Continuing on a post I created from a year ago on my investment into solar power, here's an update on my setup. I won't be repeating the original details, so if you want to go over them, the post is here : Year 1 Report.
2 Year Summary
Above is a quick summary of the system. It's been up for 768 days and has produced 17.4MWH. At the pricing I set of 11Php/Kwh (Actual now is 13Php/Kwh), that's a peso value of about 191k. Being conservative at 180k, I've already recovered 2/3 of my initial 270k investment.
As for the system itself, I'll try to break it down further:
So as for what changed, I applied for and completed the process for net metering. This was actually triggered by Meralco changing the rules for lifeline subsidies (which I totally support) causing my bills to go from 0-250 a month to 200-500. I was curious on the process of net metering and whether it would make financial sense at this point. The typical quote then was about 30k and at 300 pesos saved per month it would take 100 months or 8.3years to recover the cost.
The process was relatively quick. Took me about 3 months processing it myself and cost me roughly 15k. Not including incidental expenses like gas and my time. In hindsight, I overspent on the materials and could've cut the cost down even further.
My billing was switched to net metering at the end of January and I've had 2 bills since. I'll take this opportunity to teach on how to ready the meralco bill and answer the typical questions. I've edited the images to add markers that you can refer to.
April Bill First Page
April Bill Second Page
March/April Bills
[1] Is the price per Kwh when you import. This is broken down on into the components in page 2 [1.1]
[2] Is the price per Kwh when you export. The price is equivalent to the generation charge [2.1], or the price that meralco pays to the power plants.
[3] Is your import. Or the power that you bought from Meralco. So current reading minus previous reading is the power you consumed. So in this case, I consumed 15Kwh (30-15 = 15) and multiplying it with the price per kwh [1] (15*13.46=201.86), you end up with the total cost that I owe Meralco [6].
[4] Is how much energy I exported. This is broken down at the back as current reading minus previous reading in the back [4.1] . Multiplying it with [2] you get the amount that Meralco owes you (200*6.75=1349.82) [5 and 5.1].
The net amount [6 - 5] (201.86 -1349.82 = -1147.96) isn't actually shown on the actual bill, but can be seen in the meralco bills page [8] on the third image.
You can also see that the balance adds up to previous months credits. If you look at the third image my March and April credits are -949.57 [9] and -1147.96 [8] respectively. They add up and can be seen in the bill as unapplied credits of 2097.53 [7]
Key Takeaways:
2 Year Summary
Above is a quick summary of the system. It's been up for 768 days and has produced 17.4MWH. At the pricing I set of 11Php/Kwh (Actual now is 13Php/Kwh), that's a peso value of about 191k. Being conservative at 180k, I've already recovered 2/3 of my initial 270k investment.
As for the system itself, I'll try to break it down further:
- Panels - No maintenance or cleaning done. Output seems to be down by about 5%, which I attribute to dust on the panels and high heat.
- Batteries - No maintenance done and no discernible drop in capacity.
- Inverter - No maintenance done. Experienced one fault (Overcurrent), which shut the inverter off. The inverter restarted after some time. It is likely that this was caused by the grid as there was an ongoing maintenance in our area and the fault occurred when power was restored.
So as for what changed, I applied for and completed the process for net metering. This was actually triggered by Meralco changing the rules for lifeline subsidies (which I totally support) causing my bills to go from 0-250 a month to 200-500. I was curious on the process of net metering and whether it would make financial sense at this point. The typical quote then was about 30k and at 300 pesos saved per month it would take 100 months or 8.3years to recover the cost.
The process was relatively quick. Took me about 3 months processing it myself and cost me roughly 15k. Not including incidental expenses like gas and my time. In hindsight, I overspent on the materials and could've cut the cost down even further.
My billing was switched to net metering at the end of January and I've had 2 bills since. I'll take this opportunity to teach on how to ready the meralco bill and answer the typical questions. I've edited the images to add markers that you can refer to.
April Bill First Page
April Bill Second Page
March/April Bills
[1] Is the price per Kwh when you import. This is broken down on into the components in page 2 [1.1]
[2] Is the price per Kwh when you export. The price is equivalent to the generation charge [2.1], or the price that meralco pays to the power plants.
[3] Is your import. Or the power that you bought from Meralco. So current reading minus previous reading is the power you consumed. So in this case, I consumed 15Kwh (30-15 = 15) and multiplying it with the price per kwh [1] (15*13.46=201.86), you end up with the total cost that I owe Meralco [6].
[4] Is how much energy I exported. This is broken down at the back as current reading minus previous reading in the back [4.1] . Multiplying it with [2] you get the amount that Meralco owes you (200*6.75=1349.82) [5 and 5.1].
The net amount [6 - 5] (201.86 -1349.82 = -1147.96) isn't actually shown on the actual bill, but can be seen in the meralco bills page [8] on the third image.
You can also see that the balance adds up to previous months credits. If you look at the third image my March and April credits are -949.57 [9] and -1147.96 [8] respectively. They add up and can be seen in the bill as unapplied credits of 2097.53 [7]
Key Takeaways:
- I'll probably break-even by the end of the third year.
- Grid-tie is worth it. I'm currently stacking credits for when I upgrade my AC (Damn this heat!) and when I replace my ICE car to an EV in the future.