Can solar panels, three Tesla Powerwalls completely eliminate your electric bill?

THREE POWERWALLS: Each of the Tesla home batteries I had installed in March 2019 at my New Jersey home stores roughly 13.5 kWh of energy generated by my solar panels.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- When you purchase home batteries to store energy from your solar panels, Tesla doesn't promise you a rose garden.

In other words, Tesla says the Powerwall 2, as the latest version is known, allows you "to reduce reliance on the grid and run your home off solar day and night."

So far this year, I paid a service charge of $4.95 -- but nothing for electricity -- in each of 4 months to run a house of more than 3,000 square feet with central air conditioning and to charge my Tesla Model S roughly once a week.

You pay for 'delivery'

But in the other 3 months, my bill for electricity and delivery has totaled $90.02 (for Jan. 7 to Feb. 4, 2021); $181.08 (Feb. 5 to March 8) and $96.35 ( July 8 to Aug. 5, 2021). 

The most recent bill shows a charge of $65.57 for electric supply and $30.78 for "delivery."

Still, my batteries have kept my house running during every power outage in my neighborhood since they were installed in March 2019.

No night rates

We get a lot of rain and snow in northern New Jersey, and my solar panels often generate little or no electricity for my storage batteries, meaning I draw a lot from the grid.

My utility doesn't pay me for excess power or have lower rates for electricity at night. 

If I generate more than I use, those kilowatt hours go into a "bank" that I can draw on later.

Hooray for SRECs

In fact, the key to eliminating your electric bill in the Northeast is not just solar panels and Tesla batteries that store the electricity they generate.

I earn Solar Renewable Energy Credits or SRECs, which go only to those who, like me, own their solar systems.

I can sell those credits to my utility through a middleman.

The certificates are worth roughly $223 each (I recently sold 5), down from a high of $600 each after I had solar panels installed in 2009.

For a second, smaller solar system I had installed in 2012 with a loan from my utility -- PSE&G -- I am repaying the loan with SRECs that are valued at $400 each.

READ: The best and worst of Tesla

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE: My home has a southern exposure, meaning the sun shines on my solar panels through the day.

When is the last time you got a $197 credit on your gas and electric bill from PSE&G?

SUNNY SIDE UP: Solar panels on my home in Hackensack, N.J., were installed in 2009 and 2012.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I printed out my utility bill and stared in disbelief at a credit of $197.50.

I have solar panels and electric storage batteries on my home so I couldn't understand why since May I was receiving what I consider high bills for electric service.

Before 2020, my solar panels generated enough electricity to run my home for 4 months to 5 months every year so I didn't have to use or pay for any electricity from the grid.

Today, I called PGE&G and learned that during the Covid-19 health emergency bills have been estimated (starting on April 6, 2020), and the reading of meters didn't resumed until Sept. 3.

The bill I printed out this week is for March 7, 2020, to Sept. 3, 2020.

I received a total credit for those 6 months of $1,249.09 for overcharges on my gas and electric bills.

Hallelujah!

Rooftop panels, Tesla Powerwalls, Model S allow me to cut cord to utility, slash bills

STORM SAVIOR: In the event of another big event like Superstorm Sandy, my three Powerwalls -- 40-kWh energy storage batteries -- will provide about 5 days backup power for my New Jersey home, Tesla says.

Long road to self-powered home

pays off with tax credits, solar cash

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I stared at my April utility bill in disbelief.

With 68 solar panels on the roof  charging three newly installed Tesla Powerwalls -- energy storage batteries that run my home overnight -- I had finally zeroed out my electric bill.

"Power from the sun day and night" is how Tesla describes the pairing of panels and Powerwalls.

But Public Service Electric & Gas Co. insisted on billing me $4.95 as a "monthly service charge."

What "service"?

Solar dates to 2009

After installing my first set of 60 solar panels in 2009, I was enrolled in the utility's net-metering program that banked electricity, as measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh), when my generating system produced more than our needs.

PSE&G lists them on the monthly bill: 

As of May 7, 308 kWh were delivered to me, but we generated a total of 484 kWh sent to the utility for a difference of -176 kWh.

That includes the electricity needed to charge my 2015 Tesla Model S overnight in my garage every few days.

Those kilowatt-hours are available to me, if my solar panels and storage batteries don't generate enough electricity to run my 3,300-square-foot home with central air conditioning and a heat pump that drove up my electricity bill in December, January and February.

$3.44 for electricity

In the previous billing period (ending on April 5), I paid $3.44 for my net usage -- 86 kilowatt-hours of electricity delivered to me -- plus the $4.95 monthly service charge, for a total of $8.39.

Tesla techs were delayed by March weather and didn't complete the wiring until three days into the billing period.

Before my Powerwalls were installed, my solar panels generated more than enough electricity to run my home during 5 months of the year, roughly April through August.

Now, that should be the case year-round. 

Before Powerwalls

My electric bill for Jan. 8 to Feb. 5 was $366, including the cost of "delivering electricity to you;" and for Feb. 6 to March 7, I paid $221.05 for electricity.

For the billing period of Dec. 5, 2018, to Jan. 7, total electric charges were $323.29.

I blame an electricity sucking heat pump I had installed to supplement an inadequate radiant-heating system the previous owner, a Realtor,  saddled me with.

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE: One of the deciding factors in the purchase of my home was a southern exposure ideal for the installation of solar panels.

Cutting the cord

The process of cutting the electrical cord to my utility has been long, but there was a time in New Jersey when there were limits on how many solar panels you could install (lest everyone decided to go solar and put the utility out of the electricity business). 

And when the grid goes down, as happened during Superstorm Sandy in October 2012, my solar panels were "knocked out," so to speak, and didn't generate electricity to keep my home running in the 5 days before power was restored. 

Storage batteries were forbidden.

The inspector sent to look at my Powerwall installation in April said they were the first such energy storage batteries in Hackensack, a small city of about 45,000 people.

I paid for the 3 Powerwalls with a fixed-rate home equity loan of about $20,000, repayable over 5 years.

Each Powerwall 2 cost $5,500, and the rest of the cost -- a total of $20,739 -- was for installation and permits.

Rebate, loan

First Light Energy installed my first set of 50 200-watt panels in 2009 -- when the maximum allowed was 10,000 watts -- under a New Jersey rebate program. (The state paid $35,000 and I paid $45,500.)

In the years since, I've earned federal tax credits and sold tax-free solar renewable energy credits (SRECs) to the utility that have more than reimbursed my investment, not to mention the savings from lower utility bills.

You get one SREC for every 1,000 watts your system generates, so I can sell about a dozen to my utility every year.

In 2012, First Light Energy installed 18 more solar panels, these rated at 240 watts each, after I got a solar loan from my utility that required me to put up about half of the cost.

That loan of roughly $11,000 is being repaid with more solar renewable energy credits, which PSE&G values at $400 each, even though their worth on the open market has fallen to almost half of that. 

SELF-POWERED HOME: My Tesla App allows me use my smartphone to monitor my 3 Powerwalls as well as my 2015 Model S. Selecting "Power Flow" shows me when my solar panels are charging the Powerwalls, running the house or sending energy to the grid. My neighborhood experienced two 5-minute outages on May 12, but I never lost power.

On Earth Day, Tesla owners count their tax savings, praise emissions-free driving

The Summon feature on my Tesla smartphone app allows me to start and back up my Model S or drive it forward from outside the car. That came in handy after a heavy rainstorm flooded my garage.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

Editor's note: If you are in the market for a Tesla (Model S or Model X), using my referral code http://ts.la/victor3828 will save you $1,000 and entitle you to unlimited Supercharging.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

On Earth Day and every day, reducing your carbon footprint pays handsomely.

On the federal tax return I filed for 2016, I was able to take a $1,425 credit for my purchase of an all-electric Tesla Model S in April 2015.

That reduced the federal taxes I paid over two years by the $7,500 maximum allowed on the Model S.

I also saved about $5,600 in New Jersey sales tax when I purchased the zero-emissions luxury car -- a low-slung, four-door hatchback with lightning acceleration and sports-car handling.

My federal tax return also included a residential energy credit of $1,750, which I have been taking annually since I installed solar panels on my home in 2009.

Money from the sun

Those panels generate all the electricity I need during as many as six months every year, and they also earn solar credits I can sell through a middleman to my utility, Public Service Electric & Gas.

In the first two years I had the panels, I was able to sell my solar credits for a total of $11,000.

In effect, I don't pay for the electricity I use to charge my car in the garage overnight.

And my Model S came with free lifetime use of Tesla's proprietary network of Superchargers on road trips, such as our annual visit to the jazz festival in Montreal.

Don't waste your time at the New York Auto Show

Consumer Reports ignores all-electric cars

On March 28, I saw these two gas guzzlers parked in spaces reserved for "low emissions" vehicles at the Whole Food Market in Closter, above and below.

Emissions from road hogs such as this BMW and other vehicles kill about 53,000 people prematurely every year, says Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Service loaner

I had my second annual service at Tesla's Paramus service center this month.

The Model S has proven to be the most reliable car I've ever owned.

The service center didn't have a Model S to loan me so Tesla paid for a rental from Hertz, a new Nissan Maxima sedan.

I admire the swoopy styling, but compared to my Tesla the Maxima had a noisy 6-cylinder gasoline engine, and the interior was far too busy and filled with cheap plastic.

I couldn't get the cruise control to work.

The car vibrated when I was stopped at a red light, and the engine noise was especially annoying during hard acceleration.

Still, the Maxima loaner only made me appreciate even more the near-silent and effortless driving I've enjoyed for the past two years in my Tesla.