Roatary Phase converter ??

[CNC Dan]

I was once told that was deliberate to punish the "alternate source" power users so that they could not receive 'credit' when back feeding into the grid.

Terry

Yup. The best you can do is meet your own needs on average.

I hear now they want to add a new charge to your bill since they claim they don't make enough $ to keep solar homes on the grid.

And soon they might have a new road tax for electric cars, since they don't pay gas taxes used to maintain roads.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yes to both in California according to reports...

Follow the money as Grandpa would say.

It's not just electricity... people all over California have cut back on water use so there are emergency surcharges effective 7/1/15 of 25% in my district.

Last year I used 551 gallons per day and this year I used 64 gallons per day for the same 58 day period paying $151.29

I know an elderly recluse... her husband died years ago and she has an old home in the hills... real estate people have been trying to buy her land... there is an extension cord from one neighbor for her refrigerator and a couple of lights and another neighbor has 150' of garden hose for water...

Both utilities are upset but have declined to take it to the next level because of the bad press it would generate... and no one is stealing anything... it's just both are missing out on the account fees and surcharges.

 

[CNC Dan]

Yes to both in California according to reports...

Follow the money as Grandpa would say.

It's not just electricity... people all over California have cut back on water use so there are emergency surcharges effective 7/1/15 of 25% in my district.

Last year I used 551 gallons per day and this year I used 64 gallons per day for the same 58 day period paying $151.29

Simmilar thing happend in my town.
We had flat rate water service, no meters. Then then they swiched to metered service, and claimed that all but the largest users would pay less.

When people knew they were paying for how much they use, they started using less. So much less they had to raise the rates to take in enough to cover their costs.

With higher rates, people used even less.

So they raised the rates again.

Now we all pay about the same as before, but have to use a lot less water. Thing is, we have plenty of water, unless there is a drought year. Most years the reservoir is full, and excess water goes into the ocean.

 

[muddstopper]

"I was once told that was deliberate to punish the "alternate source" power users"

Yup, apparently the power companies finally learned a business lesson from the insurance companies ...Steve

I actually checked about selling power back to the power company. I have a large stream on my property and about 75ft of head I can turn into hydroelectric. Much better than solar as the creek runs at night as well as during the day. Talk about giving the run around. First off since i was planning on building a new home and generating my own power, the Power company wanted me to pay them to design my home and power system. Right off the bat they told me they wouldnt buy any excess power I produced and would only give me a credit for anything over what i used to power my home. Putting electricity in the bank sort of speak. They would install a meter that ran backwards to measure my power consumption/production, but I had to pay extra for that too. Of course there are the usual concerns about back feeding the power lines in the event of a power outage and such, that part I can understand. It was all the other garbage that just plain turned me off wanting to help save the environment. I'm going to build my house without the power companies input, and I am going to build my hydroelectric system to power my house, but the power company can forget me giving them any free power, or following any of their silly rules about how I am supposed to do things. And dont get me started about the rules they want to impose on taking water from a creek, even if all the water is being returned to the same creek only a few feet below where You want to take it out. Now if i want to bottle that same water and send it to California and charge for it, thats OK.

 

[ultrarunner]

My cousin's next door neighbor owns an old mill site with water rights... goes back to the 1800's and at one time powered a blacksmith shop...

The sluice for lack of a better word drives the water wheel almost all the time... every 10 to 15 years there might be a day or two of hard freeze that soon passes.

His system drives a large DC generator that is ancient... most of the power now provides heating and hot water with a little driving some DC appliances...

In the cold of winter his "Boiler" is always nice and hot... it serves as an energy dump and is vented to the outside so it "Could" boil but the pressure can't build...

His Grandfather devised the modern system in the 30's...

You are right in that water is pretty much 24/7 and cloudy dark days have no effect.