Solar Power - 80/20
Update - 2026-01-18
Since writing this Dominion enabled the smart-meter feature of our smart meter and now the gross power usage can be downloaded from their website. We shifted to time-of-use power - although I'm not sure I'm actually savining any money. In addition, I purchased and installed a solar and battery system, performance TBD.
Concept
- Create device to read power meter. Use the local IR transmitter, since my meter seems to be encrypted cell signal vs clear radio.
- Determine detailed gross power usage - total home power.
- Try to curtail as much as possible/reasonable - shift dishwashing to night; EV charging to night.
- Use that "total home power" value to determine the size of a Solar+Storage system to provide:
- Enough power to prevent brown-outs, mini black-outs from flaky grid (ie 1 min - 1 hr worth of power).
- Enough power to enable shifting to metered usage (ie one of the non-default plans by your power company).