Happy, happy, happy with my first electric bill!!!!

My electric bills for the past year with solar panels

I thought this might interest anyone thinking about adding solar to a geo set up. We added extra panels in May bringing our 6K solar grid up to 9K. We have Sunpower 225 panels which I have been told will generate over 10K when operating on a sunny day.

Our house is 2400sq ft, very leaky air-wise as it's an antique, and our historic use of power for lights, dryer, TV, computer, etc. used to run about $136 a month before we added geothermal and solar. It looks like heating this house with geothermal, off set by the 6K system, cost me around $1409 for six months last winter - between Oct. 22 and April 21st. (electric bills of $2225.53 less $816 for six months of non-heat related usage). It will be interesting to see what effect the extra 3K of solar will have on our bills this coming winter.

Considering that our lovely local power company charges one of the highest rates in the nation, this is not bad. I put the details of the biggest bill at the bottom for anyone interested in the breakdown as I have seen people ask for electric bills sometimes, to compare with their own. I can not explain the $18 bill any more than one we got last year for 19 cents.

We keep the house at 72º summer and winter, although on nice spring and fall days we might turn the geo system off to open windows and allow fresh air inside. Our heating bills with oil used to run between $4500 and $5700 a winter, so this is quite a nice difference.

08/22/2011 10/05/2011 44 10/05/2011 $49.53
08/03/2011 08/22/2011 19 08/22/2011 $54.43
05/25/2011 08/03/2011 70 08/03/2011 $18.04
04/21/2011 05/25/2011 34 05/25/2011 $60.08
03/25/2011 04/21/2011 27 04/21/2011 $296.38
02/23/2011 03/25/2011 30 03/25/2011 $362.62
01/27/2011 02/23/2011 27 02/23/2011 $324.95
12/20/2010 01/27/2011 38 01/27/2011 $613.22
11/22/2010 12/20/2010 28 12/20/2010 $361.71
10/22/2010 11/22/2010 31 11/22/2010 $266.65
09/24/2010 10/22/2010 28 10/22/2010 $82.61
08/23/2010 09/24/2010 32 09/24/2010 $72.38

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DELIVERY&SYSTEMCHARGES

01/24/2011 ACTUALreading 08685 BasicService: 38day(s)@$.1790 $6.80
12/17/2010 ACTUAL reading - 04978 317KWH@$.0857 27.17
190KWH@$.0787 14.95
KWHUsedin38day(s) 3707
3200KWH@$.0515 164.80
AppliedtoEnergy CreditBank 0 Subtotal 213.72
Billed KWH 3,707
POWERSUPPLYCHARGES
3707KWH@$.087247 323.42
ENERGYCREDITBANK
OpeningBalance 0
Efficiency&RenewablesCharge
AppliedfromCurrentBill 0
3707KWH@$.005423 20.11
EnergyCreditBalance 0
KWHUSAGE OTHERCHARGES
NYStateAssessment 6.79
3707 3094
Revenue-Based PILOTS 10.62
averagetemp.
SuffolkPropertyTaxAdjustment 11.69
thisyear
last year SalesTax@2.5% 14.66
ACT EST
Subtotal 43.76
thisyear last year
TotalCharges $601.01

 

I wanted to report that our last electric bill was $11.68. That was for our wonderful geothermal system supplemented by 9K in solar panels, and all of our other electric usage, including the dryer.

I highly recommend Steven Fink as an experienced geothermal installer for anyone on Long Island.

www.safink.com/

www.americanwellandpump.com/

American Well & Pump, who I found on this website, put in my closed loop system. They work all over New York City as well as on Long Island.

 

If you are like me and want to get the lowest possible total cost of ownership out of your home then I recommend that everyone get their homes and buildings as tightly insulated and weatherized as possible and then upgrade their hvac to the best geothermal system they can.

Spray foam insulation claims to reduce heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer by up to 70%, similarly geothermal units claim to cut your cost of heating and cooling and hot water by about the same 50-70%. So this is great.

I had a $4200 per year propane and electric bill. I cut it 50-70% with Spray foam insulation and then I cut that again with Geothermal unit. My expected utility due to heat, air and hot water are $1.50 per day in a 1700 sqft house with 12' cathedral room.

When my savings and wallet recover the investment in foam and geo I will likely take the next step towards zero energy home and install solar power.

It is important to consider if you are going to do both Geo and Foam as you should consider doing the foam first so that you can install the correctly downsized Geo unit, which could be cheaper as the smaller closed loop requirement of the smaller units.

In my case the unit went from 3 tons to 2 tons requiring less water or loop and less trenching or well digging. Trenching and well digging are the largest cost of the installation.

 

We just had a new house built. It's almost 4000 square feet and we just got our first electric bill. The heating portion of our bill was $30 which covered from November 13-December 13. I'm amazed at how cheap the geothermal is to run.

 

Thanks for posting Jamie

 

Where are you located Jamie?

 

@sunnyflies - We are planning upgraded HVAC for our new vacation home after sticker shock with oil cost this winter (north fork Long Island). Geothermal plus solar panels look promising. Who did your solar panels? Any recommendations for energy audit?

 

Congratulations on going to geothermal. It's a great decision.

I got three solar estimates and went with Greenlogic. Sunation was one of the others and I have forgotten who the third was, but check references before you sign anything - that means get names and phone numbers of people they have worked for, call the people and ask questions. That's necessary as there are solar firms that don't know much about what they are doing. Avoid those that come through big box stores. Friends got badly taken by a smooth talking guy who's had a number of different solar companies and also works for big box stores locally. Their system was a mess and needed serious repairs to work properly.

I still absolutely love my geothermal system. SA Fink from Haupauge, LI put it in. Very experienced with geothermal. A local library got a big name engineering firm to put their geothermal in and have had headaches ever since. They should have demanded references - and checked them - and not gone by a fancy name that had little experience with geothermal installations. They are having to rebuild it.

Also, with our mineral laden water here on Long Island, be sure to get a closed loop for your geothermal system. Do not let anyone talk you into an open loop system ... unless you don't mind replacing it in about five years I had quite a few local HVAC firms try to talk me into using an open loop system. It's cheaper in the short run, but it's not a good idea.

If you have an older house that is not tightly sealed, as I do, geothermal works beautifully in it, air leaks and all. You do not have to switch out windows, spray foam and caulk everything, etc. Just hire someone who knows what he's doing and your new system will work very well.

 

" You do not have to switch out windows, spray foam and caulk everything, etc. Just hire someone who knows what he's doing and your new system will work very well."
.....but you might. Some times some envelope improvements are cheaper than the size increase on the geo.

 

At 6 tons for a 2400 sqft home, sealing it up and a smaller unit would have worked better.

 

And here is the rub.... You have to work with what you have to work with on a older home. If you gut the outside and inside, you no longer have what you bought. Archetectural integrity, plaster, 3/4 inch interior wood paneling, ect. If I had my way, Iwould be living on a wooden motorsailer in the tropics right now, Mrs. Pirate is not agreeable. lol So we live in the home she likes, the way she likes it to look.
Eric

 

Happy New Year to all the Pirates.

I have just the boat if you do not mind Volvo and balsa covered by glass and glue. Re- wired her added of all things a water to air heat pump. Built here in Ohio in Fairport Harbor. She went out the Erie Canal. She now has a solar feed to the array of golf cart batteries Steph and I installed when we added the sewer system. She left Ohio about ten years ago, and the owner was then about 64. She left as the Imagine.

We moved to a home built in 1929 and have spent a good bit of time tightening the envelope this fall our selves.

Mark