Utility Billing

Since your home is still connected to the grid, you will still receive a bill from your utility company. For months where your solar panels cover 100% or more of your home’s electricity usage, you will only receive a bill from your utility company for the taxes and fees associated with being connected to their grid. For months when your solar panels cover less than 100% of your home’s electricity usage, you will purchase the remaining electricity from your utility. Your utility will track how much power your home took from the grid and compare that to how much power your solar panels sent back to the grid, and it will charge you for the difference. This is known as net metering.

When the sun is shining, you may get all of your energy from solar, but due to things like weather, winter, and nighttime, you will still have to buy some energy from the utility. As a result, you will still receive a utility bill, but it will be a little different from before.

Your utility bill will now include energy that you sent back into the grid and a billing credit as compensation. This credit will be debited from your total. If the credit is larger than what you owe for the energy you purchased, it will carry over to next month’s bill.

Remember, this billing credit is only for the excess energy you sold back into the grid. It does not represent your full solar production. Most of the energy you produce is used right away. You will not see it on your utility bill because it never touched the grid, so your utility cannot see it.

The answer is simple but can make understanding your energy consumption a little more difficult. Your utility cannot see what your solar system is doing, and Off Grid Energy cannot see what your utility is doing. As a result, your full energy portfolio is not as easy to see as we would like.

Your energy falls into three different buckets.
1 – Solar energy you use.
2 – Solar energy you send to the grid.
3 – Utility energy you bought from the grid.

Off Grid Energy can only see 1 and 2, but it cannot tell the difference between the two. This is your full solar production.

Your utility can only see 2 and 3, but 2 only represents a small piece of your full solar production, because the majority of your solar production is used right away.

As a result, your solar production reports and the data on your utility bill do not match. But don’t worry, they’re not supposed to!

There are a few reasons why your utility bills might be higher than you expected.

Electricity usage – most people end up using more electricity after they go solar. Keep in mind that using more electricity than your panels produce means you’ll be buying more electricity from your utility company. If your utility bills have gone up, think about any lifestyle changes that may have impacted your home’s usage: a new addition to your household, new appliances, lowering the AC, etc. You can check to see if your home is using more electricity by looking at how many kWhs you received from your utility and comparing it to how many combined kWhs you received from Off Grid Energy (this is equivalent to how many kWhs your panels produced, as shown on your reports dashboard) plus the kWhs you received from your utility company (look for your “net usage” on your utility bill).

Seasonality – no matter where you live, your solar panels will produce more electricity in the summer and less in the winter because days are shorter in the winter and the sun is lower on the horizon. Because of this, you may be drawing more electricity from your utility in the winter. This is completely normal, and your solar production will increase once winter is over. We recommend you look at your electricity costs on an annual basis to account for this seasonality.

Solar production – if there is an issue with your solar panels, that will cause you to get more of your electricity from your utility company. Rest assured, if there’s an issue with your solar panels, we’ll let you know.

While the above reasons cause most high utility bills, system issues do sometimes affect your solar energy production. If your contract includes remote monitoring, we monitor your system 24/7 and alert you if we suspect an issue. If you suspect a performance issue, first read your inverter display to see if you can troubleshoot the issue. You can always call (385) 421-5800 to report an issue and get help.

There are a few reasons why your utility bills might be higher than you expected.

Electricity usage
Most people end up using more electricity after they go solar. Keep in mind that using more electricity than your panels produce means you’ll be buying more electricity from your utility company. If your utility bills have gone up, think about any lifestyle changes that may have impacted your home’s usage: a new addition to your household, new appliances, lowering the AC, etc. You can check to see if your home is using more electricity by looking at how many kWhs you received from your utility and comparing it to how many combined kWhs you received from your panels (this is equal to how many kWhs your panels produced, as shown on your reports dashboard) plus the kWhs you received from your utility company (look for your “net usage” on your utility bill).

Seasons
No matter where you live, your solar panels will produce more electricity in summer and less in winter because days are shorter and the sun is lower in the sky in winter. Because of this, you may use more electricity from your utility in winter. This is completely normal, and your solar production will increase once winter is over. We recommend you look at your electricity costs on an annual basis to account for this seasonality.

Solar production
If there is an issue with your solar panels, you will have to use more electricity from your utility company. Rest assured, if there’s an issue with your solar panels, we’ll let you know.

While most high utility bills are caused by the above reasons, system issues do sometimes affect your solar energy production. If your contract includes remote monitoring, we monitor your system 24/7 and alert you if we suspect an issue. If you suspect a performance issue, first read your inverter display to see if you can troubleshoot the issue. You can always call (385) 421-5800 to report an issue and get help.

California utilities now bill solar households only once a year. Instead of monthly bills, they send you a monthly statement so you can track your energy use. You’ll only get an actual bill (called a true-up statement) once a year.

Even though your overall energy costs are likely to be lower after you go solar, the annual bill will be for an entire year of energy use at once. Make sure you’ve budgeted accordingly.

If you’d prefer to pay your utility monthly, most still give you this option if you give them a call.

Utilities adopted the annual true-up because they anticipate that solar energy producers will use considerably less utility energy overall. However, they recognize that you will produce much more energy some months than others, so:

You receive energy credits from the utility for the energy you produce and don’t immediately use.
Unused energy credits roll over from month to month. Once a year, you and the utility will settle up.