On Monday last week we were able to complete the first major piece of work on our journey to becoming carbon negative: our photovoltaic system was installed.

We have 10 panels on our north-facing roof for a combined capacity of 2.75kW. The power company estimates that we will generate an average of between 5.62 – 11.82kWh electricity per day, as per the table below:

Based on our electricity bills, our daily generation will either cover or surpass our daily usage. This means that we will be either carbon neutral or carbon negative for our electricity consumption throughout the year. The electricity that we don’t use will be exported to the grid, which will help the it to reduce its emissions by a tiny amount too.

The electrical inspector came by on Tuesday this week and turned on the system for us. We still need to sort out the changes to our electricity plan so that we are paid for what we export to the grid, but from the environmental perspective we are done. We got dressed up, we went out, and we celebrated.

If you’re playing along at home…

…have you installed solar panels? Please share in the comments below how much of your electricity usage you were able to generate yourself.