Finally getting solar for charging my Mustang...

B25Nut

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PG&E also only pays 2-4 cents for each kWh sent back to the grid, which is the rate set (they say) by the California Public Utilities Commission.
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timbop

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On the flip side of the coin: I am paying a fixed loan on my solar panels that will not change, so neither will my electricity cost: $.08 per kwh. On average between winter and summer that's about $4 per 160 miles of driving, whereas the wife's durango only goes around 15 to 20 miles on $4.00 of gas (and climbing).
 

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PG&E also only pays 2-4 cents for each kWh sent back to the grid, which is the rate set (they say) by the California Public Utilities Commission.
They credit retail price but pay out wholesale prices on anything extra at true up. This is one of the best ways to do it which is why PGE is trying to change all that for nem 3.0
 

2GOfast54

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On the flip side of the coin: I am paying a fixed loan on my solar panels that will not change, so neither will my electricity cost: $.08 per kwh. On average between winter and summer that's about $4 per 160 miles of driving, whereas the wife's durango only goes around 15 to 20 miles on $4.00 of gas (and climbing).
Right on Tim! My solar arrangement sounds like yours & in a few yrs will be paid off. Loan payment is little less than reg. E bill. And saving on gas now.I’m driving the MME and the wife drives the Expedition. I offered to trade with her b/c she drives more miles than I do but she likes her expedition & that’s okay with me. What a great time to have the MME.
 

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Man I don't know jack about Solar and started a crash course on it.

We just sold our house and have 90 days to move once we close. We are hoping to buy a place with solar already installed, but I'm starting to wonder if it actually would be more beneficial to have a new system installed. A very large majority of houses in SD already have solar, so its actually kind of hard to find one without it.

Our electric is so expensive here and just rising. Although if you get an EV plan during Super Off Peak its only like $0.09kWh (at least my plan) which is pretty good.
 


bruceski88

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Congrats on the solar. An added contribution to cleaner living. Our house came with solar, and that’s what prompted me to look at e-cars. in the summer we were giving so much to the grid we thought, “why not use it instead of adding car pollution to the planet?“

years back when looking at 10 mpg Motorhomes, it made me realize dumping a gallon of gas into the atmosphere every ten miles was foolish and selfish.

I am so happy to have solar. It’s fairly hot here in the summer and we have no AC bills, and until this year much of it went to PGand E This winter has been very cloudy so we don’t have as much in excess solar. But soon will when our short winter moves on. So for 7 months of the year we have free car charging.
If you have PGE then you have net metering. You get one bill a year for electricity. What you sent to the grid minus what you took over the whole year. You can actually see the number on your utility meter. Gets complicated if you have a Time of use plan, which is not such a good idea for solar.
 

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Congrats to OP on the upgrade.

I’ve been on solar for 5 years so far. Had 26 panels at 265 watts each. Added 10 more this year because we were running out of credits over last winter. Usage has gone way up as the kids have gotten older and we’ve added more devices.
this year we added 10 more panels bringing the total to a 9.5 KW system. I want to get even more but right now it doesn’t make financial sense. My utility company gives me 4.2¢/kwh for off peak on a VTOU plan. Then they don’t use my solar credits against my off peak usage. So I’m overproducing peak usage and getting really cheap off peak usage.
I’d have to figure out how much to charge the cars during the day and how many credits to save for winter or else lose my peak solar credits on my annual reset. Plus setting it up against a trade off of 4.2¢/kwh means the break even point is DECADES away.
Batteries aren’t practical for me as I love too far north and can go weeks without sun and having the panels covered by snow.
You can get a roof rake to pull the snow off the panels. In Lake Tahoe region we need to remove the snow so it doesn’t damage the panels, 8’ of wet snow is pretty heavy.
 
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Man I don't know jack about Solar and started a crash course on it.

We just sold our house and have 90 days to move once we close. We are hoping to buy a place with solar already installed, but I'm starting to wonder if it actually would be more beneficial to have a new system installed. A very large majority of houses in SD already have solar, so its actually kind of hard to find one without it.

Our electric is so expensive here and just rising. Although if you get an EV plan during Super Off Peak its only like $0.09kWh (at least my plan) which is pretty good.
Just be very careful about any property with a leased solar system. Make sure you wouldn't be locked into something that makes it difficult to sell your property later.
 

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You can get a roof rake to pull the snow off the panels. In Lake Tahoe region we need to remove the snow so it doesn’t damage the panels, 8’ of wet snow is pretty heavy.
My installer told me not to do this. Said that it could scratch up the panel making them less efficient. And that I’m so far north the angle of the sun, even on uncovered panels, won’t generate much electricity anyway.
Looking at my historical energy production versus weather, mid-winter with a warm up (no snow on the panels on a sunny day) I generate a whopping 20KWH of power. Compared to June when I can generate 50+ KWH/ day. Factor in that 50% more days are cloudy in the winter than in the summer…. Even if I risk scratching the panels to clean them, I’d probably generate 20% of what I do in the summer. By letting the sun warm the snow and melt off naturally, there is no scratching and I still generate 10% of what I would in the summer. So for less work, and less risk, my net loss is 10% generation over 3 months. ?
 

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My installer told me not to do this. Said that it could scratch up the panel making them less efficient. And that I’m so far north the angle of the sun, even on uncovered panels, won’t generate much electricity anyway.
Looking at my historical energy production versus weather, mid-winter with a warm up (no snow on the panels on a sunny day) I generate a whopping 20KWH of power. Compared to June when I can generate 50+ KWH/ day. Factor in that 50% more days are cloudy in the winter than in the summer…. Even if I risk scratching the panels to clean them, I’d probably generate 20% of what I do in the summer. By letting the sun warm the snow and melt off naturally, there is no scratching and I still generate 10% of what I would in the summer. So for less work, and less risk, my net loss is 10% generation over 3 months. ?
The roof rake has little plastic rollers on them keep it off the roof
 

B25Nut

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On my way to Costco yesterday I drove by a station in San Luis Obispo with these gas prices. I had gained three miles of range coasting (constant 71 mph while in Whisper with not touching either pedal and no cruise control) down the Cuesta Grade.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Finally getting solar for charging my Mustang... 1646865288529
 

sborsch

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UPDATE Oct 19, 2022: We bought another Tesla Powerwall and it is live now. While not possible to go off-grid, we’re powering our entire house and typically about 40% of our killowatts consumed by our MME.

——————————

We’ve lived in California for less than four years and are in our second house here. This is the second one we’ve installed solar on a house in that time and yes, we got our money out of that first investment as a gross amount (before the Federal tax credit of 26%):
  • This new house‘s solar was turned on in January of this year. There are 18 LG 435 panels on the roof which covers 85% of our use (um…until we get our MME, probably this summer, when our consumption will rise)
  • Battery just got installed (Tesla Powerwall) and should be live in a week. This should help us arbitrage our energy use and smooth out the high charges during peak times
  • Installer and I concur that our breakeven pre-MME would be 5.2 years if we just had solar panels but, with the battery and its installed cost, will breakeven in just over 8 years.
Seems like a long time *but* that’s with today’s electric rates in California, which are only going up and IMHO, are going to go up really fast. Especially with the volume of EVs hitting the market in the next 3-5 years.

NOTE 1: Coming from a lifetime in Minnesota with electricity rates that are quite low ($ .117 cents per kWh when we left and now just over $ .12 per kWh) the ROI out here is much faster and there is more sun too.

NOTE 2: Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) is finally happening! This is why I didn’t buy *two* Tesla Powerwalls, since I believe we’ll end up with EVs that will be our backup (and in my case backup-to-my-backup):

PG&E will pilot bidirectional electric car charging in California
Ford and General Motors are both working with PG&E on trials.
Ford Mustang Mach-E Finally getting solar for charging my Mustang... C4AA9E44-C521-4E22-A0BD-5DCF51E8D97B


Ford Mustang Mach-E Finally getting solar for charging my Mustang... D54CBE55-322E-4823-B4F4-5B1A5563699A
 
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Motomax

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If you have PGE then you have net metering. You get one bill a year for electricity. What you sent to the grid minus what you took over the whole year. You can actually see the number on your utility meter. Gets complicated if you have a Time of use plan, which is not such a good idea for solar.
NEM 2.0 forces you to go to TOU, no way around it.

Man I don't know jack about Solar and started a crash course on it.

We just sold our house and have 90 days to move once we close. We are hoping to buy a place with solar already installed, but I'm starting to wonder if it actually would be more beneficial to have a new system installed. A very large majority of houses in SD already have solar, so its actually kind of hard to find one without it.

Our electric is so expensive here and just rising. Although if you get an EV plan during Super Off Peak its only like $0.09kWh (at least my plan) which is pretty good.
If you buy a house without it see about using your mortgage (or save some of the down payment) to pay for the solar installations. Solar loans are scammy and they hide very large fees (Like 25-30%). Always pay them cash.
the nice thing about getting your own system for the house is sizing it to your needs and not what the previous owner used. Plus, you can pick the brand you want.
 

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I wish I had seen this discussion before I posted on another one the following "

I have solar as well and we have net metering so on a monthly basis we bank 60% of what we produced and didn't use. I have assumed that this means if I use electricity at whatever time to charge my MME as long as my total use that month including the charge for my MME is less than my production it will be free to me. In later months with less sunshine, I will be looking to my banked production.

As an aside, we have put in a geothermal system for heating and cooling which is why I added more solar. I have removed my oil burner and I am about carbon free. I should a good idea in the coming year if this is so."

Like some of you, I have had a array on my barn roof for about 5 years and it is rated at about 10.5kW and makes about 12mW dc a year. After we put in up we never paid an electric bill. We had 100% net metering. When we decided to put in geothermal we added a 13.5 kW system which is expected to generate about 18Mw dc. The one downside is when I added the additional panels net metering went from 100% to 60% as noted above but it is on a monthly basis so when I use the power does not make difference. I will let you know how this all works out next year.
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