Hello From San Diego!

[SunEagle]

Legal's got zero to do with it.
They're simply motivational tools that cut to the chase and bypassed the political correctness cluster functions.
Tip: The lower voltage models didn't seem to impair production as much and the office floor stayed cleaner.

I mean with all of them over the hill gun laws in CA I though any type of defensive tool had to go through the legal system. But whatever works for you. Enjoy..

[J.P.M.]

I mean with all of them over the hill gun laws in CA I though any type of defensive tool had to go through the legal system. But whatever works for you. Enjoy..

If I believed the talking heads (particularly those at the "news for dum fux" network) it might look to me that people of all stripes in our failed country get to do what they want regardless of the rule of law so what difference do gun laws make except to give right wing nuts something else to rail and bitch about ?

But that's off topic.

Rant mode off.

[wheaton4prez]

Are those prods even legal in CA?

I hear they might be under NEM 3.0.

[wheaton4prez]

Yes. My system was installed in early 2019 and has been running with no problems ever since. I have a stone covered metal roof which added a bit of difficulty to the install. They partnered with an experienced roofing company during the install to ensure that the panels were mounted correctly. It was a flawless install and I was up and running with the blessing of both the city of Poway inspectors and SDG&E three days after the install. Back then they were installing with LG panels and SolarEdge inverters. I understand they have swapped over to Enphase microinverters and don't have a clue on which panels they are using.

Thank you. I will reach out to them for an estimate.

[wheaton4prez]

The first step (taken here after I bought my first house) is to put
numbers on exactly how much, and to where your energy is
going. Then see clearly where the best improvements can be
made. Today a KILL-A-WATT meter is quite useful. For 240VAC
you might apply a DROK 6-IN-1 MULTIMETER, plenty of
examples of that here.

Using Energy Star appliances can really help, with both running
and Vampire loads. If your AC is ancient stuff with a 14 or so
SEER, dump it for the latest closer to 30. You will like it much
better too. Other occupants can be dealt with, make sure the
lights they always leave on are LED, and motion det or timers
can work. How is your house insulation? Bruce Roe

I took the house down to the studs and remodeled it after purchase only a few years ago. So, everything is newer. New AC. New electrical. Tankless water heater. All lights LED. City even made me put in a whole-house fire sprinkler system.

I think the house itself is pretty optimized. It's just that we are all also very heavy electronics users. Powerful gaming computers running long hours. Home entertainment system with surround sound going all day. Wife is from the East Coast. So, she is used to AC running all day. I run a software business from home office. So, I have multiple PCs and a pretty hefty server running.

That said, the meter could be helpful identifying which machine(s) are hurting us most. Do I understand the DROK correctly that the little sleave would go around the power cable and it reads through it that way? Is this right one?: https://www.amazon.com/Multimeter-Te.../dp/B09G2JC1KQ

[J.P.M.]

I took the house down to the studs and remodeled it after purchase only a few years ago. So, everything is newer. New AC. New electrical. Tankless water heater. All lights LED. City even made me put in a whole-house fire sprinkler system.

I think the house itself is pretty optimized. It's just that we are all also very heavy electronics users. Powerful gaming computers running long hours. Home entertainment system with surround sound going all day. Wife is from the East Coast. So, she is used to AC running all day. I run a software business from home office. So, I have multiple PCs and a pretty hefty server running.

That said, the meter could be helpful identifying which machine(s) are hurting us most. Do I understand the DROK correctly that the little sleave would go around the power cable and it reads through it that way? Is this right one?: https://www.amazon.com/Multimeter-Te.../dp/B09G2JC1KQ

So, for a start, how many kWh do you use per year ?

[wheaton4prez]

So, for a start, how many kWh do you use per year ?

Approximately 14,280.

[bcroe]

I took the house down to the studs and remodeled it after purchase only a few years ago. So, everything is newer. New AC. New electrical. Tankless water heater. All lights LED. City even made me put in a whole-house fire sprinkler system.

I think the house itself is pretty optimized. It's just that we are all also very heavy electronics users. Powerful gaming computers running long hours. Home entertainment system with surround sound going all day. Wife is from the East Coast. So, she is used to AC running all day. I run a software business from home office. So, I have multiple PCs and a pretty hefty server running.

That said, the meter could be helpful identifying which machine(s) are hurting us most. Do I understand the DROK correctly that the little sleave would go around the power cable and it reads through it that way? Is this right one?

That is the DROK I use, which is capable of registering KWh over
a period of time. Not the only option. An instantaneous measurement
may be quite different than over an hour or a week (or a year). It is
120V or 240V capable, which the K-A-W is not. One wire of the current
loop (thru source and load) needs to pass thru the current transformer,
if both power cable wires went thru, the currents would cancel. This can
be set up at the distribution box for hard wired stuff (like AC), I made a
240VAC male cord-female plug set for pluggable stuff.

240KWM2.JPG

New is not an efficiency guarantee. Hope you have really good
insulation in the house. Check the SEER rating on the AC, the
newest variable speed inverter drive units can cut your use in
half (as they have for my neighbor and me), besides being
nearly silent in operation.

LED lights are good, I suspect a heat pump water heater will
do better than a tankless. Computing and communication
activities ARE NOT inherently energy intensive, same for
sound systems, even more so if not active 24/7. AC and
heating ARE. Numbers will tell your story.
good luck, Bruce Roe

[J.P.M.]

Approximately 14,280.

Thank you.

FWIW, that's about average in my HOA and not much more than the national average for single family detached homes.

If you're in N. County and a bit inland, expect about 1,700 or so kWh/yr. per installed STC kW for a reasonably south facing array at maybe between a 15 to 30 degree slope.
Just know that you'll be on one of several T.O.U. tariffs if you get PV.
Part of your education will be learning the ins/outs of SDG & E tariffs and policies and which one(s) may be the most cost effective for you (or the biggest screw jobs). Expect little help from SDG & E with respect to easy to understand answers.

[OCJ]

Not sure if you've heard about NEM 3.0 but you might want to accelerate your plans and get in under NEM 2.0. By accelerate I mean get some quotes like yesterday.

Even if it goes through as-is, export credit is going to get slashed, especially on SDG&E. The proposed decision right now is aimed at pushing your payback out a few more years. The IOUs are still trying to get the monthly tax added back in and they are not happy about it getting removed in the latest PD.

Become familiar with your Green Button data, https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php, https://www.californiadgstats.ca.gov, grab an Emporia Vue Utility Connect, and get your system ordered ASAP.

[J.P.M.]

Not sure if you've heard about NEM 3.0 but you might want to accelerate your plans and get in under NEM 2.0. By accelerate I mean get some quotes like yesterday.

Even if it goes through as-is, export credit is going to get slashed, especially on SDG&E. The proposed decision right now is aimed at pushing your payback out a few more years. The IOUs are still trying to get the monthly tax added back in and they are not happy about it getting removed in the latest PD.

Become familiar with your Green Button data, https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php, https://www.californiadgstats.ca.gov, grab an Emporia Vue Utility Connect, and get your system ordered ASAP.

I'd tap the brakes on the paranoia.
I'm as cynical as anyone and more than most about PCOs in general, especially after seeing in a fair amount of detail over the last 50 years or so and the B.S. that I.O.U.'s can try and sometimes/often succeed in pulling off - often with the help of fear mongering like this.

Still, and while NEM 3.0 will most certainly happen at some point, no one - not the I.O.U.'s, any consumer or consumer group, no PV peddlers or even the CA PUC - even the courts that will likely be involved in the lawsuits undoubtedly brought on by NEM 3.0 know what the final form will take.

So, while I'd suggest acting quickly to gather as much information as possible and becoming as educated as possible about the PV process, I'd also suggest not becoming paranoid and running off headlong to buy stuff in a fearful and uninformed way. That's what I've seen and tried to educate folks against doing for most of those same 50 years and have seen the poor decisions, crappy and a lot less than good to the point of being senseless solar energy systems thrown at ill-informed choices made in near panic produced as a result of the fear mongering that ignorance feeds on.

Wheaton4prez: Don't be rash. Spend time educating yourself about the best ways to meet your goals and do so with alacrity and focus and don't worry beyond staying informed about crap you have no control over like what the CPUC may or may not be thinking of doing.

[OCJ]

I'd tap the brakes on the paranoia.
I'm as cynical as anyone and more than most about PCOs in general, especially after seeing in a fair amount of detail over the last 50 years or so and the B.S. that I.O.U.'s can try and sometimes/often succeed in pulling off - often with the help of fear mongering like this.

Still, and while NEM 3.0 will most certainly happen at some point, no one - not the I.O.U.'s, any consumer or consumer group, no PV peddlers or even the CA PUC - even the courts that will likely be involved in the lawsuits undoubtedly brought on by NEM 3.0 know what the final form will take.

So, while I'd suggest acting quickly to gather as much information as possible and becoming as educated as possible about the PV process, I'd also suggest not becoming paranoid and running off headlong to buy stuff in a fearful and uninformed way. That's what I've seen and tried to educate folks against doing for most of those same 50 years and have seen the poor decisions, crappy and a lot less than good to the point of being senseless solar energy systems thrown at ill-informed choices made in near panic produced as a result of the fear mongering that ignorance feeds on.

Wheaton4prez: Don't be rash. Spend time educating yourself about the best ways to meet your goals and do so with alacrity and focus and don't worry beyond staying informed about crap you have no control over like what the CPUC may or may not be thinking of doing.

Is it paranoia when they're really out to get you? I just had a read through AB 205 that I saw referenced in some CPUC comments and was quite surprised. https://openstates.org/ca/bills/20212022/AB205/, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/f...202120220AB205

Certainly don't take the first deal that's offered, but become educated fairly quickly and get some quotes. Post back here for feedback.

I get what J.P.M. is saying about I.O.U.'s and their wish lists, the Sierra Club and its bad ideas, and the HAAS list of even worse ideas, but when I see income based fixed charges in a passed and signed assembly bill the writing is on the wall. To me it seems the best position you can be in at this point is grandfathered in the most favorable agreement and plan possible. I think some of these ideas they're cooking up with undoubtedly end up in the courts but in the meantime you can get your system paying you back as quickly as possible.

[Ampster]

Is it paranoia when they're really out to get you? .......

It all depends on where you are standing? I have a behind the meter hybrid battery system and a October 2021 PTO on a GT system on NEM 2.0. I have some strategies to reduce the impact of any decision they may make in December or later. I have a friend who signed an agreement for an install which I hope gets installed before whatever deadline results from the decision or deferred decision by the CPUC.

[wheaton4prez]

That is the DROK I use, which is capable of registering KWh over
a period of time. Not the only option. An instantaneous measurement
may be quite different than over an hour or a week (or a year). It is
120V or 240V capable, which the K-A-W is not. One wire of the current
loop (thru source and load) needs to pass thru the current transformer,
if both power cable wires went thru, the currents would cancel. This can
be set up at the distribution box for hard wired stuff (like AC), I made a
240VAC male cord-female plug set for pluggable stuff.

240KWM2.JPG

New is not an efficiency guarantee. Hope you have really good
insulation in the house. Check the SEER rating on the AC, the
newest variable speed inverter drive units can cut your use in
half (as they have for my neighbor and me), besides being
nearly silent in operation.

LED lights are good, I suspect a heat pump water heater will
do better than a tankless. Computing and communication
activities ARE NOT inherently energy intensive, same for
sound systems, even more so if not active 24/7. AC and
heating ARE. Numbers will tell your story.
good luck, Bruce Roe

Thank you. I have a KAW-style device arriving any day. I think that will be enough for me and the other DROK may be more of a project than I can take on right now. Impressive though. I wish I had the electrician help me set that up when I did the remodel.

Will check the AC qualities. The insulation I don't think was anything new-age. Pink fiberglass. But, I did have them put it into ceilings and interior walls. Windows, sliders are all new high quality. The front door is probably a weak link because its one of those split doors that can open at the top and the installer (me) didn't quite complete the job with the right sealing solution in between panels.

I agree that the AC is the biggest culprit. Our bill is lower now in winter when its not used. But, its still high, imo. The server has a 1000w PSU and runs a RAID of over 12 HD 24/7. Gaming systems have these newer GPUs that need big PSU also. I'm curious to find out how it all measures out.

[wheaton4prez]

FWIW, that's about average in my HOA and not much more than the national average for single family detached homes.

Thank you. That's good to know. I imagine we're not the only ones with a bunch of screens going constantly. House is also on the small side for the area.