From meter to solar
 

Has anyone completely converted from the meter to a standalone off the grid system? I understand that some states have made this impossible, but I'm still curious if anyone has successfully cut the cord.

My wife would LOVE to do that. I feel like it's a pretty tall order since in my mind, it would require several layers of redundancy ($$$) to have solid, uninterrupted service like we get from the power companies.

Without having looked into it, I would think that you'd need a good bank of panels, an oversized bunch of batteries, and then at least one beefy backup generator with at least several days if not a weeks worth of fuel. But that's just me spit balling.

Some are doing this in TX with a large solar array, large battery backup, and a NG gen when all else fails. 100% freedom from the grid is technically possible but the price tag is high. Maybe $60k all in. How many months of electric bills would it take to break even??

In AZ we can typically be off grid for as long as the sun shines in our RV. It uses about 1% of the energy needed for our home.

I'd want/need the ability to provide 350kWh per day (peak) (most days are <100kWh), 3250kWh per month (peak).

Masraum and Cafundaddy's comments are spot on. I consider my situation as good as being off grid, with a little bit of luck. When I originally priced a system, it was $55K. By the time I had one installed in 2016, it cost $19K+ with the federal tax credit. Last year it generated 14 megawatt hours which equaled my useage, so I didn'r pay anything for electricity. The other lucky part was I got in on on the "Net Metering 1" program, where you bank your excess generation to be credited against times of lower generation, which is why I didn't pay anything. You need to know your usage over a decent period of time (the company that installed mine looked at my consumption over the past 3 years and sized the system to that plus 10%). The cost of that per year against the cost of the total system you install will tell you the economics of it. Having the grid as a backup or supplement to yours is also a good thing.

In response to masraum's comment about power: my house is all electric, & my usage is 1 1/6 megawatts/month.

Beware of hidden costs, like replacing your roof. After enduring three hurricanes of 2024, those with solar panels were shocked at how much removing and replacing the panels added to the cost of re-roofing their homes. A cost, I should add, that insurance didn't cover. The cost was significant enough that many skipped reinstalling the panels.

(Disclaimer: I'm not anti-green, solar, or EV. Results may vary per person and geographic area. Your gas mileage may vary, and you should consult a physician if effects last over four hours.)

So less than 1200kWh/mo, if i read that correctly.

LOL! My lightest month over the last 3 years is 1235kWh, but that was unusual. Most of the time we run 1500 - 2500 with some summer and winter peaks just over 3100.

Even when the temp is really nice here, the humidity usually kills it for us, so we end up running the AC to get rid of the humidity in the air. That's one of the benefits of the Cali weather that I've experienced, low humidity.

Yes, that's it. It's interesting to learn somebody else's usage. We went almost five months this past year without using the HVAC. I don't remember doing that before. Since we have the second highest rates in the country - after Hawaii, people would go benkrupt at the rate you use power. Our house is 3.2K s.f. too.

Our house is ~1500sqft with about 1000' downstairs and 500' upstairs. But it is a 100+ years old, wood framed, pier and beam. It's insulated, but, obviously, not as well as it should be.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but have you done things to mitigate the heat? I have an essentially flat roof covered with a bituminous membrane (black). I put white, elastomeric paint on it, which lowered the temp on the roof surface from 175 degrees to 110 degrees in the middle of the day for example.

We've added insulation under the house (primarily to help in the winter) and in the attic (winter and summer). We haven't done anything to the roof other than to repair some leaks. We'll eventually probably put a new roof on, and may go metal (pretty common here). We've got a fairly steep (for here) hip roof with dormers. We had the main bathroom down to the studs. The walls were probably 85% insulated. Our walls also are drywall, framing, and wood siding with no membrane, sheathing or anything else. I think the walls and 30+ year old HVAC (1991) are our biggest issues today WRT power util.

It might pay to remove the wood siding, since it's probably the easiest type of siding to remove, and upgrade the insulation and put a wrap around the house. An attic fan is a must also. Our HVAC is SEER 13, so when it starts to have problems, it would probably pay to upgrade it.

You would need enough battery power or some other storage system to get you through the night and as many overcast days you might have. Batteries tend to have short lives, so you probably would need to replace them every ten years or so.

From direct experience as a facilities manager, it cost us ten times what electricity cost us to run a diesel generator in MN.

I can only imagine how long the payback would be on a completely off grid system, likely never?

Easily 3X that in Ohio. Less in a warm climate.

Wowza!
In ID we average about 40kWh per day. Modern home, very well insulated, modern efficient HVAC, 2000 sq ft. A/C only needed June July August.

For 3 years our solar completely met our energy needs with net metering. Last Nov we added a portable spa and lost net metering so now we do get a $50 bill for a few months in winter. We should still be covered for the 6-8 sunny months.