80% of the Residents Living in Homes with Photovoltaic Systems Pay No Energy Bill

Keywords:　Manufacturing industry　NGO / Citizen　Renewable Energy　

Housing Company, part of the Sekisui Chemical Group, released on February 23, 2012, the results of its survey on residents' photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems. The residents kept trying to conserve electricity after the East Japan Great Earthquake, and the capacity of PV power generation systems was increased. Consequently, the ratio of households with no payment for utilities reached 80% in 2011, a 7 point increase from previous year's survey.

The target respondents were the residents who started to live in the Sekisui-brand house in 2010, which is equipped with an all-electric system (energy source of cooking, hot-water supply and heating are provided by electricity) and a PV power generation system. The survey asked about electricity charges and electric generating capacity in 2011. The company received valid responses from 1,385 residents.

The average PV system capacity increased to 4.64 kilowatts (kW) from 4.4 kW in the previous year. The annual amount of generated electricity was 5180 kW, and 1450 kWh was consumed in each house and 3730 kWh was sold as private surplus electricity. The sales amount of surplus electricity exceeded the purchase of electricity by 66,000 yen (about US $804.8) for the year on average. In particular, the residents living in the four prefectures of Miyazaki, Kagawa, Oita and Mie earned over 100,000 yen (about US $1219.5) from surplus electricity sales.

Eighty-one percent of respondents answered that "the lifestyle changed after introduction of a PV system." The stated good points of PV system were, in descending order: "saving on utility costs," "becoming more aware of energy saving," "looking forward to checking the amount of generated electricity and the weather."

Sekisui Chemical Achieves Record with Home Photovoltaic Installations (Related JFS article)

Rise in Awareness of Electricity Conservation, Home Solar Power Systems Seen after Earthquake in Japan (Related JFS article)

Posted: 2012/06/03 06:00:15 AM