Got to love that seasonal battery you get for (almost) free with NEM2.0 ;)
I love my Emporia Energy Monitor! Looks like the gen 3 current monitors are a little smaller.
I wasn't aware of the VUC. I guess I have no need for it with my current sensors. As for delay, I see 2-3 seconds between switching an appliance and seeing it in the graph.
Solar production varying by 3x -4x winter to summer. Interesting. Not ideal given we live in a heating dominant climate. Anyway, that's a good datapoint for when I start thinking of solar again. Just need those PG&E rates to keep going up to make the breakeven point shorter ;)
The value of exports deserves one or more posts. I've been looking at Locational Marginal Pricing, and NEM 3.0 is not capturing those values well. And then there is are the RECs (Renewable Energy Credits), which are extra valuable and I'm just now learning about. Our solar exports are not just energy, they are renewable energy. Some states (MA?) recognize that and pay for it
A lot to learn... writing, and having comments like yours, helps a lot.
Solar production can change a lot. Part of it is just solar irradiance, but production plummets if you get some clouds, or a storm.
A residential battery of 15 kWh is enough for self-consumption in most months. It is a bit unfair to expect free EV charging out of my solar panels, though that is what I have in this first year.
re: NEM 2.0 -- I'll summarize the year once I get a small details resolved with PG&E. This year I was just learning how everything worked, plus we didn't drive too much with the EVs. Next year I want to emphasize minimizing GHG, which means charging more during daytime, ideally from from my own solar generation
The panel was super-crowded. Perhaps we could have added the flexible CTs for the mains but it was really tight and I didn't like asking my friend to push it in there.
If you have the CTs for the mains, you don't need the VUC. But it is *so* easy and cheap that I think everybody should get one.
The VUC is $40. SCE has a $25 rebate on top of that!
I am sure you know but the flexible CTs for the gen 3 are different to the ones for gen 2. I waited until there was a combo Gen 3 monitor, plus Gen 3 breaker CTs and Flexible gen 3 CTs. Bought the lot and ended up returning the Flexible CTs because of the space, and being able to use the VUC data.
BTW, Emporia has an EV charger that can be configured to only charge on surplus energy :). They are also promising bidirectional charger next year. They are a good team.
Yes, when I got them for my father-in-law I went for the Gen 2 so I could use some of my spare CTs.
I was aware of the EV charger. It's a really cool idea. This is the way to go. There's too much unnecessary hand wringing about 200A panels. I'm nowhere close and data shows most people aren't either (e.g. last PCE presentation)
I wish we did like in Spain (and Texas and elsewhere): the connection fee depends on the max guaranteed power delivered to the house. My panel may say 200A but I should be able to request a max of 100A and pay only for that. And if I want 200A, I should be charged for those 200A.
That seems a much better solution than the IBFC and encouraging 200A in all these big houses.
I need to do some research, confirm my assumptions and write a post on that :)
I believe the complication is that PG&E does line calculations, which I assume also includes the transformers on the poles, to make sure any upgrades can be met. For this reason, it may take a while to get permission to upgrade your service. I think that would make switching between capacities difficult, at least increasing. I'd love to know more about this, what I know I've picked up from random comments.
Got to love that seasonal battery you get for (almost) free with NEM2.0 ;)
I love my Emporia Energy Monitor! Looks like the gen 3 current monitors are a little smaller.
I wasn't aware of the VUC. I guess I have no need for it with my current sensors. As for delay, I see 2-3 seconds between switching an appliance and seeing it in the graph.
Solar production varying by 3x -4x winter to summer. Interesting. Not ideal given we live in a heating dominant climate. Anyway, that's a good datapoint for when I start thinking of solar again. Just need those PG&E rates to keep going up to make the breakeven point shorter ;)
The value of exports deserves one or more posts. I've been looking at Locational Marginal Pricing, and NEM 3.0 is not capturing those values well. And then there is are the RECs (Renewable Energy Credits), which are extra valuable and I'm just now learning about. Our solar exports are not just energy, they are renewable energy. Some states (MA?) recognize that and pay for it
A lot to learn... writing, and having comments like yours, helps a lot.
Solar production can change a lot. Part of it is just solar irradiance, but production plummets if you get some clouds, or a storm.
A residential battery of 15 kWh is enough for self-consumption in most months. It is a bit unfair to expect free EV charging out of my solar panels, though that is what I have in this first year.
re: NEM 2.0 -- I'll summarize the year once I get a small details resolved with PG&E. This year I was just learning how everything worked, plus we didn't drive too much with the EVs. Next year I want to emphasize minimizing GHG, which means charging more during daytime, ideally from from my own solar generation
The panel was super-crowded. Perhaps we could have added the flexible CTs for the mains but it was really tight and I didn't like asking my friend to push it in there.
If you have the CTs for the mains, you don't need the VUC. But it is *so* easy and cheap that I think everybody should get one.
I have the flexible CT and I also purchased them for my father-in-law. Yeah, probably the same price as the VUC.
Being crowded is a problem with the Emporia solution but other than SPAN or other systems, which are very expensive, it's the best solution I know of.
The VUC is $40. SCE has a $25 rebate on top of that!
I am sure you know but the flexible CTs for the gen 3 are different to the ones for gen 2. I waited until there was a combo Gen 3 monitor, plus Gen 3 breaker CTs and Flexible gen 3 CTs. Bought the lot and ended up returning the Flexible CTs because of the space, and being able to use the VUC data.
BTW, Emporia has an EV charger that can be configured to only charge on surplus energy :). They are also promising bidirectional charger next year. They are a good team.
Yes, when I got them for my father-in-law I went for the Gen 2 so I could use some of my spare CTs.
I was aware of the EV charger. It's a really cool idea. This is the way to go. There's too much unnecessary hand wringing about 200A panels. I'm nowhere close and data shows most people aren't either (e.g. last PCE presentation)
I wish we did like in Spain (and Texas and elsewhere): the connection fee depends on the max guaranteed power delivered to the house. My panel may say 200A but I should be able to request a max of 100A and pay only for that. And if I want 200A, I should be charged for those 200A.
That seems a much better solution than the IBFC and encouraging 200A in all these big houses.
I need to do some research, confirm my assumptions and write a post on that :)
I believe the complication is that PG&E does line calculations, which I assume also includes the transformers on the poles, to make sure any upgrades can be met. For this reason, it may take a while to get permission to upgrade your service. I think that would make switching between capacities difficult, at least increasing. I'd love to know more about this, what I know I've picked up from random comments.