dr bob

On paper they encourage it. They have a list of 'approved' installers, and an interconnect agreement that's half an inch thick. WTH??? I've written those same agreements for 1000MW plants, and know how to read them too. I asked the city engineer, who supposedly coordinates the program,, and he didn't understand 90%+ of the sections in the agreement. Maybe the 'approved installers' don't need to follow the whole agreement. Who knows?

On the 'just disconnnect from the grid' suggestion, that would be fine if I had a good way to store the daytime solar generation until the next morning. On paper, the solar plus the interconnect make perfect sense-- I make my own and more during peak sunny load periods during the day, and I get some of my daytime surplus returned to me at night when demand and fuel costs are both lower for the utility. We just swap power watt-for-watt back and forth, demarkation point right at my meter. Sweet! But it doesn't work that way, according to the interconnect agreement's finer print. They charge me a "fuel cost surcharge" that supposedly offsets their extra gas charges, but they only generate about 15% of the total demand in their area. So I pay fuel offsets on power that I'm not purchasing fuel to generate. A little lopsided, yeah, but I should then get the fuel cost surcharge credited back for watts I share back, right? Nooooo. Until we can get the interconnect agreement simplified and get rid of directional metering, the economies aren't quite right yet.

But it would be cool to tell friends and clients how totally solar we are. Maybe I could just use the power to 'fuel' my plug-in hybrid without having a separate meter so they can collect motor-fuel tax on the watts. You all know how that battle is going I'm sure.

the flyin' scotsman

Bob.............we use battery banks to store our wind power energy and I'm sure you know what it takes to bring wind turbine power to the batts and then into the house (barns in our case). what we would like to do is supplement the wind energy with solar which in theory would inable a disconnect.............what we do after a few days of sunless windless days is unknown; fire up the petrol powered gen which could be augmented to a diesel version..............as what telecom companies do.

Whatever is done to form personal power generation flies in the face of the big 'companies'...............kinda like the intro of electirc cars in Alberta..............right!!!!!

Can't comment on the California Muni 'rules'...................sound bad to me especially if the eng. can't talk the lingo.

All elese fails; move to Alberta and spend the winter months in summer climates; everyone elese is enjoying our oilsands and booming economy.

F451

Wow. What a day.

Ignitor on my furnace quit last night, so no heat over night. Called my HVAC buddy this morning, he says come to his work place, and he hooked me up with a new ignitor real cheap, plus a spare. What a guy!

Then I decided to get with the program and upgrade my generator power situation, or at least try to. Ran around to 5 different Home Depots/Costcos/hardware stores, and finally scored the last 5000/6250 w generator at one of them. Yeah baby!

But no gen trans boxes. Or the hefty cables. Same story wherever I went.

Didn't bother me too much as that was pretty much what I expected. Was happy just to be able to upgrade my generator.

Then, found a trans gen box, the last one in the a local hardware store. I could not believe it, exactly the one I wanted too (7500 watt, 10 circuit, 30 amp, with dual meters). And it was part of a kit and CAME with the cable! Ya-hoo!

Got home, called a local electrician outfit, they said they would be right over! Ka-ching!

Installed my new ignitor. It works! Yeah! I have heat again.

Ten minutes before the electrician shows up, the POWER COMES BACK ON!

Had the electrician install my tran gen box anyway.

God is throwing me some major bones today and I'm loving it!

Sitting here in my nice toasty house with the lights on and no noisy generator, sipping my Australian merlot (yes I like merlot - a lot), with my dog by my side, surfing the web.

Life is good.

Ed

F451

Almost forgot my mandatory 928 content. While going to back the 928 out of the garage so the electrician could access the circuit breaker box, it decided it didn't want to start.

So, we'll see what that's all about tomorrow.