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Solar energy

Solar Power Report: March 2025

March has been a good month for solar. We had a lot of sun and the days are getting longer. It is actually a while since it really rained here and we could do with some on the garden, but things are pretty green around here. I checked in our solar cabinet and it all looks okay in there. I did find a small, empty wasp nest on the floor, but they do no harm.

Inverter and battery

The solar setup has been working well apart from a breaker tripping one morning. I still have an open ticket for the supplier for them to investigate further.

Last month we had a total of 228kWh of solar and we tripled that. Very little is going to the battery as I charge that up each night on cheap rate and the sun is up earlier now. I earn best if I export as much power as possible and that was up x4 compared to February. Last month there would be days when we did not export anything, but we did much better in March.

Solar gain

Our spending on electricity went from from £71 to $59. I can see we used some peak rate and I suspect that is sometimes when the car is being charged as we do not generally draw power at 'day rate' times.

Power spend

We went from £22 to £78 income from exporting. We spent about that much on gas for heating and cooking, so it cancels that out at least. Even without the panels we would be saving money as the battery means we use mostly cheaper power.

Export

As we go into summer we should make even more and the gas usage will drop as it warms up. I am hoping to build up some credit to keep us going through winter without increasing our monthly payments.

Shine on!

Comments · 14

  • @commentrewarder(75)· 549d

    @steevc, I paid out 1.507 HIVE and 0.000 HBD to reward 16 comments in this discussion thread.

  • @albertocova(65)· 549d

    Energía solar una ventana al futuro ..

  • @solominer(82)· 550d

    That is a really clean setup

  • @hafiz34(70)· 551d

    This solar power system seems quite interesting and economical. Oman is a hot and temperate country but we don't see such system here; we see solar panels every rarely!

    Thanks for the report!

    !ALIVE

  • @neblomax(58)· 551d

    The power of the brightest star is immeasurable. untitled.gif

  • @oadissin(78)· 551d

    You have a cool installation ready for all the sun available in summer. It is good to have a second source of electricity in the house. Thanks

  • @thehivetuber(62)· 552d

    I'd say the panels are doing their jobs well. Tripling the power from last month is awesome. Night power for the battery, smart... Summer will be even better

  • @godfish(78)· 552d

    I would't expect March in Britain that good for solar plants :)

  • @epodcaster(67)· 552d

    The gamification and potential earning power of your setup is intriguing. We have plenty of sun most of the year so having a solar setup also makes sense.

    We live out in the countryside and out here being as self-sufficient as possible is definitely top of mind for many. I saw a post about someone in a surrounding area who has an 11,000 gallon rainwater catchment system that means he never has to worry about his well running dry. He uses solar panels to power the water pumps that move the rainwater from the containment area to the house.

  • @anderssinho(69)· 552d

    Must be fun tracking this when you have a solar setup. Have several collegues at work who happily talked about their setup and that they start to see some power generation now in March :)

    I am still in the thinking phase, not sure if its worth extending my house loan yet. Next step is to get an offer

  • @molometer(72)· 552d

    Hi Steve, thanks for sharing this information. It puts the case for solar beyond doubt. I recall there were plans to ensure that all new buildings were to have solar power? I wonder what happened to that ides?

  • @ozd(67)· 552d

    This is one thing I am praying and hoping I will have the means to buy one day

  • @videoaddiction(72)· 552d

    I think every house will need it in the near future due to the increasing electric bill.

  • @bozz(83)· 552d

    Hopefully you get a lot of production this summer and things go well. I hope that I can have a nice solar system one day.