I haven't been able to grow any of my chilli from seed. There's enough sunlight, there's enough heat, but they never seem to want to germinate!
I've got four rather healthy chilli plants though, I planted them in September or so last year, and I've gotten at last 6-7KG of chilli out of them so far.
We are rapidly approaching winter here in South Australia, so I hope that they will survive the morning frosts that my new area is likely to get (as I haven't spent a winter in this new home yet!)