A Texas Power Pricing Question

[Ampster]

Bruce,
...... I am kind of locked into a brand and the unit I selected is an VS/Inverter drive which is probably not a fast mover in the current climate of supply shortage. ........

I do not know which brand you are locked into but I had good luck finding VS/Inverter driven LG minisplit systems eight months ago and those suppliers appear to still have inventory of that brand and others.

[cdtexas]

Jerry: I installed 17kw solar edge grid tied system in 2019, at our farm about 80 miles west of houston. Our provider is Fayette electric, a coop, and they were very easy to work with. My credit for excess generation is the average of what the coop paid for wholesale power last year. I keep a spreadsheet, and return averages 2,500 a year so far. As an example, last bill cycle I generated 2,650 kw, consumed 495kw, and sent 1,495kw in excess generation. So, my total use was 1,647kw. My bill was a $5 credit carried over. Because the system is oversized, I am able to use no grid power almost all day, despite the parabolic nature of generation quantity. Between the larger tax credit and DIY install on a barn roof, my cost is under $1 per watt installed. Would like to justify a battery, but cost was still too high. In conjunction with this, we did replace all lights with led bulbs and replaced the hvac units with more efficient ones. Being able to run the ac at 70 in the middle of the day makes the oversized system worth it to me. Happy to share the full excel if you want it. Good luck with your system. Carl

[Jerry Kirwan]

"Being able to run the ac at 70 in the middle of the day makes the oversized system worth it to me" Now I am jealous!

Carl, Thank you for the details, this is the type of information I was looking for. It appears as though oversizing is the key, I was looking for. My problem is my South facing garage location is limited to 900sq/ft (Actual1800sq/ft but 50% is south facing) without breaking it up into House/Garage. The most I can squeeze in to that is 35 panels @ about 15kW. Panel physical sizing plays an important fact here as they vary. I have found the watt rating are more related to the dimensions of the panels vs Panel Efficiencies in watts/sq/ft. Now I want to bump up to 20kW, but I do not have the real-estate without resorting to a ground mount which I could. I would be interested in seeing your system?

I may have to resort to expanding into a North Facing added panels to expand the system. I will research what type of output I could expect with additional panels on the North Side of the roof. The sun is almost overhead in Houston during Summer Sun Hours. @ 1.00/W the ROI (+ BidenTax/Hyperinflation ) may be worthwhile.

[cdtexas]

My charges may be a little lower than yours. My wire charge is $0.030126/kwh, power charge is $0.08/kwh, and generation credit is $0.05442/kwh. Since its a coop, no choice, but frankly looks like choice is not cheaper in Texas. I have 55 modules, i think each is rated at 325 watts, so your panels are much more efficient. Some observations: 1) the system will never generate nameplate power, the most i have seen is 15.6 kw out of a 17.5 kw system; 2) generation is only peak for a very short period each day. So, the bigger the system, the quicker in the day your generation gets to where it covers your consumption. Obviously, you can work through that with batteries, but at a dramatic price increase.

I was fortunate, we had a pre-existing barn that had a south facing roof, and gentle slope, so installing the racking and wires was very straightforward. Then, it runs to two 10kw HDwave inverters, and out to the pole. The coop wanted a separate cutoff for the system (despite it being rapid shutdown), but was nice enough to allow a line-tap connection since I didn't have bus bar capacity to wire it into the main panel. And accepted my hand-drawn diagram of the system.

I bought all the materials from CED Greentech in San Antonio. I think they're generally a wholesaler but were more than happy to sell to me. Good luck, let me know if you have more questions.

[Jerry Kirwan]

I do not know which brand you are locked into but I had good luck finding VS/Inverter driven LG mini split systems eight months ago and those suppliers appear to still have inventory of that brand and others.

I already have 2 mini-splits on my house and love them. My house currently has 2 original York 16+ split-systems (Which have 2 compressors each) 1 additional Mini-Split in the house and 1 mini-split & 1 window unit (For my Garage/Man Cave/Office) I also have the lowest electric bill in the area. Short story is; I have 100% redundancy through out my house. Being in the A/C business I tell people; "If they ever want to be abused, when it goes out, only have 1 A/C unit on your house in Houston" I have friend which was quoted 15k to replace 1 unit in his house last month. When I told him the COST of the equipment he was floored. Check out the current price of R-22 @ $150/lb some system have $1000-1500 of refrigerant in them. We are finding contractors want to make a weeks salary in 8 hours of work. They throw out 'huge quotes' and if they do not get it they will get the next one.
The A/C industry has as BAD reputation as the Solar/Automotive Industries.

[Jerry Kirwan]

I have come to the conclusion by over generating, I can alleviate my billing issue. Now the question is by how much? I have also determined by expanding my system to the North facing roof area the output is not reduced as much as I thought. In particular 6 months of summer the North would generate almost as much as much as the south located in Houston (90%) The reduction would be during the 6 months and hardest hit months November - February which are my lowest consumption.