New Mach E Owner with Immediate Regrets! (A little click-baity)

[astrorob]

just remove the gas lines(utility company will do it BUT for an unreasonably high price to consumer[to remove THEIR gas line]- I know, I did it. No gas line to house/on property)

well ok, but this implies also upgrading 2 gas furnaces and a gas dryer to electric/heat pump.

not an immediate option for some people.

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[woody]

yeah, i think people not in PGE's territory don't quite understand what a hassle PGE itself is. there are tons of horror stories on the tesla energy forum about PGE refusing to sign off on completed work because their standards have changed mid-project. and their bureaucracy is a total nightmare.

the gas <-> electric distance is a real thing nowadays and some powerwall installs have been turfed because of this.

i'm just not surprised at all that a contractor in norcal would be this conservative.

PGE is not alone. This is SOP for utility companies.
Xcel has changed their "billing" and/or accounting procedures (always in their favor) for me numerous (7+) times in the seven years I have had solar(long story as you can imagine).
Xcel's latest strategy to prevent solar installs has been to refuse to initiate/put online the solar for many months and most recently for a year. That means no solar for the consumer and the installer could not be paid for that length of time.

 

[woody]

well ok, but this implies also upgrading 2 gas furnaces and a gas dryer to electric/heat pump.

not an immediate option for some people.

Heat pump.
Gas dryer????? I can see those firefighters cringing.
We do not use any combustion for energy.

 

[astrorob]

PGE is not alone. This is SOP for utility companies.
Xcel has changed their "billing" and/or accounting procedures (always in their favor) for me numerous (7+) times in the seven years I have had solar(long story as you can imagine).
Xcel's latest strategy to prevent solar installs has been to refuse to initiate/put online the solar for many months and most recently for a year. That means no solar for the consumer and the installer could not be paid for that length of time.

yes, not surprised. PGE has done the same, first by jacking up the rates maybe twice yearly. i think over the last 10 years the off peak rate has increased from about 11c/kwh to 33c/kwh and this is on the "EV" plan. peak rates are now almost 60c/kwh. added to that, moving the peak hours to 4-9pm to solve their "duck curve" problem has made the return on solar almost zilch. adding storage to time-shift helps but return is still bunk.

someone's got to pay for all that deferred maintenance that caused all the fires.

 

[snowdoggie]

yes, not surprised. PGE has done the same, first by jacking up the rates maybe twice yearly. i think over the last 10 years the off peak rate has increased from about 11c/kwh to 33c/kwh and this is on the "EV" plan. peak rates are now almost 60c/kwh. added to that, moving the peak hours to 4-9pm to solve their "duck curve" problem has made the return on solar almost zilch. adding storage to time-shift helps but return is still bunk.

someone's got to pay for all that deferred maintenance that caused all the fires.

Prepare for another hike soon, the day after the last one was approved they went back and asked for another increase.
The whole NEM3.0 was a sham, they made up fake stuff to get rid of NEM 2 citing uneven pay discrepancies, and how solar would disadvantage minorities and how solar will cause them to raise rates. Now that we got NEM 3.0 they are still raising it and taking away discounts for renters who are largely in the disadvantaged group.

Can you go solar and say not hook that up into the grid? i.e. Solar straight to a battery which goes into an EV charger? This way we can bypass PGE altogether? Do they still need to file the plans with the city?

 

[astrorob]

Prepare for another hike soon, the day after the last one was approved they went back and asked for another increase.
The whole NEM3.0 was a sham, they made up fake stuff to get rid of NEM 2 citing uneven pay discrepancies, and how solar would disadvantage minorities and how solar will cause them to raise rates. Now that we got NEM 3.0 they are still raising it and taking away discounts for renters who are largely in the disadvantaged group.

Can you go solar and say not hook that up into the grid? i.e. Solar straight to a battery which goes into an EV charger? This way we can bypass PGE altogether? Do they still need to file the plans with the city?

yeah NEM3 is a total disaster. fortunately i am still grandfathered on NEM1. but PGE is doing a good job of clawing back all the savings i've had over the last 10 years.

there was some discussion of the off-grid thing in the tesla energy forums but it's been a while and i can't remember what the upshot was. clearly a powerwall can operate off-grid, but you only get 5KW continuous from each powerwall. also it's SOP for tesla to not connect air conditioning compressors and EVSEs to the backup power just due to their high draw. so i think it is possible but it would take some compromise in how you use electricity unless you install 4-5 powerwalls.

not sure about other backup solutions.

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