D.I.Y. Solar Setup.

Step 13 Some Benefits.

Producing even a small part of your households electricity with panels you have made yourself has some flow-on effects.

In our house the Electricity Bill dropped much more than the amount my panels produce.
The very process of building the panels and setup, by default, involved the whole family in one way or another.

A net result of this was an increased awareness in all family members of their personal electricity use.
The changes were not earth shattering...just simple stuff like changing to efficient light globes, turning lights out when leaving rooms, shorter showers (sometimes :~( ), turning the TV etc. off at the wall, turning computers off at night.
Add that to the savings given by changing the Air Conditioner to Solar and you start to make a difference.
For the past 2 years each of our electricity bills has been as much as 25% lower than the corresponding bill from the year before.
We actually get a "Thank You" from our Supplier, Country Energy, and the bill details the Carbon Emission Savings etc.

Don't be fooled by ads, trying to sell you Solar Panel building kits etc., that claim you'll save 95% off your power bill by building a panel or 2. Simply not true.

!000watts of fixed, grid tied, Solar panels will directly save about 25% of the average Aussie familys electricity costs. You can double (or better) this by opting for a Tracker system.
Extrapolating on that equation a 2000 watt grid tied Tracking setup should cover most of a households electricity costs and, if you change electric hot water to Solar Hot Water, you might even make money from the power your panels produce.