Kessil

Managing electricity costs

Darkxerox said:
Plus no tax credits
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This is from the energy.gov website:

I am not connected to the electric grid?​

Yes. A solar PV system does not necessarily have to be connected to the electric grid for you to claim the residential federal solar tax credit, as long as it is generating electricity for use at your residence

www.energy.gov

Homeowner’s Guide to the Federal Tax Credit for Solar Photovoltaics

This guide provides an overview of the federal investment tax credit for those interested in residential solar photovoltaics, or PV.
www.energy.gov www.energy.gov
 
eksblenny said:
This is from the energy.gov website:

I am not connected to the electric grid?​

Yes. A solar PV system does not necessarily have to be connected to the electric grid for you to claim the residential federal solar tax credit, as long as it is generating electricity for use at your residence

www.energy.gov

Homeowner’s Guide to the Federal Tax Credit for Solar Photovoltaics

This guide provides an overview of the federal investment tax credit for those interested in residential solar photovoltaics, or PV.
www.energy.gov www.energy.gov
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I mean yes that's technically true but you're going to have a hard time finding an installer that with do it without permits, or do it solo without pg&e finding out. I'm just not seeing the value vs. the liability. It's pretty different vs. a little solar powered attic fan. Definitely research it more, but unless the tank is using a huge amount of electricity and you have batteries to run the tank at night, is going to be a pain. My 15 panel system generates almost zero energy on rainy days etc. so the tank will still have to have some sort of grid hookup for non sunny days.
 
Well,
Just had my first power outage in years (we are on the PD adn FD grid, so no rolling black outs). Power was out for about 7-8 hours (5p-1a). We originally purchased a system with a battery for these types of situations and it worked flawlessly. Never lost power. The fish tanks did great. In looking at the rate of power consumption I realized I might run out of battery before the sunrise. So, I disconnected the garage fridge just in case. In the end it was not an issue. We got our system about one year before Nem 3.0 so we did not have to get a battery, but the peace of mind was awesome!
 
Darkxerox said:
I mean yes that's technically true but you're going to have a hard time finding an installer that with do it without permits, or do it solo without pg&e finding out. I'm just not seeing the value vs. the liability. It's pretty different vs. a little solar powered attic fan. Definitely research it more, but unless the tank is using a huge amount of electricity and you have batteries to run the tank at night, is going to be a pain. My 15 panel system generates almost zero energy on rainy days etc. so the tank will still have to have some sort of grid hookup for non sunny days.
Click to expand...
It’s actually very simple. It was very difficult a few years ago. Now with all in one inverters , batteries that are all in one built. It’s basically plug and play.
But yes. It can kill you. If you make a mistake.
 
Turkeysammich said:
It’s actually very simple. It was very difficult a few years ago. Now with all in one inverters , batteries that are all in one built. It’s basically plug and play.
But yes. It can kill you. If you make a mistake.
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And it can give your insurance company reason to drop your home insurance, at least in the foothills.
 
MolaMola said:
And it can give your insurance company reason to drop your home insurance, at least in the foothills.
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Yes it can. They don’t need a reason to drop you. I’ve heard State Farm isn’t writing policies in California anymore. They are trying to get out.
I seen on the news in LA. A insurance company few a drone over a guys house. Because his backyard was dirty. They didn’t renew his policy. So yeah dunno
 
You can't normally go fully off grid in CA. You're legally required to be on grid to be habitable, outside of special cases, and depending on the area you're in. That means even if you had a billion panels and a zillion batteries, you must be connected to the grid as well, again outside of pretty abnormal situations.

Exact details of what I said there are maybe a bit off, but you are required to be connected to the grid. That's why the recent solar laws and upcoming ones are so egregious. You're legally required to be connected, and you're required to pay these minimum fees, which are soon going to be income based. You're basically legally required to pay PGE monthly even if you don't need them.

Regarding the circuit being off grid, I don't think there's a situation that'd end up being optimal. If you over produce, you'd be better off using that solar for something else or selling it to PGE. If you under produce, you need power from somewhere else, and the grid is great for that.

Best bet if you only wanted to power your system from your panels would be install a Home Assistant device connected to your panels and smart plugs, and dynamically turn off lights and such based on how much power your panels are generating. I'm not sure that'd be a great idea, but definitely doable.

Edit: btw by off grid I mean actually disconnected. Off grid meaning you have enough panels and batteries to power your place is a different matter.

Edit 2: I did a bit more research to double check my info and found there are ways, very expensive ways, to get around this, depending on your area. Still basically never going to be the ideal setup unless you're in a special situation.
 
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