How to slash your power bill using solar panels

OCEAN SPRINGS -- Inspired by the ever-rising cost of Mississippi Power Co.'s $6.64 billion Kemper County plant, one Ocean Springs man decided to consider solar power.

He did the research, added solar panels to his home and cut his power bill by one third.

And now he wants to share his experience so other people can consider adding solar power.

The homeowner is Bruce Duckett, a retired engineer, whose house overlooks Ocean Springs Harbor.

Duckett's power bill was an average of $46 a month when he built his home 30 years ago. Last year the average was $257 a month.

It was logical to assume his bill would continue to go up, he said, especially with the cost of the new Mississippi Power plant weighing on customers.

Solar panels give you "a little bit of independence, an edge," he told the Sun Herald.

He uses the savings to pay off the panels he bought with no money down, savings that just about matches the monthly finance note.

He says the process isn't complicated. Installation took one morning. The system consists of panels installed on his roof; inverters to convert the power from DC to the AC that his appliances need; and three extra boxes on the side of his house -- four if you include a new power meter.

Here is his personal how-to:

Getting started

"I did a lot of analysis before hand, because I'm an engineer and that's what we do," he said. "But the system we have is extremely simple."

His aim was to cut energy costs without too much expense or debt.

The end result: He had 19 solar panels installed on his south-facing roof. Those panels now cut the energy bill at his all-electric home by 25 to 35 percent, depending on the weather.

Duckett's premise: Keep it simple and you're more likely to try it. So that means no batteries for storing power. Just calculate what your power usage is and put your system on a give-and-take basis with the power company. That way you get the most value for your money, he says.

If you put in a bigger system, trying to wipe out your electrical bill, it will cost more money and frustration than he believes it's worth.

Duckett ran the numbers on his home's energy usage, found a website that helped him calculate the amount of kilowatt hours that 19 solar panels could be expected to produce at his location. He consulted a forum where electrical professionals and average people discussed installing solar systems on their homes and found invaluable help with every aspect of the process.

The bottom line is he saves between $65 and $75 a month on the power bill and pays about $80 a month to finance the solar panels for 12 years. As time goes by, and power rates go up, that gap will likely close, he said.

He paid nothing down for the system and took full advantage of federal tax credits and a rebate from the panel manufacturer.

This is what his wife Alice had to say:

"As long as the sun is shining, it creates enough power to run the house. It blows my mind. I'm sorry we didn't do it sooner."

Calculate your need

Mississippi Power sells power to homeowners for roughly 12 cents a kilowatt hour and buys it back for between 5 to 7 cents an hour, he said. So the way to get the optimum value for the panels is to replace all the 12-cent kilowatt hours you can in a day and don't worry as much about selling power back.

Selling back requires a separate cost analysis, and in order to buy back power that a home produces, Mississippi Power charges Duckett 53 cents a day for a meter that tracks what the home panels are producing, he explained.

With those added costs, Duckett believes the best avenue is to skip sell-back altogether and focus on matching home power needs with what your group of solar panels can produce.

Determine how much electricity you use each month in kilowatt hours, information that is on your monthly electric bill. (Power companies also provide that in annual amounts.) It varies monthly, but the solar installation company you choose will need these stats to help you determine how many solar panels you should invest in.

The time of year when you use the least amount of power is usually in the fall and spring. Duckett recommends aiming at replacing the lowest average power usage. You can always add panels later. While you're at it, get an energy audit and find ways to reduce the amount of electricity you use. Every little bit helps.

Once you know how many panels you need to produce power at a maximum benefit to you and no more, hire the firm and it will help you finance the project.

Find a firm

In the Mississippi Power coverage area, only about two dozen people have filled out an application and installed solar panels on their homes.

For anyone interested in joining this minority, Mississippi Power recommends using an installer who is certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners.

Customers are required to notify Mississippi Power, and the company will verify that the installation follows established procedures. This protects the electric grid as a whole, because if your solar power system is connected to your home electrical system, it is connected to the grid.

Duckett used Sun Pro Solar Home Specialists in Louisiana. He said there were only a handful of companies along the northern Gulf Coast who specialize in residential solar that were willing to travel to Ocean Springs for the job.

He said once they settled on the size of his system, the company supplied everything. On the installation day they began in the morning and by noon they were ready to flip the switch.

Sun Pro connected Duckett with a credit company that specializes in this type of lending -- Green Sky Credit.

Total cost of installation: $17,750. That includes a $50 fee to have an electrician pull the house meter while installers made the solar connection, and to put it back.

Green Sky set up two accounts. One is no-interest for a year that Duckett pays off when he receives the federal tax credit from his income tax return -- 30 percent of the cost of the system or $5,300. Duckett also got a $1,500 rebate from LG, the company that made his panels. The no-interest account fronted that amount until the rebate came in.

The second account is for the rest of the cost of the system, $10,950, paid off over 12 years at a little under 3 percent interest.

LG guarantees the system for 25 years.

The way Duckett sees it, he is paying a finance company what he would have been paying Mississippi Power, and he is getting money back that he would have been paying the federal government in taxes. If you don't use all the tax credit in one year, it carries over from year-to-year until it's used.

Extra equipment information

-- Solar panels produce kilowatt hours. But what they produce must be converted from DC or direct current to AC or alternating current so inverters are part of the equipment. Each panel gets an inverter.

-- If you choose the sell-back option, the main power meter will be changed to a bi-directional meter that costs about $15 a month. That meter runs one way when the house is using Mississippi Power's electricity and the other way when the house is selling power back to the company.

-- Solar required three extra boxes that Duckett lined up next to his home electric meter. One box logs the amount of energy his solar panels produce and relays the information to a website that Duckett and technicians with Sun Pro can check at any time. The second houses circuit breakers for the panels. The third box has a big switch that disconnects the panels from the house in case of fire or if work needs to be done on the panels.

-- During installation, a good contractor will place the panels on the roof, leaving room to allow firefighters to walk between the groups of panels, in case there is ever that need. They also attach the panels to the beams supporting the roof.

-- Duckett's insurance company covers his solar panels because they are attached to his house. His system qualifies for wind coverage, he said. But like any improvement to a house, it is subject to the hurricane deductible.

-- The ideal location for panels is on a south-facing roof. East and west roofs are not quite as good, but you can still make it work, Duckett said.

-- It's a no-maintenance system, he said. In the South, with all the rain, you don't even have to wash off the panels.

-- For the tax credit, you need Form 5695 Residential Energy Credit form.

This story was originally published March 6, 2016 at 8:54 PM with the headline "How to slash your power bill using solar panels ."