I’m in a similar situation. We have a split system, a gas furnace for the basement and first floor and a heat pump for the top floor. To take full advantage of solar generation, we’d like to replace the furnace and AC with a large heat pump, and the gas water heater with an electric unit. Replacing the gas stove and water heater requires rewiring. We do use AC more than we used to, but it’s still less than half the summer. While I like the idea of solar power generation, the cost is excessive for powering lights and electronics.
We have high electric rates here in the Northeast. We’re at $0.31/kWh.
I guess! It’s rare to see solar here because it just doesn’t make any sense. When you do see solar panels here it’s more likely a lifestyle (wanting to be green) choice than financial. Why would anyone make such an investment when my typical electric bill for a family of 4 in a decent sized house is $60-80 per month. I pay more for garbage service than I do for electricity.
That’s another reason EVs and Hybrids are popular here. We have expensive gas and cheap electricity.
Wow, wouldn’t that be great! My last electric bill was over $350
What are you doing to use all that electricity? 
Do you have an electric well pump and septic system? Electric heating?
Granted, we have gas furnace, water heater, and stove. And no cooling. So in the winter months when we heat the house to 67 (64 when we’re away or sleeping), the gas bill might be $100, summer months $40-50. But still, $350/month for electricity???
Easy. A/C is the killer. 100F+ days for weeks on end here, still going. 80% of my bill is for A/C.
You don’t have an air conditioner during the summer ? Here in Oklahoma with many 100 degree days electric bills in the 300.00 range are not uncommon. Even my 1000 sf apartment hits 70.00 plus set at 76.
There are a fair number of homes in my area with solar panels, and I was considering them for a while–until I met with an honest solar salesperson, who was a former student. She said that, as much as she liked making sales, she had to be honest and to tell me that I was too old to be able to amortize the expense of my own solar panels.
That is why I signed-up for a community solar program. They place their panels on the roofs of warehouses and other large commercial structures, and they feed the resulting electricity into the utility company’s grid. The discount that I receive from the utility company is 20-21%
Yeah everyone has their story. My relative clapped her hands with glee when we drove past a corn field converted to solar. Same one bragging about an electric car federal grant for her city. I said something like its all borrowed money that our grand kids will have to pay for.
We built a new jail and the solar folks proposed a deal to the county. It was full of loopholes favoring the solar guys if it didn’t work out for the county, but the commissioners thought it was great. We will see. Just sayin $12,000 an acre land with photo cells on it has got some work to do to hit the BE point.
At any rate, back to cars. If i remember the latest federal data has new car prices increasing something like .6% so pretty stable. About the price of rust proofing.
Electricity is expensive here to begin with but as mentioned by others- the primary driver right now is A/C. Don’t get me started- as we transition to colder temps, then the 250g oil and 500g propane tanks start needing attention. The oil is 200g about every 20 days or so in winter…I might have 1-2 propane fills per year.
Yup…those companies like Amazon, Walmart, Gm, Ford are all IDIOTS.
I don’t know about the other companies, but in my area, most of the Amazon deliveries are done with Rivian E-vans. Amazon’s commitment to that type of transport is such that they state a goal of 100k electric delivery vans w/in the next 4 years.
The last that I checked, Amazon is doing fairly well, and I doubt that Jeff Bezos is going to be standing in the unemployment line anytime soon. 
In nearby Princeton, the University operates a fleet of 17 electric buses that are free for anyone to ride. They don’t restrict service to just their students and faculty. The buses are charged solely from the University’s solar fields, but I guess that the people who are committed to fossil fuels would probably consider the Princeton U folks to be… stupid.
I didn’t even think about the EV vans. I was only talking about their buildings and infrastructure.
Why Amazon Is Building One of the Largest Solar Projects in America
For the heck of it, I looked up our electric bill for the last 12 months, it was a total of $2,853, so my average over the last 12 months has been $237.75…
So If I did the math correctly, and it only cost us $15,000 (I’m seeing more like $20-25K) to convert this house, without selling any back to the power company, to 100% solar, at $15K it would take 5.26 years to pay for itself, at $20K it would take 7 years and at $25K it would take 8.76 years to pay itself back…
The water heater and heat pump are both gas…
Yes NES is very expensive here, we are on the very outer edge of the greater Nashville area… It is probably double, or close to it, higher than the houses the same size just over the grid line…
If you’re using the utility company as energy storage, where you send electricity back to the power company during daylight hours, you could be causing the electricity rates to go up. If you are sending electricity back at the same price that you buy it from, you certainly are causing the rates for others to go up. If they pay you a reduced rate, such as 40% for electricity sent back, then maybe not.
It’s important to consider the big picture when saying that solar saves money.
At a minimum solar causes the electric company to have to produce electricity at a less constant rate, which means higher generating and distribution capacity that is only used during certain times, which costs more than generating a more constant amount.
If you’re net metering, and they pay you the same rate for electricity sent back up to the point where your utility bill is still positive, the electricity company is LOSING MONEY during the times that you send electricity back, and rates must be raised to those who don’t have solar to compensate.
For what? 
When I lived in another state the house had a geothermal heat pump. No condenser or fan, it exchanged heat through a cooling loop sunk deep into the ground. Very quiet and efficient, though the system was slightly undersized for the house and would struggle to cool the house when the temp was in the 90’s. Heating was fine, might have needed the backup electric coils 10 days out of a year.
If I’m reading that right you’re spending close to a thousand dollars a month to heat your home?
I guess this is the last time I’m complaining about gas being $5.50/gallon.
The article didn’t state how much “Federal Grant” money they received, but I’ll assume it was tax money well spent.
Three years ago, the E-vans seemed to be used exclusively in my area. During the last year in my neighborhood, I have only seen Ford vans and traditional step vans used daily for Amazon deliveries. Perhaps the EV batteries aren’t practical for fleet use in extreme heat.
At least that grant is good for the air we breath and less need for fossil fuels. Much better use of tax dollars than all the stupid things our current leaders are doing with our tax money.
Ah NO. Utilities don’t have to spend as much money GENERATING electricity of if you live down south - they don’t have to startup Coal plants.
By far the largest effect by solar that might increase rates are very large solar farms - NOT individual roof top solar arrays. The utility companies themselves are building solar arrays and wind turbines for cost savings. If we didn’t put solar on our home, rates would still go up at alarming rates because of the cost to produce electricity is going up and these large data centers. Large data centers suck up TARAWATTS of power. There are currently about 4,000 of these large data centers in the US with over 2,000 in the planning stage and many more to come. Some of these large data centers use the equivalent of 50,000 homes. So right now today - data centers are using enough electricity to power 200,000,000 homes. And more to come.
And, they also use/waste an incredible amount of our water supply.