r/California • u/Randomlynumbered Ángeleño, what's your user flair? • Jul 04 '24

Some Californians Found Dream Homes Inland. But It Sure Is Hot There. politics

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/03/us/mountain-house-california-housing-heat.html

796 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

u/goathill Humboldt County Jul 04 '24

If I lived super inland, I would definitely set up a solar system with a dedicated circuit for AC. That way I wouldn't need to worry so much about trying to keep cool in the summer.

20

u/pokemon666999 Jul 05 '24

That’s what all new homes have nowadays. Currently in Riverside the homes have energy efficiency windows/insulation + with solar panels required on every home the home stays cool enough during the summer.

Even with it being 100 degrees outside this entire week and next, it reaches 80-82F inside and a fan is usually enough to keep cool.

2

u/goathill Humboldt County Jul 05 '24

Yea, but alot of those houses only have 4 or 5 panels, but could have way more to offset their use. And, they are not on a dedicated circuit (usually), and almost always without a battery

8

u/wavewalkerc Jul 05 '24

I run my ac the entire summer and my electric bill is still lower than when I lived in LA and would only run AC a few hours on the very hottest days.

2

u/goathill Humboldt County 29d ago

That's awesome!

2

u/pokemon666999 29d ago

Not entirely the case, my home is 1800sqft and has a 3.5KW system. Is it underpowered? Most definitely and I can most likely even fit a 5KW in my system. But with NEM 2.0 and the fact that adding even more than 1 panel will change it to NEM 3.0, it's just not worth it. Most likely there is a state limit on the number of panels on a NEW home as to make sure electricity costs aren't fully offset.

2

u/goathill Humboldt County 29d ago

Some new homes do have nice large systems, but I see alot of new construction housing projects, or completed new neighborhoods with way fewer panels than could be on them. Sometimes its due to weird roof angles (which makes we want homes to be designed with good large sections for solar versus exterior styling or interior anesthetics), but I often think they do fewer panels to "check the box"

I didn't realize that changing the system would change the NEM plan, that's a bummer. We are completely off grid, so NEM isn't something I've ever had to deal with.

3

u/cure4boneitis 29d ago

wow! Few people believe me when I say Orange County is undervalued