Paging KiloBravo

[Surfergeek]

I am also in California and the tax Credit for solar made it very attractive as well as a state rebate on the Powerwall. If you put your battery on the same invoice as the solar system it too is eligible for the tax credit.

I don’t have an electrical bill anymore similar to Mark, am protected from ever rising rates, and when we have rolling blackouts thanks to PG&E’s neglect of their lines and shutdowns to prevent wildfires we still have power. Last year we had shutdown of power that lasted for 3 days. Didn’t skip a beat.

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[kilobravo]

Mark/Jared: All I can say is...

AMAZING!

Questions:

- Is the inverter self-contained in the wall units?

- Do you know the peak load capacity and duration?

- Is there usually enough solar output to bring the batts to full charge for night time protection?

Boy would I EVER like it if I didn't have to send mucho gelt to the power company every month.

Well done, gents.

 

[Epiphany]

How much did the state (via tax revenue) of CA "contribute" for the purchase/install of the solar panels?

 

[Surfergeek]

Mark/Jared: All I can say is...

AMAZING!

Questions:

- Is the inverter self-contained in the wall units?

- Do you know the peak load capacity and duration?

- Is there usually enough solar output to bring the batts to full charge for night time protection?

Boy would I EVER like it if I didn't have to send mucho gelt to the power company every month.

Well done, gents.

Those are some technical questions that I don't off the top of my head have the answer too.

I believe the inverter for the battery, is in the wall units. We have a little series of boxes on the side wall of our house that contains equipment for our solar panels (non-tesla) and the Powerwall.

We only have 1 powerwall, but you can link up multiples to create longer duration / capacity. We were limited to use only one because of the size of our solar system / amps from PG&E. Our neighborhood has all underground power wires, and we have a smaller supply pipe than normal. It would have cost $10-$15K to get PG&E to upgrade our supply cable to support more amps, so we passed on it.

There is enough solar power to bring the batteries to full charge every day and supply the house. We also run off the battery during peak pricing to make sure we aren't using expensive power from the grid.

Under normal circumstances, I set a limit of drawdown on the battery so I always have enough reserve to get us through the night should we get an unexpected outage, the battery has something called storm sense, that will override your request to have it power the house in the case of a danger of outage due to weather, or PG&E broadcasting that they will be having blackouts because of high winds.

It powers most of the important stuff in the house, because we only could do 1 battery, I had to leave some things off of it. Our A/C is not battery backed up, nor is our washer/dryer or oven. Everything else in the house has power.

How much did the state (via tax revenue) of CA "contribute" for the purchase/install of the solar panels?

Solar Panels, is a federal tax incentive, it was a 30% credit when I bought my panels, each year the credit amount goes down some, it's 20something percent now. The tax credit is awesome, it's literally 30% of the cost of the system against taxes owed. So if you spent $20K on a system, you get a $6K credit against your final tax bill.

The battery was a state run program, that was just a rebate. The same thing was true of the battery, they run it in tiers, so people that do it early get a larger rebate vs people that do it late. I got about a $3,500 rebate on my battery from the state.

The neat thing about all of this, if you are so inclined you can do solar financing, and have a payment that keeps your monthly out of pocket cash flow the same or less than what you currently pay your utility. We are planning on being in our house for a long time, so we went ahead and purchased our system vs leasing it.

 

[kilobravo]

Many thanks for the detailed descriptions, Jared and I for one am most envious. And, even if the batt won't carry the air con chicken, it's pretty pleasant out there all the time anyway.

Very informative.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Question: Did the post have concrete on the bottom?

The way they all broke I am guessing they were, the reason I ask, I have been told by many fence guys here in Fl. that most don't "cement" the poles in anymore. Reason: the rain collects on top of the concrete and rots the wood pole, Thus your breakage as shown in your picture.

All my fence is "non-cemented" and have held up to various storms for about 15 yrs.

We __finally__ got our new fence done, my local guy, he's amazing, talented, inexpensive, really knows his shit for pretty much any home build/repair.

FWIW, he went cemented on the 4x4s, he's a Florida native too, so really aware of the weather and construction concerns.

Oh yeah, so get this:

The fence is custom fabricated (vs. prefab panels), on the rear section, ~16" of 4x4 was left above the fence line (which is at 6').The idea was to do some trellis for a little more privacy, and in the event of some kind of issue with "code compliance", we'd have a way to remove it without wrecking the fence (honestly, here at the beach, I can't imagine an issue, and there's not anything like a HOA, I wouldn't live where that was a thing anyway ...)

So instead of just tacking up some 16" pine trellis, my guy split 2x4, cut out a slot, and made frames, that are sized to slide down between the pickets on the fence (it's a shadowbox type design), they fasten to the 4x4, and then it has a finishing top cap with some Sundeck like our new deck build used (which will also tie the sections together), and the finished product is like 19"-20" higher than the fence.

 

[16Kobra]

We __finally__ got our new fence done, my local guy, he's amazing, talented, inexpensive, really knows his shit for pretty much any home build/repair.

FWIW, he went cemented on the 4x4s, he's a Florida native too, so really aware of the weather and construction concerns.

Oh yeah, so get this:

The fence is custom fabricated (vs. prefab panels), on the rear section, ~16" of 4x4 was left above the fence line (which is at 6').The idea was to do some trellis for a little more privacy, and in the event of some kind of issue with "code compliance", we'd have a way to remove it without wrecking the fence (honestly, here at the beach, I can't imagine an issue, and there's not anything like a HOA, I wouldn't live where that was a thing anyway ...)

So instead of just tacking up some 16" pine trellis, my guy split 2x4, cut out a slot, and made frames, that are sized to slide down between the pickets on the fence (it's a shadowbox type design), they fasten to the 4x4, and then it has a finishing top cap with some Sundeck like our new deck build used (which will also tie the sections together), and the finished product is like 19"-20" higher than the fence.

Okie dokie, was just repeating what numerous fence guys told me over the years.

 

[kilobravo]

DT: Your guy is an excellent wood butcher, those turned out VERY professional. Alas, they're still pine and in this southern climate, that just isn't going to cut it any more.

I wouldn't mind at all going to an aluminum decorative fence but I've never seen a straight and square install. Not gonna boot the pups out so I gotta come up with something.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Okie dokie, was just repeating what numerous fence guys told me over the years.

Oh yeah, just giving you another reference point. Heck, our old fence broke down at the ground and it wasn't cemented, I think that's just generally the outcome after X number of years.

DT: Your guy is an excellent wood butcher, those turned out VERY professional. Alas, they're still pine and in this southern climate, that just isn't going to cut it any more.

I wouldn't mind at all going to an aluminum decorative fence but I've never seen a straight and square install. Not gonna boot the pups out so I gotta come up with something.

Yeah, it's all treated, but the lattice is designed just to be "disposable", the deck is 2-stage treated Sundeck, should hold up nicely, going to do a treatment on it soon, like something semi-clear tinted.

Our last stuff held up for a good 15 years or so, hell, if this lasts for a few years I'm good, we might not even be in this house in the near future

 

[MaskedRacerX]

BTW, hope it's OK to goof around in this thread, it kind of became a home improvement chat hahahaha ...

 

[Tomster]

This threat is all about KB. Talk about whatever you want to. Just watch the avatars, lol

 

[Melange_X3]

Solar is awesome!

 

[MaskedRacerX]

This threat is all about KB. Talk about whatever you want to. Just watch the avatars, lol

Dude! Is that your actual car in your avatar? Have you done a full photographically supported reveal?? Do you think the beer I got this morning is cold yet???

 

[kilobravo]

I'm quite sure it's cold, DT. <laughing at that one>

As much as I wish that was Tom's car, it's not but it's one very similar. His is getting REALLY close.

 

[kilobravo]

Solar is awesome!

Truer words were never spoken, D...and holy smoke, it would be REALLY dark for a REALLY long time without that dang solar. :-)

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