We've had zero bills before, but they came in months when we'd overpaid a bill because of reasons. So to see this -- even if the credit is less than a dollar -- is nice.
So looking at the production for the past month (March, for the slow, like me), it looks like this:
I could make some wild guesses here, but that would be uneducated. All I can really figure is that we sent back to the grid slightly more electricity than we used from the grid, with the magic number for the past billing cycle being somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 watt hours.
That gives me hope that we can eventually get this figured out so we're producing lots more than we're consuming. To do that:
- We've continued replacing incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs and fixtures with LEDs.
- We installed additional vents in the attic above the house, which has greatly reduced the temperature difference between the upper floor and main floor, hopefully resulting in less use of the air conditioner.
- This summer we're going to change how we use the air conditioner entirely, so we're using it less and hopefully building up a good reserve of credits with the power company to make up for the solar we can't produce in the winter.
I'm optimistic things will go better this year over last, as we figure out what works and what doesn't, and as we get a good spring of production. April last year wasn't good because we installed the panels late in the month, and May was off because of an incorrect installation and because we had to have the panels removed for a week to replace the shingles on the roof.
What's even better is that thanks to the IRS and Turbotax, I was able to get the federal residential solar power credit done on our taxes for 2018, meaning we hit the target balance with our loan company so our payments don't go up. And we're that much closer to having the loan paid off. So good news all around, so far.
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