It's a pretty big house, we use quite a bit of energy. We've got two reverse cycle air conditioning units, and a pool with a self-cleaning system that runs two pumps. So we use a fair bit of power. Typically in peak periods, we were using about $1200 to $1,500 of electricity a quarter, which obviously adds up over the year. So I was looking for a way to reduce that bill. Peak time was summer for us, because that's when obviously the air conditioning is getting used the most, and the pool's running for about eight hours a day on the filter. So that was probably the peak period. We do have gas as well, which we use for some heating. So it was more of the summer period. Probably noticed that when we got the pool put in, that wasn't in when we first moved in. So as I said with the self-cleaning, it does use two pumps. So I noticed a spike after that, which made me start to get interested. Well, the cost savings was probably the first thing. Using that much electricity adds up, so I was looking for a way to reduce the costs and produce my own.
It's been fantastic. It's nice to get a few bills that are credit. Never seen an electricity bill with a credit in my life. I think the first seven bills, because we get billed monthly now on a smart metre, they were all credit. I had a couple of bills now where I've had to pay some money, but during summer when you're using so much power, I think that's to be expected. So I've had it in about nine months now. It'll be interesting to see how that balances out over a full 12 month period, but the performance has been fantastic. Some days I've had the system producing up to I think 90 kilowatts in a day, which is just phenomenal.
How did a high quality solar power system reduce the running costs of a family swimming pool?
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