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AKnate said:
When I set mine up, the Po Co would run a KwHr credit for 12 months and then pay it. They soon changed it to paying it every month, which is way less of a good deal. Buy it at 0.05 Kw/Hr and I pay just under 0.20 KwHr
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That's how the other utility in the area does it, about those same prices too.
The co-op I'm on has a ton of seasonal customers so their summer load is higher, might be how they justify it. There is a minimum charge of $26/month that I'm paying no matter what as well.
They tried to go to a system like you describe a few years ago but the 7 net meter customers that had already signed up threw a big stink and caused them to retract it.
 
larboc said:
That's how the other utility in the area does it, about those same prices too.
The co-op I'm on has a ton of seasonal customers so their summer load is higher, might be how they justify it. There is a minimum charge of $26/month that I'm paying no matter what as well.
They tried to go to a system like you describe a few years ago but the 7 net meter customers that had already signed up threw a big stink and caused them to retract it.
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At the time, it was just me and another customer that were doing the net metering. It was very early on in allowing it to be done.

So... they changed the contract and said tough shit, don't like it, take it to court.
 
CrustyJeep said:
1:1 net metering is dumb and unsustainable. It is nice for the homeowner though.
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certainly, it would not exist without government intervention

but, may as well play the rape game while you can, everyone knows it'll go right back the other direction as soon as the big dudes can make it happen
 
[486] said:
certainly, it would not exist without government intervention

but, may as well play the rape game while you can, everyone knows it'll go right back the other direction as soon as the big dudes can make it happen
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Oh absolutely. But we'll need to find a "fair" happy medium at some point.
 
CrustyJeep said:
1:1 net metering is dumb and unsustainable. It is nice for the homeowner though.
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Agreed, however in the case of the CO-OP I'm on with a very small percentage of PV generation, a net metered customer may actually not cost them anything/could provide a theoretical benefit. If I wind up at net 0 kwh for the year, I've still paid $312 to the utility to pay for the infrastructure, and the power I've put back on the line is consumed by the neighbors long before it would have a chance to go back to the transmission line so the line losses are pretty small and it never left the distribution system so they aren't getting kwh metered any differently. Also takes a little bit off the seasonal peaks which lowers demand charge.
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
Can you post your monthly production averages for the months you had it running? I am thinking about putting up a large set but want some real world data from a person near me. My power bill is between 600-1000 a month and want to knock that down.

The 600 is during the summer months and 1000 during the winter. Repair season is hard on the power bill.
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DATA!
April 29th-May31
Delivered from utility 286 kWh
Exported to utility 1049 kWh
Resulting net utility +763 kWh
Inverter generation 1202 kWh
Home load consumption of 439 kWh

May generation exceeded my predictions
 
larboc said:
DATA!
April 29th-May31
Delivered from utility 286 kWh
Exported to utility 1049 kWh
Resulting net utility +763 kWh
Inverter generation 1202 kWh
Home load consumption of 439 kWh

May generation exceeded my predictions
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Can you recap the number of panels and their wattage?
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
Can you recap the number of panels and their wattage?
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24x 325watt panels. Set up in two strings feeding a 7.6kW inverter (it will occasionally clip during when it's cool and clear). 245degree azimuth. 4/12 (18.4*) roof pitch.
 
Does your utility care how much you are sending back to the grid vs how much you are using? When I had solar on my last house I could only size it to 120% or something of expected use. I think after a certain point they didnt have to pay me out if I was producing way more that what I was using.

That is damn good for the UP in May with how much it has been raining up there. Then next few months should produce some big numbers.
 
brantb said:
Does your utility care how much you are sending back to the grid vs how much you are using? When I had solar on my last house I could only size it to 120% or something of expected use. I think after a certain point they didnt have to pay me out if I was producing way more that what I was using.

That is damn good for the UP in May with how much it has been raining up there. Then next few months should produce some big numbers.
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Not really, but they will never pay me anything unless I leave the utility such as if I were to move into a house that was on a different utility so there is no incentive to make more than I need on average.
 
This was my first first month of actually having sunny conditions.
I have 63 405W JA solar modules and 3SMA 7.7KW inverters.
AE61A646-AA72-4D52-9AF9-8DF29B197995.jpeg
 
The power company in my state won’t buy your power or give you any credit for it , if you owe money on the panels or on the land .

If you can’t prove you own the land and the panels free and clear , they won’t hook it up .
Then they run commercials saying how green they are with the windmills and solar shit …
 
roundhouse said:
The power company in my state won’t buy your power or give you any credit for it , if you owe money on the panels or on the land .

If you can’t prove you own the land and the panels free and clear , they won’t hook it up .
Then they run commercials saying how green they are with the windmills and solar shit …
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Odd, any information on their reasoning?
 
roundhouse said:
The power company in my state won’t buy your power or give you any credit for it , if you owe money on the panels or on the land .

If you can’t prove you own the land and the panels free and clear , they won’t hook it up .
Then they run commercials saying how green they are with the windmills and solar shit …
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Are you in Oklahoma? Super unfriendly to solar here as well :mad3:
 
DATA!
May31-June30
Delivered from utility 189 kWh
Exported to utility 1171 kWh
Resulting net utility +982 kWh
Inverter generation 1310 kWh
Home load consumption of 328 kWh. 61kWh of that was the HPWH
 
larboc or anyone else, where is the place to buy solar kits now? Seems things in Google aren't what they were a few years ago and I'm not getting any good results.
 
brantb said:
larboc or anyone else, where is the place to buy solar kits now? Seems things in Google aren't what they were a few years ago and I'm not getting any good results.
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The "kit" options never made a ton of sense to me when I was looking at it. What do you want to do?
 
larboc said:
The "kit" options never made a ton of sense to me when I was looking at it. What do you want to do?
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Panels, racking, inverter, basically everything for a grid tie system for a 2500 SQ ft house in Florence, WI. Basically the UP
 
brantb said:
Panels, racking, inverter, basically everything for a grid tie system for a 2500 SQ ft house in Florence, WI. Basically the UP
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1) How does your utility handle metering and what's the pricing? What's your consumption look like?

2) Roof mounted or ground mounted? Ground mounted is preferred for a few reasons. Can get a tiltable system optimize angle for the season, mostly so you can change it to help with shedding in the winter. WI is 2017 so if room mount you'd need MLPE, either RSD's or microinverters. I went roof mount because I couldn't commit to a place on the ground. It isn't the end of the world, just more work and money and you give up a little bit of generation.

3) Do you NEED to use the PV system for backup power? If so it will likely make less sense than a genset.

The answers to those questions will dictate the rest of the system.
 
It will be on a detached garage and it already has a sub panel.

I will give we energy a call Monday and ask how they meter.

This is going in for my dad. He just wants to bring the bill as low as he can get it.
 
brantb said:
It will be on a detached garage and it already has a sub panel.

I will give we energy a call Monday and ask how they meter.

This is going in for my dad. He just wants to bring the bill as low as he can get it.
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Check with your AHJ but you likely will have to have RSD's or microinverters since its on a structure.
How big is the sub panel's main breaker,and whats the bus bar rating? Same goes for the main panel?

Whats the size and pitch of the most southern facing part of the roof? For racking, I was very happy with everything iron ridge I did. Check out their design tool. I used flashfoot2 and xr100. I put flashfoot2s at every truss/2' due to the snow load. Everything in black to match the frames.
 
Anyone have an idea of these kits are priced good?

sunwatts.com

6.2kW solar kit Mission 345 Black, SolarEdge HD optimizers

6.2kW solar kit Mission 345 Black, SolarEdge HD optimizers, MSE345SX5T
sunwatts.com sunwatts.com

sunwatts.com

5.2kW solar kit LG 370, Enphase micro-inverters

5.2kW solar kit LG 370, Enphase micro-inverters, LG370Q1C-V5
sunwatts.com sunwatts.com

Last time i really looked it was about 12k+install for a 3.7kw system so i am out of date.

If i remember right the subpanel had a 60 amp breaker and the main is 200. It will be on a detached garage roof that is probably 4/12. Since this will be in very N Wisconsin i want to oversize the system a little because of the winter cloud cover and snow. It is only my dad in the house, but he likes to leave lights on. He is also talked about getting a PHEV car. It doesnt make sense, but it is his money to spend.
 
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