So, to back up first, I got my solar panels in the last week of my August, 2019, billing period. My bill that month was somewhat lower than my bill from August, 2018. The September, 2019, bill was more notably lower than the September, 2018, bill. And those reductions continued until about the end of 2019 or the beginning of this year. At that point, I hit what I believed was the lowest possible base rate of $9.99. I tried to contact FPL to be sure, but they make themselves seemingly impossible to contact. So I figured that $9.99 was the least they charge, and they would charge that if I didn't use any electricity at all.
My FPL bill stayed at $9.99 for a couple months, and it was a bit mysterious when my bills then increased to $10.05. I didn't care, because it was only six cents a month higher, but it was peculiar. I figured that they increased the base rate. And that charge stayed like that for the rest of 2020. Even during the summer. I paid $10.05 every month, regardless of whether it was winter, etc, and I had the windows open, or summer, and I ran the AC all day, every day. $10.05 every month. Until today.
I just got my bill notification by e-mail. My deal with FPL is that they help themselves to whatever they think I owe them, and take it from my bank account. They just send me an e-mail telling me what the "damage" was. Today's notification was that the net flow of electricity involving my house was that I sent 186 kWh to the grid. Over the course of the past month, my solar panels produced more electricity than my house used.
I don't know what happened to what I assumed was a minimum charge per month, but they didn't charge me this past month. They credited me, $7.15. You know, "-$7.15." That was my "bill." I don't imagine they'll put $7.15 in my bank account. I'm guessing they'll just keep the credit on record, and charge me less once they start charging me at all. Which I suppose won't be any time soon, since "winter" is here (as of two days from now), and I'll continue to be a very low user of electric power. Although even when it was summer, I never used more than what I apparently wrongly assumed was the lowest amount for which they bill.
I still don't understand the system, and there doesn't seem to be anyone I can ask. But I'm going to get my money back on those solar panels a lot sooner than I thought I would.
Setting aside my strong encouragement that any of my neighbors who can do it get solar panels, I will also say yet again that it would help the Village greatly to put panels on the recreation building and the administration building. Not only might we be able to run those buildings for free, electric bill-wise, but if we produce more electric power than we use, which it appears is what I'm doing, we can share it. The easy way to share it is to wire it over to the public works building, and maybe the log cabin (which we don't use much, the way we used to. What's more complicated is sharing it with ourselves as Village residents and homeowners. Our Franchise Agreement with FPL says the Village can't produce electricity to sell, thereby competing with FPL. But we can give it away. Maybe there's a mechanism to wire it to some of ourselves. Or maybe if the Village accomplishes what I just accomplished, we can use the savings to do other projects (the ones we don't do now, because we can't afford to). It would be a shame to use it to lower our taxes, because we wouldn't lower them perceptibly much, and we would still be unable to afford to do what we can't afford to do now.
Quite an adventure with my FPL bill this morning.
Oh do I enjoy your post Fred. I’m right there with on this one. If I only had 50g’s to do it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what "william" you are, but it did not cost me $50K. I got a considerably more extensive array of panels than do most people (I got 20 panels, and they were made in this country), and I contracted for 20 of them. The contract cost me $18K. At the end of that year (2019), I got a tax CREDIT (off the top, not a tax deduction) of 30% of what I paid for the panels. So it wasn't nearly as expensive as you seem to think it was. It was maybe 1/4 of what you said. It could have been less, if I had gotten fewer panels, and agreed to buy the Chinese ones.
DeleteThink it over.
I'm sorry, william, I was redundant. I didn't pick it up on a quick proofread. I got 20 panels, not 400 panels. I just said it (20) twice.
DeleteThis is probably a good time to mention something that's a bit embarrassing. One of the inducements to buy a Tesla car before the end of 2016 was that Tesla would provide lifetime free charging at superchargers. There were other inducements, too, at that time, and I did, in fact, buy my car in about August, 2016. I didn't expect to need or to use the supercharging offer, because I thought from what they said that superchargers were on highways, like the turnpike. I wasn't expecting to take any driving trips, so it didn't matter. Until I found out one day that they have banks of superchargers in other places, like dealerships, too. And not only are those superchargers there, but they have them at certain shopping malls. Aventura is one of them. (Dadeland is another.) So now, every few days, I go up to Aventura mall, spend 30 minutes at the supercharger (it takes about 4-5 hours on my home 220 circuit), and get free "gas" for my car. I yack on the phone or something. It's not a huge imposition. And I visit La Fruteria for produce and stuff on the way back, and sometimes I slip off W Dixie to go to Publix. You should check out La Fruteria. It's at about 171st St and W Dixie Highway, and they have great produce at very low prices. They have other stuff, like dried chick peas (you hear me, Mike?) and other legumes, and some dairy and paper and canned goods, too. It's a very good store.
ReplyDeletePlease share your contact. I’m always interested in giving FPL the big FU. Just so you know I’ve always wanted solar. Have an awesome Saturday my friend.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few contractors around. I used Goldin Solar, which was recommended to me by satisfied customers Mike and Melanie Oliva. I was satisfied with Goldin. The big issue/problem is the batteries. If you're interested in the conversation, you can let me know.
DeleteIf you use Goldin, they will offer me a $500 referral fee. But I've told them I already paid, and I'm not looking for a discount, even retroactive. I've told them that if I "refer" someone, like you, they should give the $500 to the person I refer. So you can remind them of it. If they don't have a record that I want you to have the discount, I'll remind them myself.
At some point (maybe a good point) there may be an issue with a diminishment of the FPL franchise fee payments to the Village. Cross that bridge at that time.
ReplyDeleteWhy would there be a decrease? Unless more of us got solar panels, and had lower FPL bills. Is that what you meant?
DeleteI have two suggestions for you.
ReplyDeleteFirst, when you comment, if you use the "Reply" link under the original comment to which a thread is growing, your new comment will be published immediately below the last one. The thread will flow better. So yesterday, at what is listed as 12:58, you wrote a comment. At 1:09, I replied to your comment by using the "Reply" link. If you had used exactly the same link, your "Yes" would have come out immediately below my question.
Second, after you comment, if you highlight the address bar, and retype the blog address, instead of using the back arrow, your comment will publish once, instead of twice.
On another note, I agree with you that the more of us who lower our FPL bills, by getting solar panels, the lower the Franchise Fee tax that the Village takes back from FPL will be. But the lower bill is so much more lower, so to speak, than is the decrease in the Franchise Fee tax, that if we did that, we as individual property owners would save so much money that we could raise our ad valorem tax to provide more revenue to do the things municipalities should do. 0.1 or 0.2 of a mill more would cost me, for example, maybe $50-$100. What I save in my electric bill over the course of a year is vastly more than that.