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advrider
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Solar
How many have solar in the US? With the rise in PG&E, I've been thinking more about it. What's the good bad and need to know? I'm in Nor Cal,
outside of Sacramento if that helps. I don't know much but love the set up on my trailer so maybe the house next?
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RFClark
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Registered: 8-27-2015
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Mood: Looking forward to 2024
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Questions to answer:
Does your electric bill average $200 - $300 per month?
Does your county give a property tax break for solar panels
Can you mount them so they face south?
Do you live where there are CC&Rs that cover solar systems?
Definitely buy them if the above works out for you. Do not do a buy back agreement for the energy.
Shop around you should be able to buy 5KW of solar for about $15K installed. Unless you have a tile or slate roof!
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AKgringo
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Location: Anchorage, AK (no mas!)
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I am in Grass Valley, not too far from you. Solar would not make sense for me because my electricity only runs 35 to 40 dollars a month.
It is an old house without air-conditioning, but I get by with a swamp cooler or fans during really hot hours.
In order to make much use of solar panels, I would need to remove the shade trees that make the house livable without air conditioning.
If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space!
"Could do better if he tried!" Report card comments from most of my grade school teachers. Sadly, still true!
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advrider
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Our PG&E bill is heading South of $300 dollars a month with no end in sight. We use the AC but we don't crank it up like an ice box. I have been
doing a bit of welding so that doesn't help. No regulations or HOA'S to worry about. I might need to get some prices.
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mtgoat666
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Location: San Diego
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Net metering 2.0 ends in 2022. Net metering 3.0 replaces it in 2023. If you can, get on 2.0.
Maybe time to apply for 2.0. Get 3 bids from reputable vendors.
P.s. best source of info on contractors is your neighbors with solar. Also, read the forums at solarpaneltalk. Good place to nerd out and read too
much info
[Edited on 8-25-2022 by mtgoat666]
Woke!
“...ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America
will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
Prefered gender pronoun: the royal we
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WestyWanderer
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Registered: 10-24-2014
Location: San Clemente, CA
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We live in San Clemente (south Orange County) and had solar put in about a year ago. 5.11kW system on a slate roof plus an upgraded 220 amp panel was
$12,723.90. After the Uncle Sam rebate on our taxes we paid about $9,400. It’s been great for us, very happy we did it.
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Ateo
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Went with Sunrun thru Costco. Financing them over the next 20 years. My bill should be fixed at $155/month for the next 20 years. They're
installing this month. Let you know how it goes. So far it's been easy and of course the company's handled everything (plans, permitting).
We don't use much A/C in Oceanside.....
Our SDG&E bill exploded in January this year so that helped us change directions and go solar.
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BajaNomad
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Thread Moved
8-26-2022 at 12:35 AM |
advrider
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Good info everyone, I'm going to start doing some checking in my local area. I know there are still some good rebates out there.
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BajaBruno
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Registered: 9-6-2006
Location: Back in CA
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I live near you, east of Sacramento in the foothills. My summer PG&E bill was running over $300. I mail ordered a 4.6kw system to my specs (14
Panasonic panels, Enphase microinverters with the IQ combiner). I got a local guy to install it. I didn't expect it to eliminate my bill, but it has
for the most part.
It has 24 hour monitoring (WiFi) and I can log into the Enphase website at any time and see exactly how much power I am generating and using with a
tally for how much I uploaded to the grid. Enphase monitors it and can download firmware updates or correct any problems automatically. There is no
fee for that.
It's a nice system and I wish I had done it years ago. Total cost was about $14k, I think, but you can get a system for less without all the whistles
and bells. It will take a while to break even, but I don't really care. I just hate giving money to stinking PG&E.
Christopher Bruno, Elk Grove, CA.
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TMW
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Location: Bakersfield, CA
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I've had solar since 2019 and my PG&E bill is usually under $25 except summer time it's $0. The largest I've had was $50 last winter.
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advrider
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BajaBruno, wow! Thats well worth it. I might contact you for more info.
TMW, any more info on yours. Company, cost and size age of your house.
Also looking to do a small system for our off-grid summer cabin, simple easy, small load/draw.
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steve5555
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Location: Jamul, CA
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I have an offered system at my remote property. I went with Renolgy on amazon. They make plug and play kits that work very well. Im on year 4.
Just add batteries and mount the panels in some manner. Mine is 400watt of panels with 4 big RV batteries. It works well for me but my needs up
there are small.
steve
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steve5555
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Im no expert but I recently came across a process that I thought was innovative. Don't buy solar, rather buy energy battery systems (like tesla power
wall). Change your PGE billing to time of use. Use the power wall to power your house when energy is expensive and then suck power from the grid
when it is cheap.
Down here in San Diego the expensive power is higher than $0.5/KWhr and you can get the cheapest power at around $.10/kwhr.
I saw someone do a youtube on that scheme and it seemed to pencil out as cost effective. I dont have personal experience though. it wasn't an option
when I put in my 36 panels.
steve
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advrider
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steve5555, how big is your off-grid place? What kind of draw/appliances do you have? We are looking at a very simple cabin system with 12v led strip
lights and an inverter to run a coffee maker or such? We have a generator but only run it for power tools.
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mtgoat666
Select Nomad
Posts: 17295
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
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Quote: Originally posted by steve5555  | Im no expert but I recently came across a process that I thought was innovative. Don't buy solar, rather buy energy battery systems (like tesla power
wall). Change your PGE billing to time of use. Use the power wall to power your house when energy is expensive and then suck power from the grid
when it is cheap.
Down here in San Diego the expensive power is higher than $0.5/KWhr and you can get the cheapest power at around $.10/kwhr.
I saw someone do a youtube on that scheme and it seemed to pencil out as cost effective. I dont have personal experience though. it wasn't an option
when I put in my 36 panels.
steve |
Does it comply with code? You probably have to disconnect from distribution system when on battery power.
Woke!
“...ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America
will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
Prefered gender pronoun: the royal we
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WestyWanderer
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Posts: 276
Registered: 10-24-2014
Location: San Clemente, CA
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| Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666 | | Quote: Originally posted by steve5555 | Im no expert but I recently came across a process that I thought was innovative. Don't buy solar, rather buy energy battery systems (like tesla power
wall). Change your PGE billing to time of use. Use the power wall to power your house when energy is expensive and then suck power from the grid
when it is cheap.
Down here in San Diego the expensive power is higher than $0.5/KWhr and you can get the cheapest power at around $.10/kwhr.
I saw someone do a youtube on that scheme and it seemed to pencil out as cost effective. I dont have personal experience though. it wasn't an option
when I put in my 36 panels.
steve |
Does it comply with code? You probably have to disconnect from distribution system when on battery power. |
Yes it’s all above board. You can set your system to draw from battery power only from A certain time to a certain time. For SDGE super on-peak time
is 4-9 pm, costs are dramatically higher during those periods. If you were to charge your batteries during super off-peak and then drain them during
super on-peak it would definitely save you move.
With that being said, you’d need a serious amount of battery power if you plan to run your AC at all during those times, especially in conjunction
with the rest of your home.
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RFClark
Super Nomad
Posts: 2331
Registered: 8-27-2015
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Mood: Looking forward to 2024
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We had a 5th wheel with 1KW of solar panels and 6KW of batteries. Until we sold it we ran a 0 to grid inverter back into our electrical service during
the evening peak charge period. We saved $40 or so a month off our electric bill. We also saved because we had the electric car charging rate over
night. This meant we could also dry cloths and do dishes on the same service rate.
I drove our Spark Electric car about 90 miles each way to work on about $10 worth of electricity vs $25 worth of gas in my Rogue AWD. Also I saved on
not changing the oil in the Spark.
The IRS allowed the same per mile deduction for EVs as for gas vehicles so another big savings there.
Do the math! We saved $500+ a month between gas and electricity plus the milage deduction.
I’m “Green” ($$$$) and Conservative too!
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BajaMama
Super Nomad
Posts: 1106
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Location: Pleasanton/Punta Chivato
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Mood: Got Baja fever!!
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Steve, you're a genius!
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JDCanuck
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The answer to all those brownouts may be subsidizing batteries rather than the electric cars, as the beneficiaries of the subsidies appears to be
manufacturers rather than buyers. Encourage the users to fund the grid stabilization by installing their own batteries.
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RFClark
Super Nomad
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JD
Tesla has started a virtual power-plant in California it’s users will be able to sell power back to the grid operator during peak demand situations
for $2/KWH.
https://www.tesla.com/support/energy/powerwall/own/tesla-pge...
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