Solar electric bill reading made easy for solar panels homeowner
Congratulations! Ongoing solar not only you are going to save on your average electric bills through solar panels each month, but you will also be generating your own clean and renewable electricity right at your home. Although you would be using the same electricity to power up your home, you would be billed differently. Instead of receiving a regular utility bill, you will receive a solar electric bill.
Understanding a solar electric bill can be important for your everyday life. It could help you understand your energy consumption. Whereas, the solar electric bill could vary from company to company. On solar electric bills, you could see three types of charges. One is a customer charge, which is a charge that utility grids charge you for simply being the customer of that station, it includes all the taxes that you owe to the federal or state government. The second is a delivery charge, which is the charge that grid power charges for the maintenance of systems that are used to deliver the power to your home, and the third is a supply charge, which is the actual cost of electricity which is consumed by your home.
How to read the solar electric bill?
On the first page, you would see the delivery charges. These are non-energy-related charges. You need to pay these non-energy-related charges each time you receive your bill. This charge is related to the maintenance cost of providing and delivering electricity to your home. This amount usually fluctuates with the season. Which is higher in summer and lower in winter. Because of the power consumption by users, in summer, is quite high as compared to the winter. The amount which you don’t pay is the charges related to your energy. Which is known as a supply charge. Because your energy production is being taken care of by your solar panels.
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Important Points To Remember
- Understanding a solar electric bill can be important for your everyday life. It could help you understand your energy consumption.
- On solar electric bills, you could see three types of charges: customer, delivery, and supply charge
- Solar panels would definitely help you reduce your electric bill through net metering.
- Bill credits help you maintain a streamlined electricity flow to your home.
- Electric bills after solar panel installation are billed annually.
- You could use the negative units on your solar electric bill to gain bill credits as well as solar renewable solar credits.
- The main disadvantage of solar energy is that it is intermittent and could cause overheating of your house.
What’s in this Article?
- Do solar panels save you money?
- What is the deal with the solar electric bill?
- How much do solar panels save on electricity?
- What is net metering you may ask?
- How to determine net difference units in the solar electric bill?
- Are there any disadvantages of solar energy?
- How many solar panels are required to power a home?
Do solar panels really save you money?
Absolutely, the average electric bill with solar panels is quite low. Your electricity bill after solar panel installation would take a sharp dive and in some cases, your solar electric bill would be showing you negative units. This means that the electricity produced by your solar power exceeds your electricity consumption. You could use the negative units on your solar electric bill to gain bill credits as well as solar renewable solar credits. In this way, solar panels would not only help you to reduce your electric bill but also assist you to earn money. At the end of the year if your bill credits remained unused then you could ask the grid power companies for a refund on those bill credits.
What is the deal with the solar electric bill?
The solar electric bill charges you annually because energy credits over the twelve-month billing period can offset energy costs. Your year-to-date charge would depend on whether your solar system has developed enough electricity to cover your electricity consumption or not. At the end of the year, you get a true-up value which shows whether you owe the utility grid or they owe you. If your system is based on your previous year’s consumption period and your habits remained the same then your year-to-date billing amount would be close to zero. However, if your usage increases over time, such as by using the air conditioner at the lowest setting or charging EVs, your solar system may not produce enough power to meet your needs. You ended up owing the electric company for the power that is consumed above and beyond what the system was built for
Typically, customers built up credits with the utilities in the winter and the spring when the solar systems are generating more power and usage is less. These credits are then used up in summer and fall when consumption is more than solar production.
How much do solar panels save on electricity?
The solar electric bill can save a lot of money in this inflated economy. Generating something on your own, organically, is always economical and eco-friendly. An electric bill after solar panels would help you cover up that supply/demand charges. And it would eventually help you to build up tax credits as well through net metering.
What is net metering you may ask?
Net metering is the billing mechanism for grid-connected homes or commercial rooftop installations. This mechanism allows you to redirect the extra units generated by your solar panels. But how will we know how much energy is being produced and consumed by our solar panels and what part of it is being sent toward the utility grids? Simple through net-meter. A net meter, also known as a bi-directional meter, measures the difference in energy production and consumption, and the resulting bill is called a net metering bill.
What are the net difference units in the solar electric bill?
There could be three different possibilities with the net difference unit:
- Positive difference: where the energy consumption exceeds energy production and you will be charged with the difference in units.
- Zero difference: when your consumption is equal to your solar energy unit production.
- A negative difference: when solar energy production is greater than the unit of electricity consumed.
Solar panels would help you reduce your electric bills by generating negative difference units. You can use these units in the fall season, or if not, you can request a refund from your supplier company
What are the two main disadvantages of solar energy?
There can be many advantages of solar energy. It can be cheap, clean, renewable, and eco-friendly. Moreover, the average electric bill with solar panels would also show you negative difference units. But, the advantages of solar energy also come at a price. It made us question that, are the solar panels really worth it? some of the hurdles that you might face while dealing with solar panels could be as follow:
Intermittent nature of solar energy:
Solar energy is sporadic in nature. Sun shines only in the daytime, meaning the source of power generation for solar panels would not be available twenty- four seven. Due to this problem, we might have to rely on solar batteries or grid power stations for stable power supply to our home. Which to be honest can be a little hectic over time.
The jacking up of internal home temperature:
When using rooftop solar panels, it might get stuffy inside the house. However, solar panels are worth that reduce electric bills. And with the solar electric bill, you might be entitled to subsidies and bill credits. But this reduced solar electric bill after solar panel installation comes with a scorching living environment. This internal overheating of the house is because of the working mechanism of solar panels. Meanwhile, Solar panels work by absorbing solar radiation coming from the sun and converting them into electricity by using P-N junctions. Solar panels absorb the sun’s rays, which can also penetrate through your rooftop and make the inside of your home hotter than the outside.
How many solar panels are required to power a home?
In order to find out how many solar panels your home requires in order to reduce the average electric bill with the solar panel you need to know about certain things:
- Energy consumption by your home electronic appliance in kilowatt-hours.
- The annual Electric bill before solar panel installation:
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that an average American household consumes approximately 11,000 kWh of electricity per year. But you need to know about your own household power consumption. Which could be known from your monthly electric bill.
- Solar panel voltage:
The voltage generated by the solar panel can be an important determinant to reduce electric bills through a solar panel. Furthermore, each solar panel generates a voltage of electricity, usually ranging from about 250 to 400 watts
Number of panels= system size/production ratio/panel voltage
