Whole house generator

grsthegreat · Jul 9, 2021

sandman2234 said:
Does he make house calls...to Florida?
David from jax

Dont see that happening......

Steelauzzy · Jul 13, 2021

grsthegreat said:
Not sure where u live, but here i pay $0.065 per KWH for grid power. No way i could generate it for less.

Is that the rate on your statement? Or the total you paid tax included for your metered power?

Diggin It · Jul 13, 2021

My June bill was $62.59 for 446 KwHrs which breaks down to around 14 cents each.

Per unit charge is about 10 cents, plus various charges.

I'm reasonably certain I could not continuously generate power for that. Given the buy in costs of solar, it would take me quite a few years, maybe decades to break even.

If solar ever becomes affordable, Ill be all over it.

I really wish utilities would embrace community solar plants ... something that might serve a few mile radius or a few dozen homes.

grsthegreat · Jul 13, 2021

Steelauzzy said:
Is that the rate on your statement? Or the total you paid tax included for your metered power?

Thats the base charge. There are some other fees, ill have to go calc actual cost incl taxes, etc.

ok, with meter fee and taxes, it comes out to $0.0810 . This includes a utility base fee of $8.50 per month for equip maint.

were a coop, lots of wind damage last few years.
still, no way i could generate this power for less. I too have run the figures for wind and solar. Be like 30 years to pay back......just too expensive and we have crappy sun exposure and unreliable wind.

ponytug · Jul 14, 2021

We have $0.42/kWh summer peak down to $0.23/kWh winter off peak, so payback is on the order of 5.5 years. When I first ran the numbers a about fifteen years ago, the pay back was never, and ten years ago it was 25 years, four years ago the payback had dropped to 7.7 years and we installed solar. The electrical prices have risen substantially since we installed and the payback has dropped to 5.5, despite generating less power than we planned (fire code restrictions on the solar panel layout).

It really comes down to your local price of electricity, local installer costs, and whether or not you place any value on being able to generate power when the grid is having trouble, e.g. drought, post storm line damage, earthquake, etc.

As we transition away from gasoline / diesel powered vehicles, we will add solar to cover charging those. Local gas prices are high, too. $4.39 for regular last week, so electric vehicles become cost effective pretty quickly; currently less than half the running costs per mile of our gasoline vehicles.

All the best,

Peter

ranger danger · Jul 14, 2021

I also live on the outskirts of the Bay area. At the time of solar installation, the local building codes would only allow for 92% of usage. I got around that by submitting for a permit with 260w panels totaling 91.3%. After permit approval, I changed my order with the installer to 370w panels

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grsthegreat · Jul 14, 2021

yeiks...at .40/kwh id go solar also. i service backup gen units on quite a few off grid homes up here. since sun can be scarce in the winter, the generator powers up the batteries. some people up here sink $40K into off grid houses. and they dont work some days due to weather. running generator is expensive and kind of ruins the clean energy mode. one things for certain, theres no way one of these houses could charge up 2 cars. they can barely run the house.

Steelauzzy · Jul 15, 2021

grsthegreat said:
Thats the base charge. There are some other fees, ill have to go calc actual cost incl taxes, etc.

ok, with meter fee and taxes, it comes out to $0.0810 . This includes a utility base fee of $8.50 per month for equip maint.

were a coop, lots of wind damage last few years.
still, no way i could generate this power for less. I too have run the figures for wind and solar. Be like 30 years to pay back......just too expensive and we have crappy sun exposure and unreliable wind.

Yea that’s pretty cheap power. Also depends on your gas price. One of my sites I can generate for 1/4 that. My main shop however I’m close to that .07-.09 if I generate.
Solar prices have also come wayyyy down! My system and my system expansion the roi is almost down to 4 years now. Original was 6. We have pretty decent solar around 3.4 rating.