Mia
If you are an American, chances are that you have heard about Solar City. The company has been in the news a lot lately due to its ability to install solar panels on people’s roofs at no cost. There are still ways for you to take advantage of your excess solar power! Read this blog post for some top tips!
Sell To The Grid
Selling your excess solar power is a great way of converting it into cold, hard cash. The price at which you sell electricity to the national grid varies depending on market conditions and how much supply there is in an area. The good news for homeowners who are in the Texas area is that they can benefit from their excess solar power after all. Texas net metering program allows you to get paid for your surplus electricity produced by the panels, which means it’s possible to reduce your monthly utility bill even further. So be sure to check out what’s happening with energy prices before selling – if you can sell it for more than you’re currently paying, then great!
There are lots of different types of solar power inverters that will allow your excess electricity to be sold back to the grid. You also need a smart meter installed so energy companies know how much electricity you have generated and bought. It might sound complicated but an energy expert will be able to sort everything out for you. You can sell up to 100% of your electricity back to the grid! So if, say, 60% of what you’ve generated is excess power then that means 40% goes into your home and appliances – great news if you have a large family!
Use The App
An energy monitor is a great way of keeping track of your solar power use, and there are lots to choose from. Some will allow you to control how much electricity you’re using – so if the sun is shining brightly outside then you can adjust when appliances run or even turn them off completely! You could set up some rules so when the sun is out no appliances are allowed to run, for example.
This is a great way of saving money on energy bills without losing any comfort! Your solar power app will also show how much electricity you’re generating throughout each day/week/month which can be helpful if you want to know just how efficient your solar panels are. You can use this information to make improvements and adjustments if necessary – for example, you might find that your panels don’t get enough sun in the winter months but they work well during the summer!
Use The Heat
Using excess electricity to heat water is a great way of putting your expensive solar power to good use. Solar thermal panels work in the same way as regular ones – they soak up energy from the sun and then transfer it into hot water for you to use. You can even have an app that controls how much hot water your system produces – great if you’re trying to cut back on energy use!
Using your excess electricity in this way can help you save hundreds of pounds each year. So next time the sun is out and shining brightly, think about how you could benefit from it – there are lots of ways to do so!
Store Solar Energy In Batteries
For many homeowners, feeding excess power into the grid is still an attractive idea. There are benefits to you and there are wider environmental gains too when less carbon-intensive generation sources like your rooftop panels can be used instead of generating electricity from fossil fuels. But for some people, it may make sense to disconnect entirely or at least reduce their connection with council grids altogether by storing that extra solar power in batteries rather than selling it back through feed-in tariffs (FiTs). The reason why this might become more popular soon relates to recent changes made by state governments which mean households can now access FiTs for any surplus solar they don’t need themselves daily but would otherwise have exported under previous rules.
Be Wary Of Battery Degradation
However, there are some important considerations to keep in mind. First of all, high-grade batteries like Tesla Powerwall can cost $1300-$1400 before installation costs so it’s not something you can do on a whim. Also, don’t forget about the possibility that your system may never produce excess power during daylight hours and this will be especially true if you live somewhere with fewer sunlight hours than Australia or New Zealand for example. But since battery degradation is also an issue (they don’t last forever) than buying one now and replacing it within five years might work out cheaper than constantly feeding extrasolar into the grid while storing none of it yourself. The other consideration is whether the grid will still exist in five years. In some areas, new laws are being introduced which mean that people who produce their solar power won’t be allowed to export any surplus back into the grid at all if they haven’t installed batteries of their own first.
Battery On-Grid, Off-Grid, Or Hybrid
And finally, it’s also worth mentioning that some people think the grid may not exist in five years anyway. That might sound like a crazy idea but there are lots of reasons why this could be true and if you live somewhere remote or where grids costs can’t yet be justified then switching to an on-grid, an off-grid hybrid system that combines solar panels with diesel generators, for example, would make sense. One thing is certain: as battery storage becomes more common and our reliance on fossil fuel generation continues to decline (in favor of renewables like rooftop PV) we will need smarter energy management systems than ever before!
There are many options for how to use your excess solar power. You can get paid, store it in batteries or sell the extra energy back to the grid. The best option will depend on where you live and what equipment you have installed at home already. As well as earning lots of money by selling electricity to neighbors or businesses nearby, storing it in a battery is also an exciting prospect that might be worth exploring further if you own some land somewhere without access to mains power.
