Insurance for Level 2 system

[jhillflorida]

I have been struggling to find an insurer who will write the necessary policy for my level 2 grid tied system in Florida. Florida Power and Light requires a $1 million liability policy with them named on it. My home insurance agent gave up on it but I think they are making way too much of it. Everyone keeps saying I need some kind of special commercial liability policy. I am pretty sure I just need an umbrella liability policy that lists FPL. I have only a week or two at the most before my system will be ready to be tied to the grid...

[wayne23836]

Might try Farm Bureau, I have their blanket policy but do not understand the level 2.

[SunEagle]

I presume the Level 2 classification concerns the kW size of the system. If you can't get the insurance policies maybe look into reducing the size so FPL drops their insurance requirement.

[jhillflorida]

That is what level 2 means. It is based on kw. Anything above 11.7kw is considered a level 2 system.

[J.P.M.]

That is what level 2 means. It is based on kw. Anything above 11.7kw is considered a level 2 system.

So consider doing what SunEagle suggests. Like the song says, you can't always get what you want.

[jhillflorida]

Thanks everyone. I am going to keep trying. I pulled the exact text of the coverage required and I am certain that my homeowner's policy can be modified to add this. I am working on it... It seems like they want to discourage people from putting in larger systems. For me anything 10k or smaller is hardly worthwhile. It defeats the entire purpose of what I am doing which is to spend money now to offset drastically increasing future energy prices. The system has to be large enough to cover our usage.

[SunEagle]

Thanks everyone. I am going to keep trying. I pulled the exact text of the coverage required and I am certain that my homeowner's policy can be modified to add this. I am working on it... It seems like they want to discourage people from putting in larger systems. For me anything 10k or smaller is hardly worthwhile. It defeats the entire purpose of what I am doing which is to spend money now to offset drastically increasing future energy prices. The system has to be large enough to cover our usage.

I understand why people install large system to cover their power usage. But I also try to explain that the extra cost of the system and now insurance may no longer make your ROI affordable.

I have always tried to get people to conserve what they use in electricity instead of just trying to cover it with a larger solar system. But I figure you have done the math and are willing to pay more (in a lot of ways) for that bigger system instead of finding ways to just use less.

[heimdm]

I guess in Duke Energy land we are lucky. Their requirement is 100k homeowners liability with no aggregate limits. It seems the more friendly renewable energy territory you live in the worse the utility companies fight it. I am honestly surprised the utility companies don't offer for $x per month an insurance plan that is just added on to your bill.

[jhillflorida]

I understand why people install large system to cover their power usage. But I also try to explain that the extra cost of the system and now insurance may no longer make your ROI affordable.

I have always tried to get people to conserve what they use in electricity instead of just trying to cover it with a larger solar system. But I figure you have done the math and are willing to pay more (in a lot of ways) for that bigger system instead of finding ways to just use less.

I have done everything I can to conserve. Just spent several thousand on new insulation. Put in double insulated hurricane windows last year. Upgraded both AC systems. Put in a variable speed pool pump. It is a large home though, over 3500 square feet. In Florida and AC runs a lot.

From what others are telling me it should only be a few hundred dollars a year. I will report back though... It has been a journey already. But I think the insurance agent is confused.

[heimdm]

Remember this (and I mean it in the nice way possible), insurance people, are just sales people, selling a product that they make a commission on. I have a house that is 3500 square feet plus 1200 square foot finished basement that was built 10 years ago, so pretty energy efficient. We use about 45,000 kwh (annually). I know about 20% of that is because of my technology toys.

[AndyInNYC]

I don't think I'm telling you something you haven't already figured out - most personal lines insurance agents aren't the brightest bulbs.

Andrew

[SunEagle]

I have done everything I can to conserve. Just spent several thousand on new insulation. Put in double insulated hurricane windows last year. Upgraded both AC systems. Put in a variable speed pool pump. It is a large home though, over 3500 square feet. In Florida and AC runs a lot.

From what others are telling me it should only be a few hundred dollars a year. I will report back though... It has been a journey already. But I think the insurance agent is confused.

I can understand why you are spending so much cooling your home. I also live in Florida and the AC does add a lot to our bill. The good thing is that I have down sized to a 1600 sf home but I also have 2 sheds and an RV that run AC units. That seems to add a lot to my electric bill.

[bcroe]

I have done everything I can to conserve. Just spent several thousand on
new insulation. Put in double insulated hurricane windows last year. Upgraded both AC systems.
Put in a variable speed pool pump. It is a large home though, over 3500 square feet. In Florida
and AC runs a lot.

45,000KWH is a lot, a good exercise would be to pin down just
how/where it is consumed. I heat and cool about the same area year
around in northern IL, the temp differential for cold winter is a lot more
than that for cooling, but total only runs about 27,000KWH a year. My
heat pumps have SEERs in the area of 30, what are yours? But bottom
line, it is probably the pool using so much.

If the pool pump is the biggest energy hog, I wonder if you could get a
DC powered pump that runs directly off panels all day? This would not
add onto your net metering system level, being isolated from the line.
There are pure solar powered DC well pumps available (only running in
the day), this is in the same vein.

Your PV system may be about complete, too late for changes. I manage
to double the energy from my inverter plant, by using an array facing east
for the first half day, then keep the same inverter plant working hard twice
as long with a second array facing west.

This little meter could be plugged in to read out your pump (or anything else)
use, or just wired into your electrical box (2 wires. and a current transformer).
Used on 240VAC here, can also do 120VAC.
DROK 80-300V is $21.

Bruce Roe

DualPwrM4.JPG

[J.P.M.]

Remember this (and I mean it in the nice way possible), insurance people, are just sales people, selling a product that they make a commission on. I have a house that is 3500 square feet plus 1200 square foot finished basement that was built 10 years ago, so pretty energy efficient. We use about 45,000 kwh (annually). I know about 20% of that is because of my technology toys.

I'd suggest an energy audit. I live in a 3,200 ft^2 home built in 1980 in an arid and warm, but not quite desert region of CA. I use what I want and go through ~ 7,200 kWh annually. I know your latent cooling load is higher, but our sensible cooling loads are perhaps similar. 45,000 kWh/yr ? Damn !

[jhillflorida]

My solar system will be just 12kw is all. That still requires the insurance though. I have servers that run 24 x 7. A Tesla model 3 but I don't drive much. Monthly bill is around $200 to no more than $275 in the hottest part of the summer. I have done the energy study and all of that. Under 2000 kwh per month and 20,000 per year. I will not be supplying quite 100%. I may expand the system later. Just getting started and learning all of this stuff!