The first thing you should do before you think about going solar
Thinking about going solar? Start off by looking and trying to understand your electric bill. Yes, we know no one understands how to read a bill, we don’t blame you its so complicated! Most people just pay the bill at the end of the month without really looking at the bill. When going solar its important to do an analysis of your usage. You should look for the following when looking at your bill:
-
What are you paying per kWh (kilowatt hour)?
-
Is there a time of use charge? Are you paying a higher rate during peak hour times?
-
Winter usage compared to summer usage…..does your electric bill spike up in the summer?
-
What service period does the bill cover?
-
How many total kWh are you using during your service period?
-
What rate tier are you in?
To conduct a proper analysis its best to have the last 12 months of your bills hand to come up with the most accurate number of your usage. Starting with your bills is a good place to start in figuring how much solar you need to reduce or eliminate your bill. Sometimes it much more cost effective to just use solar to reduce your peak hour usage to drop you into a lower paying tier….so use your bill as a roadmap for your solar power project.
