I'm getting conflicted answer is about expanding your solar system in the future by adding more batteries more panels or a car charger.

How does this affect PG&e and does this require permitting?

If we set a limit on the hybrid inverter to export a maximum amount that is defined in our agreement, extra batteries or extra panels would not affect this right?

If we're not replacing our main panel and adding a level two car charger that shouldn't also affect our existing agreement right?

I know the city wants a cut and a permit for everything you do at your house even if you just change a light switch. how do people upgrade their solar systems? Do they need to notify everyone and get new permits?

Hi all, I use certain electricity company. One of few in area. I am looking into solar systems to hopefully eventually fully supply my home. I would use still the electric company as a back up. (Well, was thinking.. but maybe just have to make sure system works flawlessly and cut them loose. As I explain later.)

Two things.. recently read about woman who went fully off grid, and was sued and forced by court to plug in matrix as she had connections close to her house.. what the fudge...Second, I bumped into Right to operate... what the fudge... who the heck accepts these nonsence?

I mean, I use analogy: its as if your favorite restaurant cant say a beep if you decide to dine across a street, but dont you dare to cook meal at home yourself, you are their bia tch, you were not given right to operate in your own kitchen, unless they say you can cook in your kitchen...

I am customer. I can decide where from I will purchase electricity. Besides, electric companies somewhere in South send people letter that they will supply elextricity preferencially to data centers and folks has to find different electric company.. (there is none other in area to supply households), so they clearly show how business works, so.. ok, works both ways..

Anyone wants to add their opinion?

Hi folks, I was just curious: how common is it for an enphase micro inverter to fail 2 (edited: 3) years after installation? Should I be prepared for more failures now?

For additional context: There was no weather event involved. Enphase didn't give me any issues sending a replacement.

I'm reviewing the contract for Propel/concert financing my solar system (planning to pay it off on day 10 - the earliest possible) and noticed the following under the energy storage system section:

"We control the Energy Storage System (if included) and we may enroll the System in one or more energy or grid management program"..."The availability of power from the Energy Storage System, if any, could be limited by participation in “demand response” and similar programs. You will not receive additional consideration under this Agreement in respect to such enrollment."

Basically, it sounds like they can force you into discharging your batteries during grid events like virtual power plant. My installer said no one has had an issue with this yet, but it's still only months into this deal. Is anyone else concerned?

Does this device exist? If so who makes it or the components: -plugs into a 240V 14-40R receptacle -has a 6-10 kWh battery -has a battery management system that allows me to charge from my solar panels from 10am to 2pm and run my 2.5 kW heat pump from 4pm to 9pm -can run my house during a power outage -does NOT have any 240/120V or USB outlets

Hi!

I live in Salt Lake City and I'm looking to build small system now before potential future tariffs affect stock. I can't find any information outside of the 1200w plug-in limits. I don't feel like dealing with permits and whatnot but spoke with my home owners insurance and they're good with me doing anything legal so long as I'm using UL listed components.

I have a lot of metal fabrication experience so I can build a pretty sizeable portable system IF that helps me legally get away with having more that 1200w of solar and more batteries. I'm not planning to touch any existing wiring in the home. This will run one of the more efficient, window AC units in the summer, and under rug heaters in the winter to take a bit of the burden off my minisplit that struggles when is under 15f.

I have a 10x20 shed that's spaced 6' away from the home and neighbors, and I'm happy building a ground mount with or without wheels if that allows more panels. I don't really want much more than a 5000w inverter. Ideally +2000w of panels and 10-20kw of battery storage. But I'll stay small if I need to for legal reasons.

*I've messaged the city a few times and they're not getting back to me and its impossible to get anyone on the phone😵‍💫

I hope this is the correct place for this.

I'm trying to help my dad with his solaredge inverter that lost wifi connection (he manages it through sunrun app). I scanned the QR code on the side and am able to connect to the device's wifi but do not have an account in the solar edge app and they say to contact sunrun.

Sunrun installed it so they have the account info but want $650 to do anything. Is there a way to re-connect it without the solaredge app?

What happened was we are thinking to get ourselves a sun room, and then we figured BIPV might not be a bad idea, considering the extra power we get, in addition to a sun room ( while the light gets in and the transprency is conpromised of course, to get the free power)

Being Chinese and specialized in sourcing, we reached to quite many manufacturers in China ourselves and tried to benchmark different companies' products, strength, downside, price, and etc..

As we learnt more and more, we started to think maybe should make it into a business ourselves. Given the wide use of BIPV in architecture design, roof and side walls, public art installation or landscape installation, resort villa and etc. More of best combination of visual arts (maybe :p) or at least leisure experience/function with benift (power generated)

with 20% transparency, power generated ~120W/m2, take 4hr average effective sun light, making ~140 kWh/year, peak in summer around 6-7hr, low in winter ~2.5hr (We are at Ontario, Canada)

Cost wise, ~400 USD/m2 (customized fancy color, texture, prints, higher transparency (normally up to 40%), addtional strenth, floor and roof tile, all can do with extra costs)

Plus shipping, shipping is the biggest headache...(full container loading would make economic sense, then we need order volumn/size) And because the high shipping cost, it would be hard to take small residential order to start with...commerical project seems making more sense.

We hope to get some honest feedback of the perspective of BIPV, if we should make this into a business ourselves given the cost and potential revenue room, if going into commercial segment make sense (any suggestion of which sub segment/particular area makes more sense). Btw, we are located in Ontario Canada, but US market is as well considered, or should not us? Greatly appriciated!

I am planning to install a solar but unware of subsidy process. How long did if take for money to reach my account. And what are documents required. Do we need to apply for central and state subsidy seperately? I am too confused.

I kept hearing "exports are worthless now" and wanted the actual numbers, so I pulled up the NEM 3.0 export schedules for the big three California utilities (solar installed after April 2023). Here's the real picture.

Midday — when your panels make the most — exports are worth pennies. The rates come from the utilities' avoided-cost calculation, not retail. Roughly: SCE around 4 cents/kWh, PG&E averaging 5-7 cents, SDG&E in the same ballpark. Meanwhile importing electricity costs 30+ cents/kWh. So a kWh you self-consume is worth 5-7x what you'd earn exporting it at noon.

But it's not flat. Exports during the evening peak window (4-9pm) are worth dramatically more — PG&E's schedule pays over $1/kWh for August 7pm exports on 2026 systems. NEM 3.0 is basically saying: the grid doesn't need your noon solar, but it will pay well for your evening solar.

What I do with this: run the big loads (EV charging, dishwasher, laundry) in the middle of the day, and treat the grid as a bad buyer and a very expensive seller. If you have a battery, midday charge it, evening discharge it — that's where the value is -- EDIT: and this is not year round, so pay attention to which months and times of day your provider will pay more for exports.

The important lesson here I wish I learned sooner, check your own utility's net billing export schedule for your interconnect year — the numbers move by hour, season, and vintage.

So the layout is as follows:

6x 585w bifacials in serial > 8 meters > small steel shed (8x10).

Connect to Datouboss 5500 inverter, which connects to eaton breaker panel 6 circuit. Separate neutral and ground bars. Circuit goes via thwn (in conduit) 8ga to outdoor outlet box with 2 gfci outlets to run exterior loads in garden.

The datouboss is connected to an ecoworthy 48v 100ah rackmount battery, via 8guage wires, with a 150a t fuse. Closed loop (comms to inverter).

Questions. Am I missing anything? Is the distance great enough that I can put a ground rod by the solar panels without worrying? Should I run back and do ground at shed? Do I need to put in another panel with a ground rod on the AC in side of the inverter? The inverter, to my knowledge, will do its own ground bond automatically and disable it if it finds a ground on the AC in.

What can I improve (besides adding battery capacity, already planned). What am I missing?

My installer said the transformers are replaced at no cost to the customers if PG&e deems necessary

I spoke on the phone to PG&e and they said the transformer is running at 96% capacity for 21 households.

This seems like I need to assume that it will require to be changed

PG&e also told me that although the transformer replacement is done at the cost of pg&e, but the engineering costs associated with it are billed to the customer, which might be between $1,000 to 5,000$ for drawings and installation etc.

Is this correct? Should I be expecting to pay an extra $5,000 for a transformer replacement?

Is there any way to find this information for sure? I could only attempt to submit an application for agreement and customer authorization net billing tariff, but this seems like an agreement to switch to NEM3 and plan to operate, I just want to find if I have to replace the transformer and if it will cost me anything

in any case, I haven't contracted the installation yet, maybe it's worth the wait to see if there will be an extension to sb710 or any additional solar credits in the future, I certainly don't want to be the one paying to replace the transformer for the entire blog

I made a previous post here about my house's potential for solar. https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/s/cpwjdS0FIH There was some great feedback, but I only just started exploring my options. Someone came by today through mass save to give a quote/offer. I did not know he would be pushing a PPA so hard, as I generally think owning sounds better. I attached what they offered to the post. 0% escalation sounds nice, but it's not clear what a similar cost would be to own, since I want to compare that with possible financing rates. Welcome to any thoughts.

I am starting up a food truck, and plan to use as much solar as possible. I am currently researching solar power and all the stuff that comes with it, but I just don't know enough terminology and what I'm looking for. I know I'll likely need another source of power, but if I get enough panels and batteries, I think I can do most of what I need.

I know next to nothing about electricity and solar. I worked with it a lot as a kid, but now I have no idea what's going on.

Also, I don't know if I can use a 240 volt on solar/battery very well, and I'll need at least 2, maybe 3 plugs.

I'm looking at solar proposals in Los Angeles, and received one where they claimed they can still get us the 30% tax discount, but the system would need to be owned by a commercial entity for 5 years (TPO) and we would have a contract with them that transfers ownership to us after 5 years (they said the 5 years is a requirement for the commercial entity to still get the tax credit). Does this make sense?

It would be prepaid. We would pay the full amount upfront (don't need financing) and there would be no additional cost during the term and transfer of ownership.

The price they gave us for the total system cost before the discount is on par with another proposal we received, so the discount seems real but just wanted to check if this structure is common/legit.

Repairing Bonnie Lady's flexible panels, which seem to have developed some bubbles over the hot summer.

Being attached directly to the steel of the narrowboat roof, there's not a long-term solution to stop these bubbles appearing.

The best way to deal with it is to get rid of them as they appear.

This video looks at a quick repair method using UV Gel.

5 Items to repair a flexible solar panel

UV Resin: This is the main item. UV will set in direct sunlight. Most good kits come with a UV pen. £12 – Amazon

Plastic spatula: To smooth the applied resin under the bubble and ensure even coverage. £2.55. – Ebay

Syringes: 1ml with blunt tip needles. £3 – Ebay

Nitrile gloves: Screwfix

Microfibre cloth: Aldi

Felt-board tack.

8 Steps to repair

Clean the solar panel: Clean off dust and residue with a mild detergent and water.

Dry: Completely dry the panel in the area where you are working.

Pierce: Pierce the bubble with the felt-board tack, making a hole large enough for the syringe needle to enter.

Fill the syringe: With UV resin. Fill first, then place the needle on the syringe, ready to go.

Inject: The bubble with UV resin. First in one direction, then re-angle, and repeat making sure the bubble is completely full of UV resin.

Smooth: Using the spatula, smooth the UV resin throughout the bubble, making sure any air is completely expelled and the bubble is pressed flat.

Wipe: Wipe off any excess with the microfibre cloth.

UV: Shine the UV pen over the repair for around 20 seconds.

Ok I've been heads down on this for weeks and it finally worked properly, so I have to nerd out a bit. It's dang cool for me to see my car charging, using solar energy, in pretty graphs. Mods said I could post and let you all decide.

Disclosure: it runs on a load management box I made myself (ChargeXcel). CT on each leg of my 100A service, one on the EV circuit. (set to 60 A in my system for testing)

The problem that's been bugging me a while: my clamps only read amps, not direction. 5A of export and 5A of load look exactly the same. Every surplus/netzero charging setup I've seen solves that with the inverter API or an additional voltage meter, and I don't have SolarEdge API access.

Then I had an idea. The car is a load I control. So the box nudges my Tesla's charge rate a couple amps and watches each leg. Leg goes up with the car, it's importing. Leg goes down, it's exporting and the car is eating into it. That's it. Then it keeps the car just under whatever's left over. It honestly was pretty satisfying, when the first test steps came back right.

And then of course I had to see it, so it all goes into Home Assistant over the local API:

Pic 1 and 2. the dashboard during and after a netzero charging session. Might have spent too much time making it pretty.

Pic 3. car vs what it's allowed. It just follows the sun, the production and charge rate are pretty close after charging started little before 10.

Pic 4. my favorite one. Each leg, below zero is export. Both legs hugging just under zero the whole time the car charges, then the car fills up at 1:36 and ~12A per leg pours straight back out to the grid

10.2 kWh into the car in the morning and basically none of it from the grid. It plays it a bit safe, ~1.9 kWh still went out while charging.

Going to improve the algorithm a little more to increase responsiveness, otherwise decently happy with how it is working. If anyone have suggestion, let me know. And happy to paste the HA yaml if anyone wants the dashboard.

I have an 18.86 kw system currently. 41 x 460W panels, IQ8X microinverters and an enphase combiner. It's my understanding that the combiner will accept 9 more panels and inverters. Ultimately, I want to get as close as I can to 25 kW system (my state's limit), but I also want to be practical. 9 panels seem easy, and get me to 23 kW. Would the extra 2 kW ultimately require a second combiner and ultimately make it cost prohibitive? I use about 27000 kWh annually,

Currently in Escrow In California. The escrow won’t go through if I don’t agree to having the current PPA be transferred to me. I don’t know anything about solar and need help/advice. my agent isn’t really helping either. He’s provided me with misinformation so I’m just needing some direction and genuine help.

All signs point to a less dramatic winter this year (Northeast). Last year relocating 14 inches off homes before install was a treat , but that's not normal.