by this point most of you already know
that I have a 5.9 kilowatt hour solar
system on the roof of my house
scratch that not kilowatt hour kilowatt
it generates kilowatt hours worth of
electricity I am actually just hit my
first megawatt a couple days ago awesome
so the question I have been getting from
a lot of my viewers after posting my
first solar system tour video which was
filmed when it was really freaking cold
out wise have my electric car charging
habits changed at all
well yes considerably let's first go
back to what most people will have if
they have electric cars and that would
be time-of-use metering plans
that's where on peak during the daytime
on weekdays your rates are going to be
higher but then off-peak when electric
demand is at its lowest and also which
would also cover nights or be nights and
weekends
yeah when there's overproduction of
power which would otherwise be wasted
utility gives you a cheaper rate which
is basically an incentive to use the
power that would otherwise have been
wasted
well the utility is pretty much shooting
themselves in the foot at the moment at
least in my case now I do have time of
use power and because of what they're
doing I have actually considerably
changed my charging habits I am no
longer charging off-peak I'll get that
to that in the moment of course there's
also a flat rate billing for electrical
service as well if you have a smaller
solar setup that does not meet quite
meet your full power needs or and or you
do not create enough power to over
produce chances are you'd actually need
better off on a flat rate generation or
consumption rate plan you will probably
not get as much power if you do happen
to over produce or excuse me you will
not get paid as much if you do happen to
over produce but if your can
assuming more than you produce in the
end you might be a little bit better off
if you can manage your power wisely in
my case here's what we're going to do
we're going to plug the car in right now
today is a Friday during the daytime it
is 2:35 p.m. and in the past I would not
even fathom plugging the car in before
7:00 p.m. or letting it charge after
7:00 a.m. on a weekday but now I don't
mind let's plug into the I am down to my
last 15 miles on the car a writed range
Shazam and you know what I still haven't
changed my charge timer so I'm going to
go change that and hopefully the radio
doesn't start playing and we're going to
reach right here start charging
scheduled charging is Mable for this
location yes start charging anyways I
still have it set for 7:00 p.m. charge
start but that is no longer needed now
the reason I want Savin doing this in
the past is in the past I would be
paying 19 cents per kilowatt hour to
charge my car but in the off-peak I
would have only been paying about nine
cents right actually there's eight point
nine something something something
something something they have on the
bill so I'm going to explain why we're
going to go in the garage I have a piece
of cardboard I'm going to draw it out
for you and show you guys the map and a
copy of one of my bills now I this month
this is end of April this month bill
doesn't generate until tomorrow but I
will not be able to do this video quite
a while and I'm just getting too many
people asking me so I'm actually over
produced in the daytime and the
nighttime on this last bill and that's
due to being able to see my first bill
on solar and
my charging habits and energy usage
accordingly so let's go take a look here
is a copy of my We Energies bill now it
is a very poorly laid out and completely
confusing in terms of solar because
they're trying to confuse you in terms
of solar production how much use how
much you're getting credit for now what
you're getting paid it is so confusing
that before I even had my solar
activated I tried finding out exactly
how the payback works and the Consensus
foot from the energies and the answer I
got was just wait for your first bill
and it will be so much easier because we
actually have no Philip and clue how our
own billing works for solar so that's
what I did I waited for my first bill
and realized almost instantly I am
getting screwed now the most important
thing to take from this bill is I over
produced on the daytime so I have a zero
day time charges I did not print over
produce enough off-peak to cover all my
off-peak usage so I have a off-peak use
that I did not over produce of 342
kilowatt hours so that is what I'm
getting charged for I'm getting charged
30 dollars in 66 cents with the 342
kilowatt hour of power that I used that
I did not over produce although I did
over produce in general for the 196
kilowatt hours of peak on peak over
production yes this is sounding
confusing here's the deal if you didn't
watch my last video talking about how
the utility is screwing over customers
and this is not just Wisconsin this is
all over I'll get to that in a moment so
the important number is 342 kilowatt
hours of off-peak power that I did not
over produce enough to eliminate so
we'll take that 342 kilowatt hour which
cost me I'm being charged $30 in 66
cents for now for the 196 30.6 6 Sigma
for the hundred ninety-six kilowatt hour
that I over produced during the day time
I am getting paid or another word in
this case credited only nine dollars and
three cents credit and I pay okay now
this is how the utility used some
billing trickery now my original
understanding and the best that the
utility was able to explain to me is
that before I would get billed for
anything I would first get all the power
subtracted from my production so that
means I shouldn't have even gotten paid
yet or given or credited for the hundred
ninety six kilowatt hour nine hundred
ninety six should have been subtracted
from the three hundred and forty two
kilowatt hour because remember payback
I'm only getting this is off this is
winter season so for payback I am
getting four point six zero eight cents
a kilowatt hour but for off-peak
consumption I have to pay eight point
nine six four zero cents a kilowatt hour
so I am getting credited on peak
production half of what I have to pay
for off-peak so obviously that kind of
sucks so what I should what my
understanding was was that I would get
credited or all my power would be
deducted off of my production before I
would have to get billed so my
understanding would be three hundred and
eighty four kilowatt hours minus 196 of
over-production what a meant I only
would have had 188 kilowatt hours of
off-peak to be billed if that was the
case times eight point nine six four
cents a kilowatt hour so 188 times eight
point nine six four cents would mean my
math sucks
3:42 I screwed up somewhere here 42
minus 196 146 146 okay I'm sorry
one know how 146 must hit a wrong button
146 would have been what I did not
produce enough to cover so hundred forty
six times eight point nine six four
cents what a mint there we go
what a mint my bill should have been
thirteen dollars and nine times because
of this x87 four forty we'll just round
up so this is what I thought what would
happen I would have gotten I would have
only had to pay $13.98 66 cents you see
what they did is they separated off peak
and on peak production and consumption
so instead instead of me having to pay
this there's this I had to pay this and
that means 30 dollars and 66 cents and
then they paid me for the overproduction
at a four point six zero eight cents per
kilowatt-hour rate so that means I ended
up having to pay out of pocket 20
dollars in 63 cents does that make sense
does that make sense so far you guys are
you guys following me so they used
billing trickery and very confusing
billing tactics to get an extra twenty
dollars and 63 cents out of me no to get
what am i screwing up here okay here we
go
oh god this is so frustrating you kissed
me confused okay 36 - six - thirteen
point zero nine means they got 1757
$17.50 more out of me by billing me in
this fashion instead of subtracting all
my usage out of the production first but
now on the other hand now because my
system is just enough to basically
eliminate my my usage at least during
the summer season I'm definitely going
to be producing a ton during the winter
season I'll probably still be using a
bit more than what I'm producing but at
the same time I'm still going to be
producing more during the daytime so how
is this hurting utility well here is
what's what's happening and why is
hurting the utility yes there's some gas
candle there no there's not gas in them
they're filled with waste motor oil
the idea is to help the utility they
should really want me to charge off-peak
even though my solar system is
generating you know I could be
generating a megawatt of power during
them during the day time of it during
the month but if I'm charging at a
higher rate I mean the car can charge it
up to 20 kilowatt whereas my solar
system it's absolute max output at any
one moment is going to be 5.9 well of
course a little fluctuation but I'll
never be able to output more at the same
time using it in the car so that means
it's basically like a peak demand kind
of thing the utility wants to avoid peak
demands they want to avoid high spikes
in their usage because they're going to
have to ramp up additional emergency
generation if that peak gets too high
such as in the summertime when you got
all these air conditioners going and
their generation facilities are maxed
out and then here comes you know and
then down the line a little bit a ton of
electric car owners plugging in the
middle of the day and charging at full
power they're going they might have a
brownout blackout it seems to me what
what might be going on a little bit in
California with all the brownouts it
should be their incentive to have me
dump 90 kilowatts of power into my car
at night not during the day it's that
demand that spice of power draw so
because of this billing trickery it's
actually going to cost me less or in
this case well on that last bill cost me
less because I ended up having to pay
$20 in 63 cents for that power usage
instead of $13.99 off-peak then I could
have wiped that out or if I switch my
billing for the time being to flat rate
then it doesn't matter if I generate it
at night and use it generate it in the
day use it at night since I'm on a flat
bill there is no antique and off-peak
they're shooting themselves in the foot
right now yeah they're getting a few
extra cents out of me now but in the
long run it's going to really hurt them
because now I'm going to switch all my
heavy loads to daytime yeah and use up
as much as my over production and I can
now in the case of once I have my rough
maxed out now all my off-peak generation
for solar
pretty much going to be done on weekends
and holidays because that's the only
time the sun's going to be out on the
off-peak and I guess I get a little bit
in the morning but extremely little
before 7 a.m.
I only generate maybe two or three
hundred watt hours after 7 p.m.
I might generate 3 or 400 watt hours
it's just not enough sunshine here in
Wisconsin at those times and off-peak so
it's going to be weekends but if I have
a bigger system then yeah
this is going to work out just fine
because I'll be producing enough in my
own off-peak to cover all the usage but
it really makes no difference just use
it during the day
now once Tesla finally delivers my
founders Edition powerwall 2 then things
are going to change again because now I
can have that power walk to generate or
recharge during the daytime and then
dump that power back into the house at
night so I'll basically be using my
stored daytime solar power for
everything off-peak and once I got that
set up it I can basically forget about
time of use altogether
I'll keep it because when I over produce
I'll get paid more or yeah I will get
paid more accredited more if I'm cutting
it very close on my usage and I can
pretty much use the power any time of
the day I want so I can run that air
conditioners full blast during the day
if I feel like it don't have to worry
about having an insane bill so I hope
you're able to follow this a bit and
learn a little bit about how tricky
these utilities are getting and it used
to be much better but they lobbied for a
6% increase in rates and they snuck a
whole bunch of stuff into their bills at
least here in Wisconsin back in 2014
which went into effect January 1st 2015
a lot of people were caught off guard on
that and it really really hurts and for
those that managed to get locked into
contracts before that change took place
or they're raking in a lot of money
they're getting as much as 27 cents per
kilowatt hour on peak payment because
they have to get paid whenever
back-to-back then before the change they
would get paid whatever the retail rate
was that the customer would have to pay
the utility so at the moment utilities
are kind of double dipping and but it's
still great in that last bill my bill is
still like a hundred bucks but that was
still a lot of winter you gas usage for
heating the house
and now that I have have this figured
out I'm actually charging during the
daytime and I even put the timer off I
have a deep chest freezer in my
downstairs and that was always on the
timer maximum max the coldest possible
temperature kickin at 7:00 p.m.
run all night and on weekends and then
just shut off during the daytime and
powers that peak so I got rid of the
timer
so basically care less want to use my
power now it's actually giving me more
freedom I have in the solar being able
to charge whenever I want not being
stuck to a time use plan so if you have
any questions post in the description
box below and if you didn't watch it yet
here's the other side of the cardboard
showing yesterday's video which if you
haven't watched it the link is coming up
let's put the link right here and you
can click on that and I'll take it to
the other video the prologue of this bin
so
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