July 2018 – Solar Income

July 2018 – Solar Income

June was a sunny month, the skin was cooking, the flowers were wilting and the beaches were packed. I knew it would be a great month for our solar panels! These panels continue to surprise me, even with that tree in the way we set a even higher record for income this month. We also surpassed the guidance for income we would receive for June.

Sunshine and Rainbows Baby!




What is the microfit program?

Our solar panel system is part of the microfit program.

The microfit program was introduced in Ontario for smaller renewable energy systems under the 10kw size. It’s part of the fit (feed in tariff) program to promote the use of renewable energy, increase investment into this space and create new green jobs.

We bought our solar system outright and installed it on the roof of our house. Its a 9.75 kw system, 10 Panels facing the south and 20 Panels facing south-west. 2017 was the last year of the program and we signed a contract to sell the hydro generated to Hydro One. In return they would pay us 28.8 cents per kwh for the next 20 years. After 20 years we can sign a new contract at most likely a higher rate (since hydro rates will likely be higher) or look into a battery system to power our house.

Sun = Money

In June we generated 1,426 kwh of power. Since we get a fixed rate of 28.8 cents per kwh, we brought in $410.69 this month. Sweet!! The estimate for June was $360.73, so we surpassed that guidance by 13.84%.  Got to love beating those marks!

July 2018 - Solar Income

Power Generated in June

This chart is a summary of what our panels were generating in June. 4 Days breaking that elusive 60 kwh mark. Overall the month was pretty consistent. Those low days must of been cloudy days. Dam you clouds! Haha just kidding, working outside its nice to have the cloudy days, but I know the panels aren’t spitting fire. I guess you can’t win em all.

Conclusion

Over 400 bucks this month, Wonderbar! It is fantastic to see that all the headaches we went through last year in the process to get this setup and installed are rewarding us nicely now.

I tell ya having a solar system is a real eye opener… Even when you don’t think the sun is that hot the system is creating some great wattage. I cant stress it to you enough, throw down that sunscreen!

Ice Cream?

Our solar system is another source of income we did nothing to generate. I keep debating what our next source will be and find myself waking up thinking about a ice cream business.Seems to me it would be very lucrative. I know every time my son plays soccer we tend to celebrate after the game with a ice cream or blizzard/mcflurry. Its a seasonal business, but seems like a cash cow. Also I could get my pralines and cream or Heavenly Hash wholesale… Hmmmm maybe that’s a bad idea.

Whats your thoughts on a ice cream business? Whats your favorite kind? Waffle cone or Regular?

Have a great weekend, Waterpark here we come!

Cheers

System Installed January 2018

Total System Cost ——–$32,396.46

Total Income Received ——–$1465.06

_____________________________________________

Amount to Breakeven —- $30931.4

10 Responses

  1. Caroline says:

    That was a big investment at first Rob! I probably missed the post but how did you guys finance it?
    Sounds like a great plan overall.
    And I love praline but not crazy about ice cream:)

    • Rob says:

      hey Caroline

      Last year we decided to refinance the house and pull some equity out while switching over to our bank.

      our mortgage rate is locked for 5 years at 2.5% so we pulled 150k in equity out to finance our private investment these solar panels, start and max out wifes tfsa and use the extra funds for my tfsa and for a new roof.

      Glad we did it, rates are cheap and really got the ball moving.

      I have a post from last year about it somewhere =)

      cheers!

  2. PCI –

    Just awesome, gosh dang that is just awesome. Keep the sun shining and the energy flowing!

    -Lanny

  3. If I hear of any trouble regarding the Canadian power grid, I know who to call Rob You must be pretty busy with landscaping season since I haven’t seen to many posts from you in my feed. Tom

    • Rob says:

      hey Tom

      yeah things have been crazy. go from 0-60 real quick. In july we take saturdays off again which is nice. So no longer working 60-70 hrs a week.

      I have decided to do one post a week vs the 2 I was doing before.

      cheers Tom!

  4. I love that you can do this. Sure, there was a nice upfront cost. But it is cool that you are generating income and contributing a clean energy. All for just putting some panels on your roof. I love it!

    Bert

  5. dividendgeek says:

    Nice mate! Really milking this one. One question. Since, you already invested 30k for the solar cells. Your income goes towards recouping this initial investment. Would you still consider it as a passive income? A parallel would be mortgage. Could rental income be considered passive income if all of it is allocated to mortgage? Just curious about your thoughts.

    • Rob says:

      hey geek

      thanks man. it’s a great point. With rental income i have always wondered if you could call the whole rent passive income vs just the cashflow.

      Atleast the mortgage balance is going down so i would say yeah.

      Now this is different from the panels because you only put lets say 20% down vs me putting the 100% down.

      Id say the panels are still passive because they did add value to our house as well, but will be slowly depreciating in value also.

      good question.
      Cheers

Id love to Hear What You Think

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