Rosher.Net

So wet and windy January transformed magically into wet and windy February… Fence panels were replaced, other panels fell down… the vibration coming from the solar panels during high winds haven’t gone away and the installer is at least answering emails. Eyes down for the anorak report. Honestly, you’d think the sort of bloke who goes into this much detail would be the sort to spreadsheet his fuel economy too, wouldn’t you… sigh.

Scores on the doors for February then…
the panels generated 147 kWh, twice that of January…

Given our pre-solar average daily consumption of (6300/365) = 17 kWh one would expect February’s import to be at least 483 kWh

As it stands then, Imported kWh + Solar kWh = 532 kWh. ( We probably use more in the winter months as the central heating pump runs at 50W about 8 hours a day, the (low wattage) lights are on longer, and most importantly the tumble dryer is used rather than line drying).

As for the cash figures…
Solar Generation Feed in Tariff: 147 kWh x £0.149 = £21.90
Solar Export Payment: 147 kWh/2 x £0.0465 = £3.42
And the assumed reduction in electrical consumption by 147 kWh
(minus the 39kWh we apparently exported) which otherwise would have been charged at 108 x £0.1245 = £13.45
Total for February = £38.77

We’re still waiting for the first cheque. In fact, apart from the acknowledgement back on 19th December that the utility (SSE) had received my valid application for FiT Payments it’s been awfully quiet. However, they did say the process could take 12 – 14 weeks!!! I guess a lot of folk are fitting solar roofs.

In other news, the Solarimmersion mk III arrived the other day and is now installed awaiting commissioning in tomorrow’s sunshine – assuming there is some. I guess I should have been recording gas usage too from the start, since this is hopefully going to save on gas import by heating, or at least pre-heating, the hot water tank. To clarify for new readers, this unit diverts the excess electricity generation that I might not be using into the heater element of my hot water tank rather than export it to the local grid. It’s a bit grey, ethically, since I’m being paid for half of what I generate whether I use none of it or all of it, so it makes sense to use all of it. That’s the system though, and it would be a waste not to take advantage of it – a bit like driving a hybrid… basically the same fuel economy (lower emissions) as a modern diesel but with a massive tax advantage.

So, recent gas usage. Back in November I noted that my annual usage was 15,000 kWh per annum. Since then I’ve used 680 units, which converts to about 7,500 kWh in 140 days, or 53 kWh per day. The previous 15MWh equates to a daily average of 41 kWh. We’ve had the central heating on a lot! It’s mostly off again now, so the consumption should return to about, say, 40 kWh per day and mostly for hot water. In the last 24 hours, which included a bit of heat last night, we used 5 units (55kWh). If we can reduce that by much it will be ‘a good thing’.