Residential Solar

My system is really starting to produce as the equinox gets closer. Outside of delivery fees which are around $7 in NJ, last month should be the last electric bill I will have.

 

I saw the "credits expired" section on your bill so I would assume you are correct.

 

A little food for thought for folks that have net metering available: Connecticut in particular allows it- and until recently we had fairly high electric rates. Now we have seriously high rates. Bordering on the ridiculous. Supply rates when from about 12.5 cents a kwh to nearly 25 cents a kwh. The increase frankly is absurd. However the absurdity gets even better, any surplus from the net metering is bought at 1 cent per kwh. So now you'd pay 25 times more than what they'd pay. Which - whatever big corporations screw over the little guy- who's surprised?
I'm no math whiz but ask we run a surplus year in and year out- and it covers our hook up fee- the monthly rate we're charged for being hooked up to the wires, that means we're productive to a manner that far exceeds our usage. To me, this means I should (and have been) increasing my electric usage to the extent that to be perfect I should move things over to electric so that I'm roughly paying the hook up fee otherwise I'm not realizing the full return on my investment.
As it is- and I've beat this drum too many times on this site in some other threads, we've purchased a plug in hybrid 4 years ago, went with a battery lawn mower, electric saw / snowblower and a few other things. The latest upgrade was to go to a whole house central air / heat pump system.

If I'm making an egregious error in my math I hope someone points it out but by carrying this surplus I'm loosing out 25:1 on my electrical generation. Miser that I am by nature I want to squeeze every last penny I can our of the investment, and being paid 1 penny per kwh we produce, the irony isn't lost on me.

Buddy of mine was saying he's considering going solar and was getting quotes and whatnot- asked me as an aside if I remember what I paid when I got it done. Told him and he choked on his beer. Costs today are practically double what I paid out of pocket. But guess what.... so are electric bills. Its nuts.

 

Maine pays NOTHING for excess power generation, the utility will gladly take it though.

Costs are up but panels today are substantially more productive than they were just a few years ago. Apples to apples would be $/Kw.

Most definitely max out your electricity usage if they are only paying you 1 cent per kWH. Maybe a better way to think about your cost and how much you are losing by producing more than you use is to divide the total cost of the system by the projected production over the life of the array to get your cost per kWH

 

My overage I can credit to my mother's or sister's account or get cash and they pay retail rates for credits. How long retail rates will last, who knows but I'll take it. So I can still be frugal and live like a native using only what I need as I might keep an insignificant amount of coal and natural gas in the ground. ANd if not mine, someone else's. Why eat the whole pie when you only need a slice. The rest can go to someone(s) who needs it. There must be some passages in the Bible about gluttony.

 

Doing a quick Google, I found that CT PUC has rules in force not to allow homeowners to make money. Residentials can size up if they are planning electric expansion, but if they don't do that, then there is a penalty (by reducing the amount paid). Good, bad or indifferent, that is your PUC (which is a state government entity) doing that. Also, looks as if there is one rate for those producing under 10kwh, and a much lower rate paid for those that produce over that.

NH does not allow energy sharing, even across accounts to the same person (as billb3 can). But, we have a pretty good reimbursement (from what I can tell): "Each kilowatt hour of Net Sales will earn a monetary bill credit equal to the sum of the Default Energy Service charge, the Transmission Charge, plus 25 percent of the Distribution Charge." Actually, that may be the original net metering rules and NM2.0 might be slightly different. Also, you can only get paid once per year if the amount is over $100, if you so choose. Otherwise the credits roll over.

 

I really have no idea. I haven’t thought much of the system since it was installed. Pretty sure it was 2015.
Sometime over the summer a panel shorted out and knocked my array offline. It was replaced under warranty and I had asked about adding panels if we did a front porch and added more roof space. They said yeah I’d probably need to up my inverter or add a second one. Didn’t press the issue beyond that bc I’m so far away from making big home improvements that it’s not much of a concern.
That 10Kwh threshold does sound familiar. I can’t recall the particulars there but you’re right about that number for sure.
One of the better aspects of these panels is there’s nothing to do to them. Out of 22 panels 1 went bad in 8 years and it was replaced under warranty free of charge. Not too bad if you ask me.

 

Recently paid my electric bill…moving forward, it will now be the minimum of $5.63 a month. My wife also filed taxes today. 30% return on our initial costs coming our way soon. My system came on line in November and I couldn’t be happier so far.

 

March was good to me. Got my bill last night and it was for $0.00, with a credit of $34 (almost pays me back for February which was just over $35). Nice surprise - they pay me the going rate for the electricity I pumped into the system. I thought it was a slight discounted number, but I was wrong on that.



And yesterday the west side array showed it is the rock star that I knew it would be. If you remember (probably not - that was months ago), there was only 1 company that took my request of using the shade free west side seriously and worked with me on it, although reluctantly. No one else wanted to to touch that side because they are taught to use the east or south sides. I KNOW my property and what sun it gets (discounting low sun angle months). If I had a steep roof, it may have been a different story, but with a shallow roof that side starts getting sun earlier in the day and keeps it until the sun sets.

Sure, I thought it would have no production in winter (it is actually facing a bit northerly), which I was mistaken as it was my 2nd best production side (south was best). Yesterday was the first day that each panel on the west out-produced all panels on the other two sides. I really expect that to be the trend on sunny days until the fall months. And yes, that one panel is in shade from my short chimney, so irritates me

 

I wish I could see what each panel is producing for my system but all I get is a readout for the whole system each day.

 

https://firewoodhoardersclub.com/forums/members/bogieb.2500/ you have a laggard second array upper panel.

 

That is shaded by my chimney, as stated in my last sentence.

 

Do you have inverters for each panel? If not, that may be why you just get a system read out.

I wish I could also get a summation for each array instead of just panel totals and grand totals. If only they would allow the customer to have control over what the reports tell us, that would be great.

 

I think even the single large inverter systems are capable of reporting for each panel, maybe it depends on the brand, I know Enphase inverters can “see” each panel individually. I would certainly want that. I have microinverters, one for each panel, I had a panel go bad, stuck out like a sore thumb and was replaced no questions.

 

Any of your 3 arrays can cover my needs during the non cooling season. I have not been able to get the numbers to work. Tax credits are useless unless they are refundable.
Bear no likely taxes, auntie and uncle can fly a kite or something as such. Makes no difference as to Party hearty.

 

On that day - any one array also covered my needs. I use around 10 kwh. So now it is all about banking the overproduction for the short day months next winter. And, perhaps I will have leftover credit this time next year and take a payout (or bank it further).

It won't work for everyone. Others it will work for if they have a tolerance for a long ROI (such as my case). Others may see an ROI in 4-5 years so it is clearly makes sense for.

 

I found my best return came from changing out the lights from incandescent to cfl to led. And the computer and tv upgrades. Currently I use 8kw/day. Computer a I9-12000kf and a visio 32" smart tv is on most of the day.

 

House is full of the CFL here. I just have to get going on the changeover to LED and be done with it!

 

Agreed!

 

You sure you are a Yooper???