Here you can find Solar Panels and technological accessories related to Solar Energy: Click Here If you want to learn about Solar...
Here you can find Solar Panels and technological accessories related to Solar Energy: Click Here
If you want to learn about Solar Panels, to advise you before buying or to build your own Solar Panel: Click Here
- It's a sunny day out and whenever it's sunny, not only is it a good weather day but here in the Skypod, I also celebrate, only me, they don't know it, I'm the one who kind of celebrates because it means that we're running on free electricity. And I'm going to show you something, guys. This has been our bill for the month. -Php3,273 for this month and we've been doing this for the past two months because we've been using solar here in the Skypod for over a year. This app from our grid supplier, we can see that in 2022, this is... What's nine? September. September is Php3,000 and Php3,000. We have fluke month that's Php12,000. But eventually, it zeroed out, so we didn't pay the bill for September and October. Our bill became zero. So we used to have about Php20,000 to Php30,000 per month here at the Skypod. We're able to zero it out. Let's talk about how we set up our solar system here at home and more importantly, what's ROI and was it worth it? So, the dream for the Skypod was always 100% sustainable energy and this is our solar setup right here which now achieves that. If you watched our previous solar video, the solar panels aren't these many because we did a few things. There's still the original hybrid system, the one that's connected to the battery, but we also have the additional panels that are grid-tied which is also net metered. Now, don't tune out yet. Let's talk about everything in very, very understandable terms and especially what are the advantages of this all. So we'll take a tour of our solar setup. Okay. First up on our tour, our solar tour, is the panels. So we have about 20 kW of panels right here, and I think the biggest advantage of the Skypod is we're just one level, so we have a big, big roof area that we can cover with as much solar panels as possible. But I get a lot of questions, "What will I do if my roof is partly shaded, there are trees or buildings beside it or even if my area is small?" Our setup here is fairly straightforward, but you can use what's called an optimizer. An optimizer like this. This is from HUAWEI. And what an optimizer does, especially good quality optimizers, is it increases the efficiencies of each solar panel. Now, putting this can actually yield up to 30% more energy. So this will be installed in each and every panel and this built-in energy optimizer will be perfect for those with smaller roof areas, making your solar panels more efficient. Or even if you have roofs that have different angles, there's a perfect angle facing south for the panel. But if you don't have that luxury, this will really, really help make sure that you're producing as much energy per area of your roof. Now, this video is sponsored by HUAWEI but we've been using the HUAWEI system even before they reached out to us and we're fairly happy. So our batteries, inverters, are all HUAWEI. I'll show you guys later. But this particular one is also great because this has an app connected to it and you can monitor now each and every single panel, on its performance. So if there's a broken panel, you can immediately see that there's a problem on a panel and it's not as efficient as it could be. So that's it. Now, apart from that smart monitoring, this HUAWEI optimizer also has active safety, so it can quickly shutdown the electricity that's produced by the solar panels up to a safe 30V in case anything happens. So for example, maintenance, installation, or even in case of fire, this will automatically shutdown. So this is definitely something to consider for your setup. Okay. So that was the solar panels, but there's more to it than just the panels themselves. So we'll show you around with our inverters, batteries, and all that jazz. So this is basically the main setup for the Skypod. So we started with the solar panels and this is our hybrid system. It goes to this HUAWEI inverter and goes to this HUAWEI ESS. So ESS means that it's an energy storage system or a battery. So this has a management system here and these are modules of the battery. Each one is about 5 kWh and we have 1, 2, 3, nine of these here at the Skypod which means we have 45 kWh of battery. Just to make sense of that figure, we can afford to not have a generator, this becomes our generator already. So not only does it save us electricity at night, because when the sky is not out this is what we use, whenever there's a blackout, that one that they call a backup box will switch from the grid energy to the battery energy. So every time there's a blackout, we'll just feel that our lights will flicker a bit and now we're running on battery power. So this is something that I learned from Typhoon Odette that this is better. The initial backup would be the battery just so that it's not loud, smelly, and safer also since it's battery. So the ESS system from HUAWEI came precharged, so it's really plug and play, no more waiting for this to be charged. But what I really appreciate about this is the depth of its discharge, it's 100%. Depth of discharge means how much can you actually use from the given rating. So for example, with 5 kW, some batteries out there, you'll only be able to use 50% or the newer ones would be 80-90% of that. But this one, it has an optimizer that when you say 5 kWh, we'll really be able to use 5 kWh. So that is actually a money saving thing. This also comes with electrical protection, so this auto shuts off when there's a problem. And it also has a structural protection so this is rated for bombs or even if you put one in your garage, or even protection against water jets. So for example, it's raining a bit, this is safe. So even in our setup where this gets wet a bit with this setup. We chose this setup because the batteries are needed to be as cool as possible. Just like our cellphones when they're always hot, the batteries get damaged. So this one really has a breezer here. But not only that, they said this also has a built-in firefighting protection per module. So just in case that, knock on wood, something happens, it'll automatically extinguish itself. So safety wise, that's why we chose this. And truly, the real reason why I chose this is it looks pleasing. (laughs) It looks high tech. This has a lot of certifications. This actually passed the Germany VDE certification. That's the strictest certification in the residential storage industry. So, I myself am confident. We've been using this for, I think 1 1/2 years now, no issues at all. It even has an app where you can see its charge level, or even, you can just look at this. We can see that it's fully charged already. It's still around 11:30 but our battery is already full, which when this is full, this is when our bill will be negative. So let me explain. Okay. So let's be creative in explaining our system here in the house. So we have two types of system, one, we initially had a hybrid system, and then we added a grid-tie system to make the bill zero and negative. So hybrid system means that there's a battery and you're using the battery and the grid. This tripod is from our power provider. So it uses a hybrid of those to power the house. So when there's no battery, it gets from the solar or from the grid itself. And when the battery is full, the electricity comes back to the grid. When the electricity is full and the solar panel still produces some energy, the solar panel is now giving back energy to the grid. And if you apply for net metering, the energy you're providing has a certain peso value, about half the usual rate, and the grid provider buys it. So that's called net metering. To supplement this, we also added a grid-tied system. So basically, it just doesn't have a battery. So it only works during the day, it provides energy to the house when there's sun out, but if the house doesn't need it, the energy produced here is also net metered back into the grid. So this is how we are able to create negative bill. So our excess energy is saved to our bill. So when I say our bill is negative, it doesn't mean that we'll be paid by that same peso value. It's kind of like I have a deposit electricity that I can get from any time I may need to use more power in the house. But I know the most important question that everybody has on their mind, "Is it worth it?" "Do I go for a hybrid setup or do I go for a grid-tied setup?" Etc., etc. Let's talk about it. So I showed you earlier that we have about Php3,000 negative when it comes to our bill. That means that we have a banked electricity but I can't use it anywhere else. It's going to just accrue over time becoming more negative and negative. And eventually, if I decide that I'll buy an electric car so I can use the electricity, that's possible. But I cannot say, okay, I have so much electricity, I'll just sell it to others or I'll give it to our office, that's not possible. It's just for this house. But an even more important thing that solar has given us, which is kind of expected, can be explained if we go through our bill. So this is really the breakdown of all our bills. So we started off in August. August is the farthest bill we can see, August of last year. We were running at around Php3,000. So Php3,000 on August, Php3,000 on October. There's just a slight mistake here if you noticed. This Php12,000 is wrong because there are two October bills. There's something buggy but I checked, the Php3,000 is just right. And then on November, it's still Php3,000. So we were consistent at Php3,000 from about Php20,000 to Php30,000 using our hybrid setup, but we still can't achieve the zero that we want. And our bill just went to Php6,000, Php6,000, Php8,000, Php4,000, so it suddenly increased. So I checked, and that was because the power provider increased their prices. They increased from around Php11, I think now they're at around Php16. That's a big increase. So that actually protected us from that inflation. Imagine from Php20,000 to Php30,000, if we didn't have solar, what will our bill be? So we decided, okay, let's add a grid-tied system, the one without battery. Let's add to supplement our existing hybrid system for our bill to really zero out. And that is why here at around September and October, our bill really zeroed out because this is when we implemented that. If you noticed, we also have times wherein it became Php29,000 and Php27,000, that was because we were repairing something in our roof that is a suppler issue, so we had to take out the solar panels. But once we installed everything, it suddenly became Php16,000 and now, our bill really went down to zero. That is the Skypod solar journey. But was this whole thing worth it? That's number one. Second, how much did you spend for the entire solar? And how long does it take to ROI? Let's talk about it. So was it worth it? Now, our hybrid system cost us... This is about a little over a year ago. It costed us about Php2,000,000. So... (chuckles) Php2,000,000. So that was the solar panels, the inverters, the batteries, and everything else. So the ROI with that, especially with the price increase in electricity, is now about six years. So for me, yes, it was worth it, especially because we now have backup power. So we don't need generators anymore or the generator can just be the backup of the backup. So it's very, very clean energy. And our grid-tied system, the one without a battery, cost us about Php400,000. So all in all, Php2,400,000. But I think it will all in all ROI in around, average, would be around five years. It depends on the inflation factors, the sun and everything. But if I were to recommend something to you, whether you choose the one with the battery or without, it would be a choice between how fast you want it to ROI. Of course, the battery is one of the most expensive components. Having a battery there gives you that backup power, makes sure that at night, this is what we'll also use, but the ROI will be slower especially with the battery. A battery can last about 7-10 years depending on the type of the battery. If we'll only talk about ROI, it would be better to just go for straight grid-tied. But it would be a little bit harder to get to zero bill, especially if you don't have a lot of roof space. So with earlier, we'll be able to use the one we talked about, the optimizer but that adds on to the cost. So typically, a grid-tied system, you can ROI in about four years, and again, the hybrid system would be around 6-7 years I would say. But then, you would have to replace the battery once it doesn't hold as much charge as it was when it was brand new. So I guess that's it. It really was down to your choice. For me, I want having the battery especially because where we are, there's always blackout, it happens about once a week and we don't feel it, we don't hear the noise, there's no smell, we don't need to maintain any gas or diesel. So it was very, very helpful for us and it's just a good, good feeling that every time you turn on the aircon, you know that we're using pure, clean energy here. So that one and the psychology of just, "Let's use the aircon; it's hot anyway. The sun is brightly shining." So that's one of the biggest factors. Of course, there's a big investment upfront but I truly, truly feel that it was worth it. And I also noticed that solar items, especially with solar panels, are on a downward trend when it comes to expense which is very, very positive for us, all of us in the future because it will make it more and more feasible for all of us. So I hope you liked this video. I hope I was able to help you with your decision. If I did, I was helpful, make sure to subscribe and I'll see you S-later! ...
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