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This is what happens when you largely give up on the hobby...

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sfsuphysics

Supporting Member
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... and have solar.

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Granted I don't have a huge amount of solar, 3.24kW of panels only, but yeah... not a single month this year have I used more power than I produced. Still don't understand that pay rate for it, technically it's not PG&E anymore (even though they still do the billing) so maybe I'm just getting paid for generation which seems kind of in line with that.

Either way, kind makes me want to be "dirty" and use up some of that electricity ... like setting up a new tank, although as much as I ignore the 20g tank I currently have maybe not such a good idea.
 
My roof is littered with solar panels and with 2 tanks and all the kids out I’m down to about $30 or so a month
 
Getting solar soon. Kind of makes me want to try metal halides again if electricity cost for the lamps and cooling won't be an issue.
 
Wow, are you on NEM 1 or 2.0?
Also, your rate is crazy low at only $0.12 per kWh.
We are in process of finishing up 7.2kw system and that would offset about 90%-95% of our usage. We are on PG&E and our rates are more than 3X your so that helped justify the costs.
 
I supposed it depends on people’s specific rate plans. For me on EV time-of-use rate, my sellback rate to PGE is the same as my use rate, varying by time of day. So if my solar puts electricity back on the grid at peak times like in the late afternoon, I get more credit than I would at off-peak times like early afternoon.

This is pretty generous, but this is just a credit towards my bill. If you export more electricity than you import and you want PGE to pay you instead of the other way around, then the rules are different. Not something that will ever happen for me so not something I worry about.
 
JVU said:
. If you export more electricity than you import and you want PGE to pay you instead of the other way around, then the rules are different. Not something that will ever happen for me so not something I worry about.
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Yeah this is it exactly, I am not on a ToU schedule so the month to month difference according to the meter is what it is. Now I do get a 1:1 sell/buy of electricity, however if there is a net negative (as in my case) of electricity I'm credited not in kWh but instead in money which is based on the sell back rate that ashburn mentioned. If you look closely at the cost of electricity breakdown, there's a cost for electricity and then a transportation rate (and a bunch of other garbage to confuse everyone), however San Francisco forced people into their co-op for "green electricity" (you could opt out though) and ironically PG&E still does all the bill, but the rate for electricity was actually way less than PG&E but the transportation cost was way more leaving it basically the same price for power at the house which just boggles my mind that it's legal to be done that way... but hey that's why we're paying 35c/kWh at the lowest of tiers while back east where they have choices of electrical providers they're paying closer to 11 c/kWh.

Either way, my plan with the solar was to offset my tank usage when I had MUCH more electrical consumption on the tanks, since those plans changed a bit (at least in the short term) instead I guess I"ll be getting a check from San Francisco Green Power :D
 
I guess Solar Net Metering isn't the same with local utilities providers!
We are with PG&E so we will get credits for excess power at time of generation and will pay normal rate plus $0.03/kwh when pulling from the grid. Any excess at true-up will get wholesale rates (I believe $0.04-$0.05/kwh). This is very important for anyone considering solar and size your system appropriately! Unless you have batteries but batteries are crazy expensive right now and I could not justify having batteries.
 
rygh said:
Monthly looks great. But wait until the yearly true-up where they stick to you....
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The thing is, I've had a net negative usage every month since the True-up (which is February). Almost 2000 kWh "saved up", really don't anticipate using all that up and perhaps using any net power at all.

NATURAL_REEF said:
I guess Solar Net Metering isn't the same with local utilities providers!
We are with PG&E so we will get credits for excess power at time of generation and will pay normal rate plus $0.03/kwh when pulling from the grid. Any excess at true-up will get wholesale rates (I believe $0.04-$0.05/kwh). This is very important for anyone considering solar and size your system appropriately! Unless you have batteries but batteries are crazy expensive right now and I could not justify having batteries.
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It is largely going to be different for others based on if they have a local "co-op" or when they actually hooked up their solar. PG&E has been at war with solar for a while strangely right around the time when state rebates dried up (maybe they no longer get credit for "green energy" as a result?). Either way everything from pushing everyone to a ToU schedule (where expensive hours were outside of peak solar production of course) to trying to push legislation to raise the minimum connectivity charge. Overall their practices do not make me happy at all, and I truly cry when I see how much electricity cost elsewhere in the country
 
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