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Comment by dbetteridge | Hacker News Reader

Is power just very expensive in Fresno?

$400pm just for aircon seems crazy high to me.

Living in Perth, Western Australia id use that over a 2-3mth period over the summer running aircon 24/7

Electricity in California is the most expensive in the country. When I lived there I spent between 20-35c/kWh. I moved to Utah and now pay approx 9c/kWh, cheaper by a factor of about 3. I live in the Southwest part of the state where the temperatures regularly hit 46c and my electric bill comes out to about $100.

9c per hour is insanely cheap :o

For comparison I'm paying 31.6c/kwh and 113c/per day supply charge. (prices in AUD cents)

Think that's about 21c USD

9¢ per kilowatt hour is insanely expensive

typical wholesale prices are 2½¢ per kilowatt hour

solar panels are 8¢/peak watt https://www.solarserver.de/photovoltaik-preis-pv-modul-preis... which works out to 40¢ per average watt assuming a 20% capacity factor. at 7% yearly interest, that's 2.8 cents per watt, and since a year has 8.766 kilohours, it's 0.3¢ per kilowatt hour. for ac inverter systems, balance of system costs typically triple this, and in the us, import tariffs double it again to 1.8¢ per kilowatt hour

the future is already here; it just isn't widely distributed. and that's why you're getting scammed

I mean I can get solar on my roof for about $4000Aud and then I pay nothing unless it's particularly cloudy.

But for grid electricity even if the generation is dirt cheap the power company in WA is responsible for covering an area the size of a chunk of Europe with a total population of under 3million.

There are significant distribution costs involved and I suspect even at the prices we pay its subsidised by the government.

$4000 is also pretty expensive; at my 7% yearly interest that's $23 a month. at my number of 0.9¢ per kilowatt hour that's 2600 kilowatt hours per month, an average of 3600 watts. i will be very surprised if you are using 3600 watts round-the-clock average unless you have a machine shop in your garage

so i think you are dramatically overestimating the cost of rooftop solar

> responsible for covering an area the size of a chunk of Europe

3x bigger than Texas for the North Americans, with the majority of that population about one extended urban area.

Correct! And about 120km end to end (depending on what you choose to define as "urban")

Driving from the southern tip of WA to the northern most point takes over 36hrs of continuous driving (~3600km)

All this is to say its pretty fucking big

It's 3-4 times more expensive to use electricity in california than it is in Texas. sometimes 5 times more for peak usage hours during the summer.

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