We’ve been pleased with the solar panels and their production at the house in Texas. Several years ago I started seeing tons of solar panels in MO – way more than I see in Texas. When I was telling Vince about how many places I was seeing with solar panels, he kinda blew it off, thinking a good salesman had come through and convinced a lot of people to do it.
We were pleased that this house had solar panels. Vince would probably not have added them since he felt like this part of the country didn’t get enough sun to justify it.
We were a bit disappointed with the way the electric company buys back power and heard that just north of here, it’s a much better deal but, even though what they pay for power they receive is way less than what we pay (in Texas it’s the same – they pay us the same for what we send back as what we pay for what we buy but here, we pay about 13 cents for what we buy and get back about 3 cents for what we return), the way they calculate it makes it work better for us.
Here, our house is over twice the size of the Texas house. Half the house is basement and there’s not much energy that goes into heating or cooling that area but the main level has lots of windows and is about 1,900 square feet compared to almost 1,700 in Texas. We do have three freezers and three fridges there, where we have two fridges and one freezer here. Our HVAC unit in Texas is about as energy efficient as we could get four years ago. The one here is good but not top of the line.
We have a 9kw system in Texas and I think the one here is 11kw so a bit bigger system but still a whole lot more house plus in Texas we had propane heat, water heater, stove and dryer. Here we’re all electric.
I think the way they do it here is this: Say we use 1,000 kwh of power from the power company and send back 1,100 kwh. In Texas, they would charge us 1,000 x 13 cents, then pay us back 1,100 kwh x 13 cents for a net gain to us of $13.
Here, we thought they would calculate it the same way they did in Texas and charge us .13 x 1,000 ($130), then they would pay us back 1,1000 x .03 ($33) so we would owe $97. But that’s not how they do it. They take the 1,000 kwh of their power we used, subtract the 1,100 we sent back and then they pay us for the 100 kwh extra, so we’d get a $3.00 credit.
If we had used that same 1,000 kwh and only sent back 400 kwh:
Texas: 1000 x .13 = $130. 400 kwh x .13 = $52. So, in Texas we would have owed $78
Missouri: 1000 used – 400 sent back = 600 kwh net x .13 = $78
Even though it sounds like it isn’t a good deal . . it doesn’t always work out to be the same but it isn’t bad.
Not bad!
I’m not sure what MO currently has for incentives but in the past, they’ve had some pretty awesome incentives. In Texas, there were none other than what the federal government was offering. So, the solar panels here seem to be a better deal all around but . . once the snow begins to fall and I’m here alone, I doubt I get much benefit from the solar panels . . til the snow melts!
Nelle Coursey says
Praying the snow doesn’t sit on the solar panels for very long. If it is dry snow, maybe it will blow off or if not, melt soon. We just bought a new ac/heating unit. With a 2 story house, you have to have an oversized unit. They were getting us a 3 ton, but had to up it to a 3.5 ton and did not charge us any difference. They did a great job of getting this done for us in the short time they did it in. We have gas/electric heating unit.
Judy Laquidara says
Having new and energy efficient units makes such a difference. We try to replace ours every 10 years so (1) they don’t break and leave us without a unit til a new one can be put in and (2) the new ones keep getting more and more energy efficient and quieter. We replaced the one in the Texas house in 2016 and I love that a/c unit so much. We’ve always used Carrier but had a bit of disappointment with the customer service when they updated software for the thermostat, and ours wouldn’t connect to the internet when it was less than a year old. They sent us a new thermostat finally but then the dealer charged us over $500 to install it. Vince finally got them to reimburse us for that. We’ve always used Carrier but I think we’ll use a different brand when we switch here. This unit was put in in 2017 so it will be a while before we have to think about that I hope.
Glad you have your new unit in.
Judy Laquidara says
The worse that can happen is I have to pay for electricity so I’m not too concerned .. definitely not concerned enough to go out there and try to scrape the snow off! 🙂