Graph 1 - My total usage in the fifteen months PRIOR to the system install.
Graph 2 - Inverter Output and Power Export
This graph portrays a significant factor not generally considered by solar system users: how much of my solar generated watts are actually directly powering my home needs? In my case the blue area represents true offset, i.e. I've used a lot of what I've generated. The smaller red area is what I've sold back to the grid. While my objective is to minimise the red area and thus increase the blue area, this is only because my "feed-in" return is less than the current cost of electricity, and sadly, always will be.
Those who (in South Australia) connected their system in 2011 and before would have a different objective, as their "feed-in" return is set way higher than the cost of the purchased electricity, so someone in that situation would want the red area to intrude further upward and reduce the blue area. This high "feed-in" tariff has been a contentious issue with electricity consumers generally, and also with the political interests who've reacted to the claim that the generous "feed-in" provisions have had an impact on the rising price of electricity here.
As I mentioned above, though, my objective is to consume as much of what my system produces, as this represents a greater saving.
Ultimately, I'm hoping to collect some of my solar D.C. power and store it in a battery bank so I can use that stored electricity to continue powering my inverters when the sun goes down...thus saving me even more.
Graph 3 - Post Solar Charged Consumption (this is what I paid for)
Graph 4 - Post Solar Total Consumption
Important note: the "dates" shown above are the dates I took my readings, therefore the reading represents consumption/production during the month before, so clearly the "1-April-2013" reading represents "March 2013" usage, etc.
