On May 7, 3:11*am, "NotMe" wrote:
wrote in message

...





On Sun, 6 May 2012 15:11:39 -0500, "NotMe" wrote:

wrote in message
. ..
On Sun, 6 May 2012 12:46:34 -0500, "NotMe" wrote:

"HeyBub" wrote in message
news:xsOdnVkIObZAFTjSnZ2dnUVZ_gWdnZ2d@earthlin k.com...
"[The company] designs, installs, and maintains solar-energy systems
fitted to homeowners' roofs. Instead of asking for a big upfront
payment,
it leases the systems. As the panels produce power, surplus
electricity
is
sold back to the local utility. Combined with the savings that come
from
using less power from the grid, this will typically reduce the
homeowner's
electric bill by enough to offset the lease payments."

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/40352/?p1=A1

Some states (Texas) have a net billing law which makes the process much
more
workable.

Other states (NC) you can't (effectively) sell the excess back to the
provider.

I expect there are states in between as well.

As for me and mine, I'd look at the process favorably but would be very
very
careful of the fine print.

Typically you get 100% credit for the power you use because your meter
is not running but that drops of to around half when you are selling
it back to them because you are still paying for all of the fixed
costs, taxes franchise fees etc.
Your rebate is based on the actual KWH and it might not even be 100%
of that.
When I had the quote on a 2.3KW system it only made sense to me if I
could get both the 30% federal tax credit and the Florida $4/watt
rebate. That rebate program went broke and I let the deal go.
My proposed payback time was about 8 years with all of the rebates.
Without the Florida rebate it was one of those "I would have been 90"
kind of things ... assuming nothing broke or got blown away in a
hurricane.

That's fine and good but in most jurisdictions trying to back feed to the
grid without a written understanding can get your service disconnected and
you'll play hell getting it reconnected.

Texas is somewhat straight forward. NC (several years back might have
changed in the interim) was nearly imposable.

Grid tie is the only system Fla offered the rebate for.

You are going to be backfeeding by definition.

The inverters shut down when the grid is down.

No argument there it's that some utilities don't care what the inverters do
just that you (or someone ) is back feeding without their knowledge or
agreement.

At one time Texas was that way but now it's a net billing and a given.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It dependson the meters. The old style spinning disk meters will run
backwards when power is exported.

The new electronic meters don't.