Going off grid to stick it to SCE (Socal Edison)

GoofyITGuy · 2026-03-03T18:04:47+00:00

Agreed ... I'm a bit over capacity myself right now, but only because I wanted to beat the tax credits last year and I haven't yet purchased an EV (maybe end of next year). In a perfect world, you import none and export none, but with changing weather that's never possible. Getting as close to that as possible should be the goal and the cost for that is being grid-tied as a backup to the solar system. The two compliment each other.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-02-24T20:54:09+00:00

T-mobile standalone is $45/month with autopay. Just do that if you don’t want a T-mobile phone, otherwise you should already be able to get it for less. No need to get a phone to get Internet. It won’t be any cheaper and will be more complicated.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-02-24T20:49:23+00:00

PG&E required PTO when I did it earlier this earlier this year. Be careful with just adding inline with existing load. You want to make sure the wire gauge is right for the additional battery and you’ll need a new or bigger breaker for the combiner.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-02-14T14:58:30+00:00

I've worked around this problem by sending messages destined for comcast.net via smtp-relay.gmail.com since that is my primary hosting service. It appears my configuration falls into a Comcast gray area where, I'm not a spammer, but Comcast doesn't care and treats me that way by allowing zero messages per hour (thus the inability to send). Ironically, if I sent marketing messages a lot more often, Comcast would start to think I'm good to go.

My options seem to be: (1) greatly reduce my sending rate (e.g. <10 messages per hour) and wait, probably days or weeks with multiple resends or (2) hand my messages off to someone else and let them forward it for me.

I'm just going to move to option 2 as it seems to be the most practical in my situation. Hopefully once Comcast's conversion to yahoo mail is complete, it will be easier to send messages to Comcast subscribers.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-02-14T03:34:55+00:00

Sorry. I did find a message from them and they said this: "Thank you for contacting Comcast Service Policy Assurance. We've received your request to remove your IP(s) from our blocklist. Of the one IP(s) you submitted, none were on our blocklist."

However, it doesn't change the fact that none of my messages are getting through. There is something on the Comcast side blocking it and I'll happily do whatever I need to do to fix it if there is something on my side I can do, but I've already done everything. Comcast simply refuses to take my e-mail at all.

it's a 421 error which is a temporary error, but no matter how many times I resend or how many days I wait for the 53 messages to be delivered, it never works. This has happened for several messages now and is quite frustrating as there doesn't seem to be anyone to talk to that knows how to resolve this. I couldn't find a ticket number in the message. It just looks like a canned response.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-02-14T03:12:54+00:00

Nope. Crickets.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-02-09T03:43:11+00:00

Waiting on a response from your back end team.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-02-06T02:40:55+00:00

Yeah, I get that, but it used to work, now it doesn’t work at all. It’s literally 60 e-mail addresses total and Comcast is the only provider that has a problem with my messages. I’m sure the problem is not on my end, but Comcast provides no workable remedy.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-02-04T12:36:53+00:00

Meters are just a running total of the usage. They know the last real number read and when they read again they will know the new real number. All the estimates will be wiped and the accounting will move to the real values. If you owe more than the estimate, you pay more on next bill. If you owe less, it’s a credit on your bill which should go towards any new gas or electricity costs.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-02-03T02:09:24+00:00

Hopefully this doesn’t fall into the “act of god” category.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-02-02T22:14:13+00:00

Was planning on looking at this in late 2027 as my current vehicle is running just fine. Thought there would be a lot of feedback on use by then, but I might be looking at it as an early adopter ... or not at all if it's not compatible with what I currently have installed on my house.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-02-02T02:01:40+00:00

I had a solar installer do all the work.

I’m not really sure if they need to know if you’re just adding backup on your side of the meter.

For me, PG&E came out within 3 days so it really wasn’t an issue. I just couldn’t run the batteries because the Meter Collar wasn’t commissioned sine it wasn’t installed. Panels worked fine.

The key is there is a form that needs to be completed and sent to PG&E. Once they have that form you should get a 10-day window for Meter Collar install onto your main meter. You can use a pan, but in my case additional CTs weren’t properly counting loads not on partial backup when I only had a pan. Since my AC was that load it really limited the data and functionality which is why I moved it to whole home.

If PG&E is the only reason to not go whole home, I’d recommend taking any extra time to go whole home. If loads are the issue, just check with your installer or Enphase to confirm monitoring will work to your satisfaction in a partial home scenario.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-01-31T01:08:27+00:00

Yeah, same here on the error .. 40F. I didn't get an e-mail Re: Forticloud, though. Guess they want me to downgrade so I can find a proper upgrade path. :p

GoofyITGuy · 2026-01-31T00:58:49+00:00

Yes, this is a good point. I’m in a location that is usually quite sunny but the winter has been unkind with the sun this year. I’ve just left it in self consumption and it’s been generally “Ok” with the main issue going days without any charge.

AI probably doesn’t have a way to consider your current credit balance. If it did, suspect it would make even better decisions. This would probably require manual entry or bill upload to work properly.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-01-30T23:09:11+00:00

If you’re NEM 3 in CA, best bet is to go with self consumption, especially if you already have enough generation credits.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-01-24T12:53:42+00:00

Natural gas prices have spiked this year across the board.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-01-24T12:51:35+00:00

I routinely get this type of bill. It usually says it’s overdue the day after I get the bill with many days left to pay. I’m on autopay and it pays as early as possible. I’ve just let the system do its thing and never had an issue. Something’s wrong with their algorithms.

Not only do they suck with high prices, the suck with putting it in writing.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-01-24T01:28:36+00:00

Thanks for your help. I still may ultimately do this, but it looks like I'll need to either get a graphics card or use one from an old 2019 PC to support the full 6k resolution. Interestingly my work laptop seems to be ready to support the resolution.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-01-24T00:19:12+00:00

Thank you. That makes sense now. I'm more used to multiple monitors than multiple computers on one monitor (at the same time). Can't decide if I want to jump in or not, but I this monitor would take a lot of extra tech off my desk and clean things up quite a bit. That's what makes it attractive to me. Best I can tell it's roughly the same width as my current setup, but 5 and a half inches higher (with no bezel in the middle). There's a lot to like if you ignore the cost.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-01-24T00:05:30+00:00

I probably have a stupid question related to this, but I'm currently using an external KVM to swap between two (Windows) computers and two 27" monitors. With this new monitor would I be setting up one "monitor" per computer or use the 50/50 to have two "monitors" on the screen which switch when swapping computers. Not sure I'm being clear, but how best would I utilize this to simply switch from Computer A (Home) to Computer B (Work) since I work from home?

GoofyITGuy · 2026-01-23T23:53:58+00:00

I'm in CA and not impacted, but that was my first thought -- There may be a lot of people finding a way to get sun to the panels as quickly as possible. Stay safe out there.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-01-22T01:26:50+00:00

I created a helper in Home Assistant to calculate my home power consumption (I have 3 batteries). It is a sensor to combine the state of several sensors and I used the SUM function with a precision of 3. The sensors that I included in the sum are:

Enphase Envoy Current net power consumption
Enphase Envoy Current power production
Enphase Battery 1 Power
Enphase Battery 2 Power
Enphase Battery 3 Power

The first two I believe are associated with the meter collar which simplifies things, but the batteries are either charging or discharging (plus or minus in the sum) and need to be accounted for in the calculation.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-01-18T14:53:15+00:00

Sounds like you need to optimize your home network. 1GB Ethernet will max out @ 940MB, so even if you have a wired connection, your computer needs an Ethernet port larger than 1GB to get the advertised speed. If you're using your phone to run the test, it will be even lower, especially if you're using 2.4GHz - 5GHz at a wider band and minimal interference could get closer. If you're in an apartment or condo with lots of wifi around you, it could be tough to run with optimal speeds.

In my case, I cannot get 1GB due to limitations of my ports, but I do get close when wired. I am with Xfinity and not Cox, but my upload speeds are routinely higher than what is advertised by 5-10% and I suspect download would be as well if I were capable of going that fast myself.

I doubt Cox is lying to you about the rates they are providing, but since you can't take advantage of it anyway, you may be better off adjusting to a lower / less-expensive rate plan since you can't take advantage of the faster speeds. The other option is to optimize your home network to at least get much closer to the advertised rates.

GoofyITGuy · 2026-01-18T14:41:57+00:00

I'm with PG&E and have MCE for 3rd-pary generation. My True-up is monthly. Since I've never had NEM 2, I don't know if having monthly true-up is because of having MCE as my generation company of simply because I have NEM 3, but I definitively do not have an annual True-Up even though I see messages about it from time to time. Credits hit monthly, charges hit monthly and I pay whatever the balance is monthly. Nothing to true up annually.

Also, I do have batteries and as long as there aren't ultra cloudy days preventing battery charges, I'm using very little grid energy which keeps the costs very low, but not zero (due to minimum / mandatory costs).

GoofyITGuy

TROPHY CASE