Net Metering is the way the utility counts the kilowatts coming in and out from an electrical meter.
How does the Net Metering work?
Most PV systems are tied up to the grid. During the day, the solar system is producing energy and is used by the house. When the solar system produces more energy than what the house is demanding, that excess energy is sent back to the utility. At night or on cloudy days and the house demands more electricity than what the PV system is producing, the electrical meter will pull energy from the grid to feed the house with electricity.
In most cases, the utility will credit 1-1 of your solar energy output and input. In the case that there was overproduction of electricity, the utility will save those credits when you need them. Also, you will be tied up with a retail electricity company, which does all the billing calculations.
In the case your balance is negative, the utility will send the number of kilowatts you demanded to the retail electricity company. With that said, the REP will send you the bill of kilowatts demanded by the house and not produced by the PV system. This is exactly how NET Metering work.
PV System Size Calculation
Most solar systems are calculated to produce a bit over the 100% electricity demand of a house. However, there are times during the day and thorough out the year when the sun does not shine enough to power our homes. The PV system size is calculated from different aspects:
Yearly energy demand
Roof accessibility and size
House orientation
Sunlight throughout the year
Solar panel capacity (wattage production)
The misconception about getting paid if you go solar
A lot of folks think they will get paid if they install a solar system on their roof. This is the wrong information. Utility companies do not want to make a profit out of this “self-production” energy source. In fact, some cities and utilities don’t allow you to get 1-1 credit from your PV system production. In these cases, you will send/sell the energy produced by the solar system to the utility at wholesale price, then, they will sell it back to you at retail price.
I heard this happens in Austin, also, they say that the sun is theirs, this is why you can have 1-1 credit for your solar energy production.
In the next few weeks, we will discuss other solutions on how to be off the grid and forget about dealing with the utilities with Power Walls, power storage, and batteries.
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