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New user in Southern California Edison territory here.
Just starting on the process for looking at solar this year - we got bids back in 2010, but it was too expensive for our needs then, so we decided not to proceed. Fast forward to today and we now own TWO long range electric vehicles that both have about an 80 mile round trip commute. That works out to a LOT of energy and now we want to take another look at solar.
We got one EV in December, (replacing a plug in hybrid) and the 2nd just last month, so I have had to do some projections for our annual usage based on how much our super off-peak usage will increase since I don't have the actual data. Here is what I am currently projecting:
(These are monthly kWh totals. Projected means I tried to apply a factor to account for charging both cars and actual was what our meter read during the actual period last year )
Total projected annual kWh usage: 22512 kWh . So, LOTS.
We are living in a house built in 2010 with good insulation, double paned windows, radiant barrier in the attic, all LED lights, etc. The only efficiency improvements we haven't done are a smart thermostat, switching to a gas dryer vs electric and installing a swamp cooler. For various reasons we probably won't be making those changes (I do have a programmable thermostat, its just not wifi connected, etc). Really before the electric cars, we weren't solar candidates based on our usage.
My roof surfaces I have to work with are a large area at a 90 degree east-facing azimuth and a smaller roof (maybe only 10 panels) at 180 degree. Living in the high desert, so no shading issues. Initial numbers coming in from companies via energy sage are looking at anywhere from 30 to 41 panels across both surfaces and systems sized from 10-13 kW. Initial prices coming in from 2.99/watt to 4.27/watt.
Since we are looking at a very large system, I am wondering how netmetering might play into choosing a system size for us. We could go for a system that is sized for 100% of our usage, but I wonder if it wouldn't make more sense to get a smaller system that takes advantage of the netmetering on a TOU plan.
My impression from reading the (mostly indecipherable) language from my POCO, SCE, was that my account would be credited for generation at the retail rate on a monthly basis. My interpretation of that was on a daily basis I would be credited for the peak and off peak rate while I was generating during the day (for excess production), then at night I would get to use those credits up at my super-off peak rate. So if I am sending kWh back to the grid during the .45/kWh rate, I then get to use that up at the .13/kWh rate at night. So I could generate 1kWh at peak rates and use that for 3kWh at night during super-off peak for example.
But the first company we had out (Tesla Energy - I know, I know), the rep stated that it doesn't work that way. He stated I would be credited only by kWh vs the value of those kWh. So it would be one for one. If I generated 1kWh during the peak times, I only got to use that for 1kWh at night period.
So I wanted to see if other SCE netmetering customers might could chime in on how that actually works. If its 1 for 1, then I need to size my system for my actual usage. If its done on a $$ credit amount instead, I can size my system smaller to take advantage of the TOU rates.
Just starting on the process for looking at solar this year - we got bids back in 2010, but it was too expensive for our needs then, so we decided not to proceed. Fast forward to today and we now own TWO long range electric vehicles that both have about an 80 mile round trip commute. That works out to a LOT of energy and now we want to take another look at solar.
We got one EV in December, (replacing a plug in hybrid) and the 2nd just last month, so I have had to do some projections for our annual usage based on how much our super off-peak usage will increase since I don't have the actual data. Here is what I am currently projecting:
(These are monthly kWh totals. Projected means I tried to apply a factor to account for charging both cars and actual was what our meter read during the actual period last year )
- August: 2487 (this is the only month we have actuals for both cars.)
- July: 2342 actual
- June: 2372 projected (2032 actual)
- May: 1755 projected (1467 actual)
- April: 1690 projected (1399 actual)
- March: 2083 projected (1708 actual)
- February: 1826 projected (1493 actual)
- January: 1937 projected (1594 actual)
- December: 1676 projected (1087 actual)
- November: 1461projected (1077 actual)
- October: 1346 projected (964 actual)
- September: 1535 projected (1143 actual)
Total projected annual kWh usage: 22512 kWh . So, LOTS.
We are living in a house built in 2010 with good insulation, double paned windows, radiant barrier in the attic, all LED lights, etc. The only efficiency improvements we haven't done are a smart thermostat, switching to a gas dryer vs electric and installing a swamp cooler. For various reasons we probably won't be making those changes (I do have a programmable thermostat, its just not wifi connected, etc). Really before the electric cars, we weren't solar candidates based on our usage.
My roof surfaces I have to work with are a large area at a 90 degree east-facing azimuth and a smaller roof (maybe only 10 panels) at 180 degree. Living in the high desert, so no shading issues. Initial numbers coming in from companies via energy sage are looking at anywhere from 30 to 41 panels across both surfaces and systems sized from 10-13 kW. Initial prices coming in from 2.99/watt to 4.27/watt.
Since we are looking at a very large system, I am wondering how netmetering might play into choosing a system size for us. We could go for a system that is sized for 100% of our usage, but I wonder if it wouldn't make more sense to get a smaller system that takes advantage of the netmetering on a TOU plan.
My impression from reading the (mostly indecipherable) language from my POCO, SCE, was that my account would be credited for generation at the retail rate on a monthly basis. My interpretation of that was on a daily basis I would be credited for the peak and off peak rate while I was generating during the day (for excess production), then at night I would get to use those credits up at my super-off peak rate. So if I am sending kWh back to the grid during the .45/kWh rate, I then get to use that up at the .13/kWh rate at night. So I could generate 1kWh at peak rates and use that for 3kWh at night during super-off peak for example.
But the first company we had out (Tesla Energy - I know, I know), the rep stated that it doesn't work that way. He stated I would be credited only by kWh vs the value of those kWh. So it would be one for one. If I generated 1kWh during the peak times, I only got to use that for 1kWh at night period.
So I wanted to see if other SCE netmetering customers might could chime in on how that actually works. If its 1 for 1, then I need to size my system for my actual usage. If its done on a $$ credit amount instead, I can size my system smaller to take advantage of the TOU rates.
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