Driving on Sunshine

[slcasner]

I had not noticed this thread until dhrivnak referenced it from a Roadster thread. Here is a picture of our 4kW system that went up in 2000 when we had our EV1. This photo is from 2006 showing our 2003 RAV4-EV, which is still going strong. Even with the RAV4 plus the Roadster we pay only $100 or so annually because of net metering and a Time-of-Use differential of about .30 peak and .05 off-peak. The tariffs are about to change though, and not in our favor.

 

[dhrivnak]

Very nice I love the picture. I take it you are a two EV family now?

 

[dhrivnak]

Close but no cigar

We came close to net 0 living but with a combination of buying a second plug-in, a Volt and two terrible weeks with 3 snow storms, temperatures to -10 and very little sun, we ended up using 385 KWh for February, bringing our annual usage to 385 KWh. Our connection fee is a modest $7.21/month (11 months) and February's bill of $38.03 brought our annual total cost to $117.34. This is less than I spent on gasoline each MONTH before buying our Tesla and adding rooftop solar.

 

[slcasner]

Very nice I love the picture. I take it you are a two EV family now?

Thanks. I had to cheat on that picture to get the car in the same shot with the solar panels, but careful attention to sun angle and background color requires looking closely to detect.

Yes, we are a two-EV family. We do have a third car, a 2001 Audi A4 Quattro, which is perfectly nice except that it requires gasoline for propulsion, so it hardly ever gets driven except to Yosemite in winter. I had to install a trickle charger to maintain its battery. I know I could get AWD now on the MS, but my wife strongly prefers 30 inches less length in the RAV4-EV.

With just 4kW of solar panels we are still net consumers in kWh, but the price differential let us come out with a net credit until we had both EVs.

 

[Daniel Scherer]

4.05kW Dual Axis Tracking. 63,500 Miles on mine to date.

 

[hcsharp]

4.05kW Dual Axis Tracking. 63,500 Miles on mine to date.

Nice!

I also have a dual-axis tracker. Along with SolarEdge power optimizers we get about 40% more power than a standard fixed panel installation of the same size. Our system downloads the sun's trajectory every day and is never more than about 1 degree off from perpendicular to the sun.

 

[FlasherZ]

I have an 18.3 kWp (DC) system, 4 arrays. 9 kW was turned up Dec, 2013, and in January, 2015, we turned up another 9.3 kW. April was our highest production month, but because of wet weather we're still trending just slightly under predicted yield. We'll see what summer looks like...

This system offsets about half my energy usage, including Model S. A rack full of IT equipment and fruit chillers for my orchard are big reasons for the significant usage. I also have to look at leaky doors and get them sealed back up.

- - - Updated - - -

Some more data:

Here is my electric bill (usage, net metered) for the June, 2014 bill. Month listed is the billing date, which occurs the first day of the month but reflects power usage the last month. So the listing for "Jan" represents December's usage. So everything until Jan, 2014, represents my power usage without solar - anything after reflects the 9 kW system online.

Here's the most recent bill graph - the activation of the next 9.3 kW is represented partially as of the "Feb" data listed here:

They just read the meter today for the next bill. During April, I used only 1,095 kWh from the grid with 18 kW offset (2,201 kWh) - compared to ~3,300 from grid with 9 kW offset (1,226 kWh) for the same period in 2014 and ~3,500 (no offset) for the same period in 2013.

 

[Chipper]

I have a 9.7 kW array on my roof. Today I went over 12 mW of total production. Had it installed last May. My power company (Electric Power Board) owes me more than $200 as of my last bill, and I have not had an electric bill since my install! I am one very happy sunshine driver!

 

[dhrivnak]

We purchased a second electric car, a Volt for my wife, this December as we need a car for road trips. I thought we would be adding additional solar panels to cover the second vehicle but before doing so, we performed an aggressive upgrade to all LED lighting. It appears that the switch to LED's will cover the power used by the Volt. So conservation pays off again. I find it fascinating that one can upgrade lighting in a home and then power a car with the savings.

We have a 7.1KW system and it covers over 90% of our usage. And in our part of the country we do need to heat and cool. The local science museum is developing a new exhibit on energy and they wanted to feature our lifestyle as an example of how we can have sustainable lifestyle now. So we needed a new picture. It is cool to see from this thread that I am far from alone as MANY other Tesla owners have taken the deep plunge into sustainability.

 

[ElectricFarmBoy]

Driving on Sunshine (even in the Pacific Northwest)

So we live in a suburb of Vancouver, a part of the world not known for its abundance of sunshine.

A year ago today the solar panels went up on our house (after a multi-month wait for them to arrive -- serious backorder/supply issue).

Now, despite being north of the 49th parallel and living in a rainforest, in the past year I’ve generated 7.9 MWh of electricity. And yes, it was net-metered, so it went out to BC Hydro when I wasn't around to capture it myself by charging up.

In that same year, I’ve put on 26,000km on my Model S, using 5.6 MWh. Even with the loss that took place going from DC to AC and back to DC, all my transportation was more than covered, which was my original goal. If we get a second electric vehicle we will be very close to all our transportation being completely run on sunshine.

Now to do this, I had to outlay a fairly large chunk of capital, and all in the exercise is not completely rational. But it can be done. And I'll never have to outlay any more money to power my transportation again.

I'm reminded how, more than 35 years ago, I also irrationally purchased a home computer for a few thousand dollars. Everyone I knew thought I was out of my mind. It was not too many years later that every single one of them had one as well. For a fraction of the cost.

Let's hope history repeats.

 

[muleferg]

Photo's please. My 4.8 KWh I sell to NC Green Power.

 

[ElectricFarmBoy]

Love your setup! As for mine, my son made a 30 second commercial for a film class for the Model S:

I'd wanted to redub the music as Driving on Sunshine, but we lacked the vocal talent.

I lifted two frames from that that show the car in front the of house, I'll paste below. Note -- there was an unfortunate communication issue between my spouse and I regarding how visible the panels would be (a bunch are hidden in behind the turret, but as you can see, some can be seen). She is not happy about it. She thinks their presence will be a dis-incentive to a future buyer. I think for at least some set it will be an incentive. Someday we'll find out...

 

[ElectricFarmBoy]

Sorry, didn't see this thread when I reported my own status over here Driving on Sunshine (even in the Pacific Northwest) . Bottom line -- 1 year in I'm generating more than enough to cover all my driving, even this far north.

 

[ElectricFarmBoy]

Mods -- please merge this thread over to Driving on Sunshine -- feels like I should have put it there to begin with. Sorry and Thanks.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

That's my goal as well, and I live just south of you. A place where I don't know if that goal is achievable without a large array.

From an economic stand point I shouldn't do it till next year when I get the sales tax exemption and my once yearly bonus.

I'll probably get a quote/estimate now just so I know it's not a pipe dream (HOA, mounting, sunlight, etc).

I won't have the same issue with the house. I live in a place that seems right off of the show weeds. It won't be a bad thing to look a little different.

 

[johnnyS]

I think I read somewhere that 40% of Tesla owners have solar panels. We started with the model S which led to us switching to a time of use plan with Southern California Edison. On a time of use plan, the user is punished for using electricity during peak hours in return for getting super cheap electricity to power the model S in the middle of the night. Soon we realized that time of use with solar is the way to go. Now we power our house and car with sunshine. In southern California no one has space for a ground mounted solar array. I am guessing about 15% of houses in our neighborhood have solar panels. People are putting their panels wherever they have a good orientation and enough room on their roof. I think having visible solar panels may be the next status symbol.

 

[dhrivnak]

Wow Electric Farm Boy that is really an impressive picture. Thank you for sharing. I assume the solar of sets your car but what percent of your electric do you generate? It appears you have more house than solar at least at the moment.

 

[1208]

We purchased a second electric car, a Volt for my wife, this December as we need a car for road trips. I thought we would be adding additional solar panels to cover the second vehicle but before doing so, we performed an aggressive upgrade to all LED lighting. It appears that the switch to LED's will cover the power used by the Volt. So conservation pays off again. I find it fascinating that one can upgrade lighting in a home and then power a car with the savings.

We have a 7.1KW system and it covers over 90% of our usage. And in our part of the country we do need to heat and cool. The local science museum is developing a new exhibit on energy and they wanted to feature our lifestyle as an example of how we can have sustainable lifestyle now. So we needed a new picture. It is cool to see from this thread that I am far from alone as MANY other Tesla owners have taken the deep plunge into sustainability. View attachment 81899

Nice setup and nice photo. :smile:

Are you going to get the Tesla Powerwall? and do you think it would help take your usage from the solar up to 100%?

On another note, the colours of your cars go well with the house. :biggrin:

 

[dhrivnak]

Not likely to get a power wall as we have one price for electricity and net metering. So a PowerWall would save us nothing. We may get a few more panels however which should easily take us to 100%.

 

[Hugh Mannity]

I definitely live in the wrong jurisdiction...

End result pushes the payoff for solar a lot further down the road than I would like... I'm still trying, but it's painful...

it is painful in our area but i realised i needed to take the financial considerations out of the equation, only then does it really make sense to get an installation here. Calgary is one of the best places in the world for sun exposure, it feels good to know i am producing two to three times what my house uses and putting that back into our mostly dirty coal fired grid.

the company that did my install completed a 2MW system, yes a M not a k!