Solar Electricity Help!

Hello all,

I had Solar City over the other night and they wanted to know how much electricity I want. 100%, 110%, or 120%? Problem is: I don't own a Nissan Leaf yet but plan on getting one in 2017. Do you all think that 110% will cover it? I plan on driving only about 10,000 miles per year since I live 1 mile from my work. Any ideas? Help?

I don't know what they mean by 100, 110, or 120%. Ar they asking if you want that percentage of you typical monthly or annual electricity use? A 24 kWh Leaf takes about 20 kWh from the wall to recharge fully from below the very low battery warning. If you only discharge to 50% SOC, it will probably take about 10 kWh from ththe wall. Therefore, you need to add the Leaf power consumption to the rest of your household load.

Gerry

Solar City is overselling you and the sales staff does not get TOU rates.
You need 50% to 80% to about zero your bill. The best rate of return is the 50% level if you go on SCE TOU-A rate plan.



My total annual consumption 11 mWh

From solar 5 mWh
From SCE 6 mWh

Net annual cost for 6 mWh from SCE TOU-A about $70 with the annual settlement at $29.54
The amount paid is just over one penny per kWh net

3 kW system nailed it for me. Payback 5 yrs or 20% return on investment.
And yes Solar City installed mine. Excellent contractor BTW.

Everything SCE in this thread:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=666&hilit=sce&start=690

smkettner said:

Solar City is overselling you and the sales staff does not get TOU rates.
You need 50% to 80% to about zero your bill. The best rate of return is the 50% level if you go on SCE TOU-A rate plan.



My total annual consumption 11 mWh

From solar 5 mWh
From SCE 6 mWh

Net annual cost for 6 mWh from SCE TOU-A about $70 with the annual settlement at $29.54
The amount paid is just over one penny per kWh net

3 kW system nailed it for me. Payback 5 yrs or 20% return on investment.
And yes Solar City installed mine. Excellent contractor BTW.

Everything SCE in this thread:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=666&hilit=sce&start=690

Click to expand...

Hi,

I really don't understand what you mean? I'm just a school teacher trying to get Solar Electricity from Solar City (or any of the other 100 companies selling solar). My bill now is $80 per month. They can offer me a system that will cover all $80 per month (100%) and after the system is paid for (over 10 years) my electricity bill will be zero. But, I told them I will be getting a Nissan Leaf next year so my electricity will without a doubt go up. My question is: How much will it go up? 10%, 20%, 30%, or 50%? I will be driving the Leaf about 12,000 a year. I don't have the Leaf yet.

$80/month is fairly low and solar will have a long payback. When it comes to getting an EV, you need to do research on SCEs time of use rates (you pay more during the day/afternoon than in the middle of the night when your EV will be charging).

With the current tariffs, solar is sending back power to the utility at higher day time peak rates and your EV will be using power at off peak rates. So for example, for every kWh your solar produces, you can buy back twice that amount at night (You need to look at the tariffs for the exact #'s). So if you sized your system 100% - it will be too big. BUT, there is a strong desire with the utilities to move the peak time to the evening, so be aware of this.

Solar city will not do this research for you, they want to sell you the largest (oversized) system they can. FWIW, I would avoid leasing solar, lots of reasons for this. Also, I would recommend looking at solar specific forums like solar panel talk - lots of smart practical people over there.

For some data: I drive my leaf 12,000 miles per year and use about 3200 kWh/year charging. That is about $50/mo at current TOU rates in SDGE. I do have solar which covers 75% of my energy usage and I only pay the minimum charges at true up. When TOU peak shifts to the evening (probably next March) I expect to pay about $300-400/year with my current system as I am completely shaded in the afternoon, so all solar production will be off-peak.

Yes you will use 3000 to 3600 kWh per year driving a LEAF assuming you always charge at home.

The beautiful thing about TOU (time of use) rate plans is that you sell during high demand high rate time of day and charge the vehicle at night during low super off-peak rates. This allows you to zero out your bill without producing the full energy usage.

Yes you can stay on the standard tiered rate plan and just get a system that produces the full net energy you consume.

To fully zero out your bill is a bit over rated as the lowest tier is a reasonable cost and on par with solar.

Here is a chart of the TOU rates:
This works especially well if you can keep your air conditioner off until 8pm for moderate cooling and let it crank after 10pm so you get some good sleep. If you do not run the air conditioner much it should not be a big deal. I also tend to run the dishwasher overnight (timer) to use low cost electricity. If you can get a smaller system and save the same money the payback is much faster.

Maybe, as somebody from Florida, this doesn't apply to the California people, but here we just avoided "Amendment 1" which would have essentially eliminated the possibility of net-metering. I am actually now, with PV, on a TOU demand rate, which is required for all future PV installations here, something which I think is going to become more and more prevalant.

So I'm wondering if anything similar is going on there in California, not to strike FUD into all out there, but just to ask as it has happened here, and but for Duke Energy and others coming up short on their over $22,000,000 campaign of misinformation, everybody here in the state would have potentially had net metering eliminated.

OK. So I guess I'm going to go with the 110% plan. I can't imagine that my cost will be zero if I get the Leaf and stay at 100%. The Leaf is going to use something no matter when I charge it right? Solar City does't care if I get 100% or 110%. They just want me to get it asap.

The reason you can break even at less than 100% is that you can sell electricity at 28 to 44 cents and buy at 14 cents.
So each kWh used overnight charging the LEAF only need 1/3 to 1/2 a kWh of solar to pay for it.
It really is magic and many do not know or take advantage.