Solar panels reduced my electric bill in 2022

Post by anikom15 » Wed, Jan 04, 2023, 12:40 AM UTC

bjelkeman-again wrote: post #381

fleddr wrote: post #376

I wonder what causes this high electricity use. Not because it's any of my business, it's just genuine curiosity. He never reveals actual use, only savings. Still, at 0.25$ per kwh charged and an average monthly saving of 210$, we can work out that 860 kwh/month was saved, which amounts to 10,320 kwh per year. Actual use may be (far) higher, but we don't know. Just these savings alone is triple my total electricity c…

I have a house from 1909, with relatively poor insulation, by modern standards. We heat the house with a heat pump and a 100 m deep borehole. The heating of the house (180 m2 and a cellar) is the main energy consumption. The total was 22 000 kWh last year (including about 3 500 kWh for an electric car). An old house with electric heating and cooling could well be what he has. When we moved in the electric consumption…

Post by metadat » Wed, Jan 04, 2023, 12:51 AM UTC

hbarka wrote: post #218

mdorazio wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over the last 8 quarters their average profit margin is a whopping 3.25%. If you think that’s just too high I’m not sure what to tell you. An alternate way to look at the CA rule change is that CA needs more installed storage to shore up the shitty grid, and incentivizing people to install solar alone via net metering isn’t a great idea anymore. Remember that peak power demand is right around and just after sunset.

Companies can keep profit margin flat by increasing operating expenses such as salary. For PG&E it looks immoral. https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2022/10/ratep...

Post by mcv » Wed, Jan 04, 2023, 12:53 AM UTC

praxulus wrote: post #144

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…

Net metering just doesn't make sense though. Everyone who wants to rely on the grid for power availability ought to pay for grid upkeep costs. Net metering would make sense if it came on top of a baseline "connectivity fee" that covered grid maintenance, but that's not the current policy, would likely be politically infeasible, and would hurt rooftop solar customers financially anyway. Subsidizing solar is a perfectl…

Post by Jedd » Wed, Jan 04, 2023, 12:54 AM UTC

missedthecue wrote: post #412

Jedd wrote: post #407

* In USA / America (At the very end of the article, some hint is given as to where the author is located.) Those numbers - for USA, and for 2022 - seem very high. Author obtained 7.56 kW of panels with a single phase inverter for a list price of USD$26k - which was reduced via subsidies down to USD$19k actual. Here in Australia, 24 months ago I had 12kW of panels with a 10kW three-phase inverter installed for an on-p…

Your panels might be 3x more productive, being in sunny Australia. Where does the author live in the US? I either missed it or he didn't say. Even then, the layout of his roof could have a big effect. Another point is that certain solar panel imports are tariffed as much as 30% in the US in order to protect the (non-existent?) domestic solar panel manufacturering industry. But it appears Biden temporarily suspended i…

Post by mcv » Wed, Jan 04, 2023, 12:56 AM UTC

Retric wrote: post #404

konschubert wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your solar panels tend to produce power at times when power is cheap - because there is so much solar power. When you do net metering, the utility has to pay on top: They have to sell the power that you produce on the spot market, but the price they get for it is less than what they have to pay to you. It's not a scalable approach.

Solar also produces power when demand is at it’s absolute peak. It varies by location but prices are still cheapest at night the vast majority of the time. There’s many ways to do net metering, but regulations are setup to maintain profitable local utilities. Utilities hate it because they make less money by selling less electricity not because it’s ever going to drive them to unprofitability.