Getting to Know Your Heater Timer (LGB)

Getting to Know Your Heater Timer (LGB)

Why is my Electric Bill so High?

Why is my electric bill so high?

A common question.

There are a lot of answers.

1. Cost of electrical generation (Oil in Hawaii) has gone up and thus electricity has gone way up, over 50% in around a year.
2. As governments print more money, the costs of real commodities will continue to go up.  Bernanke promised to print money for years to come.
3. People have more electrical devices in their houses.
4. More people are living in a single household, because of this, even people with solar hot water may not be generating all the solar hot water they need, and the rest is made with electric.  You know, the kids moved back home of the inlaws moved in, that kind of thing.

What can you do about it?

Change almost all your lightbulbs to CFL.   LEDs are still pretty expensive, they are neat but compared to CFL they are really not worth it from a payback point of view, quite yet.   Most people have already done the light bulb cvhange out.

In your frig is 10 years old or more, buy a new one.   If you have 2 refrigerators or even 3, consider getting rid of the oldest one.

Buy a front loading washing machine.  They cut your electric bill, they cut your water usage (and thus your sewer bill), and they cut the amount of soap needed.   The clothes come out dryer, and so your dryer has to work half as hard.

Take out any 10 year old aircon, and change to new super efficient variable speed mini-split systems such as Fujitsu, Mister Slim, and others.

Beyond these conservation measures, there is not too much that can be done that makes economic sense.

Now let's talk about producing energy.

Solar Hot Water, if you have 3 or more people, it is a no-brainer to get solar hot water.   With 65% tax credits available in 2012, the payback is enormous and quick.

Solar Electric PV.   Typical residential Annual Rate of Return on Investment is 25% to 38%.    There are various ways to finance it, although your best payback is if you can pay for the system yourself.

PV Leases--PV leases are only good in one situation---you don't have the money or the ability to finance the system.    In that case, you have nothing to lose.  

DON'T DO A LEASE!

Solar Attic Fans -- These should be on every house, they produce their own power, they remove the heat from your attic, keeping your house way cooler.   There will be many more months where you don't even have the need to run the aircon if you have one.  It will protect you whole roof, shingle, and tar paper which are all adversely affected by high heat.

A new interface for owners on Enphase

The following message is from Enphase

KEEP this NUMBER handy, it is hard to find.    Enphase tech support 1-877-797-4743.      It is probably best to call Enphase if you think you have an inverter out, or are getting warning type emails regarding inverters.    They have proprietary methods of looking at your system that is very powerful.   Plus, if you do need replacement parts under warranty, they are the only ones who can issue the RMA (return material authorization) and send out parts.  

Enphase Tech Support 1-877-797-4743

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We're excited about the launch of MyEnlighten. MyEnlighten is now the default view for all new system owners. Existing array owners will continue to use Enlighten Manager until they choose to opt into MyEnlighten.

Installers and Integrators will continue to use Enlighten Manager. The following links will be very helpful moving forward.

For a high level summary of Enlighten Manager and MyEnlighten
http://enphase.com/enlighten/

The MyEnlighten Tutorial:
http://enphase.com/enlighten-help/training-center/

How to sign up for MyEnlighten now.
http://enphase.com/enlighten_content/myenlighten-beta/

After watching the MyEnlighten tutorial, if you have any questions please let me know.

Thanks for using Enphase Microinverters.

An Email from a reader - HECO Halts Solar Boom

A resident of Oahu sent this email out to all the solar stakeholders on Oahu, OK, well maybe she didn't send it to HECO.

Aloha! My name is Cathryn Takanishi, I am an Oahu resident. I have been following solar articles in Hawaii.

In the year of 2014 finding that there is a problem with solar panel installation, solar in Hawaii can no longer excel.

I wonder, why has it been taking so long to make a transition; while more and more people suffer over these limited resources? If we were all more progressive with solar, we could prevent hundreds of people from their suffering because of the battles to obtain these resources. I still see lights left on all night at empty schools, parks and recreational areas and think about the lives of the people who got that electricity there, I think of my son who in the future may not be able to live in such a beautiful place because of the constant rise in the cost of utilities and living here in Hawaii. Thinking if there were proper solar systems installed into these schools (and residential homes) how many lives it could save and how it could improve our large family here at home.

Thank you!

Scientific American A Solar Boom So Successful, It's Been Halted - 12/20/13 
Bloomberg Utilities Feeling Rooftop Solar Heat Start Fighting Back - 12/25/13
Daily Finance Utilities Set Stage for Long Battle with Solar Power - 1/2/14
Sourceable Industry News Hawaiian Electric Halts Local Boom in Solar PV - 1/10/14

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/1/9/hawaii-s-solar-boomistoomuchof

Petitition to Restore Solid Support for Nascent Solar Industry

 The solar industry was just breaking into a stride, exactly what a decade of Utility and Governmental support was trying to achieve.     Then the State abruptly chopped off a good amount of support, last year, with a large and confusing tax credit cut.   Then the electrical unions tried to take over the market utilizing DCCA "rules", when that happens, costs will go WAY up.   Then HECO started throwing impediments into peoples way, delaying or not allowing NEM agreements and meters, or adding unexpected costs.

All of these are questionable not just in practicality, but in legality.   There is a long standing State Energy policy related to renewable energy, and that is LAW.

Using temporary administrative rules to change the tax credits is not right.      They should NOT change the LAW--the State Energy policy by using a "temporary decree".

Nor should the DCCA use rules to favor a union over others who have been in the business for decades, there should be a well studied law change to make such a critical decision.

And finally, HECO should not just change the "rules" in midstream.   The rules should be well thought out and only changed by PUC law change.

Amazing that an up and coming industry can be attacked from so many directions. 

How to save electricity

FREE Hot Water Solar System for a Non Profit 501(C)3 Charity on Oahu

Solar HOT WATER System Donation -- FREE!

We are gearing up to do a Charity 501 (c) (3) HOT WATER Solar Donation.         This is not Photovoltaic (solar electric).

We WILL do this system in April of 2013, before the summer rush starts.   This is a $6500 GIFT, do not delay. 

If your organization meets all these requirements, then email us with your information

1) Valid 501 (c) 3 Charity
2) On the Island of Oahu
3) Have an existing electric water heater, and use a good amount of hot water
4) Have room for a 24" diameter solar water heater.
5) You are ready to start saving money right away
6) Must be an organization that directly helps people or animals

REPEAT--this is for solar Hot Water, this IS NOT for solar electric

IF your organization meets all these criteria, please write us with the the Charity name, 501 (c) 3 number, size of existing tank, what your charity does at this facility, and a 1 or 2 line explanation of why you can use solar hot water.

EMAIL to

solar@pacific-energy.com

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We have in stock -- (1) Refurbished 80 gallon tank and (1) 4x10 panel and the balance of system, this will be a complete working system.    This can handle up to 4 people for normal household usage as an example.   The savings would be between $75 and $125 a month.

Your usage can be higher, and we can use the solar tank as a preheater for the your existing tank.    There just need to be room for  a 24" diameter solar tank next to the existing tank. 
 
We are looking for a legitimate Charitable Organization -- 501 (c) (3)

The facility must have an existing hot water heater, preferably electric, and must have significant demands for hot water usage in order to make these really worth it!

The savings from a simple  Hot water solar system can be in the range of $48,000 to $74,000 over the life of the system, so we think this is an awesome gift for someone who can't afford it. Non-profit organizations also cannot use the tax credits, so in order to do a solar they would have to pay "Full List Price".

So this is the perfect way to help out a non-profit charitable organization who has hot water usage. 

If you know the organization that has a need for free hot water, please let us know.





Mahalo!

HECO Bill from recent PV customer

Permit Fees for PV installation

From today's StarAdvertiser.    You can double click below for the larger view. 

Solving Communicating with EMU

Troubleshooting “Connecting” problem

If your Microinverter system is listed by Enphase as “connecting” then something is wrong.  It should connect easily when the right elements are in place.

First questions

1 1) Do you have the EMU and Bridge (the Bridge is a pair of small repeaters or amplifiers which lets you plug in the EMU and one Bridge electrically closer to the microinverters, while the other Bridge goes by your computer router)

2)   Do you have a computer router?    If you want to use the monitoring system you need a computer router, they are not that expensive, around $40 to $50. 

http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-WRT54GL-Wireless-G-Broadband-Router/dp/B000BTL0OA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1357664609&sr=8-5&keywords=router

We show a wireless router above since they are very common these days, but it doesn’t have to be wireless, and in fact the EMU itself is NOT WIRELESS at all.   Wireless routers also have wired connections ports in the back, you need to plug the EMU (or bridge) into a wired port on the router.

If you don’t have a router and don’t plan on getting one, let us know by email at

solar@pacific-energy.com

and we will stop trying to get you connected

   3)  After the EMU (and maybe the bridges) have been plugged into the power for a while – then does the EMU say “+web” on it?    If not, it means you are not connecting to the web, and until you get it connected to the web, nothing will work on the communications side.   NOTE that it can take some time for the EMU to “find” the router even after plugged directly in (5 to 30 minutes would be normal).  It can take the Bridge even longer to find the Web even when plugged in correctly (5 to 4 hours)

   4) NOTE the lack of a “+Web” communication verification doesn’t affect your power production, the microinverter operate on their own.   The EMU is a monitoring system only, NOT a control system.

   5) Diagrams of Hookup WITHOUT Bridge, and Hookup With Bridge

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Hookup withOUT Bridge

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Hookup WITH THE BRIDGE looks like the below