Solar Panels Reduced My Electric Bill by $2,677 in 2022

Re:Solar Panels Reduced My Electric Bill by $2,677 in 2022 by NotYourLawyer on Tuesday January 03, 2023 @02:20PM (#34236562)

Oh sure, and I wanted a battery of some kind to keep things running in an outage. I just mean I don’t know why they bid a Powerwall specifically instead of some other battery system.

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Re:Solar Panels Reduced My Electric Bill by $2,677 in 2022 by jefftk on Tuesday January 03, 2023 @03:54PM (#34237898)

Any sort of battery system that lets you keep running in an outage is going to be pretty expensive, unfortunately.

But at that point your question isn't "what would be the payback period if I got solar" but "how much is it worth to me to have power when the grid is down". And so not surprisingly many people get solar but don't install a battery.

(Systems that provide a small amount of best-effort when-the-sun-is-shining emergency power when the grid is down seem like they should be a sweet spot here, because they can be implemented very efficiently. Unfortunately a combination of consumers not wanting it, the NEC not prioritizing it, and the shift to microinverters means that instead of adding ~$200 like it did when I got solar several years ago it's now more like $7k)

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Re:Solar Panels Reduced My Electric Bill by $2,677 in 2022 by NotYourLawyer on Tuesday January 03, 2023 @05:05PM (#34238767)

I get that it’s not gonna pay for itself any time soon, and I’m on board with paying for the privilege of keeping things running when the grid is down. But 50 grand? Come on.

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Re:Solar Panels Reduced My Electric Bill by $2,677 in 2022 by kenchan on Tuesday January 03, 2023 @06:21PM (#34239569)

Another benefit is you can use stored energy in your battery during utility peak hours. 4-9pm in California costs [a lot] more than any other time of day.

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