I just wanted to add a few comments here...
First of all, it's worth understanding that "your power company" DOES NOT promise to deliver spot-on voltage.
I've seen a few of the actual specifications from one or two power companies...
They usually read something like this...
"You will be receiving a nominal voltage of x (let's say 120 VAC)."
"Your voltage will not vary by more than 5% outside of that for more than 5% of the time..."
"And your voltage will not vary by more than 10% outside of that for 1% of the time..."
All of those numbers are examples...
But they're basically going to promise to give you within 5% or so of your nominal voltage most of the time...
And to avoid going more than 10% above or below it except on very rare occasions...
(And, of course, some areas vary more than others.)
Where I used to live on Long Island we got 124-127 VAC pretty consistently.
(Which is why it was a good idea to buy incandescent bulbs rated at "120 VAC" and not "110 VAC" - back when that was a thing.)
You'll notice that most modern equipment in general...
And certainly all of ours...
Is rated to run over a pretty wide range of voltages.
Now... as for Solar Panels (PVs).
What you need to understand is that most power companies are NOT thrilled about solar panels... and are even LESS thrilled about buying back power.
There's this little thing called "peak utilization".
Basically, so far, there is no really efficient way to store LARGE quantities of electricity.
This means that your power company has to maintain "production capability" to meet "peak demand times".
Like when it's 100 degrees out, so everyone's running their air conditioners, but it's cloudy, so solar panes really don't do much.
This means that they have to have enough power plants, and generators, to run EVERYTHING at those peak demand times.
(And, while things like fuel consumption may vary with output, things like maintenance costs vary a lot less...)
(And you also can't "just switch generators on and off"; some power plants take a long time to "spin up, synch up, and connect"...)
The bottom line there is that, even if everybody in your town got solar panels, your power company would still need to maintain about the same number of generators.
Therefore
they would need about the same amount of income to keep those plants running at a profit.
So, to put it bluntly, if everyone in your town was getting half of their electricity from their own solar panels...
Your power company would end up doubling the rate you pay for the half that you still buy from them "to keep making ends meet"...
Likewise, any excess power they buy back from you, while it reduces their short term generating need, does nothing to help at night, or on those cloudy days.
The bottom line here is that, back when solar panels were just starting out, and part of the draw was that "you could sell excess power back to the power company"...
But that's really only true as long as not too many people are doing it.
Some power companies had
ALREADY declared that they would
LIMIT the amount of power that they would be willing to buy from people with solar panels...
And, for the few whose numbers I actually saw, that limit was that, AT MOST, they would be willing to buy back something like 5% of their peak demand capacity.
So, in case it wasn't obvious, that means that, if everybody on your block got solar panels, you might find that your power company was "not interested" in buying your excess power.
Or, as in most "supply-and-demand" situations, they might only be willing to pay a few cents on the dollar.
And, in fact, if enough people got solar panels that people were buying less electricity from them on sunny days, you would probably find them
RAISING RATES to make up the income shortfall.
So you could end up with solar panels providing half of your power... but with a power bill that wasn't much lower at all.
(And you've got to maintain your panels, and your wiring, and your inverters, and your batteries if you use them...)
This is not to suggest that solar panels aren't a good thing for the environment (at least probably).
But, as with a lot of modern technology, they might not be quite as great an investment as we were originally led to believe... at least not yet.
This has nothing to do with current thoughts on this thread. It is just a 'toss out'.
Line voltage at my house bottomed out today about 4pm at aroun 114volts. This is 4 to 6 lower than 'usual'.
Summer is right now in Full Force and it peaked today at abut 102f.....and I'm about 8 miles from 'feet wet' in the ocean.
VERY atypical and perhaps the warmest I ever recorded here at the casa..... Oceanside Water Temp is a robust and swimmable 73f.
At 1800 (right NOW) voltage is back up to a stellar 116.......going in the right direction. And IMO, out of the 'danger zone'.......
outdoor temps are dropping as well...and are now 90f......QUITE a drop from 102f about 3pm (1500)
One thing we have going FOR us? Many commerical (WalMart, Medical, apartments) feature large PV arrays. This is ONE really good
way to mitigate peak demand....ANY activities by the Power Company (Sempra) to discourage PV and to screw people on usage, rates and Net Metering
are IMO verging on a crime against the Citizens. But? As long as the Executive Bonus Program is well funded, How could I possibly complain?
