Solar panels in AZ questions

[Hoonose]

Originally Posted by hikernut

Probably if that becomes a reality it will be made mandatory to be connected. Sure, one could just ignore the bills, but SRP/APS would just put a lein on the property and eventually get it's money along with interest and late fees.

Off grid will of course work without a mandatory connection if there is no local juice provider.

And if mandatory connection is required, it will be small change if you don't use their juice. I don't have my bills in front of me, but with months that we have net negative use, I'm thinking my bills were on the order of $10-20.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by bobsell

Is this the case for the entire state? Or is it in certain areas?

APS and SRP service areas are the ones I'm familiar with. Don't know if other power companies have followed suit (yet).

Originally Posted by hikernut

Probably if that becomes a reality it will be made mandatory to be connected. Sure, one could just ignore the bills, but SRP/APS would just put a lein on the property and eventually get it's money along with interest and late fees.

Connection to utilities already is mandatory under County/State laws.

Originally Posted by Hoonose

Off grid will of course work without a mandatory connection if there is no local juice provider.

And if mandatory connection is required, it will be small change if you don't use their juice. I don't have my bills in front of me, but with months that we have net negative use, I'm thinking my bills were on the order of $10-20.

You can go "off grid" in the situation you describe BUT be aware that batteries don't do so well in AZ heat AND it's not an easy living situation, you have to really manage your power usage. Under the new rules APS raised their grid tie fee and totally changed how they will pay for excess power. Again, in 10 years they will pay ZERO.

When I was talking with APS last month about switching the Solar Lease from the old owner to myself on our new house I said "it looks to me given the new rules that the only thing that happens by going Solar is you're changing the company that you're paying for your power. Instead of paying APS you pay the Solar company".
The APS employee chuckled and said "yes, that's correct".

If you didn't buy in a couple years ago at the latest AND size your system properly don't bother now as it'll save nothing unless/until the laws are changed back to what they were...

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by jimj

Connection to utilities already is mandatory under County/State laws.

Thanks. I didn't know if that was already true.

Anything that relies on storage is going to be a loser, economically speaking, compared with just connecting to the grid. IMO, the only way to use solar to get a payback is in an application where the energy is used as it's being created. Here the obvious target is air conditioning, but haven't seen anything that seems to make economic sense. Yes, there are some hybrid systems out there, but the prices seem pretty high to me (well, I haven't looked in a couple of years... since we replaced our home A/C).

[jimj]

Originally Posted by hikernut

Thanks. I didn't know if that was already true.

Anything that relies on storage is going to be a loser, economically speaking, compared with just connecting to the grid. IMO, the only way to use solar to get a payback is in an application where the energy is used as it's being created. Here the obvious target is air conditioning, but haven't seen anything that seems to make economic sense. Yes, there are some hybrid systems out there, but the prices seem pretty high to me (well, I haven't looked in a couple of years... since we replaced our home A/C).

There are a few companies developing storage solutions for the home. These will be/are able to store at least 3 days of on demand power. The hurdle now is cost which if what I'm reading is correct they believe they can get it down to a point where it makes fiscal sense to go that direction.