Our utility up here is pretty much a “you’re lucky we even offer you power” type, so yeah they have nothing for as far as rate incentives or the like. At this point the idea is to operate as if we are off grid, as to only pay the utility access fee (or completely disconnect if possible, I know there are certain legalities with that I need to look into as California tends to frown upon off grid living when utilities are available). Same reason I want a well and have a city water connection as backup. Sewer, trash collection, and Internet would be from local providers.
My current train of thought is, depending on the inverter and charge controller, is to draw direct from solar during the day and batteries at night. Again I haven’t done load calcs, but system sizing depends on max average load during the day while simultaneously charging the batteries. Again a lot of this depends on the house orientation on the lot we get, and how I can balance the design of the house with technical requirements.
I haven’t even gotten into which batteries I’d go for, but I’m leaning towards off the shelf 12/24vdc industrial batteries that I can easily swap as opposed to a monolithic prepackaged system from a company that I may not be able to service myself. My goal is to remain manufacturer agnostic so I don’t run into servicing issues.
Our utility up here is pretty much a “you’re lucky we even offer you power” type, so yeah they have nothing for as far as rate incentives or the like. At this point the idea is to operate as if we are off grid, as to only pay the utility access fee (or completely disconnect if possible, I know there are certain legalities with that I need to look into as California tends to frown upon off grid living when utilities are available). Same reason I want a well and have a city water connection as backup. Sewer, trash collection, and Internet would be from local providers.
My current train of thought is, depending on the inverter and charge controller, is to draw direct from solar during the day and batteries at night. Again I haven’t done load calcs, but system sizing depends on max average load during the day while simultaneously charging the batteries. Again a lot of this depends on the house orientation on the lot we get, and how I can balance the design of the house with technical requirements.
I haven’t even gotten into which batteries I’d go for, but I’m leaning towards off the shelf 12/24vdc industrial batteries that I can easily swap as opposed to a monolithic prepackaged system from a company that I may not be able to service myself. My goal is to remain manufacturer agnostic so I don’t run into servicing issues.