Tesla Installs More Solar... and my roof isn't on fire! 

It’s all good until it catching fire. And your insurance premiums might be kinda high

Billy you are absolutely right on your assessment in what the power company's are doing. Because of the Enron fiascoe back in the day, I was told that in order for you to live in a residential dwelling (at least in California), you HAVE TO BE Connected to the power grid, end this story. Because of the power company lobbyists, laws were passed if you are living in any permanent structure (and that sentence I just said is key "are Living & Permanent Structure") you are required to be connected to the power companies grid. Because of these rulings and changes to title 24 and other codes, along with laws regarding health and safety, this is how enforcement is conducted, to force you into compliance. The power companies have now created themselves a monopoly and constant income for their business. The only way around this legally, is to be either in a mobile home or RV living. Because these method of living are considered mobile and not a permanent residents. The only way to combat it, if you want to continue living in your permanent fix structure (i.e. a house) is to remain connected to the power companies grid, but take all of your loads (your electrical consumption), input as much as possible through solar, wind, diesel generator or any other forms of power generation to offset your consumption enough to where you give the power company very little of your hard earned money. There's no way around it when dealing with fixed permanent structure scenario which is common for most of all of us. Now you can do all kinds of things illegally, or skate the fine line. But those scenarios you will just end up in trouble eventually. So as the saying goes, he who has the gold, can make the rules. It sucks tremendously, but that's just the way it is. Disclaimer: everything I said above is in the context of staying on the up and up. Cheers Dion

What if the reorganization of the rate schedule is to try to balance out the loads on the grid because more and more people are going solar? The problem power companies then have is they see a spike in grid load after the sun goes down so they need to start up their "peaker plants" to meet demand during these periods. This is a costly activity because peaker power plants are not as efficient. One way power companies can solve this is to install grid battery banks. It will smooth out the power spikes and help balance the grid.

I didn't cover that in this video (mostly because the process started before the new rental program was announced), but it's a good point. The program does open up opportunities for savings in situations where someone may not stay in one place for very long.

While taking grid arbitrage to that extreme is technically possible, it's not something that I recall the software allowing you to do. There may also be a regulatory and/or policy component to it, but it's not a detail that I've researched much. I do recall that to be eligible for the federal ITC, the Powerwall(s) must be charged via solar.

Alex Venz The powers in charge don’t allow you to make money by buying low and selling high. We could all be little Enrons! In Denver they don’t let you charge up your Powerwalls with grid energy unless there’s a big storm coming with the likelihood of a power failure. I think that DAErik and/or Sean might’ve talked about this.

In Australia they are installing thousands of power wall 2's to create what is essentially a new power plant that when the need the power each power wall will give up only 5 percent of its stored power. When you multiply by thousands of power walls it virtually creates a new power plant that is available at the touch of a computer program thereby feeding power into the grid in seconds instead of hours it takes to bring a power plant online unless your using jet turbine technology which is very expensive compared to the power wall solution. This isn't a plan for the future, this is installed and working now and every day another 10 to 30 power wall 2's go online. The home owner doesn't even notice the power feeding the grid unless he looks at a computer program that tracks the power generated by your solar, the state of charge and where the battery power is going. It also significantly drops the power bill dramatically compared to what they normally pay in the overpriced market in Australia.

James Shanks Thank you so much!

The fixed basic fee depends on the rate schedule. There's a 3¢/day basic fee with my current rate schedule that overproduction credits during the summer months largely offset. The upcoming rate schedule, however, has a 40¢/day basic fee.

@@AlexVenz The secretary at my solar installer missed the filing deadline for NEM1 by 1 day. I calculated the total loss over life of the solar system to be around $10,000 to me. I can't wait until DIY solar installs become inexpensive, supported by home insurance, and free permit costs. That would eventually bring down the price of home solar to a third of what it is now.

I'm pretty sure they charge extra for it.

@@AlexVenz There is some good advice in general: be a pain in the ass like Walmart is to Tesla and then charge extra to appease you.

How much you lose or don't lose on a residential solar installation is going to depend a lot on the specific market region you're in and how far into the payback period you are at the time of sale. Obviously, a system that has been operating long enough to have paid for itself will be a net positive at the time of sale. Zillow did a study on home sale prices with and without solar, which can be found here: www.zillow.com/research/solar-panels-house-sell-more-23798/ Different billing rate schedules and regional specifics (like whether or not your utility allows for net metering) makes anything more than ballpark estimation of the payback period somewhat tricky. Solar installers will often use your billing history to estimate the savings from solar, but they also tend to build in projected rate increases and limit their comparison to a traditional tiered residential rate schedule. Google's Project Sunroof can be somewhat helpful since it takes roof space and sun exposure into account, but their assumptions about solar cost and some other details is inaccurate: www.google.com/get/sunroof

@@AlexVenz Thanks Alex!

There's a reputation factor. In some bizarre areas, solar systems have a reputation for "causing cancer", so they are considered a "cost" when selling a home (most such buyers demand they be removed, or mark down the price of the home substantially as "contaminated by radiation"). Those areas are probably so cheap to own a home in, who cares? Just uninstall them and bring them with you I say. But in normal areas, solar systems add value to a home. It's interesting to see the added value in those regions, and how much it compares to the original investment.

Looking at the project plans, it seems like they did that to center the array and possibly also to minimize any potential shading.

3 ft ridge setback in code

​@@Doug100percent Thank you, Doug.

@@Doug100percent I think there is an allowance for engineers to prove it is safe for fire fighting and other such things. No one seems to engineer that exception into installs that I've seen lately. It would probably require a panel system manufacturer to work hard to figure out.

That's me at the start of every video

Like with the system I had installed in 2013, this new PV array isn't a lease or rental, it was purchased outright.

To be fair, that can be said of pretty much anything... 😉

@@AlexVenz Yeah, but theres those things that dont have an association or are being sued for having fires.

You clearly underestimate the number of lawsuits that occur over electrical fires started by common household appliances/devices. The sheer number of ways a house can catch fire is amazing... Anyway, the video title is a joke that Twitter voted on last night.

@@AlexVenz were not talking about those ways though. and tesla is being sued by walmart and even amazon is saying their panels started fires. IS Walmart suing the contractor that installed their lighting or alarm system are they?

​@@mts982 stay away from gasoline, natural gas, and electricity in your home because all of those things have caused fires.