January was a solid month for my 7 kW solar system – 501 kilowatt hours (kWh) or about 100 kWh’s short of our consumption. Compare that to an all-around dismal December, which yielded a mere 143 kWh’s.

What it proved is that you can have very productive months in the winter despite reduced daylight hours. The January output almost matches 551 kWh’s in October and 541 in November — compared to peak 2012 output of 952 in August.

December produced my first electric bill since I switched the system on June 12, 2012 because we burned through all the credits built up over the summer months (our average consumption is around 600 kWh’s a month). The bill was $86 given Christmas lights, the kids being home and slack December output from my 29 solar panels. The next bill one should be much less.

On a related note, we had several heating baseboard pipes burst in the home office over the garage during the recent cold snap. We are seriously considering replacing it with electric baseboard.

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