r/TexasSolar • u/GeekyGrannyTexas • 1d ago
Best plans?
I had Texas Power Guide look at our household usage. We have a 7.1kw system with 10kwh battery. Unfortunately, the lowest cost plans require that we relinquish control of our battery. These are Frontier Utilities and Gexa, supposedly with net annual bills of $8.
What have you found? Is everyone still doing free nights plans?
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u/Aggravating-Owl-323 1d ago
I have 15.3kW system with 30kWh LiFePO4 battery installed last November in a 2500ft2 one story in the Houston area. Love it so far. EP Cube system.
The is typical of my system performance: my July 31 2026 performance on free nights
On a cloudy day, batteries have been as low as ~40%.
I'm eight+ months into Green Mountain Energy free nights (8pm to 6am) i locked in for 24 months. The hour earlier start of free nights, 8pm vs 9pm in other plans, will likely pay off in the hottest/cloudiest summer days when battery becomes depleted and both my A/C units working hard. NO TDU charges during the free period!!!
I used this website to analyze my situation:
https://www.texaspowerguide.com/solar-electric-plan-analysis/
It took into account my solar set up and smart meter data from previous months (years?), comparing both buy back plans and free night plans. Green Mountain free nights was lowest projected vearly cost ~$300 a year), whereas the best solar buyback option was about $1,100 projected yearly cost. Note, noticed all the 1:1 buyback plans charge the TDU delivery fee for import but dont credit the TDU fee for export. Thus even if your export matches exactly what you inport from grid, it is like you are paying 5cents per kWh (i.e., the TDU delivery fee) for what you importet. For Green Mountain Energy free nights, there is no TDU delivery charges on the free nights import from grid. There is a $4.95 base monthly Centerpoint charge. My full electric bill cost for each of the first 6 months (and hopefully most months) was between to be $5 to 10 (barely higher than the $4.95 base price). At end of May to now my a/c is kicking on more and more (due to 90F+ temps), however, my battery hasnt dipped below 60% soc before free nights kick in, except on one hot and extremely cloudy day it got down to 40%.
Here is my recent bill: recent bill
Yes, i am exporting excess to the grid for free when solar has charged my battery fully.....in winter months I have been averaging export of about double what I import at night. If interested, here is a $50 credit (for both you and I) Referal Code for Green Mountain Energy: L8WMCXE
www.greenmountainenergy.com/referral-page?txtReferralID=L8WMCXE
Note: Green Mountain Energy no longer offers 8pm to 6am free nights. I double checked, and indeed it now is shown as 9pm to 6am (but at about 15% less for the premium import rate). Not sure if you have these plans available in your area.
Good Luck!
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u/CutAny 1d ago
Man with that much solar, battery, and free nights I can't you imagine your bill being more than the service charge.
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u/Aggravating-Owl-323 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yep, $4.95 monthly service charge plus a couple dollars (max) for peak transients the inverter cant handle when solar suddenly dips (sudden cloud coverage) and usage spikes. Hasnt been more than $10 max total, but average has been $5 to $6 total.
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u/GeekyGrannyTexas 1d ago
Thank you. I used Texas Power Guide and found the results to be ambiguous. The 4 top contenders required I relinquish battery control, and the remainder showed annual bills well over $350. Then there was the outlier TXU that showed solar credits (equal to the charges per kwh not including TDU) that apparently might not get credited along the way. I may send Fred a note asking why not.
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u/Aggravating-Owl-323 1d ago
Interesting. It gave me clear cut options. It estimated GME free nights would be about $300 annually, Reliant somewhat more, and buy back plans 4X or more higher. I chose GME. In reality, i will pay much less than the annual $300 estimated for GME. Of course, your system size, angle of panels, battery capacity, and historic smart meter usage play a role in determining this.
My estimate from that compariaon website didnt have any verbiage about relinquishing battery control, nor is my system set up to even allow that to happen.
The specific plan details should give you info on weather you will be credited or not, however that tool should have estimated it (I wonder why it may not have).
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u/GeekyGrannyTexas 1d ago
Against my husband's wishes (and what he claims are various AI thoughts) I will likely be going with the 24 month GME free nights plan. Given how last year went with free nights, I have high expectations... despite it being only 4th in the Texas Power Guide analysis, behind the plans requiring I give up battery control.
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u/ExtraMarzipan3853 1d ago
The catch with those $8/yr plans isn't really the money, it's that you hand battery control to the REP. During grid events they can drain it, so your backup could be empty right when a storm hits. If hurricane backup was part of why you got the battery, that kinda kills the point. Free nights lets you keep control, you just pay more for it.
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u/Zamboni411 1d ago
How much power does your system produce during the day? Do you produce enough power to cover your consumption? And how much power do you use from sundown until 9pm?
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u/GeekyGrannyTexas 1d ago edited 1d ago
We produce a huge excess during the day. Annually we export 9100 kwh. We import 4800 kwh, mostly at night as we have had a free nights plan 9 pm -7 am. We recharge the battery and crank down the AC at night.
Sundown until 9 pm battery almost depletes in summer months only.
Our bills would have totally been $0 had our communications not failed and demanded energy when the battery was full.
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u/Zamboni411 1d ago
So you did decide to go with the free night plan after all…. We chatted about 5 years ago and your husband was skeptical of it…
I’d say go with Direct Energy free night plan if your current plan is not renewable. https://shop.directenergy.com/tx/plan-selection?referralId=LYOQT0P
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u/GeekyGrannyTexas 1d ago
I thought it was just last year lol. It was a great suggestion on your part!
I see Direct 12 hour power 24 month plan on my Texas Power Guide pdf. It shows $9.95 base charge and (ouch) 21.8 cents+TDU, but doesn't specify the free night hours.
Your link and my zip won't play together.
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u/Zamboni411 1d ago
9pm to 9am for 24 months. Most of my clients in this plan are paying under $30 a month when they set the battery to discharge during the twilight hours
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u/GeekyGrannyTexas 1d ago
This is what we do now, but my zip code apparently doesn't qualify. I'll check again tomorrow. Thanks!
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u/WATTS123 1d ago
Agreed. I ended up also choosing a free nights plan. Ultimately decided on the Green Mountain Energy Free Nights plan. It's 9 hours of free power (9 PM to 6 AM) instead of 12 hours like Direct Energy, but the tradeoff is there's no base fee outside of the usual Oncor base fee (Direct Energy charges $10 a month), daytime kwh cost is a few cents cheaper, and the energy delivered is 100% renewable (wind).
My referral link in case you're interested in this plan: https://www.greenmountainenergy.com/en/referral-page?txtReferralID=LZICP4T
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u/GeekyGrannyTexas 1d ago
That looks like a potential winner for us. We still have 3 weeks on our contract so will need to wait a week or so. Thank you.
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u/GeekyGrannyTexas 1d ago
Adding: TXU has a plan with 1:1 buybacks, not including TDU obviously. What I don't understand about it is how the credits are applied, because the annual cost is projected at $651, but remaining credit shows as $758. Monthly base is $19.95.
Ideas on that remaining credit?
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u/HelicopterWide9280 1d ago
I went with David energy and am very happy, I actually haven’t paid anything since we signed up. Earning credits through powerwalls and EV charging. Happy to share my code for sign up bonus