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What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

scotthelme.co.uk

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Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#261

Post by ozim »

chasd00 wrote: post #250
ozim wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For 2500$ maybe you can pass the exam to become licensed yourself. Like do it over the weekends.

"licensed electrician" is also timewalled behind a lengthy apprenticeship. From google's llm "..requiring 8,000 hours of on-the-job training (OJT) under a Master Electrician .." so even if you could pass the test you still don't get to become licensed until you've paid your dues in terms of time.

Isn't there an exclusion or lower entry requirement if you have a technical education like engineering degree? Like if not electrical engineering because I guess that would be obvious there should be lower entry bar - but for all others at least somewhat related...

I guess if you want to dabble with installing battery packs with inverters, that's not your typical bachelor of arts who is trying to do so.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#262

Post by fullstop »

IAmBroom wrote: post #247
fullstop wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2019 prices, but it was $487 to move a receptacle from under a window to the left of the window prior to making that window opening a french door. In 2025 it was $1,100 to have an EVSE put in, including permit fees. I'm in Pennsylvania. Working with my township to get a permit / inspection was horrible -- they dragged their feet for months! I have to believe that I am one of a few people in my township who have done…

Weird. I'm in PA, and my electrician quoted me a flat fee of $100 for replacing my outlets with GFCIs (each).

This wasn't replacing outlets, I do those myself. This was moving a receptacle four feet to the left and doing it through a finished basement.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#263

Post by ozim »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #196
thechao wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which would probably hae been another 3-5k if I could have found someone to do it. Yo. If you can find an electrician to stop by my house and turn a light switch off for less than 1000$, please inform me. I got a quote for 25k$ to install a system that size, and that price. City code has me by the balls: I can't modify my main panel without inspection, the inspector won't show up without a licensed electrician, and…

Run for political office espousing Texas' famous "freedom" that does not allow you to modify your own home.

From what I quickly checked you can modify your own home there is an exclusion for doing electrical work on your property - seems like main panel would be somehow excluded from what qualifies as "yours".

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#264

Post by torginus »

wang_li wrote: post #255
torginus wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A small thing I want to remark is that at that price, a Model 3 costs less than 3x, and has more than 3x the battery capacity. Considering DC connectors on EVs provide a direct electrical connection to the battery terminal, and the charge-discharge circuitry in residential hybrid solar inverters can handle them just fine (provided it supports the voltage ranges, but people did this). I think it's an enormous missed o…

The Ioniq has the ability to provide battery power out so you can plug your house in.

I'm talking about something a bit different - the Ioniq uses a V2L, which means it has an onboard inverter that generates AC mains voltage through the plug, and can be used to provide equipment directly.

What I'm describing is using the cars DC charge port and connecting it to inverters DC battery port.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#265

Post by intrasight »

secabeen wrote: post #221
Veserv wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? It did pan out for Tesla. Faking a single demo granted them 75% more ZEV emissions credit government subsidys [1]. That increased their profits by hundreds of millions of dollars. All they had to do was go on stage and “swap” a battery without any clear video of the process and never “demonstrate” it ever again. This is a company known for faking prominent demos like the FSD demo (where it crashed i…

Battery swap was and remains really risky for anyone doing it. You're taking a $10k asset, and swapping it for another $10k asset of unknown provenance. Does anyone really want to be in a situation where they purchase a new Tesla with a brand new, max-range battery pack, then swap it once on a road trip and get one that's been used for 300k miles and is at 75% of original capacity?

> of unknown provenance

I don't understand the comment. Of course they know where the batteries come from. They know everything about the battery.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#266

Post by dns_snek »

buckle8017 wrote: post #220
dns_snek wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the DIY work wasn't the cause for the fire it shouldn't matter, but I half-expect someone to inform me that US insurance companies can (legally) deny coverage for reasons unrelated to the accident.

How are you going to absolutely price that the batteries didn't start the fire or even just make the fire worse? You can't and you will lose in court.

I wouldn't have to, where I'm from the burden of proof is on the insurance company.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#268

Post by rconti »

systemtest wrote: post #98
dlcarrier wrote: post #67

Where I am in California, there's a $30+/mo charge to connect to the grid, and the largest savings from a battery was being able to disconnect from the grid. There's lots of time I have excess power generation when I could give to the power grid, if I were connected, but I would have to pay extra to do so, so the potential goes unused.

Is delivering back to the grid economical in California? Where I'm from people disconnect solar panels on sunny days because it costs them money to return to the grid.

I'm on NEM2.0 so I can generate more than I use at peak hours and push into the grid for higher credit value than I consume overnight to charge my car.

Still, I don't see the value proposition for batteries on NEM2.

If I wasn't using _any_ electricity at my house, and I could 100% charge the batteries off-peak and push the power back to the grid at peak, I'd only be arbitraging like 5-10c/kWh * 15kWh per pack.

So, $1.50 per day, per pack. Unless I'm totally thinking about this wrong. The spread between peak and off-peak rates is just too small.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#269

Post by chris222 »

mbesto wrote: post #52

It's wild how overpriced Tesla Powerwalls are. 16 kWh battery with all of the UL supported listings etc = $3300 [0] 13.5 kWh Tesla Powerwall is $12k~$15k You would get your return way back quicker. [0] - https://www.ruixubattery.com/product-page/lithi2-16-battery-... EDIT: As others have pointed out, powerwalls have inverters built in so it's not totally apples to apples. You can get a beefy inverter for $5k and it's…

Yah, check this one out.

https://www.docanpower.com/panda-52v-942ah-48kwh-prebuilt-pa...

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#270

Post by pier25 »

coryrc wrote: post #234
pier25 wrote: post #172

£3,632.86/year for electricity seems wild. 17,000kWh/year is about 46kWH/day. We consume less than 3kWh/day on average.

Do you have electric heat? Do you have automobiles and do you fuel them with electricity?

We do use electric heating from time to time but it's not constant. No electric cars. Still a 15x increase seems huge.

Increasing electricity production 10x to electrify cars is not going to be achievable soon. Either via the power grid or home solar panels. Most people cannot afford to invest $40k in solar panels, batteries, etc.

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