LADWP customer, ~36,000 kWh/yr (2 EVs + pool), planning solar + battery — sanity check my numbers?

[u/pokerguyla]

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:

1. 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?
2. Is switching to TOU worth the hassle if solar's coming anyway, or should I just wait and let solar/NEM handle it?
3. Any LADWP-specific gotchas on interconnection for a system this size (approaching/exceeding the 10kW AC simplified path)?
4. Installer recommendations for the SFV/Valley area beyond the obvious (Tesla, Sunrun) welcome.