Power usage, holy crap!
- Thread starter peffy03
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BZOFIQ
5000 Club Member
My first upgrade for the upgrade was having solar installed.
I looked into that and I had 2 reps from SunRun at the house and when I told them the numbers don't add up they both had no answer.
Bottom line, system was $36000 for 22 panels and tax incentive was off equipment cost, which is.....you're ready? $6900.
I asked the guy if the installation costs is $29000 and he didnt know what to say.
I watched somebody across the street getting installed in one day flat. $29000 for installation, I told him he is out of his mind!!!
Paying $36K to save few hundred a month in more productive months is dumb!!!
Better yet, I have friends who refuse to admit that they got conned. They swear it was a great idea to put holes in the roof yada yada yada. They tell me "oh my electric bill used to be $300 and now it's like $30. I ask how much is your lease on solar panels - $279 / month - help me stop laughing.
najer
Valuable Member
England here, I have a small house and the installed cost of my little system was like $4500 so a no brainer, 3.2 kw keeps my grid usage bills low.
BZOFIQ
5000 Club Member
Yeah, I watched some YT re systems installed in Europe and saw this guy in PL who had a company cover his whole roof of a large garage for like $7000. That makes sense and is a no brainer. Here, stateside, it's just straight-up theft!
najer
Valuable Member
I had a mate that moved to Australia who started working for and ended out buying a solar installer, a Brit selling sunshine to Australians!
InvaderJim
Chillin
Wow and I thought 0.07-0.09 kWh was bad. I don't feel so bad any more!
BZOFIQ
5000 Club Member
I think I have you all beat...
Nah, that's about what I used last month. I'll post a pic of mine tomorrow. In your case your neighbors are unusually efficient. Maybe they dont own a A/C or even a fridge.
Last month I used 2736kwh at about .12-.13 per kwh. My tank cost about $107 per month to run in electric and about $50 of that $107 is my chiller alone.
Brew12
Electrical Gru
It is, overall. There are some pockets on both coasts that the costs are extremely high. And I also know of one outlier city in Texas where rates are just nuts.
If you pay over $0.12/kwh you are in a higher cost area.
NeverlosT
SPS nut
I use about 30-35 kwh/day, and my 6.6 kwh solar system makes about 34 kwh/day, so I am in good shape.
We installed 21 panels with 5kw inverter for 21K USD, after solar rebate was 14K, bought it with a loan, payments were $145/month. Out electrical bill before the system was $160-170/month so we started saving immediately. Paid off the system with the next years tax refund, now free power guaranteed for the next 20 years.
Also, Tesla just dropped their install price a LOT. A good price for a system used to be $3/watt. Now it is down to $1.50/watt. So if your power bill is over $100/month, go get solar. Tell Tesla I referred you so I get paiiiid!
Solar will come down more in price shortly, a lot of what you are paying now are regulatory and local building fees, which is dumb and is a big reason why in Europe and Australia solar is SO much cheaper. People are figuring that out now and I expect the US to follow suite.
I do agree that a powerwall is a ripoff right now. 10K for a medium sized battery (we would need 3!!) is nuts. But ask yourself how long you tend to lose power for. In Cali if I lose it, I lose if for a couple of hours, and that is rare. So not worth it for me, I have a little generator anyway. If you have a huge solar system and are about to drop 30K on a generator and house switch AND you need a whole day of backup power or more, then maybe consider a few powerwalls instead.
We installed 21 panels with 5kw inverter for 21K USD, after solar rebate was 14K, bought it with a loan, payments were $145/month. Out electrical bill before the system was $160-170/month so we started saving immediately. Paid off the system with the next years tax refund, now free power guaranteed for the next 20 years.
Also, Tesla just dropped their install price a LOT. A good price for a system used to be $3/watt. Now it is down to $1.50/watt. So if your power bill is over $100/month, go get solar. Tell Tesla I referred you so I get paiiiid!
Solar will come down more in price shortly, a lot of what you are paying now are regulatory and local building fees, which is dumb and is a big reason why in Europe and Australia solar is SO much cheaper. People are figuring that out now and I expect the US to follow suite.
I do agree that a powerwall is a ripoff right now. 10K for a medium sized battery (we would need 3!!) is nuts. But ask yourself how long you tend to lose power for. In Cali if I lose it, I lose if for a couple of hours, and that is rare. So not worth it for me, I have a little generator anyway. If you have a huge solar system and are about to drop 30K on a generator and house switch AND you need a whole day of backup power or more, then maybe consider a few powerwalls instead.
Brew12
Electrical Gru
This concept is newer to residential areas with the advent of smart meters. Industrials and commercials have been paying this way for decades. And it does make sense, to a certain point. Utilities need to maintain enough generation, transformer, and transmission capacity to support peak load, not average load. It isn't uncommon for this charge to make up almost 50% of a industrial power bill. It's also one reason I don't want a smart meter!!!
This fee structure has become even more important as more solar ramps online. Solar tends to start coming off the grid between 2pm and 3pm while peak summer demand typically hits closer to 5pm. This forces utilities to use natural gas turbines for a few hours each day before load starts dropping at night. These units are inefficient compared to most forms of generation, but are about the only option based on the short time they are needed each day.
Brew12
Electrical Gru
Texas is normally very cheap. Georgetown Texas went 100% renewable somewhere around 2016 not understanding the costs. It has added around $100/month to the average citizens power bill ever since.
currently i pay .41 per kwh. the issue is california, not the USA
we have something called tiered pricing. my wife and i have 4 kids, so were always in tier 3
Wow! My CT rate is 1/4 of yours!
On the flipside, I have one light fixture alone that runs 640 watts.
GlassMunky
2500 Club Member
3300kWh hereI think I have you all beat...
