Some updates on odd items. . .

My Prius is now approaching its tenth year anniversary.  And I am happy to say that my mileage is still steady in the 50 mpg or more range.  In the last few days I have made multiple trips up into the foothills near home requiring freeway use, around town driving and trips to an elevation of just under 2,000 feet elevation. Overall mpg for the past few days is 52.2 mpg. Not bad for an ten old hybrid.

The tank-less water heater is going strong.  Our PG and E gas usage in summer is around $5.00 a month.  It makes all the difference in the world to not have to reheat a 50 gallon tank to leave sitting and cooling after use- and all day for that matter.

Solar panels are still going strong.  We are nearing the end to the higher use charge (and our higher rate of repay for that extra production.)  I doubt our true-up bill will be as low this year as the less than $20 it was last year.  This year it was a bit warmer- particularly last month when we had to use the air conditioner for the first time and last time this summer.  I still wish we had put in more panels originally.  Not worth going into debt to get a possible 4 cent a kilowatt hour payback for the extra production.

2012-2013 True-up period- PG and E and low rate of PG and E refund for excess production

We have just finished the most recent true-up period this month.  For the year, our electricity cost from the true-up bill was just under $20.00.  Not too shabby.

And, we wondered about adding a bit to the system to get to the point we would over produce for a change.  We were told that it would not work that way.  We could shoot for the $20 mark, which may only take an additional panel.  It would not be economical to just add a panel or two just to get that cost down.  And in the event we went over, PG and E would only reimburse us at the rate of four cents a Kilowatt hour.  What a deal for them. Not too different than it used to be actually when they would just lob off the excess production at year end and not let us use it or reimburse us for it.  Four cents?   Yikes. I guess we are at their mercy if we are on the grid.  Oh, and there is also this. . . No amount of any over production can be used in an off-set of other fees charged over the year. So the $5.00-$6.00 charged in taxes and other fees that everyone pays, would still have to be paid.