• abhibeckert@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    for the “Rate I currently pay”, which is 0.08c/kwh

    How did you get that rate? We pay 33 cents, and it was 24 cents just a few months ago… wouldn’t be surprised if it goes up again next year and the year after since even 33 cents is government subsidised (so - there’s no cheaper option available).

    otherwise I would have not have pulled the trigger on a 50,000$ project

    Ooof. Why’d you do that? We simply put (a bit over) 5kW of panels on the roof, and a good 5kW inverter. One day of sun generates about as much power as we use in a week, and even if it’s overcast we still come out ahead.

    We’re basically only paying for overnight power and pretty easy to keep that to a minimum (with good insulation, efficient overnight appliances, avoiding unnecessary overnight power consumption - such as putting the beer fridge and hot water heater on a timer).

    • HTTP_404_NotFound@lemmyonline.com
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      1 year ago

      How did you get that rate? We pay 33 cents, and it was 24 cents just a few months ago… wouldn’t be surprised if it goes up again next year and the year after since even 33 cents is government subsidised (so - there’s no cheaper option available).

      All about location. There are supposedly many in my area on a different coop utility, who are only paying 0.03c/kwh.

      Ooof. Why’d you do that? We simply put (a bit over) 5kW of panels on the roof, and a good 5kW inverter. One day of sun generates about as much power as we use in a week, and even if it’s overcast we still come out ahead.

      I had a few other goals I wanted to accomplish-

      1. Reliability. The grid here isn’t the most stable, and blinks a few times per week. And, a time or two per year, we have an outage. This solution has handled this fantastically well, so well, that I don’t even notice when the grid has dropped unless I specifically go for it.

      2. Apart of this, was bringing some of my wiring/electrical up to code. This accounted for 10k of the price-tag… I relocated/replaced the mains panel across the house to a location more suitable then my daughter’s closet. Also- the panel itself, was pretty old, and needed to be modernized.

      One more issue- my PV is undersized a bit. Adding another 3kw, would yield much better returns for me.

      Its undersized, because if I oversized it, and sent more energy than I consumed, my lovely utility slaps on a 42$ fee… which is no-bueno.