Edison installed a time of use meter yesterday at my home...

Is there any "quality" issues? Or is one brand basically the same as any other brand?

 

I think there are Coke guys, and Pepsi guys. If you are seriously considering PV I would suggest developing a strong relation ship with a local installer who has been around a while, and has a track record. The difference of a couple $$ per watt in the grand scheme of things probably doesn't make as much difference as the reputation of the seller. Most name brand PV are warranted in the neighbourhood of ~2-25 years. In reality, they are all pretty much the same IMHO.

 

Has anyone had a chance to test this yet?

Google PowerMeter

 

Southern California Edison just killed Time Of Use metering for all its L.A. & O.C. citizens, as of 90ish days ago:

SCE - Special Time-of-Use Rates

We wanted to switch to a TOU metering system after we finished our 1st year of PV ... that's in less than a week now. Guess Edison would rather have brown outs than incentivize its customers into using power off peak. So much for low-hanging fruit.
Sigh ... good ol' SCE. thanks for that

 

Update: Saturday 1/9/10 todays price for 60 watt Kanaka Japanese made Ul listed, 25 year warrantee PV panels, by the pallet,,,,$.98 watt, while supplies last!

(Grid tie, HV panel. The voltage VOC is too high for any battery based MPPT system, ~91 vdc)
Here is the link:Solar Panels : Solar Panels Direct $1.74 per watt

 

This seems like a big step backwards for EV & PHEV & PV etc, etc.....
Another example of why we need a NATIONAL Eergy Policy!!!

 

Yep,

Yet another tax on our lack of energy policy! We can blithely spend billions defending big oil, but energy policy that leads in the direction of energy independence, better national security is routinely given short shrift!

 

Way to go Denis !! What with the new "pay us" policy in effect, you'll be rolling in utility company dough, sitting fat & sassy in NO time !!


With the cool summer we've had for the most part, we've only spent 2 or 3 days using AC in the past month down in So Cal (but it's in the 90's in MT and we're on our way up there in a day or so ) ... so we've got a whopping 2,700Kwh surpluss, showing on the meter. I'll be rich in no time! Thank you Ahnold Schwarzeneger

Hmmmmm, wondering what that'll work out to, when they send out the paychecks.

.

 

Hill,

The great irony of your post's title is that Edison,
as in Thomas Edison, campaigned for the impractical
DC electricity system. If he had his way, it's likely
you wouldn't be needing an electric meter, since
we'd all be still stuck in the "dawn of the electrical
age." Yet, today he has all these power companies
named after him!

If history were fair, your title would be:

"Tesla installed a time of use..."

Nicolas Tesla being, of course, the inventor of the
AC system.

 

We just went "Time of Use" on Friday Feb 11. just a couple days ago. Whooo hooo ! ! . . . . maybe.
Do I know HOW to Meter Read? Ummmmmm:

This is the "TEST" screen. I pretty much figured out it means nothing ... squat ... jack.

You'd think the manufacturer (Landis & Gyr) would provide a help/guide on their web site. Nope. You'd think Edison, our utility Co would have something on their dozens & dozens of web pages. Forget it. You'd think one of the 2 company's "help center" phone numbers would yield something. We lost count of the number of unanswered calls. Next, we'll try the public utility commission, but it's not looking very positive.

Soooo . . . . . . . . here's the next display:

This screen calls itself "display 02" (out of a possible 71, apparently) ... though our meter scrolls through only 5 different screens.
It has an understandable reading. See? Isn't that helpfull? 2.56kW. That's what it says ... day & night. That's what it said yesterday. That's what it said the day before. Apparently, that's what it'll say tomorrow, ad infinitum. Thank you Southern California Edison. Anyway, I put the red arrow on there to point out the "time of use" box in NOT checked. Crazy thing is I'd think the tou box would be checked on a tou meter.

Equally helpful . . . . . . next screen has lots of zeros . . . . oh boy:

You wouldn't think screen 02 could be less helpful in determining what kind of usage you have during the day, then during the night ... but just ZERO's ?? Our meter just topped itself in unhelpful data

Now for the good stuff-two pictures of screen 01 ... from Feb 12 & one taken the next day, Feb 13:

note - there's a 13kWh difference between the picture below, and the picture above ... but no indication of what the 13kWh represents. Typically this time of year, our PV will push that much surplus power back onto the grid, in excess of what we use:

So far, this number is always a whole number ... no decimal point.

Lastly, display screen 71, taken on two different days to show the change:

There's an 11kWh difference between the 2 days. Again, not too meaningful:

Each screen displays the tiny black circle in the lower left, numbered (counter clockwise) 1 through 4. The number "2" blinks on & off ... never changing to another number. Possibly represents seasons?
So there you have it. A whole lot of unhelpful head scratching displays, backed up by an equally unhelpful utility company and meter manufacturer. You gotta laugh. . . . . . Burritos asked many moons ago . . . . does anybody know how to read these things?

 

you must live next to al gore. are his xmas lites on?

 

This may help a little

http://www.landisgyr.com/na/apps/products/data/pdf1/S4e_Product_Schedule.pdf

The real catch is that this meter is programmed by the utility. The meter manufacturer may not have a clue as to what the displays were programmed to show by the utility.

 

Conservation and efficiency are the most cost effective. Negawatts are better than kilowatts.

 

In Colorado, our electric utility (Xcel Energy) just dropped its rebate for PV solar, raising the installed price from $4 to $6+.

So conservation and efficiency are very much the more cost effective.

 

My last month's bill was around $130 after my minisule PV production for that month (hey, it's Winter!). That's not terrible, considering most things in the house are electric - water heater, stove, fridge, deep freezer, pellet stove (supplemented w oil furnace), washing machine, dryer, dish washer. I calculated out a month or so ago, it costs me ~ $6/day to heat my home at 68.

My electric co also recently installed a new meter again (got one with the PV install 2+yrs ago). I haven't even looked at it since it's been installed. Their little door knob hanger paper didn't give any real detail as to why.