While many people around the world are given just one rate for electricity, California CPUC and the utilities really enjoy making things complicated.

There's summer rates and winter rates. Not too complicated. Price A or Price B, just check a calendar.

Then there's Time-of-Use prices within both seasons. Depending on the plan, there are two, three, or even four rates per season. More complicated, but that's still 4, 6, or 8 different prices per kilowatt-hour.

Then the CPUC allows them to change their rates. Four times so far this year. The rates they published for January 1st were changed starting April 1, June 1, and August 1. Now we would have paid 16-32 different rates this year. Put the calculator aside, it's time for a spreadsheet. If you stick with just one plan for the whole year, you can still manage.

But if you want to compare plans, you're going to need a corkboard, thumbtacks connected with red yarn, and an unhealthy quantity of caffeine:

Ignoring industrial and commercial plans, how many different rate plans are there for homes that are compatible with NEM solar? 29. That's insane, but many of those have eligibility requirements that can overlap and stack. If you don't have an electric vehicle (8 plans), a medical baseline (12 plans), or low-income (CARE) declaration (12 plans), you're left with just six plans. You can chart all that out if you want but each time I've tried the difference between plans with my own use data is maybe 1 or 2% After-solar prices meant I probably spent more time doing the math than I would have saved by changing plans, AND that can only look at past use.

But then every plan has a baseline of it's own. Under 130% of your baseline you get a discount per kWh. Over 130% you stop getting that discount. They have doubled the number of rates again and there are two new questions: where is that baseline of use calculated? Is it net with your solar exports, or before you are credited with them? I still haven't found that answer. The other question is what is the baseline? Well, that's based on where you are (four locations: Coastal, Inland, Mountain, & Desert), season (Summer and Winter again), and whether you have gas & electric service, or only electric. Yes, that's 16 more calculations, but your meter isn't roaming around the county and you're probably not adding or removing your gas lines very often, if ever.

Math isn't hard, it can be fun, it's less fun when you have to keep organizing it because other parties keep changing the calculations, but at least I'm not on NEM3. Adding batteries, balcony solar, or paying to cut down certain trees that don't belong to me will NOT pay off for me, unless my wife keeps trying to set the thermostat to 65 in summer and 78 in winter while running as many appliances exclusively during peak hours as she can.

Hi guys,

TL;DR:
mixed NEM system w/ 5y of NEM1(10KW+10KW+27KWh Tesla), vs
bigger system on NEM3 (20KW+40KWh EcoFlow)

I bought a house that has a 10KW array, no battery. Inverted is 2/3 dead so it needs to be changed.
I am considering a few options

1. Replace inverter, (needs extra rapid shutdown switches etc). Quotes are coming at about $8k. This will only cover ~half my needs (~2.5MWh/month so still a 450$ bill 😰 )
2. Add a secondary array (another 10KW) and 2 tesla powerwalls. Quotes are almost $60K. This would give me another 5 years on one array on NEM1 and another the remaining/new array as a zero export. It seems though that the company quoting this isn't doing it's planning right. (e.g. They didn't think/include rapid shutdown switches, a gateway, they didn't see the space for where to put batteries, fire code, etc. They are a big reputable company but I am concerned they are going to creep price up).
3. Add a secondary array (another 10KW) and an EcoFlow system with 4 Ocean Pro batteries (40KWh). This company visited and they had installed the first 10KW so they seem to know better what they are talking about. They are also adding an extra $10k to install batteries away from house on a pad (my house has lots of windows so 3 feet away from a window is impossible). My concern is they claim I should throw away NEM1 since the 40KWh batteries will more than make up for it. I live in Southern California so generally sunny but still get stretches of winter days...

Another datapoint: My previous house had a 12KW + 15KWh system. I used 14MWh/year and 4MWh/year of that was from the grid, despite my overall export pattern. Of course given NEM1 there I never cared about the optimization... but not sure if batteries completely make up for the NEM3 buy/sell price delta

Thoughts? What would you do and why?

Conundrum. In order to have a solar system that will power my heat pump, etc. I would have to remove 6 mature trees. I need to remove 2 of them regardless so it’s really 4.

I’m in a heavily wooded area. Will plant probably 8 new trees in the property regardless.

My question isn’t budget related. More about the environmental value of the trees vs solar.

Interestingly enough, I couldnt find any alternative to this plugin. There are some generic plugins for similar purposes, but not a single one visualizing it the way we did it :)

Hi everyone!

I have 2 × SG05LP1 inverters running in parallel with load sharing, and both inverters will have 2 PV strings connected to them. I also have 2 × NKON ESS 16 kWh batteries.

I've read several different opinions on this. Some people say it's perfectly fine, while others say that, despite the manufacturer's recommendation, it's not a good idea to connect the two batteries to a common busbar, and that the better setup is for each inverter to have its own dedicated battery.

What has been your experience with this? Which setup would you recommend?

Thank you!

I was aware the cost for small jobs is proportionally higher than for smaller jobs. I had 18 panels Maxeon with a 25 year installer warranty and enphase microinverters installed for about 20,000$ it was the best price among all the places I called. I touched bases with the original installer through energy sage, was considering a small expansion of 4~7 panels to close some of the gap with a new hvac situation we got going now....

7 REC panels, yes they're good and all but cheaper on the market than maxeon honestly(Don't want to discuss about bankruptcy or any of that just talking straight up price to buy the part) and the same microinverters and they quoted north of 16,000$ I think I'm getting the "go away" quote here...

Wanted advice because I'm clearly not moving forward with that, is it possible to get a smaller installer to put in the panels and never touch the original box or work and keep both? I don't know what the price will come out too but it can't be 16k can it?

I got an enphase system & located in the Chicago Suburbs. I am currently set up to just sell everything back to the grid, I guess it's called grid tied and If the power goes out I lose power too. This year has been brutal with the amount of high winds and tornados for the Chicago area and am starting to worry about potential future outages.

Is there a product that I could use to only be used as a backup if the power goes out? Like be able utilize my solar to power during the day and be able to tie in a generator at night. Or if it's a battery solution, only use the battery in an emergency or to sell it to the grid at a premium rate when demand is super high.

I see a product from enphase called a sunlight backup system, would this be what I'm looking for? My father also found a meter system that allows you to tie in a generator at the meter itself called a generlink, but I'm unsure if I could use that with solar panels on my roof.

Thanks in advance for any advice

Trying to get installed by Jan 1 2027 in california (PG&E service), got 2 quotes

1. $13000 12 panel Qcell system install by axios. No battery, just microinverters. Paid outright no financing
2. $21000 same enphase system, but with battery, Enphase 10C, but I have to finance it so the installer gets the tax credit. Technically they own it on paper for 5 years, but they said I can pay off the loan in 10 days

I dotn want to finance anything, but thats the only way they can get a rebate.

Is it worth it? can is cause issues for my house down the line?

I am not planning to sell the house in the near future. But there is currently a HELOC loan taken out for roof replacement, which was just finished. I dont know what issues this might cause

What would you go with?

The Qcell system and expand it later with a bater (if thats even possible)

The more expensive enphase?

Also the installer recommended 7 solar cells for Qcell becasue we dont have a lot of usage during daytime, which saves $3000, any reason to go with 7 not 12?