I'm very excited to share this Solar Update. I installed last July, and this is the first month we've gotten "Free Power". While of course it's not really free since I'm still paying for the Solar Panels and other equipment, I can't begin to describe how nice is was to finally receive a credit from the Power Company instead of paying them.
Yes, you read it right. DO NOT PAY. Woohoo!
Not only do I not pay for the Month of March, I get credited $38.78 towards next months bill, and also get credited with another 278 kWh to apply to next month's (April) bill. Woot!
We did turn on the AC the last few days of March for some hot days, but still love this balance which clearly shows we produced more than we used in March.
March 2025 - Produced 1.7 MWh and used 1.3 MWh
February 2025 - Produced 1.1 MWh and used 1.3 MWh
January 2025 - Produced 1.0 MWh and used 3.2 MWh
December 2024 - Produced .883 MWh and used 1.7 MWh
November 2024 - Produced 1.1 MWh and used 1.8 MWh
October 2024 - Produced 1.3 MWh and used 2.0 MWh
September 2024 - Produced 1.2 MWh and used 2.7 MWh
August 2024 - Produced 1.6 MWh and used 3.1 MWh
2024 Totals (6 months starting mid-July) - Produced 7.1 MWh and used 13.2 MWh so Solar Produced about half of what we used those months.
2025 Q1 Totals (Jan-March) - Produced 4.1 MWh and used 6.2 MWh
The good news/bad news is that one of our A/C units is on the fritz again. We had to have work done on it last year, and now again this year after 3 attempts to fix with parts this year, the compressor is also bad. So after half the house being without A/C for 5 days now, it looks like we are waiting for quote to replace our A/C unit.
Here in the U.S. new A/C units must be built to have a new type of freon. This will have a silver lining and slightly good news in that the new unit will be much more efficient than the old unit and hopefully result in lower electric usage. Maybe even enough to bridge that small remaining Solar production gap in the hot months.
Reporting Bugs.
I found that the "Energy Independence" ratings are not what most people would expect.
While I personally would calculate Energy Independence by measuring the Net amount of (produced plus exported) minus (consumed minus Exported), but this is not how they calculate it. When I raised a help ticket with Enphase support, they simply responded with
"Energy Independence does not include energy exported and should not be mistaken with Net Metering (or Net Energy), which is the difference betweeen imported and exported energy." (source Enphase.com)
In my eyes this is a bogus answer with bogus numbers being produced. It would be nice if they could at least provide the Net Energy numbers since I know that I am not the only one that has raised this issue with them. I suppose at some point I may build a spreadsheet and track the real Net numbers myself, but shame on them for the inaccurate and inconsistent reporting.
Wait, free power and a credit from the electric company 👀, that’s awesome man. Your solar setup is really paying off. March must’ve been a great month with all that extra energy
Yes, was a good month for sure. Now if I could just get 10 more like it! I think my system really needs another 8-12 panels to keep up every month. Maybe later in the year if no more unexpected expenses pop up.
i hope you get all of it ✌️💯💪
That's great. We don't have a/c so our power usage does not go up when it gets hotter. We just have to suffer, but then it doesn't generally get that hot here. I'm hoping to have a good few months in credit this year as the export rate has gone up since last summer. I think most places can benefit from solar and the costs keep coming down. We just need power companies who play fair.
!BEER
Definitely agree on keeping the power companies honest and fair. They did a pretty good job at that here in Florida with full buyback rates up to a certain limit.
Definitely going to be getting hotter here, up into the 90's (F) (35C) next week here.
It may get to 20C next weekend and has been fairly cold at night. I've had most of my life with no a/c in cars or work, but both are more standard now.
Today we exported 32kWh, but used slightly more as the car got charged up. We still made a profit with the way the rates work.
That is pretty awesome! I'd love my power bill to say "do not pay" on it one day. Have you added those extra panels yet or are you still waiting for that to be done? If you accomplished this with just your base setup, I can't wait to see how well you do with more panels.
My first one ever. I feel like framing it, lol.
We are still on the base setup of 32 panels. I had planned on adding another 8-12 which I think would be perfect sweet spot between covering my needs and maxing out the buyback limits.
That will be on hold until we get the A/C fixed, but hopefully still within this year so that we can again claim the 30% tax rebate on them early next year.
That is very cool. I hope you can get the A/C sorted out. I know how much of a pain those can be. I have a system at work that keeps dying on me.
Day 6 already, and it seems the company that can provide the quotes on new system doesn't work weekends, so will be at least tomorrow to determine direction and final cost then likely another few days for install.
I'm not very patient when it comes to mechanical stuff being broken, so definitely an exercise for me to chill out. Hopefully have settled next week.
I totally understand! Even if they did work on the weekend they would probably charge you an arm and a leg!
that's great to be in credit! an excellent step to control bills
It's definitely a celebration for me to put the thumb to my nose at the electric company at least one month a year!
That's great you have free energy now