• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

Who's gone Solar

10% system upgrade is acceptable, iirc...somewhere in this thread I believe.
 
Seems like PGE would have a way to tell if you were suddenly pumping more juice into their system. Probably something in the smart meter that rats you out?
 
As we will be getting Solar, but I don't think changing out the very nice 3 year old gas stove and cooktop makes any sense, we just picked up a Breville 800XL countertop convection oven which outside of holidays, will be all the oven we really need.

It will fit a fill sized ready pan, (ie. can cook a lasagna in one that feeds 8 at least), my wife will cook here weekly bread loaf in there and we can pretty much cook anything the two of use need in there during the year. Bonus is in the summer it won't super heat the kitchen.

My wife always wanted a second oven and this fits the bill for $216.

We cook all of our chickens/steaks/roasts and whatnot on the gas BBQ anyway.

So far it looks like a great decision so the idea of spending over 2 grand to replace the oven with an electric one with induction cooktop once solar is installed is off the table.

https://www.amazon.com/Breville-BOV...=breville+the+smart+oven+800xl,aps,149&sr=8-1
 
needles said:
Can you add new panels w/o a NEM change under the radar? Does the gateway talk to PGE or the vendor that then talks to PGE? Or can you swap out lower density panels for more efficient ones?
Click to expand...

Well, I called PG&E and asked, and they confirmed. 10% is fine, but anything higher and you need to sign a new contract (under the latest tariff.) I asked them how they check and the lady was like, I dunno how our engineers do it. I suspect they aren't checking at all.

If you want to be completely safe about it, I guess you'd want to make sure you never send into the grid more than your rated size + 10%. I have a pool pump so, for instance, can easily chew up a constant 1 kw all day long, that would never hit the meter.
 
PG&E cannot tell from their end that you added more panels, other than your bill got lower. The reasons can be many - "got rid of" hot tub, electric range, water heater, electric heat/AC etc....it's all been done via conservation!

I've never heard of someone expanding and being questioned about it.

If you have are going to have solar on your home the best way to heat water is with elec. and about 1-2 kW of PV. Heat pumps offer the best efficiency, However, recouping the high upfront cost is very difficult when it only costs about $4,000 to power a conventional tank type forever. Then you save about $1,000 on unit cost. The added benefit is that when you have a tank full the extra PV now goes to credits.
 
bojangle said:
...
Click to expand...


Latest from Elon and gang...

Hi Thomas,

You may have received a communication from Pacific Gas & Electric regarding incomplete solar applications in their interconnection portal. This is a standard communication for any and all applications in process, it is not an indication of the status of your current application for California's Net Energy Metering 2 program.

You will receive confirmation from us if we were able to enroll you in NEM2.


Best Regards,
The Tesla Team
 
Anyone see the news today about PG&E rates? Oh yeah, they've figured out how to give it to all these solar install owners high and hard. What's that, NEM2 agreement you say? Ha. OK. Well, we'll just tack on a means-tested flat fee (for something) to everyone who has a meter. Oh, it'll be great - don't worry. We'll offer lower rates as an offset (well, at least we won't jack them up at 13% a year anymore).

They SUCK!

https://www.pgecurrents.com/article...sparency-stability-advance-clean-energy-goals
 
PG&E is no different than any other mega corp fueled by profit motivation. The real pig here is the CPUC that may allow gouging on the citizens they are supposed to be protecting, not utility profits.
 
TwistedGRAY said:
Latest from Elon and gang...

Hi Thomas,

You may have received a communication from Pacific Gas & Electric regarding incomplete solar applications in their interconnection portal. This is a standard communication for any and all applications in process, it is not an indication of the status of your current application for California's Net Energy Metering 2 program.

You will receive confirmation from us if we were able to enroll you in NEM2.


Best Regards,
The Tesla Team
Click to expand...

I got the same email. I never did receive communication from PG&E regarding incomplete solar applications in their interconnection portal though. I checked my junk mail folder to see if I missed something but I couldn't find anything.

The deadline is up.

My Tesla Account says "Permit: Submitted We're now obtaining a permit for installation from your building department. We'll let you know once it's been approved."

Hopefully I'm all good with NEM2, and installation will be coming soon.

I'm kinda pissed off about their latest trick to screw over solar customers with this flat rate bullshit. The useless PUC always rubber stamps everything utilities want. But I guess that discussion is for the separate thread.
 
Best thing any of us can do is to cut the cord. Either throw money at it, or change usage, or some combination thereof.
 
You're so insensitive, a monster really.
 
congrats to all who got solar recently. I hope it works out for you well.

I just passed my 2 year anniversary with having solar. My monitor reports 27.5 MWh generated. Using a fairly conservative 0.40/kWh for transmission + generation fees, I saved ~$11k. With the federal rebate, I am now well over 60% ROI in 2 years.
 
Bowling4Bikes said:
congrats to all who got solar recently. I hope it works out for you well.

I just passed my 2 year anniversary with having solar. My monitor reports 27.5 MWh generated. Using a fairly conservative 0.40/kWh for transmission + generation fees, I saved ~$11k. With the federal rebate, I am now well over 60% ROI in 2 years.
Click to expand...

:thumbup
 
Bowling4Bikes said:
congrats to all who got solar recently. I hope it works out for you well.

I just passed my 2 year anniversary with having solar. My monitor reports 27.5 MWh generated. Using a fairly conservative 0.40/kWh for transmission + generation fees, I saved ~$11k. With the federal rebate, I am now well over 60% ROI in 2 years.
Click to expand...

Congrats, it's a great feeling knowing you're screwing over PG&E :laughing

Of course PG&E in turn is boning everyone who doesn't have solar. It's an interesting game right now where there are very clear winners and losers, and attacks by all sides to move things toward their advantage. I thought batteries would be the next move as NEM contracts expire and PG&E tries to take advantage of TOU. But the fixed grid fee is coming on far quicker than anyone imagined - maybe the next step is batteries and you just tell PG&E to disconnect you during most of the year when the solar array can do 100% of your needs :laughing

I'm at year 7 so already have deeply positive ROI from solar.
 
Last edited:
I have my site inspection for my tesla battery today. Between to panels and the battery it's going to be an expensive project but, if I ever want to retire this is a good first step. When you look at 10 years ago, now and forecast 10 years into the future the price of everything was, is and will be crazy.
 
westie said:
I have my site inspection for my tesla battery today. Between to panels and the battery it's going to be an expensive project but, if I ever want to retire this is a good first step. When you look at 10 years ago, now and forecast 10 years into the future the price of everything was, is and will be crazy.
Click to expand...

Good luck; mine is on the 17th.

Hoping to have it up and running by fall.
 
I just got notified by Tesla that local permits were approved. Now I'm just wait for them to schedule installation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top