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Comment Re: If there really is too much solar during the (Score 1) 321

V2G would be useful, but would shorten your EV's battery life. As one who leased a 2012 Nissan Leaf, I can tell you the last thing I wanted was more battery degradation. Could not return the car fast enough.
Also, I would need a huge car battery. Today my PV produced 123 kWh, and exported 107 kWh to the grid. Only 16 kWh were self consumed. Most consumption is during evenings and night, not daytime.

Comment Re: If there really is too much solar during the (Score 1) 321

Your statement about the problem is incorrect . Most rate plans niw have peak hours in the evening. My ETOU-C is 4-9pm peak every day. There is not much solar production during those hours on most days.
A battery would prevent dumping the solar electricity into the grid when there is excess, storing it, and dumping it during peak hours, or self-consuming it whenever it is you need it.
Batteries are quite expensive, though, and don't last as long as solar panels. I would need at least 5 Powerwalls for 1 day of consumption. Earlier today, my PV produced 123.7 kWh, 107.7 kWh of which were exported to the grid, and only 16 kWh self-consumed.

Comment Re: If there really is too much solar during the d (Score 1) 321

The peak rates used to be during the day. As a solar user who uses most electricity at night, I was able to zero out my PG&E bill even though my PV was only covering 60% of my usage on an annual basis.
This was the case for many years. Maybe until 2017.
Now the rates are inverted. For solar users, the peak rates are 4pm-9pm. Most solar customers don't have panels facing west, and have little to no generation during those hours, even during the longest sunshine days of the year. So, even those on NEM1 or NEM2 are getting paid less for electricity generated during off peak hours than they are paying during peak hours from 4-9pm. And those on NEM3 are getting just crumbs unless they have batteries.
I increased my PV capacity from 9.48 kW to 23.2 kW last year. Got switched from NEM1 to NEM2. But not NEM3. I should have 6 more years of near zero bills. After which I get moved to NEM3, or a successor tarrif, and my electric bill will jump from $0 to $10,000/year.

Comment My third had it (Score 1) 78

I went from the VIC-20, to Commodore 64, then Commodore 128 which added a Z80 as a 2nd CPU, 80 column output, and could boot up CPM. I didn't have any CP/M software, so only tried it a few times. Once was to run software a friend wrote on his CP/M system, which I think was a TRS-80 Model 4. My C=1571 disk drive was able to read the disks he brought over. Software ran just fine, though it ran slower than on his system.

Comment Re: ... for a small fraction of 30 of the last 38 (Score 1) 214

I have zoning. There are dampers in the duct. Most rooms don't have any heat or AC when unoccupied. I use the room's thermostat on demand to bring it to desired temperature. It runs for 2 hours by default. It often reaches the right temp within 15 minutes.
I cannot set AC in one room and heat in another at the same time if they are on the same network of ducts. Switching from heat to AC requires using the central master thermostat. I have 2 separate systems, so there are 2 master thermostats. The downstairs one is set for heat. The upstairs one for AC. For example yesterday I used the AC for the kitchen and dining room, which are upstairs.
And heat in the home theater downstairs.

Comment Re: ... for a small fraction of 30 of the last 38 (Score 1) 214

Not sure what you mean about temperature resets. Do you mean presets ? I use some, mainly heat or AC for the bedroom. Elsewhere I trigger it on-demand generally.

The hot tub is well insulated. It is one of the only ones ever to be CEC rated, or was in 2017. The cover was replaced last year. It is the OEM cover, which AI think is decent. It's the only cover that will attach to my lifter, as it needs metal parts inside of the cover.

I don't have much of a remaining electric bill with the solar. Maybe $2000 / year. And about the same for natural gas, which is used by the 2 furnaces and water heaters.

The worry with electricity is that PG&E is constantly adding distribution and fixed monthly fees. In 6 years, when my NEM2 expires, I will only be paid 25% of what I'm getting paid now for feeding electricity into the grid. That means the bill will skyrocket at that time. A battery sized for one day can eliminate the distribution fees for summer and parts of spring and fall.
But it cannot for the winter months when there is a 1500 kWh/month shortfall.
I will probably buy a 1-day battery in 6 years. The ROI should be good if prices drop sufficiently by that time. Right now it looks like it will cost about $50k before tax credit. I won't be working in 6 years. Actually may never work again. And thus won't be able to take advantage of the tax credit, at least not upfront. It could take a decade to recoup it in early retirement.

Comment Re: ... for a small fraction of 30 of the last 38 (Score 1) 214

I live in San Jose. Home is about 4600 sq ft. I have done tons of energy optimizations. I have vacancy sensors for all my lights for example. 50 smartplugs to turn unnecessary things off with Home Assistant.
There's just too much going on. I do use the hot tub several hours each day and that alone uses 6 kW. One 1-4 hour hot tub session will use more than the EVs on most days.
The AC load is minimal as we have zoning HVAC. Which means we can turn it on room by room. There are 10 zones. Heat is also room by room. We still use the heat downstairs. But not upstairs . Dual HVAC systems covering different areas.

Comment Re: Cancelled? (Score 3, Insightful) 124

I believe those who are offended by certain programs do have the ability to rate them, and make those ratings public. That could inform what they watch, as well as their children.
They would need to come up with a proper definition for "woke" in order to exclude them.

Nothing is stopping anyone from starting a bigoted streaming service, call it Bigot+, that will utilize this rating system to exclude "woke" programming. It may even be as successful as Trump Social, some day.

For 24 years, my Dish Network satellite package included Fox News and many religious channels. I never wanted to see them. Fortunately, the guide allowed me to block them and I never had to see them in the channel list again.
I still wished I could have chosen the channels I actually watched a-la-carte, instead, and not subsidized Fox News and the religious channels for all those years. But that wasn't an option. The list of channels I cared about went down to 1, comedy central. I couldn't justify $65/month for just that 1 channel, and dropped the service.
I have survived without CC ever since. It's unwatchable online due to commercials.

I now have a rooftop antenna and SiliconDust ATSC 1.0/3.0 tuner/DVR, with a 1TB SSD.

Comment Re: ... for a small fraction of 30 of the last 38 (Score 1) 214

You are right. I did the math wrong. I have plenty of solar. A 23.2 kW DC system / 17 kW AC. In winter months, it produces about about 1000 kWh. In summer months, 3000-4000 kWh.
The winter months have the highest consumption. This is because we use electric heat in our 2 EVs. The usage is about 2500 kWh for 3 winter months, and 2000 kWh for the other months.
There are other months that have smaller shortages - November and February. Most of the other months break even or have large excesses.
We cannot size the PV to produce 2500 kWh in winter months. There is physically not enough space with current panel density. The cost would also be very high, and 75% of the energy would be wasted if off-grid. PV would have to be shut down.
I don't see how a 2.5 day battery helps when you have a 3 months period with a 4500 kWh shortage. That's about 55 days per the annual average. And as I said there are other months we shortages.

Comment Re: ... for a small fraction of 30 of the last 38 (Score 1) 214

Well yes, buy I live in a mansion with 2 central AC, hot tub, sauna, all electric kitchen and laundry appliances, many computers, 250 light bulbs 1 EV and 1 PHEV.
I use Enphase micro inverters. I have increased the PV capacity from 6.5 kW to 23.2 kW over the years. The roof is full with 70 panels on all sides and directions. If replaced all of them with 600W panels, I could roughly double the capacity. That would still fall short of meeting electricity requirements in winter months, unfortunately, as those are the ones with the highest consumption due to EVs electric heat needs. I do have a front lawn that could accommodate more panels :-) Ground mount installations cost way more, though. If I had a 50-60 kW PV, it would cover the winter months, with a battery. But I would have to shut down some if the PV in summer months if I'm off-grid, as there would be nowhere for electricity to go.
Our average daily consumption is 82 kWh. A 2.5 day battery would be 205 kWh. That's about 15 powerwalls. About $180k worth.
There is no possible payback from disconnecting from the grid at these priced.
Also, the 2 furnaces we use for the house in the winter use natural gas. Ao do the 2 water heaters. If we wanted to go electric or heat pump, it would completely change the calculations. I would probably not have enough real estate on my roof and lot to have a PV that covers winter usage, unless we start seeing denser panels in the 1000W range or higher.
Essentially it would be a $400 - $500k dollar endeavor to disconnect from both the electric grid and city gas.
The PG&E charges without solar would be about $10k/year. And about $2k/year for gas. Avoiding $12k/year of utility costs for $500k doesn't make sense, unfortunately. I have gotten rid of most of the electric charges already, at least with NEM2. Getting rid of the gas charges is more challenging.

Comment Re: ... for a small fraction of 30 of the last 38 (Score 1) 214

Nice. But a 120 GWh battery is quite expensive;) Probably in the $10 trillions USD assuming $100 per kWh. And then there are battery replacements.
A 6 months battery to put my home off grid would be 12,500 kWh. Currently Powerwalls cost $500/kWh. That makes the battery cost over $6 millions, about 3x the home value.
I sure wish I could go off-grid, but not at that price.

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