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Solar panels reduced my electric bill in 2022

mattbruenig.com

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Re: Solar panels reduced my electric bill in 2022

#161

Post by oso2k »

eppp wrote: post #128
hbarka wrote: post #109

Assuming you are grid-tied, the reduction of electric bills is predicated on net metering, where the utility company gives you (ideally) 1-for-1 credit for the electricity you produce. In California, this was called NEM 1.0 and NEM 2.0. Every few years the California utilities lobby the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to chip away at the NEM program. This year the PUC voted unanimously to cut net energy metering an…

Because net metering is forcing the utility to purchase power at the retail rate. It doesn't make any sense. It isn't a profit margin issue. There is a massive infrastructure and expense to deliver wholesale power to an individual customer and it has to be recouped. Either you sell back your power at some percent of wholesale or solar installs need to get a corresponding increased delivery fee.

No (potential) customer is required to make any company profitable.

Re: Solar panels reduced my electric bill in 2022

#162

Post by giantrobot »

aimor wrote: post #73

This is interesting to me, I like reading people's experiences with solar panels since I'm waiting for the price to make sense for my own home. But as someone spending about $1,000/year, it's just not there yet. My options seem to be: diy, 20-30 year roi, find more ways to use electricity, or wait.

Residential solar changes the calculus for some appliances. You can go with all electric appliances and have their use covered by your solar. Same with EVs, your solar can offset your charging costs.

Re: Solar panels reduced my electric bill in 2022

#163

Post by dml2135 »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #87

>Realizing that the solar company was in quite the pickle insofar as repossessing the panels would require costly legal actions on top of paying people to take out the system, I just waited on the payment. They would contact me periodically asking me to make payment and offering to help me get approved for a new loan. But I just ignored all of that. Seems pretty unethical tbh. The solar company delivered, but now thi…

From my read, the solar company delivered late, causing the original loan to fall through and requiring the homeowner to refinance at a higher rate. Since that delay cost money it does seem fair that the company should bear the cost.

Re: Solar panels reduced my electric bill in 2022

#164

Post by secabeen »

amluto wrote: post #149
eppp wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because net metering is forcing the utility to purchase power at the retail rate. It doesn't make any sense. It isn't a profit margin issue. There is a massive infrastructure and expense to deliver wholesale power to an individual customer and it has to be recouped. Either you sell back your power at some percent of wholesale or solar installs need to get a corresponding increased delivery fee.

This is all rather bizarre. If PG&E charges 30 cents/kWh for a marginal kWh delivered, then either something is quite wrong with the pricing model or it really does cost some respectable fraction of 30 cents/kWh to get a marginal kWh through their system into their distribution network where the customer is. If it's the latter, then reduction of 1 kWh delivered should save them the same amount of money. I think the r…

Reduction of 1kWh delivered does not save them the same amount of money because the cost of connection is dominated by the 1st kW delivered. Scaling delivered power does have some cost, but the majority of delivery is in being able to deliver power to a particular area in the first place and to the maintenance of the lines providing any power.

Re: Solar panels reduced my electric bill in 2022

#165

Post by xenadu02 »

csense wrote: post #4

Interesting to see a post about this from someone else who I'm assuming is in a northern climate (they say New England). One of my biggest questions about solar is, what happens when it snows? Do you have to get up on the roof and clean them off by hand? Or do they have built-in defrosters?

Take most of the sibling replies here with a grain of salt. In areas where there are large snowfall events (eg Tahoe) the story is very different; panels can and do cause ice dams, dangerous snow slides, and even the panels can get ripped right off the roof.

Re: Solar panels reduced my electric bill in 2022

#166

Post by dugmartin »

csense wrote: post #4

Interesting to see a post about this from someone else who I'm assuming is in a northern climate (they say New England). One of my biggest questions about solar is, what happens when it snows? Do you have to get up on the roof and clean them off by hand? Or do they have built-in defrosters?

According to the folks on this YouTube channel that have an installation in a very snowy climate if you have two sided panels they melt any accumulating snow off much quicker.

https://www.youtube.com/c/ambitionstrikes

My issue with New England (I live there) is there that only 50 to 60% of the days are sunny - we get a lot of overcast skies. That, combined with the lack of available roof space on our Four Square style house, has kept me from thinking about installing panels.

https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Massachusetts/sunshin...

Re: Solar panels reduced my electric bill in 2022

#167

Post by sedatk »

One side benefit of solar for me was reducing cooling requirements of the top floor, which I anticipated but didn't expect it to be this significant. Expectedly but interestingly, installing solar panels didn't make any difference, but starting energy production did. Physics is fascinating.

Re: Solar panels reduced my electric bill in 2022

#168

Post by AndrewGaspar »

Can somebody explain where the return on investment comes from in residential solar? It just strikes me that if there was easy money to be had on solar installations, we'd just get tons of utility scale solar installs (which would likely by more capital efficient) and my utility bill would over time converge on the expected total utility bill for a home with residential solar. Is it just because we're in that transitional period where utility scale solar _is_ being installed, but in the mean time residential solar install internalizes the savings to your own residence? Or is it because most of the testimonials are hiding the ball a bit (only net savings reported due to buyer's remorse, etc.)? Or is it because government subsidies for residential solar are distorting the true capital cost, and thus profitability, of solar at scale?

Re: Solar panels reduced my electric bill in 2022

#169

Post by avgDev »

atonalfreerider wrote: post #56
swagasaurus-rex wrote: post #3

> The unsubsidized all-in price for buying and installing the panels was $25,525.43... after counting this $6,636.61 tax credit, the subsidized price was $18,888.82 Looks like a 7 year return on investment after subsidies, 10 years without.

I'm not affiliated, but Solar Wholesale is a DIY that can be 1/4 the cost of hiring a contractor: https://www.solarwholesale.com Even the wiring is DIY. Most people think this requires a lot of skill, but you are just adding an input to your panel board on your house.

I would love to DIY but that website is a complete turn off for me.

In my opinion, a good DIY solar company site would have transparent pricing and ability to buy components. I understand there are variations in installations and pricing may be different, but they should have a pricing catalog.

Re: Solar panels reduced my electric bill in 2022

#170

Post by foobarian »

I have a pretty ideally angled roof near Boston and was considering a solar setup. However as far as I can tell we won't get paid for excess generation in any given month, so since we don't really use much electricity it seems this is not a good investment. Are there any common updates possible to take advantage of the excess power? Before ETH switched to POS I thought about mining crypto... otherwise we could switch to electric heat but that is a huge outlay.
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