As the hurricane passed by, we lost power for a little bit and thanks to the powerwalls, we weren’t even aware that it went out for a few minutes. The lights flickered, and we lost Internet. The Internet came back up within 30 seconds or so. I think it was the small blip of the batteries taking over that caused the router to reboot. I have to see about a small UPS that will fit in the QI panel. When the power went out, the app told me that we had a total of 15 hours of backup power available, and that was without taking steps to reduce consumption. I am doing research to see how to extend that time.

It does create a bit of a security concern, being one of the minority of houses with power while everyone else is without. We aren’t the only ones, though. A quarter of the houses within a half mile of the house have solar, but not all of them have battery backups, which means that they paid about half as much as we did for their systems, but they don’t work when the grid is down.

The month for power was good: we generated 1352 kWh and used 1272 kWh. That means we exported 80 kWh more power to the grid than we used, and that will be banked as a credit on our power bill for the next year.

Average power generated was 43.6 kWh per day, with a high of 58.0 kWh and a low of 18.3 kWh in any given day. Our power bill was the $30 minimum bill, plus the ever present taxes, for a total of $42. I view the entire bill as being a tax, since we are required by law to be hooked up to the grid, and the power company requires us to pay a minimum fee of $30. Without solar, our power bill would have been about $225.

Overall, I think it’s a good system and was a good buy. I have backup power and the system offsets my power bills.

Categories: Electric and Power

8 Comments

Anonymous · September 29, 2024 at 8:09 am

Not sure how to do it but you could establish primary breakers which always have power like the fridge, security cameras, etc.
Then the others would simply not have have power.

    Rick T · September 29, 2024 at 11:57 am

    My old solar system was a partial power design, I had to identify four 120V breakers that would be powered, and they had to be two sides of the 220V feed with a common neutral. Otherwise our system worked exactly as you say: dead circuits.

    If Our Host has a whole house design he just needs to be careful at night if he doesn’t disable lighting circuits manually.

oldvet50 · September 29, 2024 at 9:33 am

Required by law to be hooked up to the grid? I guess if you want to sell them power, then yes, you would kinda have to be. A law against self sufficiency, though? Seems like that could be a winnable legal fight (unless it’s plumbing which could be a health concern for others).

    Divemedic · September 30, 2024 at 4:04 pm

    If utility companies provide services in the area, you’re required to be connected to them. You don’t have to use them, but they will still bill you the $30 a month for the privilege of being connected to them.

EN2 SS · September 29, 2024 at 11:02 am

Glad to read it. Here in Eastern Tennessee, I have two houses and my camper running the bare minimum things on my 3150 watt propane generator. Moved from Texas to get out of the hurricane zone and I’ll be damned if one didn’t follow me up here! My Verizon cell phone didn’t work for crap in Texas and here it can’t even send text messages reliably.Just managed to reconnect to Starlink and change my phone to AT&T, so far so good.

Rick T · September 29, 2024 at 11:52 am

It is hard to maintain a low profile if you are the only one with normal lights on at night, enough it makes me think about not protecting any of the lighting circuits with our next solar installation.

If you are carrying around lanterns like your neighbors nobody is going to think your refrigerators and freezers are still running just fine and they don’t have to know you are recharging them during the day.

Ralph · September 29, 2024 at 4:30 pm

Can you do a ROI based on initial expense plus maintenance. What’s the break even? I get the energy security, but can’t make it work for me. I’m also in FL.

Rick · September 29, 2024 at 8:31 pm

When a very high net worth friend remodeled his home, he had a dedicated generator room built. The gen was large enough, and wired to, provide power to ten of his neighbors. Part of why he did that was the security concern as mentioned here.

While that is unworkable for most, it gives an idea.
What say a group of neighbors all chipped in to build such a thing. Make it legal with deeded title pro rata.

When/if a property changed hands, the deed is attached.

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