Put simply, net metering is a utility billing mechanism available in most provinces that offer credit to residential and business customers who are making excess electricity with their solar panel systems and sending it back to the grid.
When you have a rooftop solar system, it can often generate more electricity than you consume during daylight hours.
With net metering, the homeowner is only billed for the “net” energy used each month, that is, the difference between the energy produced by the solar power system and the energy consumed by the house over the monthly billing period.
When your house or business is net-metered, you’ll see the meter run backward, and that means, depending upon local policies, you may get a credit to hedge against the electricity you use from the grid when it’s not sunny or at nighttime. You are then billed only for your “net” energy use. The excess energy generated gets put back to the grid for your neighbors to use
Net metering can save homeowners hundreds of dollars on their utility bills every year, so it’s a good reason to make the money-saving choice and go solar sooner rather than later.
There are panels that are used to collect the sun’s energy. Once the initial energy is collected it is then sent to a solar inverter which then sends the power to a battery inverter.
From there it will use energy to power electronics that are in your home. In the end, whatever green energy is created and is not used goes to the battery bank. This is a personal battery that saves power for the home to use at night or on days that are cloudy and overcast.
The off-grid systems rely on a battery to save all the power created just for that one household or building. An on-grid solar system is the opposite.
Any power that is created by that home or buildings solar panels is sent to an electricity grid where anyone who is also connected to that same grid can use that energy
It can minimize carbon footprint, just like any other renewable energy sources (like wind turbines, geothermal power sources, and many others).
This system will help you save on electricity costs.
The off-grid solar system design can act as a storage for energy (like batteries) to be later used as backup power for houses.