September 2018 – Solar Income

August 2018 - Solar Income

September 2018 – Solar Income

Its time for another pay day. Instead of our normal dividend cheques, this one comes in the form of direct deposit right into our chequing account. While most people hate to see mail from Hydro One, I actually love it.

Most of the year our monthly income from our solar panels surpasses our typical monthly hydro bill of $100-120. Yes its that low, I think l.e.d lights is a big factor to that. My wife and daughter are currently home all the time. That number will drop even lower once she returns to work.

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.

Show Me The Money.

In August we ended up producing 1053 kwh of power. Since we get a income of 28.8 cents per kwh we ended up getting paid $303.26 this month. A little under the projected number of $317.98. August seemed to be a cloudy month and Im sure that massive maple tree blocked that sun. Ahhh well 300$ is still a decent stack.

August’s Production

As we can see, those 60 kwh days are gone…….. R.i.p and we are barely touching those 50 kwh days/ or day… Days are getting shorter, fall is here. The glass is half full here though. Fires and projects outside are definitely more comfortable in the cooler temperatures. Last month I stated that its dark at 8.30 now we are pitch black at around quarter to 8.

Finale

Another 300 bucks ain’t bad. The system is throwing down and has had no problems. I anticipated a roughly 8% return on investment and looks like we will be around that mark. 4 months of income to go to find out our real numbers. Solar is a great additional source of income, everyone should look into if their government runs some kind of program.

Have a great day and continue to stack that income of yours!

Cheers.

System Installed January 2018

Total System Cost ——–$32,396.46

Total Income Received ——–$2110.46

_____________________________________________

Amount to Breakeven —- $30,286

14 Responses

  1. DivvyDad says:

    Very cool, and nice that the income essentially covers your monthly bill too. This is something I will have to look into once we move in a few years, as right now we don’t plan to be in our current state / home long enough to pay off.

    This reminds me of a family member that has a large piece of farm land, and they have leased some land to a company that installed wind turbines. If I remember right, they are paid $10k per turbine per year–not a bad source of passive income!

    • Rob says:

      hey dd

      wow that is a insane income, how many turbines do they have on their farm? Thats awesome.

      Why would you move? Go to a cheaper state?

      cheers man

      • DivvyDad says:

        If I remember right, they have 15 turbines earning them $150k a year! They use that money for their living expenses and to cover the overhead of the farm.

        For us, yes we are looking to move as the state we are in has taxes that are out of control and we just don’t love being here anymore. Our youngest is a senior in high school and I suspect we will stick around here until both boys are done with college, and then we are looking to go somewhere that offers a better balance of quality living vs. cost.

        • Rob says:

          150k a year! dam that is soooo sweet.

          very cool about switching states. I was just listening to a choose fi podcast all about that. Forget what state they moved from but the properties and taxes were insane so they moved and made soo much selling their place. They paid cash for their new house and are now semi retired.

          keep us posted, sounds like a great move.

          • DivvyDad says:

            That’s our plan…we have a small mortgage remaining and with what we should be able to sell our house for here, we should be able to buy a new house for cash and have no mortgage. Plus, based on where we are looking, our property taxes and insurance should be about $6-7k cheaper per year thereby reducing our annual expenses as well.

            I should probably write a blog post about all of this, haha.

          • Rob says:

            dammm 6-7k cheaper? how much are your property taxes now?

            We pay 4400 a year for a 2400sqft place on just over a half acre. Thought we were paying a fortune…. doesnt sound too bad now.

          • DivvyDad says:

            Our property taxes now are about $8500 plus another ~$1k in homeowner’s insurance–and we are in a town where property taxes are cheaper. Some of our friends pay upwards of $12-15k per year for a similar home as ours (about the same size as your home but not as big a property).

            A lot of the homes we have looked at in our desired areas are around $1-3k in property taxes and insurance.

          • Rob says:

            Wow that does sound crazy. Seems like its worth the move, financially at least. Leaving friends and family is always hard though. When I read free at 33 I always thinking of making the move, but would be too hard since all our family and friends are here.

  2. Caroline says:

    Forget the solar income, I want wind turbine in my backyard now!
    The solar income is a nice way to diversify but it is a big one time investment.

  3. Lisa says:

    This is amazing! Do you have to have much technical knowledge to do something like this or do you just hand over money and get it done? Also, how much was your total initial investment in this?

    • Rob says:

      hey Lisa

      I knew a thing or 2 but basically handed money over to a company to do all the permits and installation. It cost us roughly 32k.
      Its great getting money from the sun!
      good luck

  4. ClearWorld says:

    I never knew it could be also good for business, very clever isn’t it? It gives us an idea on how we can save and at the same time to earn a living thru these solar panels.

    • Rob says:

      Exactly

      There should be some kind of mandate to ensure more people get solar panels. The added income could help a lot of people and benefit the world.

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