Solar with smarts: Part 3

Close to six months since the installation of the 3.4kW solar array and the two 1.2kWh Enphase batteries the benefits are being realised. Even across the months with the sun at its lowest, we have generated on average over 200 kWh per month. Come summer this figure is forecast to be over 500 kWh per month. Monthly electricity consumption has been higher than the previous year as we were trialling the BMW i3 electric vehicle. Our city daily driving habits were maximum 30km which equates to 5kWh of energy consumption. By choosing to wait for days with full sun to charge the car, the electricity consumption from the grid has been minimised.

The Enphase Enlighten monitoring system indicates monthly home energy consumption is typically 350kWh (excluding the electric vehicle). By the spring equinox we expect the daily requirements to be met by solar generated power. With smart management of appliances using electricity from the battery storage in the evening, the energy imported from the grid can be reduced to zero. Come summer we expect a daily solar production of 20+ kWh with electricity being consistently exported to the grid at up to 200 kWh per month – significantly reducing the quarterly electricity bill. 

The next stage is to become smarter in hot water generation via a heat pump system rather than relying on gas. There are multiple benefits with this approach but that is a discussion for a future article.  

Watch a film of a day in our lives using solar.

And for further technical information below is the video of Green Talks Solar and Battery Storage event.

enphase.com/au

recgroup.com/en

bmw.com.au

Here are links for Solar with smarts Part 1 and Part 2.