LED lighting is a good idea. We switched all ours over at the same time as getting the solar system - No sun at night so no power production.  Changing our usage habits was the biggest thing though. We put the dishwasher and clothes washer on during the day, charge phones and devices in daylight hours etc. Makes use of the sun power. 

Thanks for commenting, I really appreciate it.

I think having an awareness of our power usage has been the best part. Having solar panels doesn't mean we can use more power, it means we needed to adjust our usage patterns, which we did. Gets the best out of the system..

Good to see collective efforts around the place like you mention. We're going to Denmark next year so think, have heard it's a pretty cool place.

I'll be honest, we did it more for the monetary saving than the environment but there's a dual benefit there I guess. We grow some vegetables, not much, and try and live a waste-free life...I think it's important to do and is also rewarding. Hopefully you get your chance to do so as well. We are glad we got the solar system.

You're right of course, the viability of the panels (system) needs to be considered. We had a feasibility study performed prior to installation and had *projected figures* presented to us to ensure that our system would return acceptable amounts of energy to justify the expense of installation. Obviously it worked out well. 

The new modern-panels will collect power even on cloudy days however full sunlight works best and being in Australia we have plenty of that! 

We can add panels, and storage also, which we may do. I think with 6 more panels we would be cost-neutral mostly however we may demolish the house at some stage and so are working through the viability of the cost of adding panels. It's all about finding the balance of cost versus benefit.

I live in the northern hemisphere too, but there is still a decent payback. We have a factor of about 1000kwh/kw installed. 

If you want an assessment done send me 0.001 Steem referencing this comment in the memo. I may not get to it right away, but I will get it done ;)

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Yep, that's expensive! We pay about 37.5 so not far behind. It's crazy isn't it? I like the mud hut idea but I guess in reality that's not practical - Certainly not here in Australia. We have been very happy with our system and I would recommend solar panels for anyone who lives in an area with plenty of sunlight. Good luck with it!

We've considered adding a battery, the Tesla one, but at this stage it's cost-preventative, especially since we may only be here for another couple of years. We're happy with the 75% at the moment and could improve it with another 4-6 panels however we're mindful of the cost of adding them considering the uncertain timeframe we will be here. We'll demolish the house when we leave and so any capital works would probably be wasted. 

It would be cool to be off-grid though.

Thanks for your comments.

On the sunny days, yes. On the not so sunny, well...Not so much. (Or at night) 😀

We have a lot of sun, yes, and the cool thing is that they will collect energy even on cloudy days...Just not as efficiently. 

The panels are on my roof, attached to rails and fastened to brackets that are fastened underneath the tile. There's some  complicated wiring and control boxes and I can access it all by an app, which is where I took the screen shots from. It's cool.

It's a good idea. I'm not sure what systems are like your way though, but here they won't provide power if the grid goes out, they are linked. For power in outages one needs battery storage. Might be different up your way.

Cool! They're well-worth it.

In a SHTF scenario they won't help (without storage of some kind). Storage is costly though. We are considering that generator option that kicks in immediately the power goes out. Doesn't affect the panels and the medium sized unit will run lights, fridges and TV simultaneously I've heard. I think it would struggle with AC but in that situation one would apply common sense to power usage I would think. Not sure if we will, but seems a good idea considering we live in the land of power-outages.

Yeah we run dishwasher and wshing machine on timers through the day too, and boost the hot water so I can have a bath - it's awesome. We got on the last state rebate, stoked. 

I'm working on it...I think, it I can bring it together, that it'll make the international news:

**Loony bloke in Australia powers his house with big windmill**

That's a good point actually. Power usage needs to warrant (justify) the array. My wife works from home all day so most of our usage is during the day, 5 days a week. That works perfectly as the array produces during the day obviously, and the washing machine and dishwasher goes on in daylight hours also. 

Some people get systems thinking they're going to save billions...Then realise that they haven't, or can't, change their usage habits and they save zippo.

Thanks for commenting. Haven't seen you around much lately.

I love saving money and putting it to better use, such as silver or vacations. The solar helps us do that. There's some pretty good deals on now but we simply paid straight up when we got ours in 2016. It's working a treat.

Have you looked into the government programs for solar install? Not sure they have anything over in the West like this but here there's a few schemes that puts solar on the roof for very little money. I paid for mine prior to these schemes coming in. 

Might be worth a look. 

I'm going to battery up at our next place so we have free power at night. Also, power when the grid shuts down.