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  1. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    The lower consumption tariff does look good on paper... but when they hit you with power cost adjustments each month that are typically over 2 cents per... you start to realize that the lower tariff is mainly to look good to customers of other power companies comparing one company to the next.
  2. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    I'm going to quote that in my next correspondence with the power company.:)
  3. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

  4. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    -5 is as low as we got this winter.. it lasted about 2.5 days... I could run the generator to supplement those days in the future if need be.. I just need a heat pump that works well in the cold
  5. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    Yes the demand is a 24x7 thing starting in April for me... a money grab is the best way to put it... I would love to have the Sol-ark 15k..
  6. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    Correct it is across the board at this point.. they had a Coop 101 meeting for members when they announced this so I went for info. I brought up that very complaint in regards to how they suggest people can help reduce their bills.. I brought up how my heat pump water heater can actually have a...
  7. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    If I go with a new Air source heat pump I will for sure get one good into the negative temps.
  8. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    Emporia does a good job tracking 15 minute peak demand.. I wish I could utilize their app for battery discharge peak shaving... but you must use their battery... I do plan to get their EV charger as I really enjoy their vue monitor/app
  9. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    I am researching new air source heat pumps as well as ground source heat pumps.. also adding 2" of insulation to the exterior of the house while residing it... the plan to attack my high demand comes after the house is performing at its best. The hope is to never need the heating strips.. even...
  10. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    If I had demand charges last year it would have added $786 to the year..
  11. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    Yeah I figured if it's going to cost me some of my hard earned money either way... I may as well get a cool new toy to go along with the savings. If a heat pump dryer is anything like my heat pump water heater... in heat pump only mode it only uses 400 watts... just takes forever to heat the...
  12. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    my bill for 9 months was only $31 each... this change will add about $78 to each of those months.
  13. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    I view electricity like I do gasoline... charge enough per gallon to pay all of the cost of production, transport, ect... the customer really doesn't need to be involved with your business by paying a pump fee and a fuel fee and a cost of doing business fee... if the price gets too high for some...
  14. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    If I could pick between different electric companies to get the best deal as with any other goods or service.. then complaints would be kept to a lower level.. but to have a rate change done in a way that is nearly out of my control to offset and a change that has the ability to triple my bill...
  15. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    My price per Kwh is actually cheap at $0.087 but I get the other BS along with it... yay
  16. V

    Should i play with the angle.. 16.4kw tall

    My 16.4kw system peaks at about 9.7kw in early January... looks like I need to play with the angle a bit.. thanks for the info
  17. V

    Should i play with the angle.. 16.4kw tall

    Do you think it would be worth the trouble.. more winter production would be nice for sure.
  18. V

    Should i play with the angle.. 16.4kw tall

    45 degrees is optimal winter angle... the rack won't tilt that far as the pivot slots in the supports only allow up to about 30 degrees. We do get snow but very little. Maybe 3 times a year
  19. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    Wonderful... more reason to go off grid
  20. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    It's usage the grid meter sees coming from my house.
  21. V

    Should i play with the angle.. 16.4kw tall

    I have a tall south facing ground mount angled at 11 degrees... would it gain me enough to justify building some support bars to help with wind resilience if I tilted the panels to say 26 degrees.. 26 is what the calculators say is a good year round angle for me.
  22. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    I would love to go fully off grid... the winter would be tough but it could be done. Just keep the grid as a backup battery charger until the system is pefected...
  23. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    Separate grounding rod in the earth... or do they want it grounded on another planet?..lol
  24. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    I bet it's like 0.0004 KW just to small to show on the bill
  25. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    Here is mine.. I'm not charged for demand yet but you can see they are tracking it and are ready to charge for it in April.. $3.75 per KW
  26. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    it looks like they want the option to bill people with solar differently than people without. from 1705 58 (2) Offer net metering to the customer-generator pursuant to a commission 59 approved tariff of an electrical corporation or contract approved by the respective 60 governing body of...
  27. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    Look up house bill 2592 https://legiscan.com/MO/text/HB2592/id/2910196 I will look into what you posted.
  28. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    That sounds like the same thing.. how are the non nerd general customers supposed to understand how they are being billed.. and then once they do they will figure out there is very little they can do to combat it.
  29. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    I have thought about that but the 80 gallon unit I have now was $2800 before rebates... do I spend another $2800 for a second unit to keep both on heat pump mode or build a battery/inverter setup to run the current unit "off grid". In heat pump mode it uses 400w but in high demand mode it can...
  30. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    It appears there are only 3 electric cooperatives in the state of Missouri that's are implementing these demand charges this year... I'm sure we are some kind of test group for more expansion. There is a bill that is getting some discussion that could make the net metering laws more "solar"...
  31. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    As far as the water heater and heat pump running at the same time.. having 3 out of the 4 people living at the house taking showers/baths each night after work means the water heater is on for a constant 4 hours... turning the HVAC off for that time won't work... the water heater is a heat pump...
  32. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    I totally agree about the heat pump... my peak 15 demand on that unit is 4.21kw so far in February.. it's running right now at about 4kw with defrost at about 2.5kw and it's 21*F here now... the main reason I would give the ground source a look is I have my own digging equipment to install the...
  33. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    It goes live in April so we will see how it goes.
  34. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    I agree but from what I'm seeing from my research is that the $3.75 is just the starting point for a utility company... that price can be increased a lot easier than the actual usage (per KWh) rate without involving state regulators.
  35. V

    Ive had solar for a year and now the utility company charges a demand fee... not cool.

    I reduced my level 2charger to 16 amps once I realized charging at 32 amps was going to cost me...
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