Panel replacement

[J.P.M.]

May - Oct = 0 rain. I usually hose them off July and Aug. Most of the fouling is dust from my gravel road, or jays on the top edge of the array..

Oct - May rainfall is 40-60" Sometimes it's a week of continuous drizzle, half inch a day, sometimes it's 6" in one day. (rare)

Understood.

Thank you.

J.P.M.

[EGtreo]

just got off the phone with SMUD. rep was very helpful.
the $23/month is taxes and infrastructure charges. i get one bill at the end of my yearly billing cycle so that was the June bill. i used 17,917 and produced 2,545. BUT this is with my system being down from about may-september in 2020.

using binoculars is a great idea, going to try that out today. thank you.

[J.P.M.]

just got off the phone with SMUD. rep was very helpful.
the $23/month is taxes and infrastructure charges. i get one bill at the end of my yearly billing cycle so that was the June bill. i used 17,917 and produced 2,545. BUT this is with my system being down from about may-september in 2020.

using binoculars is a great idea, going to try that out today. thank you.

Yes. The big bill every 12 months is commonly called the trueup bill and is pretty much SOP for net metering, at least in CA and many other places.

I'd suggest you familiarize yourself with SMUD's net metering rate schedules and policies. You'll learn a lot of valuable stuff with a little effort and persistence.

Binocs are a good idea especially to maybe see things you might not notice like loose wiring of other details but remember, the eye is a poor indicator of how much performance is impacted by what you can (or cannot) see that looks like dirt or be impacting your array.

Measuring relative array performance is a bit tricky, but unfortunately or otherwise, before/after cleaning comparisons on successive clear days are better than a visual only.

[Ward L]

It seems like buying electricity is much more complicated than it should be. I try and understand my monthly bill and track my solar production and electricity costs each month in Excel and it is a challenge to understand it all. The POCOs write tariffs for a living, the rest of us are just amateurs....

[J.P.M.]

It seems like buying electricity is much more complicated than it should be.

Given human nature and greed, quite probably close to a certainty.

I own two places. One POCO's rules/tariffs/rate structure are transparent and relatively easy to understand. It's a co-op.
The other is SDG & E. It's a bastard to understand and keep current on changes, but not impossible.

But not buying the finished product at all and so generating, storing and using electricity that's generated onsite means expending a lot of time, toil and treasure that may involve about the same or likely more effort than a very deep and continuing dive into how a POCO charges you for electricity even for situations like SDG & E.

Pay your money. Take your choice. Or, get a grid tie system and get a bit of the best and worst of both. Less $$/hassle/babysitting than an off grid system, but probably some time spent (hopefully but almost never usually) before buying a grid tie system figuring out how net metering works (or doesn't work) for you.

[AmitBajpayee]

Every solar panel manufacturer has its own idea and method of installation. Hence it is not the case that every manufacturer will have the same or extremely different mounting system.

But yes, while installing the solar power system you have to check the standard of each mounting object to confirm future security.

As the house is two-story you have thing about security aspects as well.
While lifting up the entire mounting system and solar panels to the destination you have to be very careful.

[sdold]

AmitBajpayee: please don't include ads for solar services in your messages or in your signature, thanks.

[EGtreo]

thank you for that info.

[J.P.M.]

thank you for that info.

For anthing I added, you're welcome.