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I always wondered who maintains grid then? Power lines don't stay up themselves, trees fall, poles break, storms blow, lightning hits, etc.
Getting paid to push electric back on the grid is like driving on the road and paying no gas tax to maintain such road. Know what would be a super idea, if no one paid gas tax So if everyone is solar, again, where is the money to maintain grid coming from?
If no one is paying to maintain grid, how is that more reliable?
Power companies aren't going away. It's their responsibility to maintain the grid system, at least it is where I live. Eventually, there may be a tax on solar power to pay for it if need be. Here, the power company no longer buys back the extra electricity. People need to store their electricity in the form of batteries that provide power in the evenings and cloudy days. If there isn't enough stored or generated by the solar system, then power is again supplied by utilities. You're not cut off from the grid system.
How about liability? Who is responsible for backfeed? Tree snaps primary wire at pole, utility side is ground faulted dead on the ground. Your home back-feeds 240V up to the transformer, it is stepped up to 13000V and back down the primary wire dangling just over the ground. Someone touches it and dies. Or it is laying on your neighbor's bush and while cleaning up sticks, he grazes it and goes full sparkler.
Is the utility responsible for your backfeed?
All of a sudden a million dollar lawsuit isn't that cost effective.
How about liability? Who is responsible for backfeed? Tree snaps primary wire at pole, utility side is ground faulted dead on the ground. Your home back-feeds 240V up to the transformer, it is stepped up to 13000V and back down the primary wire dangling just over the ground. Someone touches it and dies. Or it is laying on your neighbor's bush and while cleaning up sticks, he grazes it and goes full sparkler.
Is the utility responsible for your backfeed?
All of a sudden a million dollar lawsuit isn't that cost effective.
Yes, it's the utilities responsibility to keep the power lines operating no matter what the reason for it going down. Nothing changes. Just like now if a tree falls on it, they fix it. If a transformer blows up, they fix it.
If you want details of different circumstances you can always call your utility company and ask them.
How about liability? Who is responsible for backfeed? Tree snaps primary wire at pole, utility side is ground faulted dead on the ground. Your home back-feeds 240V up to the transformer, it is stepped up to 13000V and back down the primary wire dangling just over the ground. Someone touches it and dies. Or it is laying on your neighbor's bush and while cleaning up sticks, he grazes it and goes full sparkler.
Is the utility responsible for your backfeed?
All of a sudden a million dollar lawsuit isn't that cost effective.
I think you're not looking into it far enough. It's pretty easy to detect whether the utility side power is up and stable, and use a relay to keep your system disconnected when something abnormal occurs to the utility side power. The chances of what you describe actually happening is quite low.
I personally think we will be moving away from the need for utility power over time as technology improves. Whatever technology emerges that will finally be good enough to achieve this probably hasn't been invented yet. So to force builders to include this particular immature technology into homes at this time is probably a mistake, because in 10 or 15 years it has the potential to be woefully obsolete, and may not have even paid for itself in that short of a time.
If no one is paying to maintain grid, how is that more reliable?
In many states they are starting to charge homeowners that have solar, this how it should be should. Otherwise it's just normal ratepayers footing the bill.
I think you're not looking into it far enough. It's pretty easy to detect whether the utility side power is up and stable, and use a relay to keep your system disconnected when something abnormal occurs to the utility side power. The chances of what you describe actually happening is quite low.
I personally think we will be moving away from the need for utility power over time as technology improves. Whatever technology emerges that will finally be good enough to achieve this probably hasn't been invented yet. So to force builders to include this particular immature technology into homes at this time is probably a mistake, because in 10 or 15 years it has the potential to be woefully obsolete, and may not have even paid for itself in that short of a time.
I don't know if I agree although I think you're right on some level. I personally know someone who had an electric bill of $500 $600 a month and now generate enough electricity to where they are paying $0. I think their cost for the solar is less than $200 per month. The system was paying for itself from day 1. They've had the system for about 6-7 years already.
I don't know if I agree although I think you're right on some level. I personally know someone who had an electric bill of $500 $600 a month and now generate enough electricity to where they are paying $0. I think their cost for the solar is less than $200 per month. The system was paying for itself from day 1.
I'm not sure I agree with that either. The cost of installing solar capable of generating that much power is very high, especially 6-7 years ago.
What I would believe is that they are paying $200/month towards their massive debt they incurred when they bought their system, at who knows what interest rate.
I don't know if I agree although I think you're right on some level. I personally know someone who had an electric bill of $500 $600 a month and now generate enough electricity to where they are paying $0. I think their cost for the solar is less than $200 per month. The system was paying for itself from day 1.
That's wonderful, when the tax credit comes up again in Congress they can do away with it. Clearly it's not needed anymore based on what you are posting.
I'm sure the people that installed it received all kinds of credits from the state of CA. This was when solar was still rather new and companies were making all kinds of deals to get them installed. In fact, I was told they also got a new roof with the deal.
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So if everyone is solar, again, where is the money to maintain grid coming from? 
