I keep getting mail saying if I take their solar farms option I’ll save 5% no strings attached and I don’t have to do anything and nothing will change. There’s no fine print either.
Just seeing if anyone else did this.
I have NYSEG but I haven’t opened any of those letters. Maybe I should. I am installing a ton of panels later this year, i wonder if I can do both. The goal is a $0 electric bill.
Guy at my work sells power back to the company. He’s got a ton of panels. Says he grows vegetables.
They won’t buy it back and give you a credit that way. They bank your credits for months when you don’t make as much as you produce. Most months my bill is $18.xx, the cost for service with zero usage. Looking at my solar production it probably would have been enough to get me through the entire year had our usage not gone up after installing solar. That’s the “free electricity” effect in how we run the AC. Definitely find we run it more and at lower temperatures trading more comfort for a little more power usage.
My attic is really under-insulated though and the HVAC guy said that’s putting a lot more strain on my cooling system. That’s should have been resolved by now because I should have been wrapping up my upstairs remodel but everything got delayed because of COVID. Once that insulation is in I’m guessing I should be able to net out to 0 usage for the entire year.
I definitely have to talk with my solar guys to get my facts straight but I assume there would still be a utility charge of some sort. Like metering or other garbage.
Insulation is one big factor, but make sure that you look into air sealing the attic as well. Equally important. https://www.energystar.gov/campaign/seal_insulate/attic_air_sealing_project
Yes, even on months when I produce twice a much as I use my bill is $18.xx. It’s the charge for having the meter, having service, taxes, fees etc. I’m fine with it because it’s letting me treat the grid like a free battery that I never have to replace or maintain. I pump $100 worth back into the grid, basically spinning my meter backwards, and I get $100 of energy credit to use down the road.
Just be careful, because I know they were working to change how the metering works in that they were going to pay you less when you were pumping energy into the grid during lower demand times (like the 11am to 3pm when my system is really cranking) then charging you more during peak demand, like 5pm when everyone gets home and their AC load spikes (about the time my production is dropping off as the sun gets lower). It’s not an issue for me because at the time I installed my system net metering was their policy ($1 in = $1 out) and I was grandfathered in with National Grid and they’re not allowed to change my metering plan.
Mine was too when I first moved in. I paid some guy who was a friend of a friend to fill the attic with cotton ball insulation (my term for it) after a year of living. My heating and cooling bills definitely dropped. By now I’m sure it paid itself back. It was like $800 but my home is only 1200 sq ft.
Yeah, I’m going to have the blown in stuff done, but I want to finish my remodel first since I’m going to be running some electrical up there for pot lights and I really don’t want to be swimming through 18" of cellulose insulation to do it.