[Deschodt]

After starting all this and reading replies, I made an excel spreadsheet of my bills, before and after. Before being just PG&E, after being a combo of residual PGE bill (gas and access to the grid) + the solar company bill. The year this kicked in, my PGE bill went like 500-450-420 to 90-41-19-28 - LOL.... But I also pay the solar co !

This year is my first being on solar and the system only came on mid June, so halfway thru the year. Even so my yearly bill went something like this:
2018: $2200
2019: $3200
2020: $3400
2021: $3500
2022 - half solar $3100 - (3400 minus $300+ of credits still on my account to be paid off or applying to 2023, no clue when my true up is, guessing june)

So not a huge savings yet - 10% - but half a year only and still relying on natural gas for heater and water heater, and you know how expensive gas went this year, it's been 90% of my PGE bills.

If I switch over to all electrical over time I think I will see more savings, gas was killer this year. I also missed out on solid April-June production months (making way more than I use) and at least partial generation Jan-March (making 50 to 80% of usage).

Finally I'll repeat that I did not do this so much for the savings but a) to be able to use my A/C in summer whenever, guilt free - which we certainly did b) to get a battery backup, which has already been good 2 or 3 times for small outages. Added bonus is a predictable bill, say low 200s ea month vs big fluctuations from $160-$500

This all started for me a few years back when PGE cut power to us for over a week when they started that fire in Sonoma county with downed powerlines. One day is fine, one week is not acceptable. With solar panels recharging our battery 100% during summer days, we'd have been fine with the grid down indefinitely. Also I see PGE rates going upwards fast, and we do get a lot of sun and no trees interfering. That said points above about leasing are valid and I wish I would have bought the system, it was simply too expensive for me to do so at that size...