I just had my virtual meeting with a Tesla Solar rep to go over things. My house has a guesthouse/ADU where my sick father-in-law and his wife who takes care of him, stay. He requires continuous oxygen and a lot of other medical equipment (and A/C) that use A LOT of electricity. We have SoCal Edison and have been on a TOU 4-9 plan, which is $0.26/kw during off-peak hours (which are 4-9 pm), but that goes up to $0.36 after “baseline” usage. Since we use so much electricity, most of it is at 0.36 during summer months .4-9 pm is $0.47-0.57/kwh. During the non-summer months, the off-peak is similar but peak is about $0.10 cheaper. For the entire year, we average about 50+ kWh/day, and the electricity bill is astronomical, about $6-7k/year. The rep suggested 9.6 kW system, which he said could generate about 50 kWh/day, and 1 powerwall, for the medical equipment in case power goes. Quoted around $36K, which goes down to about $25K after federal rebate. Seems like a no-brainer, but a few caveats.
Now that I have an EV, SCE will change me to TOU Prime, which is $0.22-0.24/kWh, expect during peak 4-9 pm, which is about $0.60/kW. I imagine this will lower by bill by about 20-30%, even without solar.
I don’t know how long my father-in-law will stay with us. Staying here was supposed to be temporary until he got better, but it’s taking longer than expected and it’s been 14 months now. He’s been hospitalized a few times. He may get better and move back to his house, or he may get worse and we won’t need the equipment anymore. If he’s gone and we are generating a lot of excess power, I worry that NEM 3.0 will lower the buyback rate.
The guesthouse and garage are connected and have a separate electrical panel from the main house, even though it’s all billed by SCE as a single address. The panels and PW we install there won’t be usable in the main house where my wife and kids stay with me. So in a blackout, guesthouse and garage will have PW backup, but I’ll stay in the dark.
Part of me thinks I should just skip solar and buy some Powerwalls or other batteries. Charge then up during the morning, then run on them 4-9 pm since TOU Prime has good off peak rates. If the batteries can cover the entire peak period, this would probably save me $8-12/day during summer months. It would also address the issue of having backup for medical equipment (wife asked for generator before I looked into solar/batteries).
Now that I have an EV, SCE will change me to TOU Prime, which is $0.22-0.24/kWh, expect during peak 4-9 pm, which is about $0.60/kW. I imagine this will lower by bill by about 20-30%, even without solar.
I don’t know how long my father-in-law will stay with us. Staying here was supposed to be temporary until he got better, but it’s taking longer than expected and it’s been 14 months now. He’s been hospitalized a few times. He may get better and move back to his house, or he may get worse and we won’t need the equipment anymore. If he’s gone and we are generating a lot of excess power, I worry that NEM 3.0 will lower the buyback rate.
The guesthouse and garage are connected and have a separate electrical panel from the main house, even though it’s all billed by SCE as a single address. The panels and PW we install there won’t be usable in the main house where my wife and kids stay with me. So in a blackout, guesthouse and garage will have PW backup, but I’ll stay in the dark.
Part of me thinks I should just skip solar and buy some Powerwalls or other batteries. Charge then up during the morning, then run on them 4-9 pm since TOU Prime has good off peak rates. If the batteries can cover the entire peak period, this would probably save me $8-12/day during summer months. It would also address the issue of having backup for medical equipment (wife asked for generator before I looked into solar/batteries).
