PV Gap

Courtney Said:

can my electric company Monitor how much energy i am using if i have solar panels?

We Answered:

Sort of. You may not be using the power at the same time the panels are producing the power. If you are away during the day, hopefully only your fridge is running, so you are producing more than you are using. The bi-directional meter will be spinning backwards, showing that you are pushing power out to the grid. At night, when you turn on the lights, TV, computer, etc, you'll be using more than you are producing, (which is nothing, it's dark), so your meter will be spinning forwards. At the end of the month, they will charge you for what you used, and credit you for what you sold. Ultimately it will end up you pay for 250kwh, but they know that you used more than that and your meter spun backwards at times. However, because they won't know how much your fridge used during the day when you were producing, they won't have an exact figure of how much you made/used.