Solar power systems for the home

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by Regorium

Can someone shed some light on how Enmax approves the size of your system?

For example, we're considering a panel system. We have an electric car, but because we have some options for charging (some free charging package) that was cheaper for us than charging at home, we didn't use home charging much. If we had panels, we'd switch over to home charging, so I guess it's like how do I show or prove that my habits would change if I got new panels?

Similarly, I want to buy some heat pumps but of course I wouldn't have the historical usage - just more going forward. Is it possible to get approval for a larger system if you show you have installed heat pumps even if the history doesn't show the usage?

Enmax is pretty unflexible. They take a look at your last 12 months of consumption of the home, and will allow about 102-103% as a max production of that. If it is at 104% it's almost always coming back declined and asking us to remove a panel.

When a new appliance is added to the home (EV, hot tub, heat pump, AC) they will allow us to build in placeholder estimates for the consumption of the appliance and build that extra production into the system to account for the future use. However, they will only let us do this if the appliance was purchased in the last 90 days. It's a frustrating rule, I have clients come to me who have owned an EV for 4 months, and since it's outside that 90 day rule where they will allow the placeholder, the only option is to wait for a full year for the full usage to reflect on the bill.

In your case, I'd ask, when did you purchase the vehicle? If it's within the 3 months you're going to be able to add that placeholder for charging. If it's outside 3 months, you're going to have to start charging at home and wait for a year.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

Enmax is pretty unflexible. They take a look at your last 12 months of consumption of the home, and will allow about 102-103% as a max production of that. If it is at 104% it's almost always coming back declined and asking us to remove a panel.

When a new appliance is added to the home (EV, hot tub, heat pump, AC) they will allow us to build in placeholder estimates for the consumption of the appliance and build that extra production into the system to account for the future use. However, they will only let us do this if the appliance was purchased in the last 90 days. It's a frustrating rule, I have clients come to me who have owned an EV for 4 months, and since it's outside that 90 day rule where they will allow the placeholder, the only option is to wait for a full year for the full usage to reflect on the bill.

In your case, I'd ask, when did you purchase the vehicle? If it's within the 3 months you're going to be able to add that placeholder for charging. If it's outside 3 months, you're going to have to start charging at home and wait for a year.

2022 but we're gonna start looking at panels when we move to a new house later this year (which is also where the heat pump upgrades will come in).

At the same time none of the history will even make sense because even the base usage of the new house is unknown.

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by Regorium

2022 but we're gonna start looking at panels when we move to a new house later this year (which is also where the heat pump upgrades will come in).

At the same time none of the history will even make sense because even the base usage of the new house is unknown.

Is the new house existing or is it a new build?

[Barnes]

I kept a detailed log of when things happened throughout the period from when I reached out to the loan being paid to me. Hope this helps for anyone thinking about solar. It's a long process that I was on top of at each step but there are many things in the background like permits, applications, etc. that just take a long time.

Requested Info - Feb 18
Sent House Info - Feb 21
SolarYYC Quote Received - Feb 25
	
Heat Pump Quote - Feb 26
Heat Pump Install - March 7
	
SolarYYC Contract Signed - Mar 17
	
1st Energy Assessment - Mar 21
Submitted to NRCAN - Mar 24
	
Greener Homes Loan Submitted - Mar 25
Loan Application Accepted - April 8
15% Received and Paid - April 18
	
Spot Power Pre-Solar Rate - Jul 16
Panel Swap - Jul 22
Spot Power Enrollment - Jul 24
	
Solar Install - Jul 29
Elec. Inspection- Jul 30
System Switched On - Jul 30
ENMAX Microgen Submitted - Jul 31
	
2nd Energy Audit - Aug 5
2nd Audit Report Received - Aug 8
	
Funding Requested - Aug 8
Funding Approved - Aug 11
	
ENMAX Microgen Commission - Aug 13
Spot Solar Club $0.0849/kWh - Aug 13
High Solar Rate $0.30/kWh	 - Aug 13
YYCSolar Invoice Paid	- Aug 14
	
Loan Deposited - Aug 15

[the-rasta-masta]

For those of you who use Solar Club, as of September 19th the High Rate will be jumping from $0.30/kWh to $0.33/kWh.

Enmax offers their own version of Solar Club, called the Seasonal Solar Rate. Unsure right now if they will be jumping to $0.33/kWh as well, or if they will take some time to follow suit.

[Brupal]

Looks like the Greener Homes program is returning, targeting lower income households
https://stocks.apple.com/A7vQvoqC_SXinh_TvvJCLiQ

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by Brupal

Looks like the Greener Homes program is returning, targeting lower income households
https://stocks.apple.com/A7vQvoqC_SXinh_TvvJCLiQ

This is a separate add on that was announced in the 2024 budget, it’s been in the works for a while. It’s not tied to the loan or grant, as you said it’s meant for low income retrofits. The benefit is that this program will cover the costs without any carrying or bridge period to the homeowner. However at this point it remains unclear if Solar is even included in this affordability program, as it hasn’t been specifically mentioned anywhere yet. Also what qualifies someone as a low income homeowner? Those words sound a bit like an oxymoron to me.

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by Barnes

I kept a detailed log of when things happened throughout the period from when I reached out to the loan being paid to me. Hope this helps for anyone thinking about solar. It's a long process that I was on top of at each step but there are many things in the background like permits, applications, etc. that just take a long time.

Requested Info - Feb 18
Sent House Info - Feb 21
SolarYYC Quote Received - Feb 25
	
Heat Pump Quote - Feb 26
Heat Pump Install - March 7
	
SolarYYC Contract Signed - Mar 17
	
1st Energy Assessment - Mar 21
Submitted to NRCAN - Mar 24
	
Greener Homes Loan Submitted - Mar 25
Loan Application Accepted - April 8
15% Received and Paid - April 18
	
Spot Power Pre-Solar Rate - Jul 16
Panel Swap - Jul 22
Spot Power Enrollment - Jul 24
	
Solar Install - Jul 29
Elec. Inspection- Jul 30
System Switched On - Jul 30
ENMAX Microgen Submitted - Jul 31
	
2nd Energy Audit - Aug 5
2nd Audit Report Received - Aug 8
	
Funding Requested - Aug 8
Funding Approved - Aug 11
	
ENMAX Microgen Commission - Aug 13
Spot Solar Club $0.0849/kWh - Aug 13
High Solar Rate $0.30/kWh	 - Aug 13
YYCSolar Invoice Paid	- Aug 14
	
Loan Deposited - Aug 15

Could you give any thoughts on the heat pump? What model/size? How has it performed? Thanks.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

For those of you who use Solar Club, as of September 19th the High Rate will be jumping from $0.30/kWh to $0.33/kWh.

Enmax offers their own version of Solar Club, called the Seasonal Solar Rate. Unsure right now if they will be jumping to $0.33/kWh as well, or if they will take some time to follow suit.

How come? Is the RRO is going over $.30/kWh?

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Titan2

Could you give any thoughts on the heat pump? What model/size? How has it performed? Thanks.

For sure, we got a 3-ton Gree 16. Around 17 SEER with the condenser we got.

Good to heat to -15 degC. I figured that below 3 deg outside temp, it's cheaper to run the furnace. Because we got it in March didnt have much experience with the heating but when it was on, it was a nice, comfortable heat compared to the dry air the furnace dumps out.

For cooling, it's been great. We used to have 3 window units for the 2 bedrooms and our office. Our electricity bill is much lower this summer than the 3 previous (almost 500 kWh in July).

Find it works best to just leave it run rather than step up and down based on occupancy etc. Unit is crazy quiet and it just kinda hums along pumping glorious 20degC air into our house.

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by Barnes

For sure, we got a 3-ton Gree 16. Around 17 SEER with the condenser we got.

Good to heat to -15 degC. I figured that below 3 deg outside temp, it's cheaper to run the furnace. Because we got it in March didnt have much experience with the heating but when it was on, it was a nice, comfortable heat compared to the dry air the furnace dumps out.

For cooling, it's been great. We used to have 3 window units for the 2 bedrooms and our office. Our electricity bill is much lower this summer than the 3 previous (almost 500 kWh in July).

Find it works best to just leave it run rather than step up and down based on occupancy etc. Unit is crazy quiet and it just kinda hums along pumping glorious 20degC air into our house.

So I gather you had it installed alongside your current furnace? And you can switch easily, I assume? Did you consider the hot water heater? Who installed it? Thanks.

[Barnes]

Yeah, the furnace is now our Aux heat. It will kick on when heat is called for when the outside temperature is below the minimum compressor temp setting. Our house is only 7 years old so we were just adding AC. Hope there’s a few years on the hot water heater yet.

Furnace Family did the install. Went horribly sideways but they made it right.

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by Barnes

How come? Is the RRO is going over $.30/kWh?

It might indicate that fixed rates are set to rise. Typically, the Solar Club rate has been set at around 300% of the fixed rates. A few years back, the Solar Club rate was $0.18/kWh back when fixed rate prices were around 4-6 cents. It's jumped up a few times and is now jumping to $0.33/kWh. Good news for Solar Homeowners.

[Bill Bumface]

Why do the solar rates even exist? I'm personally not complaining, I just expect them to evaporate one day and the economics of my system to go out the window without a battery array.

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

Why do the solar rates even exist? I'm personally not complaining, I just expect them to evaporate one day and the economics of my system to go out the window without a battery array.

It's a great question.

Alberta has an open market energy price, meaning when the Solar homeowner jumps up to the higher Solar rate during the summer, they are still paying that price for the power they pull off the grid. So you're getting paid $0.30/kWh that you are selling back, but you are also still paying $0.30/kWh for the power you are pulling off grid when the panels aren't producing (as mentioned this will now be $0.33/kWh as of this Friday). This is worth it still because you're only going on that rate during the months where you are in excess production above the consumption of the home.

Solar Club exists because the retailers want to incentivize you to sell your renewable energy to them. They can therefore claim it as an allocation of renewable electricity on their grid. If people who don't have solar are environmentally conscious, they can choose to pay a "green energy premium" on their electricity bill, and all of a sudden they will have an extra cost line item on their bill each month because they are technically using up a portion of the allocation of renewable energy that the retailer has on the grid. The retailer is making an additional margin on the renewable energy that they purchase from you, even though they've paid you a higher rate for it. There are lots of homeowners and corporations who have green policies who pay these additional premiums for green energy. The funny thing is that the power these individuals or corporations use still comes from the nearest substation and is likely natural gas produced electricity, but because the company has "this much allocation", they can sell "this much green energy at premium". So it's not like they are actually using renewable energy, they just pay it because it exists elsewhere on the grid.

We have had Utilitynet (the creator of Solar Club in Alberta) in our office a few times to explain the concepts and answer questions about longevity of the program. The belief is this program will be around for many years to come because of the true open market nature of it, where the homeowner still is paying the same rate for what they pull. Now in practice that's not necessarily true because clients only switch onto this rate when they have excess production to sell back above their electricity usage, so it's not an even distribution of purchase vs sellback. Because of this, Utilitynet is very careful of what they set the Solar Club rates at. It was interesting to find out that they could actually price the Solar Club rates much higher, meaning even more benefit to the Solar Homeowners. They keep the rates artificially low because they don't want it to be considered a "feed in tariff".

Feed In Tariffs are when government or utilities incentivize solar by having an increased rate of buyback of the Solar power. For example, years ago in Ontario there was a feed in tariff introduced where they were paying solar customers over $0.80/kWh for their excess Solar, but only charging about $0.12-$0.14/kWh for what was being imported from the grid. This is a great way to spur solar uptake, but the problem is when they are paying 6-10x more for the solar energy than what the electricity rates are costing, it starts to increase the electricity rates for all non-solar customers. Solar actually got a bit of a bad name in Ontario at the time and this is why Solar homeowners now pay annual licensing fees for having Solar in Ontario. The Solar Club program in Alberta keeps the Solar Club rate artificially low to avoid any political or population pushback on Solar, somewhat disguising it due to the "open market" rate.

There is a common old wives tale in the industry about some farmer in Ontario during this time who installed arc lighting above his ground mounted solar array. I'm positive the story is not true but it's funny to think that this fellow was paying low rates for his lighting that was creating solar production in the dark that he could sell at a much higher multiple.

[the-rasta-masta]

Interest Free Loan officially ending application intake on October 1st, 2025.

https://natural-resources.canada.ca/...ner-homes-loan

[CroFlames]

Any word on what program will replace it? Surely the feds will offer some incentive for solar and/or green initiatives.

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Any word on what program will replace it? Surely the feds will offer some incentive for solar and/or green initiatives.

Nothing announced yet. Frustrating for a program of this magnitude to only be given 2 weeks of official notice from the government (today is the first they've commented on rumours of loan longevity), so I'd have to think something else is coming.

The budget was pushed out to November 5th so it might be a month of limbo for organizations in the solar, heat pump, insulation, window spaces. The industry has boomed due to this program and would be facing an instantaneous bust based on this announcement today, so I'd be surprised if they just left an industry hanging completely. I think we'd be one of the only western developed countries without some form of Solar/Green incentives from a federal government.

Some rumours have been that the program will be re-introduced as an evergreen program that is tied directly to Bank of Canada Rates. So unlikely to be interest free, but Solar would still be extremely attractive even if attached to a 2.5% interest rate which is what BOC dropped to as of this morning.

The municipal CEIP program seemed like it was going to be the next form of incentives after it was piloted in 2024, but the city has only opened it up for one day of applications so far in 2025. I bet they are waiting until after the municipal elections to roll that program out further.

Long story short, I feel it unlikely we'll see anything interest free again, but perhaps some combination of loan attached to BOC rates as an evergreen program, with maybe some form of rebate re-introduced as well. But nothing imminent or officially announced. They did recently introduce the affordability program but that's tied to low income homeowners (isn't that an oxymoron?).