Shocking new gas prices [CLOSED DUE TO POLITICS. VIOLATORS BANNED]

[TheSolarWizard]

Very interesting. NO POLITICS PLEASE but in a nutshell, without blame or fingers that could get us into trouble - is there a TECHNICAL reason for forcing connections and "power company rights"?

I am all for a home being self-sufficient. I'd love it. I'd want that power company connection for "what if" times because any system can fail - wind turbines, solar equipment, it's all good, but it's also man-made and electronic and mechanical. Things fail - I'd want the "grid" as a backup.
I may be in a unique position here because in Iowa, Mid-American Energy is extremely wind-supplied. They are one of the biggest in the nation as far as the percentage of power that comes from wind and solar and our electricity is actually pretty cheap. But still - for purposes of power outages (frequent, sometimes hours, even days) my wife and I have both talked solar/battery backup to power the whole house.

Anyway, geesh, drifted again........ Maybe we need to start thinking about a firewall on the power into the house LOL.
Seriously, there is equipment that can protect entire houses against surges and strikes and the grid going crazy - but how many homes have that?

I set up a $1500 dual-conversion pure sine wave UPS for my wife's quilting and embroidery equipment and sadly, it's already been tested once when the power went out when another fool lost control and wiped out power poles. Not only was she right in the middle of a customer quilt but it was one that would not have been easy to set up again. She had almost another hour left on it and that system never blinked, her equipment kept going like there was no outage. In fact she only knew the power was out because the big fluorescent lights overhead went out.
When we can afford it, those will be LED.........

If I had the money now I'd have @TheSolarWizard fly in and set us up with whole-house backup, some solar to help keep batteries charged and more.

thanks for the shout out bud

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[TheSolarWizard]

Here in FL the legislation is getting weird on forced grid connections and power company's rights. Best we can say today is that it's an absolute mess here when it comes to home solar, which is disappointing for a state with so much solar potential.

I can get around most of that. We’re installing ~ 600 systems A month in FL

 

[Maximus Gladius]

Gas prices in Russia right now! Lol. Who better tells it than boots on the ground.

 

[TheSolarWizard]

Is he calling everybody adorable’s?

 

[Geoarch]

For me it's just hard to believe that as the Firth largest producer of crude oil in the workld and 3rd largest oil reserves in the world and we in Canada have the highest fuel prices in North America. Do not get me wrong I know that a big portio of this is the fact we process very littel crude oil to fuel in Canada and we have a huge amount of taxes, but seriously give us workers a break alredy, lol

It's all the world market. In the US and presumably Canada we can produce all the gasoline and natural gas we need, but during the 80s we tied oil to the world market, so our prices reflect the investment world, not reality. I assume that if the West cuts off Russian oil that gasoline will get even higher. I'm lucky, and retired, so don't commute any longer - still...

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Is he calling everybody adorable’s?

I worked for several years with Russian people in a company founded by a Russian immigrant. Yeah, I'll bet he said that.......
The people I worked with were SO thankful to be here, living here and really loved Americans.

 

[Rockabillyroy]

Very interesting. NO POLITICS PLEASE but in a nutshell, without blame or fingers that could get us into trouble - is there a TECHNICAL reason for forcing connections and "power company rights"?

I am all for a home being self-sufficient. I'd love it. I'd want that power company connection for "what if" times because any system can fail - wind turbines, solar equipment, it's all good, but it's also man-made and electronic and mechanical. Things fail - I'd want the "grid" as a backup.
I may be in a unique position here because in Iowa, Mid-American Energy is extremely wind-supplied. They are one of the biggest in the nation as far as the percentage of power that comes from wind and solar and our electricity is actually pretty cheap. But still - for purposes of power outages (frequent, sometimes hours, even days) my wife and I have both talked solar/battery backup to power the whole house.

Anyway, geesh, drifted again........ Maybe we need to start thinking about a firewall on the power into the house LOL.
Seriously, there is equipment that can protect entire houses against surges and strikes and the grid going crazy - but how many homes have that?

I set up a $1500 dual-conversion pure sine wave UPS for my wife's quilting and embroidery equipment and sadly, it's already been tested once when the power went out when another fool lost control and wiped out power poles. Not only was she right in the middle of a customer quilt but it was one that would not have been easy to set up again. She had almost another hour left on it and that system never blinked, her equipment kept going like there was no outage. In fact she only knew the power was out because the big fluorescent lights overhead went out.
When we can afford it, those will be LED.........

If I had the money now I'd have @TheSolarWizard fly in and set us up with whole-house backup, some solar to help keep batteries charged and more.

Supposedly has to do with load balancing.

Power has to be there and to manage power requirement with a baseline rather than what the sun may or may not provide that day.

But yeah, I was suprised to find out that power doesn't go directly to the homes when my friends got solar.

 

[TheSolarWizard]

Supposedly has to do with load balancing.

Power has to be there and to manage power requirement with a baseline rather than what the sun may or may not provide that day.

But yeah, I was suprised to find out that power doesn't go directly to the homes when my friends got solar.

that actually depends on the equipment they use

 

[wchevron]

I thought with most solar systems, you have a battery bank to store excess electricity you generate? If you were forced to stayed tied into the elec grid, I wonder if you installed an elec sub panel you could bypass the grid power. My thinking may be wrong but: Power from the grid comes into a panel. Let's say you have a 150amp main breaker. You have no other circuits in that panel other than a 150amp breaker than feeds a 2nd panel, which has all your house circuits. Also, somehow that panel is fed from your solar.
You shut off the 150amp breaker in the first panel killing grid power to the 2nd panel and you run everything off solar. If the solar craps out, shut the solar breaker, turn the grid breaker on and your back on grid power. Now my thinking may be wrong, I typically have to re-wire anything I touch 2-3 times before I get the wiring straight but I would think something like this would work. My portable generator is wired something like this (except it all takes place in the main panel)

 

[Geoarch]

Supposedly has to do with load balancing.

Power has to be there and to manage power requirement with a baseline rather than what the sun may or may not provide that day.

But yeah, I was suprised to find out that power doesn't go directly to the homes when my friends got solar.

I have rooftop solar and in New Mexico it goes directly into my system. We have net metering as well, so we bank the excess until the summer when we need more. We got 26% back from the Feds and 10% back from the state on our taxes.

 

[Geoarch]

Every car I've owned prior to the JT required premium. I figured, "hey I'll save a little cash now that I can run 87"... $3.70/gal here in metro Atlanta today. Maybe we can try begging OPEC for more oil again? Too bad no one foresaw anything like this...........

I buy my gas at the Sandia Rez nearby. $3.46 yesterday. They don't have to pay the state gas tax since it's a "federal" reservation and pass it on to us.

 

[Geoarch]

I thought with most solar systems, you have a battery bank to store excess electricity you generate? If you were forced to stayed tied into the elec grid, I wonder if you installed an elec sub panel you could bypass the grid power. My thinking may be wrong but: Power from the grid comes into a panel. Let's say you have a 150amp main breaker. You have no other circuits in that panel other than a 150amp breaker than feeds a 2nd panel, which has all your house circuits. Also, somehow that panel is fed from your solar.
You shut off the 150amp breaker in the first panel killing grid power to the 2nd panel and you run everything off solar. If the solar craps out, shut the solar breaker, turn the grid breaker on and your back on grid power. Now my thinking may be wrong, I typically have to re-wire anything I touch 2-3 times before I get the wiring straight but I would think something like this would work. My portable generator is wired something like this (except it all takes place in the main panel)

I have the same thing, but it's done automatically. It's a regulation in New Mexico.

 

[MrFahrenheit]

I have solar in AZ and must be connected to the grid where I am. Supposedly the inverters (solar panels make DC power and must be converted to AC) don't do their thing unless they sense power from the grid. So even though I have solar (no battery system) if there was a power outage I would still be without power. Our power company buys back our excess and banks it. Last month we have a negative $111 dollar bill because we sold back so much excess power.

 

[Dryfly24]

I have the same thing, but it's done automatically. It's a regulation in New Mexico.

So it’s not locked? Ok, then…

I live in NM and my wife has been bugging me to look into solar for the house. I always thought it was a scam so never really looked into it seriously. Would you say it’s worth it?

 

[mrmo]

I just paid $4.49/g for diesel

Filled up this morning, $4.78 gal in bumsquat Ga.
I was in shock, but figured i better do because it will just keep going up

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