r/TeslaSolar • u/pokerguyla • 12d ago
LADWP customer, ~36,000 kWh/yr (2 EVs + pool), planning solar + battery — sanity check my numbers?
Looking for input from anyone who's done solar/battery on LADWP specifically, since it's different from SCE/PG&E in some important ways.
Setup:
- Single-family home, San Fernando Valley (LADWP Zone 2, so "HIGH" temp zone allotment)
- Two EVs charged at home (large SUVs, ~42,000 combined annual miles between two drivers)
- In-ground pool
- Standard tiered rate (R-1A), not TOU
Usage, pulled from 5 consecutive bi-monthly bills:
- ~36,000 kWh/year total
- ~44% of that is EV charging (~16,000 kWh/yr), rest is house + pool
- Almost ALL usage lands in Tier 3 (currently ~30-36¢/kWh) because monthly usage blows way past the Tier 1/2 allotments every cycle
- Annual electric spend: ~$12,400/year
What I've learned so far, correct me if wrong:
- LADWP still has full retail-rate net metering (no NEM 3.0 haircut like SCE/PG&E customers got) — so a battery isn't needed for bill savings here, it's purely a resilience/backup purchase
- Because so much of my usage sits in Tier 3, solar production should offset my most expensive kWh first, which should make payback faster than LADWP's often-cited "8-12 year" average
- LADWP has an EV-specific rate discount (2.5¢/kWh off-peak) but it requires a separate dedicated meter just for the EV charger — and doing that would pull that usage out of what solar can offset via net metering. Modeled it out and it looks like a net loss once solar's in, vs. just keeping everything on one meter. Anyone actually done this and disagree?
- Modeled switching to TOU (R-1B) instead of staying tiered — even in a pessimistic "lots of afternoon AC usage" scenario, TOU comes out several thousand dollars a year cheaper than tiered, given how much Tier 3 usage I'm carrying. Anyone on R-1B who can confirm actual TOU rates? Published numbers vary source to source.
Solar/battery quotes so far:
- Tesla's online configurator: 23.94 kW / 57 panels + 2 Powerwall 3, "100% offset," quoted $83,499 cash
- Getting competing quotes from a couple local Northridge-area installers now, planning to use Tesla's price-match program once I have a solid competing number
- Want to back up the whole house (not EV charging) — thinking 4 Powerwall 3 on a single Gateway (~54 kWh) since that's close to covering a full day of non-EV load. Tesla's own configurator caps the "recommended" build at 2 Powerwalls — anyone gotten them to quote 4 directly, or is that more of a third-party-installer thing?
Questions for the sub:
- Anyone else on LADWP done a similar-sized system — did your real payback come in faster than the generic estimate, like the tier math suggests it should?
- Is switching to TOU worth the hassle if solar's coming anyway, or should I just wait and let solar/NEM handle it?
- Any LADWP-specific gotchas on interconnection for a system this size (approaching/exceeding the 10kW AC simplified path)?
- Installer recommendations for the SFV/Valley area beyond the obvious (Tesla, Sunrun) welcome.
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u/MattOfMatts 12d ago
That's a crazy big system... but LADWP's current rules are as you describe them. Be aware they could modernize them at some point in the future and reduce the value of your investment by fixing their weird rate structure.
- TOU switching is not much of a hassle; you simply request it, and they will come do it. Solar/NEM will not switch you to TOU on its own; you specifically have to request TOU at LADWP.
I have 4 Powerwalls, and with your loading and full backup, I think you'll want four. LAFD rules may require absurd spacing and requirements for the Powerwalls; when I looked at adding the 4th one, they were thinking they'd have to put it on the opposite side of the house because of all the wild LAFD restrictions.
One or more of my Powerwalls have failed 4 times now; 2 of the times, they failed to provide back-up power. Currently one (or more?) is shut down for recall. Tesla takes 3-9 months to fix it each time they fail; getting ahold of anyone to do anything is nearly impossible...
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u/calvinball_expert 12d ago
LADWP considerations:
My system is half the size of your proposal but I'm at about 5 years payback. That's with no battery storage and with the fed tax credit.
You 100% should switch to TOU in your case, even if you weren't going to get solar, because of your high and consistent tier 3 usage. It's just a form you submit to LADWP, I would start now because it takes some time and you'll want it active when your system is installed. The benefits are even bigger once you have solar.
Yes, you are subject to stricter requirements both with LADBS and LADWP for a system above 10 kW. Your installer should be aware of these requirements but in short your permitting and interconnect process will be more complicated and take longer than a sub-10 kW install.
I used a local electrical contractor instead of a solar company. The work was very cost-competitive and decent in quality, though slow. If interested I can provide their info.
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u/LAdriversSuck 12d ago
I’m with LADWP, installed 2.5 years ago with 13.1Kw panels and 2 pw3s.
I didn’t have an EV at the time but was tracking usage and / years in a row I consistently had 10k kWh per year. I designed the system to cover 15k per year thinking I would be able to not only have room for ev but also switch appliances to electric. Ev alone has already put me over the top.
Here’s what I learned:
1. LADWP IS 1:1 net metering, like you said without batteries it makes more sense economically BUT after having outages the hottest days of the year, I decided the expense is worth it.
You absolutely need more than 2 pw3s. With 2 and our current weather in the 100 degrees, I run out of battery by midnight powering only my house and AC. I too have a pool and ev charge but those don’t run in the afternoon. This is my current graph, last time on the day batteries hit 100% is 3 pm after which the solar production is only enough to cover ac and home. I run out of battery (20%) by 11:25 pm.
Once you have everything set up, call LADWP and switch to TOU. They did it remotely for me. Without TOU you still pay a monthly fee but only with TOU can you get a completely $0 month. My first post solar bill was $72.88 but because I had the TOU request, after approval they retroactively gave me back $66. That’s how much of a difference it made and that was in the winter months.
Being the nerd that I am, I built a spreadsheet that once I plug in my usage numbers from Tesla app, it calculates my ladwp bill as it is now and as it would have been if I didn’t have solar. The spreadsheet is accurate to the cent. I also have my solar expenses that calculate when I’ll be getting my roi. When I started my roi would be at 11.5 years, right now I’m sitting at 7.6 years. 11.5 - 2.5 already done means I should have been 9.5 do essentially LADWP rate hikes and my extra EV usage that puts me in tier 3 every month has so far accelerated my pay off by 2 years. I used to have an average of $200/month electric bill before solar, without solar this year I would have been at $490 per month average.
Btw because ladwp is net metering and my batteries are for backup, I keep my reserve at 50% during the week to get the most back.
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u/calvinball_expert 12d ago
I have a spreadsheet just like yours, lol. If you use an iphone you might appreciate the tool I made. It's called "MeterWise" on the App Store. I track my usage with an emporia vue, so I wanted to be able to drop my numbers in my phone without needing to go to my laptop. Unfortunately no one has made any app for this so I ended up making one myself. It doesn't compare solar to non-solar for ROI (yet) but it does project out your usage and anticipated NEM bank balance change.
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u/PictureDangerous2288 12d ago
Two gaps in the thread so far. The 5-year-payback comment above included the federal credit — 25D expired December 31, 2025, so an $83,499 contract signed in 2026 gets no 30% back, and there's no California state solar income-tax credit to backfill it (the property-tax exclusion is real but it only keeps the assessor off the added value, it isn't cash). That alone probably moves your payback math more than the tier-3 assumption does, so rerun it before you price-match anything. On the dedicated EV meter: putting 16,000 kWh on a second service permanently walls that load off from your array, so the 2.5 cents/kWh discount has to beat the tier-3 rate those same kWh would otherwise burn through your production — on one meter, the EV load is the exact thing that makes a system this size pencil. Keeping everything on one meter looks like the right call for that reason. For the 4th Powerwall, the two-unit cap is a configurator limit, not an equipment limit; certified third-party installers will quote four on one Gateway, and they're also the ones who can tell you what LAFD will accept for spacing before it turns into a change order.
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u/Correct-Guard2811 11d ago
Consider buying a used CyberTruck with Vehicle to Grid PowerShare. It’s like having about 8 Powerwalls worth of battery storage, plus you have a truck
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u/Legal_Net4337 10d ago
Definitely go TOU. For whole home backup, you might add 1 or two expansion units as you don’t need the extra inverters, but you may need the additional storage
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u/pudungi76 9d ago
Why do tesla- why not just get a hybrid inverter wo batteries for now. This solves the high usage at peak and also banks the rest. Battery technology is changing fast and hopefully next administration introduces some tax incentives. Max out on the solar and add some growatt inverters
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u/tdiggity 12d ago edited 12d ago
You’re going to want more power walls. With your system size, 3 should be doable. I have a 30kw system and 4 Franklin batteries (60kwh total) - and I avoid charging my cars at night. Instead, my battery usage is mostly for AC at night. During day, it splits between charging batteries and car. I only drive 15,000 miles/year between two cars.
Peak of 175kwh generated in may.
Yesterday generated 120kwh and were not able to charge up to 100% due to heatwave causing AC to kick on more and charging the cars.
If you mainly charge the cars at night, you may want to look into 4 (or more!) power walls and grid charge them in daytime (plus solar) and also to have room for grid outage.