The most important step is that you have to make sure that your solar company will be in charge of installation, installing metering device, and to connect solar photovoltaic system with the grid. Solar company invoice you have to pay should have the prices of these tasks and all relevant works. However, in general, the electricity company will supply such solar energy meter and install or supervise on its installation.
After installing the solar energy meter, your solar photovoltaic system is ready to run and produce electricity.
One of substantial financial saving we can get from solar photovoltaic system is to make what we called "load shift". It means to shift electrical power usage from night times to daylight times in where the sun is shining and the solar system generates such free electricity. We strongly recommend to run your high power equipment in day light time, like dish washer, clothes washer, pool pump, dryers, water heater, electric heater, electric cars, etc. By this way you can make big financial saving and avoid paying high electricity bill to the electric utility. Also, it is worth to pay your attention to using timer to achieve smoothly operation of such equipment to daylight hours, it will be very helpful way to avoid the forgetting.
Make your solar system installer from the beginning aware that he will be responsible for making all electrical connection especially the electricity meter and getting all approvals required by your electricity retailer "power grid"and to insert costs of these works in your quote. Actually this process varies from state to another and from country to another.
You have to get a clear date to start and finish your solar system installation from the solar company.
Make sure that your solar company contacts the electricity retailer "power grid"to arrange procedures for the new electricity meter installation.
That is the common setup system, its connected to the power grid, the electricity generated from solar will be first used to run your loads "equipment/appliances", and if there will be surplus electricity generation, it will exported to the power grid, and your power retailer will pay you for it (approx. 6-30 cent per kWh), and if the solar generation is not sufficient or not operating (night), electricity will be imported automatically from your retailer and you will pay for it at the end of the month.
Generally, in hybrid system, the batteries capacity will not be large, so it’s not sufficient to run the whole system in case of grid shutdown, but it will be able to run certain appliances with dedicated “separate” circuits after disconnecting the home from the grid, so you should specify these certain appliances like important medical equipment or fridge, etc. to your solar system designer at design stage.
There are two main types of solar batteries in the market; Lead acid and lithium. Although adding such batteries to the solar system will add extra significant expenses on solar system price, but it has much benefits; It will reduce our electricity bill, and we will be independent of the grid keeping our equipment work in case of grid interruption, and this is critical high value benefit in places/areas prone to grid blackout or even has no connectivity with the grid, and specially for some kinds of sensitive equipment like fridges, freezers, and medical equipment.
The solar photovoltaic system power generation in sunny day is approx. 4-5 times the cloudy day, so we need to delay operating our big power capacity appliances, like dryer, washing machine, and dish washer in cloudy day to the next sunny day. In general, when solar generation is low then do Not run all your appliances at the same time, and delay those which can be delayed without harming your lifestyle to the next sunny day, in order to avoid purchasing electricity from your local grid and pay more for your electricity bill. So, please do your jobs in sequence rather than doing them simultaneously.
Also, for your Air conditioner, you can pre-heat or pre-cool your home at daylight time, so stored heat or cool on your home wall will provide a comfortable whether in the evening. This way can save you much money compared to the Air conditioner regular operating time from 5pm To 9pm when usually the household returned back to home.
