Solar power at home

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How does it work?

The solar array on the roof spits out power at about 300V DC. The inverter converts that to good old 240V AC. Some of this power can be used directly in the house. We call it self-used. The good news is that it doesn’t not go through the Meter, so I don’t pay for it.

My Inverter delivers up up to 5000 watts, so there is excess power most of the time. This Excess Power goes through the Meter (as Exported Power), so I get paid (a little bit) for it.

At night, or if there is a big cloud, I don’t get enough (or any) solar power, so I need to import it (grrr!) and pay a lot for it. This Imported Power needs to go through the Meter.


Grid connected system without batteries:


How much does it cost?

These days you can get the equivalent of what I have (6.6kW of solar panels feeding a 5kW inverter) for about $3400. Most salespersons would tell you that around Casino, the yield of a system is about 4.1 times its rated output. My system yields 22.6kWh a day (not far off…) according to the app that gets the inverter data. 1.8kWh is self-used and 20.8 kWh gets exported. Over a month I save about $60. So If I bought it today it would pay for itself over 3400/60=56.6 months, or 4.7 years. The days of negative bills are well over, but this is still a good investment.


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