if you don't have any experience in repairs or construction!

[SunEagle]

Solar power usage is on the rise worldwide, and for a good reason. Not only does it have a low environmental impact due to its reliance on renewable energy sources, but it's also affordable compared to other forms of electricity. Several benefits come with using solar power, including reducing your CO2 emissions, preserving resources (like water), and helping reduce your reliance on fossil fuels. Not only that but installing a rooftop or small-scale system can be relatively easy – even if you don't have any experience in repairs or construction!

The sad part is that without fossil fuels just about everything you use that has plastic in it contains oil. Also unless you live where the cost of electricity is more than 25 cents per kWh solar is not and will never be cheaper then what the POCO charges me.

[foggysail]

Solar power usage is on the rise worldwide, and for a good reason. Not only does it have a low environmental impact due to its reliance on renewable energy sources, but it's also affordable compared to other forms of electricity. Several benefits come with using solar power, including reducing your CO2 emissions, preserving resources (like water), and helping reduce your reliance on fossil fuels. Not only that but installing a rooftop or small-scale system can be relatively easy – even if you don't have any experience in repairs or construction!

IMHO----The ONLY reason to capture solar energy, self included here, is the soaring cost of electricity. The environmental movement demands zero carbon be sent to the atmosphere. Unfortunately they have not yet convinced China, India, Pakistan and African countries to further subject their people to poverty by restricting carbon fuel usage. I could go on but enough is enough.

I am waiting for my recent installation of 28 Canadian 400W panels along with the same number of Enphase IQ8A inverters to be activated.

[Mike 134]

Solar power usage is on the rise worldwide, and for a good reason. Not only does it have a low environmental impact due to its reliance on renewable energy sources, but it's also affordable compared to other forms of electricity. Several benefits come with using solar power, including reducing your CO2 emissions, preserving resources (like water), and helping reduce your reliance on fossil fuels. Not only that but installing a rooftop or small-scale system can be relatively easy – even if you don't have any experience in repairs or construction!

You may want to research how the minerals needed to produce a solar panel are mined. How much CO2 is generated to get those minerals. Not a very green process to make a green solar panel.

[SunEagle]

You may want to research how the minerals needed to produce a solar panel are mined. How much CO2 is generated to get those minerals. Not a very green process to make a green solar panel.

Don't forget the cost of CO2 when making batteries.

[J.P.M.]

Solar power usage is on the rise worldwide, and for a good reason. Not only does it have a low environmental impact due to its reliance on renewable energy sources, but it's also affordable compared to other forms of electricity. Several benefits come with using solar power, including reducing your CO2 emissions, preserving resources (like water), and helping reduce your reliance on fossil fuels. Not only that but installing a rooftop or small-scale system can be relatively easy – even if you don't have any experience in repairs or construction!

Congratulations, you drank the greenwash kool-aid. Alternate energy in its modern iteration is an idea whose time has been here for maybe 50 years or so, but don't B.S. yourself or others into thinking it's the savior of the planet. It's now a mainstream part of the energy mix, but it's not free and it's not environmentally benign.

Part of what it needs now to mature is to get away from gov. subsidies and compete in a market free of hucksters, conmen and semi technical/semi educated people who can't make a living in any real energy business. Been on both sides, seen too much of it.

[azdave]

Once again, forum member AmitBajpayee has jumped into an old thread with some generic solar commentary that has no bearing on the original topic or even a related sub-topic that came up in the thread after the original post. Does no one else find this odd?

I really wonder if this membership is a bot that is test posting or maybe someone in India practicing their written English communicating skills.

[J.P.M.]

Once again, forum member AmitBajpayee has jumped into an old thread with some generic solar commentary that has no bearing on the original topic or even a related sub-topic that came up in the thread after the original post. Does no one else find this odd?

I really wonder if this membership is a bot that is test posting or maybe someone in India practicing their written English communicating skills.

a Google search leads me to believe he's an insincere, or at least an uninformed and misled treehugger of the variety described by the second paragraph of my prior post. An author of a few fluff articles - I'd hardly call them scholarly papers - who claims employment with an outfit called Agni Solar.

IMO only, another example of a common source of damage done to the solar ignorant and alternate energy, and of the type of conman who gloms on to something that only hides the reality and the truth.

Such claptrap is also convenient for use by those with a woody for alternate energy as (claimed) common examples of ubiquitous types of uselessness found in solar energy which claims - also IMO only - have a fair amount of truth in them.

Still, we must suffer fools.

[Bob Moffit]

Hi ChrisC, in response to your question about production vs. credit...
Each utility can be different - but most of them have some sort of metering/credit system in place. I'll explain mine, based in Ohio US, with AEP Energy. Our solar system is grid-connected. So any energy not used immediately by the home is transferred back to the grid. A meter, installed/updated by AEP, is required to monitor this. It tracks power coming in from the grid and going out to the grid. If you didn't contact your local power company and get confirmation of the two way meter reading, you want to do this ASAP. (Actually, when we ran in test mode for a day prior to the 2 way meter being set up, anything that we sent to the grid COST us money - meaning, the meter only recognized power was flowing through it - not which direction - so it charged us the standard 0.15 per KWh.)

Lets assume that your two way meter is in place. For AEP, they monitor the usage on a billing monthly basis (usually running mid-month to mid-month, not a calendar month of 1st to 30th). They track all the energy that is sent to them and subtract all the energy they send to you. At the end of their billing month, if we have sent more to them and have a net positive balance, they credit us about 5 cents per KWh. If they sent more to us than we generated, that difference is billed at about 15 cents per KWh.

In your example, if you are generating 15 KWh per day but your typical use is 7 KWh per day, you should have an 8 KWh per day credit. If you were on a program similar to ours with AEP, this would mean 30 days x 8 KWh x $0.05 / KWh = $12 monthly credit towards your bill.

There are often examples on-line for your local power company and their method for offsetting solar energy feedback to the grid. What is your location/power company?