Tesla Solar in Houston & Surrounding Area’s

[wiltoking]

I just checked. I didn’t notice that I went on Backup.

View attachment 930491

Pretty cool to see how the EV charging is affected during the outtage thanks to the app settings. Current and voltage drop so that the PW is not overloaded. Automatically goes from 8 kW to 3 kW.

 

[DrewHou]

So I finally switched providers to lock in free nights longer. Ended up going with Just Energy 100% Green free nights for a 3 year contract.

Setup my new plan in the Tesla app which I can only set the 3 cent sell rate for peak since you can’t put a sell rate for off peak if you want the buy rate for off peak to be free.

I do not expect to sell much energy anyways but happy I could lock in 3 years of free nights. That’s basically guaranteed my two electric cars charge for free for the next 3 years. Hopefully my Model S is out of the shop soon. 3 months and counting at this point… smh

 

[Jones1]

So I finally switched providers to lock in free nights longer. Ended up going with Just Energy 100% Green free nights for a 3 year contract.

Setup my new plan in the Tesla app which I can only set the 3 cent sell rate for peak since you can’t put a sell rate for off peak if you want the buy rate for off peak to be free.

I do not expect to sell much energy anyways but happy I could lock in 3 years of free nights. That’s basically guaranteed my two electric cars charge for free for the next 3 years. Hopefully my Model S is out of the shop soon. 3 months and counting at this point… smh

Wow. Congratulations on the Plan. That sucks on the Model S repair. That is long.

 

[DrewHou]

Wow. Congratulations on the Plan. That sucks on the Model S repair. That is long.

Way to long. Structural work is done but now we are waiting on a back ordered bumper and wheels. Tesla can’t even give us a date for the bumper so who knows how much longer. At this rate FSD will be out of beta by the time I get my car back

 

[Jones1]

Way to long. Structural work is done but now we are waiting on a back ordered bumper and wheels. Tesla can’t even give us a date for the bumper so who knows how much longer. At this rate FSD will be out of beta by the time I get my car back

Speaking of Beta. I cancelled the $99 Sub on Thursday night. It expired Friday morning. I signed Back up. As soon as I got to work that morning. I went 6 hours without it. I didn’t like having to drive on the feeder to the Beltway. . It’s addictive.

 

[DrewHou]

Speaking of Beta. I cancelled the $99 Sub on Thursday night. It expired Friday morning. I signed Back up. As soon as I got to work that morning. I went 6 hours without it. I didn’t like having to drive on the feeder to the Beltway. . It’s addictive.

It truly is… I just have basic AP on the M3 which seems so bad compared to FSD beta. What’s worse is recently I have been driving our Mercedes and it doesn’t have anything but a basic cruise control and I feel like I’ve been driving a Model T or a horse drawn carriage. I am like what peasants drive their cars!? I need my MS back for this reason and also a place to push excess solar since the M3 charges up to 100% so quickly.

 

[wiltoking]

Oh so this is what life after PTO is like! Just in time for a nice sunny day too! Made all of 61c today lol

 

[wiltoking]

So I finally switched providers to lock in free nights longer. Ended up going with Just Energy 100% Green free nights for a 3 year contract.

Setup my new plan in the Tesla app which I can only set the 3 cent sell rate for peak since you can’t put a sell rate for off peak if you want the buy rate for off peak to be free.

I do not expect to sell much energy anyways but happy I could lock in 3 years of free nights. That’s basically guaranteed my two electric cars charge for free for the next 3 years. Hopefully my Model S is out of the shop soon. 3 months and counting at this point… smh

Excellent! Free nights is where it’s at I think for heavy EV charging users. Tesla Electric seems to give the most credit for us Texas owners but we would need to be able to charge during the day from Solar to make jt financially viable.

Used your side-loading technique to keep the night rates at 0 then? Keep an eye on its behavior in case it wants to run the whole home from the PWs

 

[DrewHou]

Excellent! Free nights is where it’s at I think for heavy EV charging users. Tesla Electric seems to give the most credit for us Texas owners but we would need to be able to charge during the day from Solar to make jt financially viable.

Used your side-loading technique to keep the night rates at 0 then? Keep an eye on its behavior in case it wants to run the whole home from the PWs

I was able to use the latest version of the iOS Tesla app to keep my nights as 0. As long as I don’t touch anything in the off peak and leave buy and sell blank it still works for me. I know some people says it doesn’t work for them but so far my app allows for it. I wouldn’t be selling anything to the grid during the night anyways so it works for me leaving that part blank too. I had to manually add the plan because just energy wasn’t on the app.

Agreed if you have heavy EV charging I think free nights is the best route to go. Even on a day like today where I’m making very little Solar I know I can charge up at night and not pay a penny for it. That’s mainly why I wanted to lock in for as long as possible before EVs are common and they stop offering it.

 

[DrewHou]

They definitely need to refine it for Night's Free. If it ever lets us set a 0 buy rate and 3c sell rate during the night, I can see the PW charging up and discharging constantly to sell the utility's power back to them lol

now that would be funny except when the powerwall looses its capacity in the first year of use because every night it’s just charging and discharging over and over and at 3 cents it would take a lot to recoup the cost of the powerwall.

 

[Jones1]

I’m basically being charged. What it cost to charge my Tesla. This is my current statement.

If I didn’t have an EV and I only have one currently. Waiting on my CT. . I would pay basically nothing. Even if I worked from home and was able to charge during the day. Or at work. Like I use to be able to do. It would be a coupe of dollars maybe.

 

[power.saver]

I’m basically being charged. What it cost to charge my Tesla. This is my current statement.
View attachment 931111
If I didn’t have an EV and I only have one currently. Waiting on my CT. . I would pay basically nothing. Even if I worked from home and was able to charge during the day. Or at work. Like I use to be able to do. It would be a coupe of dollars maybe.

So you're getting less than 2¢/kWh for that nearly 500kWh sold? How is that a good deal?

 

[DrewHou]

I’m basically being charged. What it cost to charge my Tesla. This is my current statement.
View attachment 931111
If I didn’t have an EV and I only have one currently. Waiting on my CT. . I would pay basically nothing. Even if I worked from home and was able to charge during the day. Or at work. Like I use to be able to do. It would be a coupe of dollars maybe.

I think you would definitely benefit from a switch to a plan like I just switched to. Here’s my recent Reliant bill with no solar buyback on just free nights. Add in the buyback of 3 cents from just energy or even amigo and I think you’d be getting a credit instead of a bill for 84 bucks.

My reliant bill this past month even had roughly 10kwh of peak grid usage because I didn’t catch a day and hit a cloudy day with nearly dead powerwalls haha. But still a lot cheaper than 84 dollars.

I assume your banking on Tesla Electric paying out a much higher sell rate in the summer though?

 

[Jones1]

I think you would definitely benefit from a switch to a plan like I just switched to. Here’s my recent Reliant bill with no solar buyback on just free nights. Add in the buyback of 3 cents from just energy or even amigo and I think you’d be getting a credit instead of a bill for 84 bucks.

My reliant bill this past month even had roughly 10kwh of peak grid usage because I didn’t catch a day and hit a cloudy day with nearly dead powerwalls haha. But still a lot cheaper than 84 dollars.

I assume your banking on Tesla Electric paying out a much higher sell rate in the summer though?

I’m going to do a full 12 months.
Waiting to see how I produce and or bank during Summer.
Also I would like to see the rollout of $30 unlimited charging. With any new features they may have planned. If something new rolls out. I don’t want to have to terminate a plan. To come back to this plan.

 

[DrewHou]

I’m going to do a full 12 months.
Waiting to see how I produce and or bank during Summer.
Also I would like to see the rollout of $30 unlimited charging. With any new features they may have planned. If something new rolls out. I don’t want to have to terminate a plan. To come back to this plan.

Well I appreciate you testing the plan for us all. It really helps to understand how it works and what it looks like in practice with usage and the bills. I wouldn’t know that I should stick with free nights without you reporting back how it’s working for you. So big thanks for that.

Now that I signed another contract for three years and paid yet another termination fee I bet Tesla Electric announces a free nights plan now just because that’s how my life works out. I’m really interested in how the VPP events will work out in Cali it seems like they end up having a pretty good payout.

I also kinda want to add two more powerwalls but I can’t be blowing through my severance money until I find another job. Needless to say finding a Training Program Manager job that pays good $$$ in Houston currently isn’t easy. I am finding having Google on my resume isn’t always a good thing haha. Although if anyone here on the forum knows of any jobs feel free to DM me.

 

[Jones1]

Well I appreciate you testing the plan for us all. It really helps to understand how it works and what it looks like in practice with usage and the bills. I wouldn’t know that I should stick with free nights without you reporting back how it’s working for you. So big thanks for that.

Now that I signed another contract for three years and paid yet another termination fee I bet Tesla Electric announces a free nights plan now just because that’s how my life works out. I’m really interested in how the VPP events will work out in Cali it seems like they end up having a pretty good payout.

I also kinda want to add two more powerwalls but I can’t be blowing through my severance money until I find another job. Needless to say finding a Training Program Manager job that pays good $$$ in Houston currently isn’t easy. I am finding having Google on my resume isn’t always a good thing haha. Although if anyone here on the forum knows of any jobs feel free to DM me.

Are you going to wait for PW3 or would you go PW2? If employment status changes. I hope soon. . I would love to get 2 or 3. Now that I have a good understanding of the new Tax Credit and how it can be used for every new install. I’m waiting on LFP PW3. It should be a compatible install. Maybe the PW’s price will drop back down to what they were in 2020. I believe they were about $6000-$8000. Then we had the Covid Rip. 3 at $6000 or lower. It maybe lower than $25k total with install.

 

[Jones1]

I found the older prices. For Powerwall.

 

[DrewHou]

Are you going to wait for PW3 or would you go PW2? If employment status changes. I hope soon. . I would love to get 2 or 3. Now that I have a good understanding of the new Tax Credit and how it can be used for every new install. I’m waiting on LFP PW3. It should be a compatible install. Maybe the PW’s price will drop back down to what they were in 2020. I believe they were about $6000-$8000. Then we had the Covid Rip. 3 at $6000 or lower. It maybe lower than $25k total with install.

Prob wait for PW3 just for the fact I don’t have a ton of space left on the side of the garage my current ones are on and double stacking them would leave me little room to open car doors. Unless I could get a good deal on some PW2s when the 3s come out haha. Having two works pretty well for me but I think 4 total would be better for those days where the AC runs 16 hours and it’s cloudy out. First world problems haha.

If I could get it for 6k a piece that would be amazing!!

 

[wiltoking]

I’m basically being charged. What it cost to charge my Tesla. This is my current statement.
View attachment 931111
If I didn’t have an EV and I only have one currently. Waiting on my CT. . I would pay basically nothing. Even if I worked from home and was able to charge during the day. Or at work. Like I use to be able to do. It would be a coupe of dollars maybe.

It's weird that on Reddit I see posts like this: Tesla Electric Austin Bill and they're selling almost as much energy as you but getting 3x value for it! The person that posted that on Reddit has 30 panels (so a 12kW system) with 3 Powerwalls and charges an EV yet has no off-peak or peak power usage.

 

[Jones1]

It's weird that on Reddit I see posts like this: Tesla Electric Austin Bill and they're selling almost as much energy as you but getting 3x value for it! The person that posted that on Reddit has 30 panels (so a 12kW system) with 3 Powerwalls and charges an EV yet has no off-peak or peak power usage.

I mostly charge at night. About 20kWh a day. The only time I can charge from the Sun is Saturday and Sunday. If I’m off and or at home.
One PW. I’ll pull about 7-8kWh from it. Goes in my MYP. If I had 3 PW. Then I would be able to drain them down to 10 kWh or so. Every night. But that would have been about $150 more per month for my Solar and PW Tesla note. So if I could get the $30 unlimited charging. I maybe be able to sell credits and even it out. I’m thinking. Depends on how Tesla Electric rolls the add on or plan out.

They could be selling more back at peak time. Than I do. That could move their average up.