Meter
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Meter
This is the meter and service entrance to the house. The box on the bottom is where the AC electricity enters our home. The middle box is for PG&E. It is a visual disconnect that is placed there as an extra safety measure for anyone working on the power lines in our neighborhood in the event of an unplanned power outage. The top box is our sub panel. This is where the circuit breakers are that control the parts of our electric service that would be provided by our solar system in the event of a power outage. The meter is my favorite part. During the day we love to watch the meter spin backwards as we "sell" power back to PG&E. When we are making more electricity than we are using (most of the time during the day), the meter spins backwards as we are pushing electricity onto the power grid that gets used by our neighbors. When we are using more than we are making (at night), the meter spins forwards as we "buy" back the electricity that we made during the day. PG&E gives us credit for the power that goes onto the grid over a 12 month period. If we make more power than we use over the 12 month period, we pay no electric bill. If we use more than we make we owe PG&E the difference. With three months to go in our net metering year, we still have credit for two months worth of power. All we have to do is produce one months worth of power over our last three months of the net metering year and we'll come out even. I think we're going to be ahead. |