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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2022-12-30, 16:23

Where I am they have killed net metering. The force everyone on to "Solar time of use" now. So no more making the grid your "battery" for free. Since our contract was signed before the discontinuation of it, we will have net metering until 2028 or something like that.

We are getting batteries, but not enough to sustain a long term outage with no sun. Our solar array will be more than enough to power everything during daylight, but obviously we need power during the night hours too. I would say our batteries fall more into the "emergency battery capacity" for the way you noted it.

Mrs T and I have been eyeing solar for years now. We are generally please with the system we are getting though there are a few "pain points" that will rarely be an issue. Things like one 200A panel won't be powered in a grid down, no sun situation. That is rarely ever going to happen, but it certainly can happen.

I would like higher battery capacity, but that is tens of thousands more and I'm not seeing the true value of that right now. Could it be helpful, absolutely. Is it likely I would ever need them more than for convenience? Not likely.

Even with the grid getting shot at and disrupted by idiots/domestic terrorist I can't imagine the need being high enough to warrant it.

For the switch to time of use, the key there is you NEED batteries to carry your load overnight. You also can charge those batteries off peak for a lower rate, but you will pay for the meter readings and it doesn't spin backwards anymore. So it basically keep the power company getting money from you.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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