Yeah, essentially some one guesstimated wrong and yes, they learned their lesson. There are a lot more grid scale batteries online now.
We got a bunch of incentives from my electric utility when I converted my house to all electric. I used that towards my solar system so I was out of pocket for about $10k. Still big upfront but I don’t need to worry about rate hikes and one less bill without a gas connection.
Like I said, I paid around $200 for electricity last year which includes most of my transportation. The way it works here we essentially run a tab all year and settle up at years end. We’re still on the hook for fees and such every month which is about $30 though.
When I bought this house it needed a new hot water heater, HVAC, insulation etc. anyway. Once I found out about the rebates it just made sense to go with it all. I really wanted solar when we lived in Phoenix but the utilities were making it near impossible.
In all fairness, our commutes are short and Sacramento has pretty mild winters but it does get warm and we have lots of sun. In a colder climate I would have gone with a battery and a lot more insulation.
Thanks for the info. Understand that when I was a kid in the '70's we were told all about what people thought the future would be like. Solar power - cool and we saw it in a lot of science fi. Flying cars. Electrification.
I'm not against it. But I have worked with a municipality that has their own electric division and saw that it's a lot of work, money, and infrastructure just to keep the lights on. And how much would need to be upgraded just if 10% of people owned electric cars and wanted to charge them overnight. Essentially no downtime on the grid.
Ok? The idea of having my log home up here in the Northeast being self sufficient, complete with solar array, battery backup - yeah, I'm in favor of that. We still Husee small, old windmills on local farms that all they do ir run a pump to get cattle water when far afield.
In practice, though, I'm a little skeptical or even contrarian unless something can be proven to me. I still want solar on my house, I'm just against paying for some big company's infrastructure, so I'm looking into a small Bluetti system or something, so I can build it out and use it how I want to. That will still reduce my dependence on my local electric supplier, I just need to do more research to determine how much. I've had an energy assessment done on the house and it's pretty snug. Log single story ranch with finished basement built in the mid 1980's with insulation above the ceiling, pretty good windows with storms, newer roof, weather stripping around the doors and so on.
Wanted to change the heat from the original oil to something more green but pure solar and geothermal were outrageously expensive, and split packs/heat pumps aren't all that great below freezing - certainly not good enough to completely destroy the aesthetics of the log cabin, and geothermal needs that big plenum that I'd have to build out, and the wells at x dollars per well...friend of mine who is a city engineer and a good 20 years younger than me, went from 25 grand to almost 60 grand for estimates to build out his geothermal at a house he just bought and it's not a big house, so that project never got off the ground. He, in a demographic that would do green wherever possible, is still on fossils, because it is less expensive and works in the cold we get here.
Taking all these things in consideration during a new build, however, that's where the best results can be gained. Still looking at options, maybe next year for the off grid solar, but geothermal is off the table at this point.
But I'm taking this far off from the OP, so I'll cede the floor
