Who's gone Solar

[GAJ]

We have 20 x 400 watt panels.

Here is their production per day on average.

KWHR PER DAY PRODUCED BY​	​	​	​
EACH 400 WATT PANEL​	​	​	​
AUGUST​	2023​	2.2​	​
SEPTEMBER​	2023​	1.7​	​
OCTOBER​	2023​	1.3​	​
NOVEMBER​	2023​	0.8​	​
DECEMBER​	2023​	0.5​	​
JANUARY​	2024​	0.6​	​
FEBRUARY​	2024​	0.9​	​
MARCH​	2024​	1.4​	​
APRIL​	2024​	1.9​	​
MAY​	2024​	2.2​	​
JUNE​	2024​	2.2​	​
JULY​	2024​	2.2​	mtd​

 

[westie]

True up bill came. A little, I emphasize little, better than I thought. mlm pgne.

 

[GAJ]

True up bill came. A little, I emphasize little, better than I thought. mlm pgne.

Ugh, waiting for mine.

Should be near zero.

 

[mean dad]

I s'pose I should go look at some numbers at some point but honestly there's no freakin way I'm not coming out ahead on this deal.

 

[GAJ]

I s'pose I should go look at some numbers at some point but honestly there's no freakin way I'm not coming out ahead on this deal.

Very odd.

Versus last year, not even taking into account the increases since then, we are save $300/month on a $26k system.

 

[mean dad]

I'm not sure what the odd part is?
I haven't looked at any numbers to compare anything but I'm quite confident I am coming out ahead so far on the cost of my solar panels versus the cost of electricity.. I may not have been clear but I'm not even worried about looking up numbers because I'm confident in the investment.

 

[GAJ]

I'm not sure what the odd part is?
I haven't looked at any numbers to compare anything but I'm quite confident I am coming out ahead so far on the cost of my solar panels versus the cost of electricity.. I may not have been clear but I'm not even worried about looking up numbers because I'm confident in the investment.

Sorry, I misread what you said.

PGE ensures an ever shrinking payback on our NEM2 systems bless their little hearts.

They're looking out for us but we both no, in time, they'll get Newsom to pull the rug out at least part way yet again.

 

[mean dad]

It infuriates me that solar panel owners are contributing to the overall capacity of the electric grid but we're being penalized.
I'm installing an air conditioning system to my central heating this fall, then I'll invest in battery storage to somewhat insulate myself from power outages.

 

[GAJ]

It infuriates me that solar panel owners are contributing to the overall capacity of the electric grid but we're being penalized.
I'm installing an air conditioning system to my central heating this fall, then I'll invest in battery storage to somewhat insulate myself from power outages.

That NEVER gets mentioned when talking about how solar buyers are gaming the system and giving nothing in return.

I calculated once how many gas powered plants would be needed to replace the energy we produce and the investment would be huge, in the billions.

How much solar energy do US homes produce?

Small-scale solar energy production grew at its fastest rate ever in 2022.

usafacts.org

In 2022, California homes produced more solar energy than any other state, producing 23 million megawatt hours (23000 gigawatts). This was enough electricity to power approximately 2 million homes.

 

[bojangle]

It infuriates me that solar panel owners are contributing to the overall capacity of the electric grid but we're being penalized.
I'm installing an air conditioning system to my central heating this fall, then I'll invest in battery storage to somewhat insulate myself from power outages.

Not that I'm sympathetic to PG&E, because I'm not, but there are challenges with a utility accepting a lot of solar from customers. There is a huge surge of energy in the middle of the day that provides more energy than is used by all users. So what happens to the rest of it? Currently, PG&E has some large battery storage areas, but not nearly enough. Then, in the evenings, when usage surges and solar output drops, they have to deal with that too.

 

[bojangle]

Ugh, waiting for mine.

Should be near zero.

I will be owing right around $56 for my true up.

 

[byke]

Current is drawn and not pushed, so for home contributions to the grid, if it's not drawn from the grid, then homes aren't providing it. And for a source, something like hydroelectric, then the turbines would presumably spin more freely with less magnetic load when homes are contributing to the needs of the grid.

 

[ctwo]

We have 20 x 400 watt panels.

Here is their production per day on average.

KWHR PER DAY PRODUCED BY​	​	​	​
EACH 400 WATT PANEL​	​	​	​
AUGUST​	2023​	2.2​	​
SEPTEMBER​	2023​	1.7​	​
OCTOBER​	2023​	1.3​	​
NOVEMBER​	2023​	0.8​	​
DECEMBER​	2023​	0.5​	​
JANUARY​	2024​	0.6​	​
FEBRUARY​	2024​	0.9​	​
MARCH​	2024​	1.4​	​
APRIL​	2024​	1.9​	​
MAY​	2024​	2.2​	​
JUNE​	2024​	2.2​	​
JULY​	2024​	2.2​	mtd​

OK, are you selling these? How much?

 

[GAJ]

Not that I'm sympathetic to PG&E, because I'm not, but there are challenges with a utility accepting a lot of solar from customers. There is a huge surge of energy in the middle of the day that provides more energy than is used by all users. So what happens to the rest of it? Currently, PG&E has some large battery storage areas, but not nearly enough. Then, in the evenings, when usage surges and solar output drops, they have to deal with that too.

Under Nem 3 PGE's logic to homeowners is "buy a damned battery."

Perhaps they should ramp that up as well.

Seems like and obvious solution but by doing that they undercut their argument that it is "unfair."

 

[GAJ]

OK, are you selling these? How much?

No, got them from Sunpower which has been crushed to near extinction by their, evidently, over betting on California as a market.

 

[GAJ]

We've had solar exactly one year tomorrow.

We have saved $296 per month on our bill; average bill, gas and electric is $69, mostly gas and fixed charges.

Very happy we did it.

 

[blrmaker]

Our house is getting closer to completion, well at least dried in. The roof went on last week.
So that being said, the following is where I am at equipment wise on setting the new home as a 100% home back up with export to grid.

2@EG4 18kpv inverters already purchased.

52@Silfab 380W panels for array #1 are purchased. Array #1 goes on top of an equipment shed that is not erected yet but the footing will be poured this week however I did pull the wire from the house 260' to the equipment shed footer.

31@Solever 410W panels for array #2 which will be on top of the garage. Before the roof went on I ran a conduit to the garage roof and left it with pull tape so when I get the panels up, I can pull the wire directly.

Array #3 is probably at least a year off so nothing purchased or installed prior to completion of the house.

We have been working with the old school electrician to add the additional fuse panels and 3 way switch required.

I still need to purchase all of the racking for both array 1 and array 2 but should start ordering parts soon.

 

[GAJ]

Just got my bill for our one year of having solar and they billed me $26 for "true up" despite sending them an excess of 2155 kw/hr of electricity over the year.

Zero chance one could figure out if that true up amount is legit or not so I'm not going to bother.

Based on a simple this year vs last year we saved $290/month on our power bill, (gas and electric as we shifted some use from gas to electric so looing at the total makes sense) with a payout on investment of 6.8 years.

That payout is actually lower as rates are already 17 percent greater now than last July.

So, knowing the above would I invest an extra $10k today under Nem3 which requires a battery to make any sense and reduce True Up costs?

Yes, yes I would for the simple reason that, without question, rates will continue to rise at a double digit rate year over year moving forward.

EDIT: We used now bankrupt (thanks Gavin) Sunpower and are happy so we'd likely have to look at Sunrun today via Costco.

 

[Lights_Guy3]

Half of one of my solar systems was malfunctioning for 6 months-ish so my production was disappointingly low, but still did pretty good for the year.

They got 6mWh out of me and yet PGE still found a way to net 82$.

What a racket.

 

[GAJ]

So for the first month I have year over year production numbers and I'm down 12 percent production per panel so think I'm going to have them cleaned professionally.

Are you down year over year assuming your panels were clean last year and not so clean this year?