New electricity rates (1 Viewer)

[soymilk]

Change your mind on Tesla?

Yea unfortunately. They couldn’t give me any guarantees the system would be installed by this year.

I tried talking to an engineer multiple times but after two weeks without one contacting me about a change to my system. I talked it over with the wife and decided to go with a local installer.

 

[Cody]

Just got my electricity bill for June. I replaced my 25 years old AC to a SEER 16 last year. My august bill went from $400 to $300. My bill last month was $411 due to “fuel charges”.

 

[foos]

Yea unfortunately. They couldn’t give me any guarantees the system would be installed by this year.

I tried talking to an engineer multiple times but after two weeks without one contacting me about a change to my system. I talked it over with the wife and decided to go with a local installer.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Getting any info about the process from them can be a nightmare. Guessing local installers also marked up Tesla stuff so much it was not worth it.

 

[foos]

Just got my electricity bill for June. I replaced my 25 years old AC to a SEER 16 last year. My august bill went from $400 to $300. My bill last month was $411 due to “fuel charges”.

Driving that electricity around is getting expensive.

9,000 BTU 42 SEER Wall Mounted Carrier Mini-Split Infinity Series Single Zone Heat Pump

Make climate change happen in a good way – inside your house - with a ductless mini split system. The first company to license the USGBC*’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design curriculum, presents this 42 SEER ductless heat pump that will virtually pay for itself in energy savings over...

hvacdirect.com

Thinking of adding that to my office.

 

[Erin]

Just got my electricity bill for June. I replaced my 25 years old AC to a SEER 16 last year. My august bill went from $400 to $300. My bill last month was $411 due to “fuel charges”.

Curious... Any idea how much your tanks add to the power consumption? I've never had a bill over $200, so just wondering if your tank room adds a lot.

 

[Tangs]

Ya there is barely enough electric power right now. How do they expect all of us to be driving electric cars in 10 years or less

 

[RR-MAN]

Ya there is barely enough electric power right now. How do they expect all of us to be driving electric cars in 10 years or less

Yes when electric car price tag is ~$25k not $65k…we have to be realistic. Most can’t afford ~$1k-$1.2k monthly payment that’s with 20% down. And most will not put 20% down.

It’s not a car to me if I can’t modify it….

 

[decimal]

Again, look for technology outliers that become mainstream. Battery technology advancements will play a big role in changing the equation of what makes sense today.

 

[Cody]

Curious... Any idea how much your tanks add to the power consumption? I've never had a bill over $200, so just wondering if your tank room adds a lot.

I calculated it once and the fish tanks account for about half of my electricity usage. Keep in mind, just for lights I have 17 units.

 

[jrounding]

yea... thats why i conviced the wife it was time to go solar.

that and the fact we lost power 6-7 times in the last 6 months. sometimes for 8-9 hours or more. I was trying to keep sps, but trying to get parameters back after a long power outage sucks.

- power dies
- vortech battery keeps everything alive
- after power turns back on sps alk consumption stalls for a day or two as things get back to normal, alk spikes
- lay off dosing for a while to get things normal
- have to closely monitor alk consumption and dose accordingly
- tweak dosing numbers back to regular alk consumption
- wait for the next power outage
- regret getting back into the hobby
- drink heavily while crying into my reef tank
- wait for next power outage

We've been getting calls about installing solar, but it seems too good to be true. I'd like to do solar with a battery backup in the future. It seems like a good plan. I would be concerned my electric service couldn't handle it though. Currently paying 9 cents/KWH with Direct Energy and hoping power goes down by the next time I need to renew my contract.

 

[Cody]

We've been getting calls about installing solar, but it seems too good to be true. I'd like to do solar with a battery backup in the future. It seems like a good plan. I would be concerned my electric service couldn't handle it though. Currently paying 9 cents/KWH with Direct Energy and hoping power goes down by the next time I need to renew my contract.

If you figure out an affordable way to get solar, then by all means, post it up. I’m all for it.

 

[foos]

We've been getting calls about installing solar, but it seems too good to be true. I'd like to do solar with a battery backup in the future. It seems like a good plan. I would be concerned my electric service couldn't handle it though. Currently paying 9 cents/KWH with Direct Energy and hoping power goes down by the next time I need to renew my contract.

I don't know if I would trust any company that cold calls trying to sell solar considering most companies have more work than they can shake a stick at.

Part of the install process is getting permits from Centerpoint and the city. City electrical permits will require them to not overload your breaker panel or any lines. Centerpoint will make sure the transformer can handle peak solar feeding back if no one is using electricity and all of it is feeding back.

 

[jrounding]

I don't know if I would trust any company that cold calls trying to sell solar considering most companies have more work than they can shake a stick at.

Part of the install process is getting permits from Centerpoint and the city. City electrical permits will require them to not overload your breaker panel or any lines. Centerpoint will make sure the transformer can handle peak solar feeding back if no one is using electricity and all of it is feeding back.

Yeah most definitely. I wouldn’t pick a company without researching first. I also know that if it sounds too good to be true than it probably is. I’d like Solar for the backup capability. Not needing a generator is pretty appealing.

 

[foos]

Yeah most definitely. I wouldn’t pick a company without researching first. I also know that if it sounds too good to be true than it probably is. I’d like Solar for the backup capability. Not needing a generator is pretty appealing.

Just to make sure you know, solar will not backup without a battery. There is an inverter or two out there that will output power from solar without a battery when the grid is down but I don't know if anyone is doing installs with them. In general though, if you have solar only it shuts off when the grid is down to make sure you do not back feed and kill a lineman. Batteries overcome this by disconnecting the grid when it is down and making a micro grid of just your house.

 

[jrounding]

Just to make sure you know, solar will not backup without a battery. There is an inverter or two out there that will output power from solar without a battery when the grid is down but I don't know if anyone is doing installs with them. In general though, if you have solar only it shuts off when the grid is down to make sure you do not back feed and kill a lineman. Batteries overcome this by disconnecting the grid when it is down and making a micro grid of just your house.

Yeah I know. Solar is connected to the grid via a grid tie inverter. Then during normal operation you charge your batteries and the excess goes back to the grid where it is used by neighbors or businesses. Battery banks can actually be installed without solar as a backup. As far as I understand it you can also program them to charge at night and discharge them during the day. That way you can take advantage of lower night power costs and reduce your demand during peak times by using stored battery power. When you use a generator there’s an automatic transfer switch connected to the generator that triggers the generator to start and transfers the load to the generator when it senses the grid has failed. This disconnects the grid until the switch determines the grid is back up. Otherwise you juice the grid and that can be dangerous for linemen, because in that case your transformer that would normally act as a step down is now acting as a step up transformer. This is also one of the reasons you shouldn’t back feeding a generator. Other than suicide cords being dangerous. I don’t know if they use the same term for a solar array and battery storage system since I’m not super familiar with them. I guess on the gulf coast I would assume if you’re getting solar you’re going to get some sort of backup battery. It’s really the only thing that makes sense to me. I do know quite a bit about these systems having researched it quite a bit. At my parents farm we have a remote pond that has a battery bank and pure sine wave inverter to run a pump for the well and it also runs all of my Ubiquiti networking stuff. We have a charge controller and will be installing a hybrid wind/solar system out there to power it all this fall. Where I am a bit fuzzy is the tax incentives and who to trust to install it properly.

 

[foos]

Battery charging off grid is questionable. Some utilities don't allow it and you can't do it for something like 3-5 years if you take the tax incentive.

Battery systems use a transfer switch just like a generator setup. Just no waiting for startup, just the flipping of the switch, which can be so fast that you do not notice. Going back on grid is always transparent. The inverters sync with the grid then connect before turning off, so you never have a loss of power.

As for who to trust, if you don't want to go through Tesla a buddy of mine used a local installer and seems happy with them. I could see who he used.

One thing for the tax credit, you may find articles saying you can apply it to previous years taxes, that is for commercial installs only. Residential installs can only apply to current year and roll forward and I believe the roll forward applies at the future years rate. So if they do not extend and it would take you 3 years to get the full tax credit, you will not get the full tax credit.

 

[jrounding]

Battery charging off grid is questionable. Some utilities don't allow it and you can't do it for something like 3-5 years if you take the tax incentive.

Battery systems use a transfer switch just like a generator setup. Just no waiting for startup, just the flipping of the switch, which can be so fast that you do not notice. Going back on grid is always transparent. The inverters sync with the grid then connect before turning off, so you never have a loss of power.

As for who to trust, if you don't want to go through Tesla a buddy of mine used a local installer and seems happy with them. I could see who he used.

One thing for the tax credit, you may find articles saying you can apply it to previous years taxes, that is for commercial installs only. Residential installs can only apply to current year and roll forward and I believe the roll forward applies at the future years rate. So if they do not extend and it would take you 3 years to get the full tax credit, you will not get the full tax credit.

Since Tesla is the big player they might be busy and after reading Soymilk’s experience I would definitely be open to getting multiple quotes and going with a different supplier and different battery bank. I just don’t know enough about them to know who makes a battery bank as good as the power wall.

 

[soymilk]

enphase encharge
kohler power reserve
generac pwrcell



if you just want battery power and wanna do it off grid, it makes alot of sense to get these

EG4 LifePower4 Lithium Battery | 48V 100AH | Server Rack Battery | UL1973, UL9540A

EG4 (48V/100AH) LifePower4 Battery EG4 Lithium battery 51.2V (48V) 5.12kWh with 100AH internal BMS. Made of UL Listed Battery Cells. Off Grid Solar Batteries - Off Grid System - Solar Batteries for Home - Lithium Solar Batteries - Deep Cycle Solar Batteries - Power Reserve - Solar Panels Plus...

signaturesolar.com

and then an inverter.

EG4 6000XP Off-Grid Inverter | 8000W PV Input | 6000W Output | 480V VOC Input | 48V 120/240V Split Phase | All-In-One Solar Inverter

Signature Solar provides solar panels, off-grid solar systems, grid-tie, and hybrid systems. Quality solar inverters, bifacial solar panels, complete solar kits, solar batteries. Featuring brands such as EG4 Electronics with their solar battery, LifePower4 and EG4 LLifePower4 and EG4 LL

signaturesolar.com

hook it up like how you would hook up a generator.

you'd have 30kwh available for roughly $13,000. Each addition 5kwh battery will cost you around 1700.

Compared to tesla, Powerwalls have 13.5kwh and cost $11,000 for the first one, and 7,500 for each additional you add on. So for $18,500 you'd have 27kwh. $26,000 willl get you 40kwh. Not an apples to apples comparison, since the diy kit requires you to do it yourself, and the tesla price is basically an installed price. Moot point since tesla will no install the batteries with the purchase of panels as well.

 

[foos]

Everything soymilk linked should be good, it is just a question of capabilities, support, and amount of work you have to do.

I have not kept up with any changes, but last time I looked Tesla was the only non diy that had no effective limit to system size other than your wallet. I have 3 powerwalls and could have up to 10 while some of the other solutions maxed out at 3 powerwall equivalent. Then if 10 powerwalls is not enough and you are willing to drop crazy money they have powerpacks and megapacks. However, they also have the worst support and communication on the process. If you are fine ordering and letting them install what is designed on their timeline it is fine, but if you want to change anything you are not likely to get ahold of anyone.

I would figure out what you want and what your budget is, then see what best fits of those options. Do you want to back up your fridge, lights, tank, and a chiller on the tank, or do you want to backup absolutely everything.

The one thing I would say no matter what is to max out your solar even if it means fewer batteries. You can add batteries later but you want solar to be a one and done. That is also the one thing everyone wishes they got more of. My buddy that only wanted a battery backup but got solar since no one would sell them separate, he wishes he got more solar. He put off a battery for over a year because he absolutely did not want solar at all, gave in since no one would sell just a battery, and now he wishes he got more solar.

 

[foos]

My plan expired tomorrow so I had to renew.
Guy on the phone said that the buy back can offset the base charge, but the plan seems to say otherwise.... Guess I'll know after my first bill.