DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

At the time of my second solar anniversary, I posted my analysis of power generated and electricity fees incurred during my second year with grid-tied PV. It’s easy to monitor the amount of electricity we generated, but much harder to track some numbers that are even more interesting, e.g.:

• electricity consumed
• dollars saved

Why? Mostly because PG&E’s “trueup” bills are a frickin’ nightmare — a dozen pages of mousetype arranged in incomprehensible tables showing daily fluctuations in “unbundled rate components.” I can’t make any sense of it at all. Presumably this was PG&E’s design goal (obfuscating usage and cost data), for there’s no other reason to inflict this sort of mind-numbing minutia on a paying customer. It’s worse than bistro math.

Fortunately, the good folks at Sun Power employ a crew of photovoltaic gnomes who crunch all the numbers and spit out an annual report that answers the interesting questions:

My total out-of-pocket cost for the year was $105, which includes the $65 reported earlier plus the monthly annoyance fees PG&E charges all grid-tied PV generators.

The total electricity cost I would have paid PG&E had I not installed solar is $936. This figure is lower than I expected. My 2003 actual figure was $890; between higher usage and rate hikes I would have expected my non-PV costs to exceed $1000 for 2005. Perhaps Sun Power’s calculations don’t cover the over-baseline penalties that PG&E applies to the electricity bills of everyone who doesn’t happen to be photophobic, cold-blooded, and/or live under a bridge.

The $936 I didn’t pay, less the $105 I did, yields an $831 credit toward my photovoltaic breakeven date — previously projected to January, 2015. Again this is smaller than I expected, but as rates continue to rise I have to conclude that future years’ savings will grow disproportionately large.