> Just a note, from what I have read of the rules and regs in CA, your
> friendly public utility will not pay you at the end of the year if you
> have sent it a net positive amount of power. On the other hand the
> utility is 'buying' your power at the retail delivered rate, not what
> it pays wholesale suppliers so it kinda balances out.
Yep. Net-metering.
In PGandE service territory those of us who had PV solar systems prior
to - oh, what, mid-2005? - are on E-7 time-of-use, which is a
substantially better tariff than what people who connect new systems now
get. Under time-of-use net-metering you're selling your best
generation hours to the utility at peak rates, and consuming the most
utility power at off-peak rates, and the peak/off-peak rate difference
is substantial (5-6x).
We've got a 2.5kW system, we've got an almost perfectly sloped
south-facing roof for it and the panels occupy the west end. May add
another 2.5kW at some point, what we've got hasn't quite zeroed out our
bill.
John.
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