Solar Southwest Florida

Utility electric rates in Southwest Florida vary quite a bit depending on how much electricity you consume. I created a spreadsheet to calculate what your utility electric rate would be with different utilities depending on the amount of energy consumed.

What you will find is that the effective rate for LCEC is higher for typical residential customers because of the higher fixed customer charge. Another interesting fact is that LCEC netmetered customers with solar electric generation pay more that regular LCEC customers until they consume at least 1,342 kilowatt hours (net). Again, this is because of a higher customer charge.

The rates are current as of April 16, 2012 and include all charges, fees, and taxes.

Note: The Franchise Fee will vary by municipality. I have used 3% to provide a reasonable approximation and comparison. For example, the Lee County fee is 3% and the Cape Coral fee is 3.173%.

SWFL Utility Rate Comparison

Southwest Florida Utility Electric Rate Spreadsheet (Requires Excel 2007 or greater)

Fafco Solar Video on Pentair Variable Speed Pump

Fafco Solar just released a short promotional video on the Pentair Variable Speed pool pump.

The variable speed pump is a perfect match for solar pool heating systems, especially when an automatic controller is used. Without a controller the pump can be scheduled to run at optimum solar circulation speed when solar energy is most likely to be available. Adding a controller adds the capability of changing the pump speed based on the availability and demand for solar heating.

With or without solar energy, the variable speed pump will pay for itself with energy savings. You can cut pumping costs up to 90% with this great technology while getting a far quieter and longer lasting pool pump.

Solar pool heaters work better with variable speed pumps because the optimum flow rate can be achieved to maximize solar performance. A single speed pump is typically fine to use with solar pool heating, but if you want maximum pool heating, a variable speed pump can both save you a tremendous amount of money and provide the proper flow rate.

Typical efficiency vs. flow curve for solar pool heating panels (FAFCO Sunsaver shown).

Most solar pool heating panel manufacturers recommend a flow rate of 4 gallons per minute per panel. If you have seven panels, you need a flow rate of 28 gallons per minute. Anything less and the efficiency drops off quite rapidly. Anything more and you are wasting money on  your pumping costs, pumping water at a rate higher than required for solar pool heating to be efficient.

When we have a solar pool heater installed, we insist that every job gets a flow meter installed (at least temporarily).  The pump can be programmed to operate at the proper speed when solar pool heating is likely to be required. With an automatic controller, the pump can be set to go to optimum speed whenever solar pool heating is required, but reduce the speed when heating is not active.

There are lots of other variable speed pump resources on my Solar Southwest Florida blog. I have also assembled some Pentair variable speed pump marketing videos below. Enjoy!

I recently set up a Wattvision meter on my Fort Myers, FL home to evaluate its effectiveness. I have to say, I love it! It definitely clues you in to how much energy you are using, when you are using it, and what appliances cost to operate. The device pays for itself by identifying power hogs. For example, I cut down the time my pool lights come on each night because they were consuming 600 watts! On the other hand, I decided to run my fountain longer each day because it uses next to no energy.

The charts on the Wattvision website are excellent. You can view real time, hourly, daily, and monthly data, and can download raw data to use in spreadsheets for further analysis. Take a look at this chart from last Monday.

What can you learn from the chart? Here is my analysis of what happened on Monday (list numbers correspond to numbers on the chart):

1. The baseline load for my home is around 400W at night when we are sleeping. This energy goes to digital video recorders, chargers, TVs, coffee maker, and other appliances that draw a small amount of energy constantly, plus some outdoor landscape and security lighting. The little bumps show the times when the refrigerator is running.
2. The water heater starts up about 4-5 times a day just to keep the water in the tank hot. Around 6:00 am we got up, took showers, and got ready for work. We used a substantial amount of hot water, and the water heater ran for a long period of time, costing us about 50 cents per hour of operation. Around dinner time the water heater worked during cooking and dish washing, and came back on as we got ready for bed.
3. My variable speed pool pump is scheduled to run at low speed from 9:00 am to noon, and again from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm.
4. The pool pump ramps up speed from noon to 2:30 pm to give the automatic cleaner time to work and get adequate pool filtration.
5. The baseline during the evening increases as we use lights, watch TV, and use computers. The fountain and outdoor lighting also comes on at dusk.

You may have seen the promise of plug-and-play solar panels coming to a store near you. I’ll try to make sense of these “new” products and tell you what they will and won’t do for you. There are two kinds of “plug-and-play solar panel” promises floating around out there. There is the solar panel that you can plug into your house and use or sell back to the utility, and there is the solar panel system into which you plug devices directly.

The first “plug-and-play solar panel” product promises that you can plug your solar panels into an existing outlet and feed power back into your home. This is completely unsafe and will not meet any building code in existence. This would require that the system have a male plug that you insert into the outlet. Guess what – that plug with exposed metal conductors could have live power on it (unless the inverter is listed to UL 1741 – let’s not get too technical here!) Even if the proper inverter were used, there are numerous National Electric Code sections that would not allow its use in this manner. No utility company would allow this power to be sent back to the grid. This is not an approved interconnection method, and it is completely unsafe.

Consider that you have a 15 amp circuit breaker feeding a string of outlets in your home. The wire and outlets on that circuit are capable of safely supplying 15 amps of power. If you plug a solar panel’s output into an electrical outlet, you have increased the amount of power available to that wire and all receptacles on the circuit. Furthermore, there is no way to restrict the number of solar panels that a homeowner would plug into a circuit. The homeowner could theoretically install dozens of solar panels into power strips on a single circuit. Hopefully the closest fire station is close by…

The second kind of “plug-and-play solar panel” is really nothing more than a complete mobile off-grid solar electric system. The components include a solar panel, an inverter, and possibly a battery. With this system you can plug devices directly into the inverter output using a standard AC receptacle. There is nothing wrong with this concept, except that it has serious limitations in usefulness, efficiency, and value.

A new product of this kind from Onyx Service and Solutions Inc promises to revolutionize plug-and-play solar. There is really nothing new with this product except that it is larger and higher powered than most other portable solar power devices. I use the word “portable” loosely here because it’s hardly something you can pop in the trunk for an afternoon outing. The included 330 watt solar panel is at least five feet long by three feet wide. The premise of this product is to include a solar panel, a battery, and an inverter in a single box with a standard AC outlet. That’s great, but the amount of power generated and stored isn’t even enough to run a laptop computer for 24 hours.

This system cannot be attached to your home’s electrical system and it cannot sell electricity back to the grid. Don’t be misled!

This type of product is fantastic for small power needs, like charging phones, tablets, or other small devices, or using some higher powered devices for shorter periods of time. They key is to make it portable enough. There is a nice consumer product line from Goal Zero that is perfect for modest power needs, and it does exactly what the Onyx system does, albeit on a much less powerful scale, but it is truly portable.

The promise of “plug-and-play solar panels” is a long way away. There is hope. The best opportunity for a plug-and-play type system may be using a transfer switch similar to the generator input to a home. One thing is certain – you will need to upgrade your home wiring or provide a proper receptacle that in some way makes this type of installation safe, and it will need to be done under the current or future requirements of the National Electric Code.

The best bet in solar electric today is still the basic grid-interactive solar electric system. Don’t be misled by promises of new revolutionary products that can’t deliver. If you want a portable consumer grade solar energy system, educate yourself on the limitations, and if it meets your needs, by all means, proceed!

Don’t panic! It’s not here yet!

Time-of-use metering allows a utility company to charge you different rates based on the time of day. This billing approach is popular in places like California and the Northeast US where there are large peaks in electricity demand. Utilities deliver power by producing a “baseline” amount of power that corresponds with the lowest amount of total expected power demand for their customers at the lowest possible cost. It costs more to meet power needs that are above this baseline amount of power because production costs are higher to meet the peaks. Total demand changes based on the time of day and the time of year.

One way to think about it is how you drive your car. If you are cruising along at a constant speed, your fuel consumption is steady, predictable, and relatively low. When you accelerate and put the pedal to the metal, it costs a lot in terms of fuel consumption, and it’s a very inefficient way to consume fuel to get where you want to go. The same concept applies to utility companies’ power production. A utility’s dream is to be on cruise control, delivering a constant amount of power throughout the day and night.

LCEC's Southwest Florida Annual Load Demand Curve. January 2009 was particularly cold, causing a huge demand for electric heating.

Current electricity rates for PG&E customers in California with time-of-use metering can vary from 9 cents per kilowatt hour to over 47 cents per kilowatt hour! Depending on how much energy you use each day and when you use it, you could pay over 4 times the rate we pay in Southwest Florida!

Florida does have a relatively steady annual power demand because the population swells in the cool season. Even though less air conditioning is required per capita in the cool season, the sheer number of people here helps to level out the total amount of energy consumed each month. See the LCEC Annual Load Demand Curve to the right to illustrate this phenomenon. Nonetheless, demand throughout the day does vary significantly year-round.

The scary thing about time-of-use metering in Florida is that rates would be highest during the day in the summer when air conditioning is typically used. Electricity bills could skyrocket in Southwest Florida for annual residents and businesses unless habits are drastically changed. Commercial customers would be hit hard, as offices and shops consume the vast majority of their energy during peak hours. Retirees who are home during the day would also be hit with higher air conditioning costs. Lower income seniors may need to forego the luxury and comfort of temperature controlled surroundings.

The good news is that utility rates for off-peak times may actually be reduced dramatically. The other way for electric utilities to lower total cost of production is to actually raise the baseline. That means they want you to consume electricity during the off-peak times. One potential boon for this approach is electric cars. Imagine millions of electric cars charging up in garages overnight across Southwest Florida, flattening out the power demand curve!

Is time-of-use metering coming to Southwest Florida? Based on the status quo, we will probably not see time-of-use metering as a requirement in the near future. However, it is almost inevitable that some changes will be made to electricity rates in the mid- to long-run. It is totally impractical for utility companies to maintain a low baseline power production and meet peak demand with more expensive production options.

How does this relate to solar energy? Well, solar energy systems produce the most energy when the sun is out (surprise!) and this time generally corresponds to the peak power demand times for utility companies in Florida. If your solar energy system is reducing your usage during peak times, your bill will be reduced dramatically. You would be cutting down your usage of the most expensive power required for your home. Furthermore, any electricity that you sell back to the utility (power produced in excess of power concurrently used), would be sold back to the utility at premium rates!

Time-of-use metering is generally hated by the average consumer, but it is a more fair way to charge for electricity because it is tied to the cost to produce the power at the time it is consumed. If (when) time-of-use metering does come to Southwest Florida, one way to be prepared is to use a solar electric system to eliminate the most expensive power you will need.

Early morning dew covers PV panels at Naples Botanical Gardens

Fafco Solar has completed the FGCU Naples Botanical Garden photovoltaic system installation. I am particularly proud of this system and the expert installers that did the heavy lifting. The system includes 164 SolarWorld 245 watt solar photovoltaic modules, 164 Enphase M215 microinverters, a Unirac SolarMount mounting system, and S-5! Clamp attachments.

Because of the existing electrical system at the facility, the photovoltaic system is divided into two sub-arrays backfeeding power into two 208V 3-Phase electrical distribution panels. Commercial 3-Phase installations are always interesting from a design standpoint because typically we are dealing with various existing transformers and often generator backup systems.

Workers Install PV Module

It was truly a pleasure working with the Naples Botanical Garden staff and Manhattan Kraft Construction on this project. The weather cooperated for the most part. The job went very smoothly, finishing about a week ahead of my expectations.

This job is a model for future PV construction projects. We look forward to the next big PV job as we move on to a large multi-tenant solar water heating job in Fort Myers.