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This article was written to give us a basic idea just how much residential solar panel electrical systems cost. Not a problem. Below is a truly basic presentation of how much your system will cost with a BONUS detailed math on why these systems make a lot of sense financially.
Section I
ON-Grid (Grid Connected Solar) – Your Solar power is
connected to and interacts with the local Elec Company such as MERALCO, ETC.
A.
The Electrical
Consumption and Expense
Example:
Kwhr of electricity used 600 kwhr/month
Basic (Ave rate) Ph 9.24/kwhr
Total Elec Bill Ph 5,544/month
B.
The solar
electric system needed to ELIMINATE the
expensive bill.
Solar System Needed 3500 watts (3.5kw)
Solar Panel Size 240 watts
/panel
Solar Panels total 15
Solar Inverter size - 4kw
Space needed to install 25 square meters
Load KG 292
C.
Funding,
necessary to acquire the system.
Loan Total P225,658.00/41pesos =$5503.00
Loan Interest 8%
Amortization in years 15
Monthly P2197=$54
D.
Day One of System
in FULL OPERATION, the SAVINGS start :
1.
Your electric
meter starts to run BACKWARDS which means your system ,AS DESIGNED, produces
more power than you are using. You are NOT using any electricity from Meralco. Panel size and number are designed to produce
a total kwhr more than you use during the day.
2.
The excess power
generated by the solar panels are ‘SOLD’ BY YOU to Meralco, through Netmetering.
3.
At night time the
panels DO NOT PRODUCE ELECTRICITY. You
then ‘BUY BACK’ the power from MERALCO.
4.
In effect you
simply used MERALCO as your FREE ‘STORAGE’
of electricity PRODUCED BY YOU, during
the day so you can get it back at night.
5.
At the end of the
month , your electric bill is Zero Pesos .
And it is by LAW that you can do this if you have solar panels on your
roof and you have Netmetering approved according to the Law.
Now, let us look at the rest
of the excitement:
You used to pay P5544 per
month for your electricity. Now your bill is zero. Your monthly payment to the
loan is P2197 per month. Looks like a monthly windfall of P3347!
Being a smart guy that you
are , you sink half or more of the windfall into the loan. Your amortization
years (number of years you pay into the loan) drop according to your aggressiveness in
paying off your loan.
Let us say you ‘killed’ your
loan in 7 years.
Day one after pay off of your
loan is freedom day! Your electricity
from day one of year 8 is FREE.
Solar panels are known to
last 30 to 40 years with the least efficiency loss and least maintenance or
care. That is roughly 22 to 32 years OF GETTING FREE ELECTRICITY with the sunlight as your source!
The inverters (DC to AC) last
between 10 to 15 years . All these
components are under warranty for a certain number of years.
The secret of inverters or NO
inverters:
Replace all your equipment
with DC (Direct Current) appliances and you get rid of the inverter. Solar
panels produce DC. But DC appliances are hard to come by and expensive.
Section II
Off-Grid Solar Electric Systems
Off-grid systems are solar
electric systems that are not tied up to the grid and are capable of sustaining
their own electrical loads without the assistance of electric companies. This
means YOU RUN ALL YOUR HOUSE OR
BUILDING ELECTRICAL TOTALLY FROM YOUR SYSTEM AND YOU ARE NOT TIED UP TO MERALCO!
This independence and self
sustainability is achieved using back up power. Small wind power or windmill
driven generators, diesel generators and batteries are the most common back up
power. I choose batteries as more
reliable sources of back up power.
They are very efficient ,
quiet, have minimum maintenance and very low cost to run. They are also powered
up or charged by the solar panels during the day. The batteries ‘give back’ the power to you at
night when solar are not producing , through the same inverters that convert
the DC produced by solar panels. The batteries which are DC sources, convert your DC power to
house AC.
Note: The cost analysis above
is typical of small (low kw) systems for residentials . As your system gets
bigger into the hundreds of Kilowatts to
MW(million watts) level , the price of the systems drop.
Solar power systems ,
whether installed on your roof or backyard, your farm , will produce power where
you set it up. It has no ‘ electrical generators’ that have too many moving
parts that break down, it makes no noise, very light and portable , scalable in
size from the smallest power source to charge your cell phone, cook your food
in the middle of the desert, power up your tv on the mountain, all the way up
to the huge Multi-Megawatt systems that power up whole cities or province. No
other electrical power source can even come close to this versatility.
And that includes its
financial advantage over the rest of the power generating lot. It truly makes
perfect sense to go solar.
Joe Joson
Communications, Marketing,
Consulting
Lim Solar Philippines
Mendoza Solar , LLC -California/Nevada Corporation
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