6Kw going in soon in Aliso Viejo

[Alisobob]

bob, can you show me your enphase usage for 12/29?

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[josefontao]

bob, can you show me your enphase usage for 12/29?

[Alisobob]

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This is a typical, sunny day.

I'm much like you.. low use during peak daytime hours.

Thanks for all your input....

https://www.sce.com/wps/wcm/myconnect/8e57298b-6f7e-4ec9-b2a3-633492e9c78b/Residential+Rate_Sheet_TOU-D-A-B_12.22.14.pdf?projectid=4095b2ec-c82b-451c-8d90-059f4a723e9c&MOD=AJPERES

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I'll check this out.

[josefontao]

Looking a bit closer to your bill, it looks like you are negative most days. Its easy to do the math. On your current plan you are earning credit at the baseline rate, which is 15 cents per kwh.
Switching to TOU-D, you would have earned credits at a 22 cent rate. During off-peak, and when your panels arent generating power, you would be paying at a 13 cent rate, which is still cheaper than the tiered plan you have right now, and 14 cents during summer months.

[josefontao]

As for my goals, I would like to go solar, however due to my roof, im limited to getting panels to offset around 50-60% of my power demands. And now due to SCE taking 2 good hours away from the time when I could potentially generate the most power, i no longer know if it make sense for me. I'm still investigating and crunching numbers.

[josefontao]

Hi Alisobob,
For customers like us with "high" usage, switching to a Time of Use (TOU) plan will save you money even if you dont have solar panels.
I use on average over 900kwh a month, and switching to TOU alone without panels saved me over $80 a month. Of course, savings would vary depending on what time you use most of your energy.

You can find the three TOU plan options at https://www.sce.com/wps/portal/home/...ractorhandbook

Scroll down and open "View pricing for these TOU rates". Two of these plans, TOU-D-A and TOU-D-B are not tiered. The third one, called TOU-D is tiered (just 2 levels) but might be very attractive to folks with solar panels, because they have a high on-peak rates, which is when your solar panels are generating you the most power and thus collecting you the most credits from SCE.
Winter on-peak rates starts at 22 cents on level 1 (up to 130% of baseline usage) and then jumps to 35 cents after 130% of your baseline. Keep in mind that SCE will give credit at the same rate that they would charge you if you were using the energy. The off-peak rate is 13 cents up to 130% baseline and 25 cents above 130% baseline.

Looking at your SCE usage on your screenshot, it looks like you will be able to collect more credit from them which you can then use for the summer months when your A/C is on and usually use more energy than winter months.

The controversy started a few months ago when SCE informed folks that they would be changing the plans starting February 1st. They moved on-peak from 12pm to 6pm over to 2pm to 8pm, including the TOU-D plan (even though thats not yet indicated on SCE's website). Anyway, those two hours(from 12pm to 2pm), which is when the panels are generating the most power got taken out and have lots of solar panel owners up in arms, since it basically screws with their credits.
Regardless, you should still look at your usage and see if makes sense in your case. I'd bet my right nut that you will save even more money by switching to a TOU plan.

As I said above, I switched to TOU-D-B, which is just a flat rate (depending on time of day) and works quite well for me. No one is in my house between 10am to 5pm, which is a good chunk of the on-peak period. The rest of the hours are reasonably cheap at 14 cents and 11 cents.

Understanding these rates is royal pain in the ass and SCE doesnt really make it easy for us to decipher them. But using the hourly hours, spreadsheets and some macros will let you know if you would save even more money.

Btw, congrats on your negative bill and thanks again for sending me your contractors information a couple of weeks ago.

[Alisobob]

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Jan, 2015 recap....

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Some rainy days, and a few overcast cloudy ones put me under my Jan. PV Watts "forecast"....

[Alisobob]

Hey Alisobob,

What sce plan are you on?
Just their regular standard "Net Metering" plan

How will the recent change in rates affect you now that they moved peak rates from 12 to 6 over to 2 to 8?
I dont know.... I've only been at this for 2 months, and dont have much history to go on.

Did generating power to accumulate credit during peak hours influence your decision to go solar at all?
Lowering my annual $3k + SCE bill was the plan. Home Efficiency was step one, Solar was step two. ! was using about 30 KwH's a day. and now generate slightly more than that, even in Jan. I'm building credits every month, to consume in the "A/C" months. Ideally I'll be neutral or slightly under producing for every 12 month net metering period

Also do you have an EV vehicle?
No, but perhaps down the line somewhere....

What are your goals??

[josefontao]

Hey alisobob, what sce plan are you on? How will the recent change in rates affect you now that they moved peak rates from 12 to 6 over to 2 to 8?
Did generating power to accumulate credit during peak hours influence your decision to go solar at all?
Also do you have an EV vehicle?

[inetdog]

I get that same feeling with all the trees around me and the smallish roof. But I am interested in a longer term payoff and creating clean energy for my home, car and the world. We have no intentions of moving from here and the investment to me seems low compared to how much it may payoff in 10 years and beyond. Even if I only knock off a few tiers from my Edison bill I will be happy when rates are so high later that they are impacting my "golden years".

As far as discussing my questions in a new thread, pardon me I am a newbie. I will have to check to see how to do that and how to invite people I have conferred with in the past to enter into a new topic.

There is no good way in the software to invite people to read a new post thread, so you can either put a link to the new thread in a closing post in the old thread, or send a PM your correspondents or just expect that they will eventually be reading the new thread anyway.

[mcollins]

You should start a new thread to discuss your questions. 1st thought seeing your google shot is that not every house is meant to have solar. On the other hand, if you don't mind a 10+ year payback, carry on!

I get that same feeling with all the trees around me and the smallish roof. But I am interested in a longer term payoff and creating clean energy for my home, car and the world. We have no intentions of moving from here and the investment to me seems low compared to how much it may payoff in 10 years and beyond. Even if I only knock off a few tiers from my Edison bill I will be happy when rates are so high later that they are impacting my "golden years".

As far as discussing my questions in a new thread, pardon me I am a newbie. I will have to check to see how to do that and how to invite people I have conferred with in the past to enter into a new topic.

[mcollins]

You can use this link for sunrise/sunset in any season: (move the red balloon to your home and select Sat view)

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/grad/solcalc/

I used it and it is pretty accurate. South is the best and avoid any shades unless in early morning or late afternoon. My solar arrars were facing SW 245 deg and I have tried my best to avoid any shade but still cannot avoid chimney shadow....As you can see, I have moved the panels on top 2 roll to the bottom and still cannot avoid shading..... but at lease I elimated the tree shadow lol

Thanks silversaver! this info was helpful.

[mcollins]

Associations

My neighborhood assoc. said "you want solar, go ahead we have no say". They are looking into reducing the trees on the common property they manage. I will see when we get to Aliso Viejo City what they say.

[josefontao]

Lol

[Alisobob]

You guys are all just party poopers....