Sustainability on Evan Hoffman

Why Is My PSE&G Bill Higher? Exploring the CBC Charge

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 23:49:54 +0000

The author received a PSE&G bill for $30.38, higher than expected. Investigating, they discovered a new Customer Benefit Contribution (CBC) charge, aimed at covering social program costs for net-metered solar customers. This charge could lead to significant annual expenses, despite minimal grid usage, causing frustration over the unexpected added cost.

One Year of Real Data From My Solar and PowerWall System

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 09:24:38 +0000

On November 8, 2025, I marked the one-year anniversary of my home solar panels. Installed by Empower, the system includes 36 solar panels and two Tesla PowerWall batteries. Overall, it generated 17,122 kWh while my usage was 18,644 kWh, resulting in reduced utility bills. I find the system beneficial, despite minor issues.

Solar Energy Update: My Experience After 6 Months

Sat, 10 May 2025 08:57:08 +0000

It’s now been 6 months since my rooftop solar panels were brought online and started producing power so I figured it was a good time for an update. So far I haven’t had any problems with the system at all and am very satisfied.

Below are charts of weekly total kWh, blue is pure solar generation, green is power grid net draw/return, and yellow is how much the house actually uses (load):

One Month Later: Analyzing My PSEG Bill With Solar Panels

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 14:06:41 +0000

I finally got my first PSEG electric bill that covers a full month since the solar panels were turned on. My bill for the period from November 19th to December 19th was $211.69. I’ll admit that this was a lot higher than I expected, however looking at the actual usage it makes sense.

The main reason for the high bill is likely my Powerwall configuration, which was setup to fully charge the batteries during super off-peak (after 10 PM) and then dump the power back into the grid during peak times, to offset the most expensive power usage. This actually did work, and I ended up with $0 peak usage and 236 kWh peak credits banked with the utility. However, my super off-peak usage was naturally way up since that’s when I was charging the batteries, and also charging my EV.

Solar Panel Installation on Long Island: My Summer 2024 Experience

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 19:01:14 +0000

Intro

This is a writeup of my adventure in getting solar panels installed at my house. I’m writing it in case it’s helpful to other people considering solar.

My story has a (maybe) strange beginning. In April 2024 I was in my yard playing with my dogs when a door-to-door solar salesman saw me and in a moment of weakness I gave him my contact information. He was from a company called NYS Solar and he scheduled a consultation for me with a sales rep. A couple weeks later I met with the sales representative and I wasn’t really sold on it - the costs he quoted didn’t seem to make any sense, and he didn’t provide me anything in writing either, he just showed me some stuff on his ipad. I didn’t get a great feeling from him, but it did make me start considering solar for my home.