FeBRRRuary Bill...

Hi all.  Wow..I gotta say sometimes is takes FOREVER for Duke Energy to get the dang bill out.  For the longest time I've known how much I owe...but they had not produced a bill to show consumption.

Overall between Jan and Feb it was COLD.  A lot colder than I can remember. You'll see below that the HDDs were 1.5x what was last year and 2012.  Yikes!  And the bill reflects it too.  Also note that Duke Energy raise their rates late last year\ too.

Regardless...below are the results:

January 3rd - February 4th, 2013 Bill
Total consumption:  1,050 kWh
Days in billing cycle = 32
Average Daily Consumption = 32.81 kWh/day
Degree days = 606
Consumption per HDD = 1.73 kWh/HDD
Bill = $104.62

January 1st - February 1st, 2014 Bill
Total consumption:  1,438 kWh
Total Solar Generated:  135 kWh (TED5000)
Total Solar back to grid:  29 kWh
Net Consumption:  1,409 kWh
Days in billing cycle = 31
Average Daily Consumption = 45.45 kWh/day (38.52% increase)
Degree days = 906 (149% increase)
Consumption per HDD = 1.56 kWh/HDD (10.24% decrease)
Bill = $145.16

So, while overall we had a huge increase in average daily energy consumption (~39%) compared to last year, factoring in the significantly bitter cold temperatures shows we had an overall 10% reduction in energy usage.

	PVWatts	SolarEye	Expected	Actual
	Generation	DeRate	Generation	Generation
Month	kWh/mo	%	kWh/mo	kWh/mo	Notes
1	223	52%	116.0	135	TED5000 estimate
2	221	72%	159.1	135	TED5000 estimate
3	282	77%	217.1
4	299	83%	248.2
5	293	83%	243.2
6	277	82%	227.1
7	273	82%	223.9
8	278	82%	228.0
9	254	82%	208.3
10	270	75%	202.5
11	220	66%	145.2	96.21	Energized Nov 7.  Fully Online Nov 11.
12	205	47%	96.4	99.37
Total	3095	74.8%	2315

Comparing the solar generation to what was expected shows actual generation at 135 kWh while the estimated generation was listed as 116 kWh.  So that's good.  However, in February it looks like I produced less power than what was predicted.  For a combo of Jan&Feb, I produced 270 kWh while it predicted 275 kWh.  A 1.9% error?  I'm OK with that...

FYI, I got January's data from my TED5000 as my Tigo system is not generating data.  The Tigo unit says "No Gateway Detected!".  The contractor will check out the gateway today to figure out what is going on.  Luckily, its not inhibiting me from producing power.

BTW...Tigo makes you PAY to view your own generated data after an apparent "honeymoon" period.   This is very annoying as the Tigo website is very sly and not straightforward that a normal homeowner would have to pay.  It reads as if only large scale systems need to pay since they would need the advanced features.  It's not expensive ($5/year), but it pissed me off regardless.  Also the contractor did not tell me of this either which is doubly annoying.