My Goal: to never pay for charging (Solar) -- my automation process

[Scorpio3d]

Shane, your system (solar, batteries and EVSE) is similar to mine! I've had solar for 8 years this month and 6 years ago decided it was time to add storage and getting batteries was a game changer. 16.5Kw of solar, 4 Powerwall 2's and 2 Emporia EVSE's with Vue energy monitoring system. I don't have Home Assistant or any other automated software. ROI for the solar system was 3 years ago and the Powerwalls was last year.

BEV's charge on excess solar or from the Powerwalls and rarely from the grid. When there is no solar, the Powerwalls run the home. They are usually charged by noon or 1:00 PM at the latest depending on weather and any excess solar goes back to the grid. I do use grid power when the weather has been crappy for several days in a row but my solar export offsets this and I always have a credit at the end of each year so never have to pay the utility company for power. This year I'm going to join Tesla's Virtual Power Plant program. Had I done this last year, would have earned $819 according to Tesla's estimate based on my system.

The Tesla app gives me a yearly report. This is last year:

I am on Tesla Electric here in Texas they created their own electric company because we have electric choice in a majority of the state. Here they pay $400 per power wall per year, but they get to use 75% of the power wall. Basically, they manage the power wall. If you have four of them that was Probably quite expensive! How have they held up over the six years?

Sponsored

 

[Scorpio3d]

Signaturesolar.com almost always has a 370-400w bi-facial panel on sale for around that price.

Just saw this one:
https://signaturesolar.com/runergy-400w-bifacial-solar-panel-black-up-to-500w-with-bifacial-gain/

Edit: I will say I am super lucky. I live about an hour drive from this company so shipping is cheap to me or better yet I can go pickup.

Those panels have a pretty high degradation rate, but they are pretty cheap so…

 

[markboris]

I am on Tesla Electric here in Texas they created their own electric company because we have electric choice in a majority of the state. Here they pay $400 per power wall per year, but they get to use 75% of the power wall. Basically, they manage the power wall. If you have four of them that was Probably quite expensive! How have they held up over the six years?

Would be nice if we had our pick of electric companies but we don't. There is a plan here from our utility company (PG&E) to manage my Powerwalls also but I didn't buy them for that. I bought them for me and I will manage them. I like Tesla's Virtual Power Plant plan as you can opt in or out at anytime. Yes they were expensive but not as much as they probably are now. I paid $6700 each. They have been flawless. Never a hiccup. They are always connected to Wi-Fi, alert me when grid power is down, informs me how long the home will be powered for. I like the StormWatch feature that monitors the weather and charges them to 100% then keeps them on standby backup mode in case we loose power. They just do their job and everything is seamless. It's the favorite addition to my home.

 

[Scorpio3d]

Would be nice if we had our pick of electric companies but we don't. There is a plan here from our utility company (PG&E) to manage my Powerwalls also but I didn't buy them for that. I bought them for me and I will manage them. I like Tesla's Virtual Power Plant plan as you can opt in or out at anytime. Yes they were expensive but not as much as they probably are now. I paid $6700 each. They have been flawless. Never a hiccup. They are always connected to Wi-Fi, alert me when grid power is down, informs me how long the home will be powered for. I like the StormWatch feature that monitors the weather and charges them to 100% then keeps them on standby backup mode in case we loose power. They just to their job and everything is seamless. It's my favorite addition to my home.

I have one Powerwall 3 so I don’t have that much backup capacity I have been thinking about adding either another Powerwall 3 or they have come out with the extra batteries you can hook up to the powerwall 3(The PW3 has the inverter built in so they came out with just the battery with no inverter supposedly $1000 less but I think more than $6700)

 

[THX1138]

My garage has a separate meter and load center, not connected to my home. The garage roof can only hold 12 solar panels, I wish it could have more, but its geometry has restrictions. It's been online a little over one year and It is grid tied with Net metering. No battery storage in the garage, other than my truck. Only have the garage door opener, some lights and tools in the garage. No other loads, like in a house. In the past year of operating, it generated about 5000kwh of power. I figure that is about 10,000 free miles of driving for the year. The system cost around $15,000 to get installed, and less the 30% tax credit, a net cost around $10,000. My truck's efficiency is around 2 miles per khw of power, year round. That is like 10000 free miles of driving or about $2500 in gasoline. I figure this will be paid off in four years. Right now the roof is covered in snow and not generating any electricity. In the summer it works really well.