A YEAR AFTER MY PANELS WERE INSTALLED

Periodically my panels get dusty because my backyard consists of 80% dirt, and with my dogs kicking up a storm, a lot of that dirt ends up on my panels. With that said, about every other month i find myself on a ladder with a mop soaked in windshield washer fluid cleaning away the dirt, because It is important that my panels generate on a consistent basis the maximum amount of kilowatts possible.

After the hard work, this is the result.

MY SOLAR INITIATIVE

So last year around May I decided to go solar due drastic changes in energy consumption at home which caused my electrical bill with EDISON to go up to a staggering rate when compared to my previous usage. My light bill with Edison went from an average of $65-$80 to an extravagant $160+ and gradually worked up to $300+ by the third month.
Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

It was then I decided to go solar, so one day on a routine visit to my local Home Depot Center I was approached by a Solar City representative, and having that i was now in the market for solar panels, I made an appointment for an evaluation.

Soon I found myself signing a 30 year contract
for the purchase of panels with Solar City.

A month later my solar panels were finally installed, it was now all on Edison, as I had to wait for the approval of the corporate energy monster, to simply just send me a tag that they approve of the panels.

The tag that allowed my to turn the solar panels on

Finally after a two month long wait Edison issued their tag for approval of the panels to be turned on.

I still don't understand why they take so long just to say “okay you're good to go, hit the switch”. All my permit fees were paid and approved by the city prior to installation and all documents were submitted to Edison, I guess they had to milk the last two months of energy billing out of me.

Steem POWER ON!

All was great! My panels were installed, Edison bill dropped to under $2 per month service fee (as I am still on the grid), which I'm okay with. Being connected to the grid has its benefits just in case of a cloudy week, and the panels don't get a full production I could still get energy from Edison as back up.

I thought about one day getting a pair of Elon Musk's Powerwall by Tesla to store energy but then I saw this controversial information on the Powerwall, now Im not sure

By December 2015 my monthly expenses towards energy consumption was only for the payment of the panels which was approximately $100 a month.

THE BURSTING BUBBLE

Then In May 2016 I got a letter from Edison indicating a future bill approaching in late August in the amount of what was then$1825, for energy charges. Keep in mind they were billing me on a monthly basis about $1 and some change. I was upset(mostly at myself) I made several calls to Edison for an explanation as to why they billed me this way.

After several calls to Edison and Solar City, I was explained that the whole time I was over consuming the energy my panels were producing threefold. It was then I got frustrated with the way (in my perspective) Edison meticulously sets up their billing to try keep the consumer unalarmed of the potential charges that can be incurred. Why not bill me on a monthly basis if I was over consuming the energy my panels were producing, where was the courtesy call or letter notifying me of the over consumption/under producing of my panels in comparison to the energy being used up?.

THE HOW

My panels only produce an estimated amount of 381 kW per month, and apparently I was consuming well over 1200 per month, so approximately 800 kW of energy was being provided by the corporate monster and they were meticulously placing that energy charge on the fourth page of every monthly bill, which indicated an amount due of $1 and some change. Now, they weren't asking for me to pay the 800+ kW of energy just yet, because as they explained they did not know if my energy consumption would take a drastic turn and offset the previous consumption by the end of the year.

After all this mess and misunderstanding I called both Edison and Solar City to make arrangements to square everything away, but Edison wanted there current bill paid in full which is $2384. I tried to negotiate but all they offered was a 10 month payment plan ($200 per month)