First Month with a Solar Net Credit!

We've been flirting with this point for a couple months, but May is our first month that we produced more solar electric power than we used!

Between fees and taxes, our minimum monthly electric bill is $15.46 (which is a steal for being able to use the electric grid and net metering - I am sure that will increase as more and more people start using solar panels in the future).

Overall, we used 838 kWh of electricity this last billing period, and generated 909 kWh, which gives us a net credit of 71 kWh.

Looking forward to increasing that credit next month! Hopefully we're done with snow-days at this point in the year!

Solar Panels are Paid Off!

We managed to mostly cash-flow (we took the last 20% from savings) our way through the twelve-month, 0% interest loan and paid those babies off in a little over ten months!

We're back down to having no debt aside from our mortgage.

Time to start saving for a Tesla Model 3!

Sky Timelapse with Solar Production

I thought it was interesting to see the weather timelapse with the same day's graph of solar production. Brianna told me to post it:

Power Monitoring and Solar

I've been wanting to monitor our use of electricity as part of the smart house project. I actually got started last spring by installing a current meter, but I never got the software working.

When we got the solar panels installed, the electrician removed my current meter in the process of upgrading the circuit breaker panel.

Last weekend, I installed TWO current meters: one on the mains, to measure current coming into and out of the house, and one on the solar panel lines, to measure current generated by the solar panels.

As it turns out, the OpenHAB has been updated to easily add my model of current meter to the system, so it was pretty easy (this time) to see and log the data. Here's the first day:

I knew we were using about 900 kWh per month from our electric bill, but it's kinda shocking to see the instantaneous numbers. It's also pretty interesting to see how many cyclical loads we have, and what a mess the solar power looks like.

Those big spikes on both Mains legs must be the hot tub - there's nothing else on our breaker panel rated to take that much energy.

I'll be rotating some smart plugs with their own energy tracking through the house over the next couple weeks, trying to nail down exactly what those other cyclical loads are. Primary suspects are the fridge, chest freezer, furnace blower, and electric heater.

I also want to accurately measure how much electricity the house is using, which seems difficult with the erratic solar input. It turns out current sensors like mine can't distinguish which direction the power is flowing, so I need to figure out another method.

It seems to me that consumption = |mains - solar|, and that when (mains - solar) is negative (i.e. when solar is greater than mains), the value shown on the mains is pure surplus being sent to the grid. Is there anything wrong with that thought process?

EDIT: So here's a scenario where the above idea wouldn't work: If the house is consuming 300 watts total, and 200 comes from solar and 100 comes from the mains, the 100 from the mains is consumption, not production, even though solar > mains.

Frustrating. Seems like I'll have to find a way to talk to the electric meter to do this calculation reliably.

First Megawatt-Hour of Solar Energy

We achieved our first megawatt-hour of electricity from our solar panels today! (it's the line at the bottom of the screenshot)

First Full Day of Solar: 30kWh!

The total for the day was 30.1kWh! Our yearly usage averages right around 30kWh per day, so I think we're right on track!

The time scale is off by an hour - apparently the server (hosted in Germany) wasn't taught to recognize Daylight Savings or something. I couldn't find a way to fix it in the web interface.

Solar Panels are Commissioned and Online!

Looks like we got some panels that can produce a bit above their nominal rating! Feels pretty good! :-D

Solar Delay

Turns out we aren't the only household taking advantage of the fee-free solar installation window IREA (our electric utility) left open. IREA is swamped with orders for net-metering activations, and won't be able to get to us until early October.

That's disappointing, but as long as it's before the December 30 cut-off for the new fees, we'll be ok.

Shadows on our Roof

I'm home with Link today, so we took pictures of our roof, every 30 to 60 minutes from 7:30 to 11:00 this morning, just to see how the shadows look on our roof now that the solar panels are installed. I feel pretty good about the number of panels we ordered and how we arranged them.

I did play with some sliders to try to make the shadows "pop" better on the panels - they didn't show up well in the photos.

Update: And here's 5PM:

Solar Panels!

The solar panels are installed!

They won't be turned on until after the final inspection sometime next week (there's still some painting and touchup to do, as well). Pretty excited to have them up there, though. And we think they look pretty good!

Click through for the story thus far:

Solar Panel Update

Solar Panel installation is in progress!

Unfortunately, the installers had a procurement system problem, and the panels we ordered aren't in the state of colorado. So we have to wait a week or two for our panels to actually arrive.

On the other hand, we got our electrical panel updated!

Instead of the  two sub panels with 100 amp service we used to have, we now have one professionally-installed panel with 150 amp service from the utility and an additional 35 amps of capacity from the solar panels. The meter was also upgraded to handle net-metering.

We're Going Solar!

IREA (our electric utility) has announced they will not be making changes to their net metering policy. However, they will be adding a "Load Factor Adjustment", which is essentially an extra fee aimed at customers with new residential solar systems, starting on January 1st, 2016.

Which means: we have 5.5 month window to install a solar system (which apparently will take about 3 months from signing the papers to flipping the switch) that can take advantage of net metering AND avoid the new Load Factor Adjustment fee.

The System:

We're looking at an 18-panel, 6kW system with a central inverter. This system should produce 95% of our yearly electric consumption. We're paying a little extra for high-efficiency SunPower panels so we can get all 6kW from one contiguous block of panels on a single plane of our roof. The quote includes rerouting four sewer vents away from where the panels will be installed, and upgrading and integrating our 100 amp main electric panel and subpanel into one 200 amp panel. The central inverter will allow us to purchase and integrate batteries when IREA inevitably changes their net metering policy in the future. And the 200 amp panel with future proof us for an electric vehicle down the road.

Finances:

The sticker price for the system is a smidge over $25,000. The federal Solar Investment Tax Credit is still good through the end of 2016, and will knock 30% off the sticker price (in a tax rebate), meaning we have to come up with $17,650 out of pocket.

It's not an ideal time for us: with the slowdown in the oil and gas industry, neither Brianna or I are working full time. And we're paying for child care for Lincoln. We did look into the financing options, but even the best long-term offer would ultimately tack on an additional 20% to the sticker price.

However, we were offered a short-term, same-as-cash loan. We would have twelve months during which the loan would not accumulate any interest. However, if the loan was not paid off within those twelves months, interest would accumulate retroactively at 17%.

The only reason we're considering this option is because of the 5.5 month time crunch and because we actually have the money to cover this purchase - it's just in accounts we really really don't want to touch except in case of emergency or retirement.

So, we're going to do our best to cash-flow these solar panels over the next twelve months, and dip into our savings if we need to at month 11. Renting out the basement bedroom should really help with this.

That means no new driveway or back patio, no air conditioning system, no remodeled bathroom in the basement, and definitely no new vehicles (unless insurance is paying for it) in the next twelve months. Sushi consumption might also have to be curtailed.

***

Brianna's 2 cents:  I REALLY want to follow the Dave Ramsey plan of no debt and I HATE paying interest... and I see how the "same-as-cash" is a high risk option.  The numbers for the other financing options really weren't much better. The 1.99% loan sounded really good until I understood that it had a $4k origination fee for an effective rate of 3.75% for the life of the loan (just over what the "same-as-cash" offer would charge in interest if we miss the 12 month deadline but paid it in 16 months).  A HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) seems like a very slippery slope and has a $20k minimum but is only at 4.6% now but would float with prime.  I do not want it to be easy to keep thinking that we could just keep upgrading the house and plopping it on the HELOC and then have prime make significant moves.

I do not want to have consumer debt.  I feel like solar panels fall into this category but I am finding all sorts of excuses as I am excited. I feel that with sacrifices, we can pay it off before the 12 months and interest kicks in without tapping into our emergency fund.  Solar panels are NOT an emergency...  So it will be a 12 month lifestyle adjustment to go solar.

***

Summary:

Net metering will remain in effect for the immediate future - probably several years. If we get a solar system installed before the end of the year, we will be grandfathered-in and avoid an additional fee that takes effect in 2016. We have twelve months to pay the system off in order to avoid interest, so we will have to keep a tight leash on our money for the next year.

Oh, yeah: We're excited about this!

Net Metering with Solar Energy

Our local Electric Utility - IREA - wants to do away with net metering on houses with solar panel installations. This drastically changes the economics of installing solar panels.

Net Metering is method of accounting for energy production and consumption on a house with solar panels. On sunny days, you (ideally) produce more electricity than you use. This electricity is pumped back into the grid, running the meter backwards and earning you a credit. In the winter, or otherwise dark days, you consume more energy than your solar panels produce and (ideally) you can make up the difference with credits you earned and stored up during sunny days. With a properly sized solar system, you are using the electric utility as a perfectly efficient battery that can store energy for months, and you'll never pay an electric bill again. With an over-sized solar system, you can EARN money from the electric utility.

Obviously, net metering was only ever going to be an inducement for early adoption. If every customer actually earned money for the privilege of treating the utility as a battery, the utility would have no money coming in to pay for the maintenance of power lines (among other overhead costs) and would actually have to pay its customers.

Anyone who thought they would have access to net metering for 25 years (the warranty period for most solar panels) was kidding themselves.

However, Brianna and I thought that net metering would last at least a few years longer, not (potentially) end before we even got our panels installed.

So, for now, our solar panel plans are on hold. Our utility is supposed to decide what their new net metering rate plan is some time this month.

Solar City Quote

Brianna and I are going to install solar panels on our house - finding a house with a south-facing roof was actually one of the criteria we were looking for when we were house hunting. We want to get the solar panels installed before December 31st, 2016, when the Federal tax credit expires. This year (2015) our electric utility started allowing net metering on their grid. Unfortunately, with both Brianna and I only working four days a week right now, our discretionary income was cut pretty severely.

So, with that time frame and financial limitation in mind, we invited a sales rep from Solar City to come over and give us a quote. He came by yesterday, and spent two hours with us (and Megan and Jarred, who happened to be visiting us at the time). He made a pretty compelling sales pitch: No money down, Solar City would do all the work, and our monthly payment would be less than what we are currently paying our electric utility.

After going through his spiel, he wrapped up the main part of the presentation by having me fill out a comparison form between our current electric utility and Solar City with information he spoon-fed me.

The summary is, according to Solar City, they will install as many solar panels as our roof can hold (which would account for about 80% of our yearly electric consumption) with $0 money down, and over the course of the 30-year loan, we would have a lower monthly electric bill AND ultimately save over $17,000 compared to sticking with our current utility.

Today, when I had a little time, I researched some of the assumptions that lead to that "$17,000 saved over 30 years" figure. I came up with numbers that were a little less favorable to Solar City, but it looks like we would still be paying (slightly) less than our current electric bill.

Which is pretty amazing: Our electric utility is a co-op, and has pretty good rates. Despite that, there's a company that will install solar panels on our roof with no money down and still save us money compared to sticking with our electric utility.

On the other hand: it's a 30-year loan at 4.5% interest. Even worse, the payments are structured so they increase over time (supposedly mimicking how electric rates go up over time). During the first year of payments, only $25 would pay down the principle. The rest all goes towards interest. On Solar City's payment plan, we would ultimately buy the entire system (including installation, maintenance and warranty) TWICE.

Like any big purchase, we would be much better off paying for everything with cash rather than taking out a loan.

I'm going to get at least two more quotes, and maybe ask around at work a little.

One last thing before I wrap up this post: our roof.

We have a lot of vents on our roof. The Solar City guy just spaced the proposed solar panels around the vents, which probably makes for easy/cheap installation, but looked ugly as hell. I'm going to look into what it takes to move some of those vent so we have a nice big continuous area for panels to sit.

That's about all the time and energy I have for writing tonight. There's still a lot to get into, like our electricity consumption, pros and cons of different solar technologies, and how having solar would impact other future home improvements (like adding air conditioning). Maybe I'll get around to that in future blog posts.

Tesla Powerwall

Last night we had a power outage.

I'm pretty sure it was due to Elon Musk sneaking around and tripping our circuit breaker to market his new Powerwall.

The Powerwall is a big, wall-mounted battery pack, available in a couple varieties. A 10 kWh version is optimized for long-term power backup - most of the time is sits around fully charged, then when your power goes out, the battery takes over powering the house for an extended period of time. A 7 kWh version is designed to pair with solar system - it charges during daylight each day, and powers the house after sunset each night.

I'm curious to find out if these 10 and 7 kWh numbers are the actual useful energy you can get out of the powerpack, or if that's the nominal capacity.

I'm also a little disappointed  - I thought this product might allow someone with an electric car but no plug-in at work, to charge that electric car via solar power stored in batteries at home over night - time-shifted solar power, if you will. But the smallest Tesla car battery is 60 kWh, so I don't think that's very practical. At least, not with just one battery.

Anyway, I'm going to write up a solar post one of these days. I'll probably talk about this battery product again then.

Solar City

While I was picking up a few things in Home Depot this morning, I passed a kiosk for Solar City with a sign out front announcing that they now work with our power utility!

The basic concept of Solar City is that they will sell, install and maintain solar panels at your house, and after a tax credit, it's all "at no cost to you!" They make their money due to net-metering - any profits made by selling surplus electricity back to the utility go directly to Solar City.

One of the things Brianna and I were looking for in a house was a south-facing roof, so we would have the possibility of solar power in the future. And we did wind up buying a house with a south-facing roof.

Solar City's offer sounds too good to be true, so I'm going to have to read their terms carefully before pursuing this further. And I have to acknowledge to myself that because Solar City was founded by Elon Musk, it has a celebrity-endorsement factor that could make me trust it when I shouldn't.

But it's all very interesting. I'll be looking at this closely.