Wednesday 8 January 2014

My Solar Energy Harvesting Begins to Bear Fruits


After a few months of Solar harvesting, my electricity usage has began to come down for the past 3 months. I recon that I am able to save about 100 kWh of electricity per month (Refer to my own record of actual electricity usage).
Based on current tariff of S$0.28 or 28 cents (inclusive of 7% GST), I estimate that I would be able to save S$28 per month which means I am able to recover my cost within 4 years.

But part of the reason for the electricity usage to come down could be because of the cold weather we experienced in Singapore these 2 months. The cold weather has resulted in lower usage of air conditioning. I would have to monitor the usage during hotter months, but for now I am quite happy with the result.

The higher gas and water usage shows that I am not on holiday during this period. I still wonder why my gas usage shoots up so high ??




Month Amount Est (*) Own record Electricity (kWh) Gas (kWh) Water (Cu M)
Jul-13 $152.85 * 372 49 13.3
Aug-13 $202.92 515 65 17.3
Sep-13 $180.03 * 413 451 58 15.6
Oct-13 $145.71 399 347 50 13.5
Nov-13 $151.29 * 349 367 50 13.4
Dec-13 $141.01 306 280 80 17.1




Update:
My electricity consumption has dropped to 73kWh in Feb, believe it or not?
Of course not. The actual reading is 170kWh, they had over estimated in Jan and made adjustment in Feb. I think it will stabilized to around 200kWh. That's a saving of 200kWh per month or $56 per month or $672 per year, which is 100% more saving than I expected.   


15 comments:

  1. Hi Chee Hui,

    I'm particularly interested in solar panels but yet to start. Would like to find out more from you =) Good thing if the payback is fast!

    Btw, I was just crunching some numbers, and slightly over 5 years is the payback I came up with. Based on $1.8 per Wp and daily peak hours of 3.3 hours, you get about 1,200 Wh per year, which translates to about $0.337 savings.

    I then saw your post on solar fan. Full charge batteries 828W requires 4 days charging using 90W setup. So, the avg peak hours per day is 2.3 hours. Did you install it vertically at the window grilles? If yes, then it's still pretty impressive!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Nigel,
    Thanks for your interest!
    I have moved on to grid tie inverter and expanded my panels to 320W.
    I estimate that I can harvert about 2KW of solar energy per day (or S$0.60 per day).

    I also moved on from solar standing fan to ceiling fan which is more energy efficient and more effective in circulating the air and colling the place.

    My panels are installed outside my windows at 60 degree elevation, facing east - morning sun.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi are you still using the grid tie inverter? How's the savings per month? Can you recommend where I can buy the necessary equipment in Singapore? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Really nice article!! I am glad to read your post, pretty informative.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for sharing valuable information. Nice post. I enjoyed reading this post.

    ReplyDelete