electric bill

[Suzque49]

Our first electric bill came in, it had one week of power from the electric compay and 3 weeks on the new solar system.
Last month our bill was $450.00, this time it was $70.
A big savings, I am looking forward to next month when we will have a full month of solar on it.

[flcruising]

Are you the one who has a lease agreement on the solar panels? I found a post about halfway down where it's mentioned, but there used to be another about the details. Must have been lost in the transition.

What are the usage differences between those two bills in terms of KWH?

[Suzque49]

Our elect usage was in the neighborhood of 1600 kw, this time it was around 500. Since we only used elect from the first tier level we only paid the lowest rate per kw instead of the higher rates in the 5th and 6th tiers.
With the Sun Run lease bill, we are paying about 24 cents kw all together. And the Sun Run bill will not increase for the life of the lease. In fact is goes down a little after a few years due to the deminished output from the solar cells. A lot better then paying SCE, and we are doing a small part to improve the environment.

[flcruising]

WOW! The electric rates over there in Cali are awfully high. No wonder you opted solar. Do you have a solar water heater too, or are you relying solely on the electric panels to offset the usage/cost?

[Suzque49]

Everything is expensive in Calif, planning on moving out when we retire.
We use propane for our water, cooking and heating. We have a second "residence" on our property (10 acres) our son lives in a 5th wheel trailer next to the house and he uses elect for water, heating, etc. We have 2 electric pumps for our water, one pumps it up from a depth of 500 ft and the other pumps it from the storage tank into the house, we use evaporative cooling in the summer. My friends in town have bills about 1/2 what ours is, except in the summer when they use refrigerated air conditioning. and they use city water etc. We have plenty of sunshine here in the upper mojave desert area, so it made sense to put it to good use.

[flcruising]

I can't complain about my elec bill. Our most expensive one for the past year was $192. We are total electric, on a 60' well, and use refrigerated a/c about 8 months of the year.