The time has come. You can make money while enjoying your time at home. How is that possible? Let me explain that by keeping the long story short. These days the world moves towards environmental sustainability. To reach that, people all over the world make changes to their lifestyles. One of the shifts that they go for is switching from fossil fuels to renewable resources like solar energy. Exemplifying solar power is not by accident as it is the most consumed and wanted a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels today. Besides, as soon as the solar panel installation takes place, financial & environmental benefits start coming, and net metering is on top of the list.
What Is Net Metering?
Basically, net metering is a billing scheme according to which you get the possibility of selling power back to the grid at the retail price. The solar panel system has the property of generating excess energy due to the abundance of sunlight that it captures. A piece from the system, the solar panel battery, either stores it for later use upon demand, or the energy gets sent back to the electric grid for income. And here it is when we need net metering. Believe it or not, when you sell the excess energy back to the grid, your electrical meter starts running backward. As a result, at the end of each billing cycle, you pay the electricity bill according to the purchase-sales formula. Here, if sales exceed purchases, congratulations, you earn money! If we dig deeper, we will realize that we can zero out the electricity bill with net metering, which is a great advantage in such a costly market.
How Does Net Metering Function?
Prior to discussing the functioning of the net metering scheme, let me give you a hint for your solar journey: monitor the electricity consumption as it is the key to accumulation in savings. Net metering will definitely help you do that. The solar power system works at maximum efficiency during the afternoon. That time of the day is considered to be a working period for most people, which means that power remains unconsumed. During mornings, when people are at home and excessively consume electricity, the sun is still efficient but not equitable to afternoons. Let’s not even talk about evenings – no sun. For such an inequity between consumption periods and efficiency times, net metering comes in handy. It balances energy usage and efficiency periods according to the daily routine of the family. At low times of energy usage, the energy gets sent back to the grid, while at peak times, in the case of power lack, the electricity gets consumed directly from the grid. Turns out, you constantly go back and forth if net metering is there, which, at the end of the day, brings you the advantage of covering periods of lacking electricity and getting money for that at each billing period.
What Are The Benefits of Net Metering?
As already understood from the concept, net metering brings you multiple benefits:
- You get more independence from the electric grid. Thanks to that, you eliminate the possible loss of electricity during the distribution and transmission of power on long distances.
- You save money. This is a huge benefit because you not only start saving money, but you consume the needed amount of electricity by doing that.
- You get the opportunity of creating clean energy for your household and the neighborhood.
Remember that the system sends excess energy back to the grid if unconsumed. At that time, anyone in need of electricity can get power from the grid.
Final Note
Let’s live a sustainable life. Let’s care for the environment. Let’s save.