Actually yes, I did the math a few months ago and if you have a gas generator such as [1], you can produce electricity from PG&E's gas for cheaper than PG&E's own electrical rates.
Details:
The generator linked below can produce 17 kWh of electricity by burning 307 cubic feet of natural gas. That translates to 3.07 therms of gas, and looking at my bill PG&E charges around $2.3 / therm, so the generator would produce electricity at a marginal cost of $0.41/kWh, cheaper than what I pay.
Of course this ignores maintenance costs and the upfront cost of the generator itself ($6,000), not to mention environmental costs.
I hate to be that guy, but instead of running a generator why not deploy rooftop solar? If we’re already ignoring upfront costs it generates your electricity for zero dollars.
be that guy. if you've got the space for it it's definitely under consideration but there's only so many dollars to spend on things. solar plus batteries is the dream but I'm not made of money. Unfortunately part of these changes actually disincentivzes paying for solar which is just so aggravating. nationalizing pg&e when?
You can also use a plugin hybrid as a quiet generator and battery bank. My Chevy volt kicks out 2kw into the 12v system bus when on, and then you just need an inverter. Once you use up the available 10kwh battery pack, the gas engine will just turn on and it makes about 10kwh per gallon.
You can get 30 kW (EG4-LifePower4) for $9000. Depending on your handyman skills, you can assemble most of the system yourself and have an electrician check it over, tie it into your electrical service, and sign off on the project.
If I were doing solar and batteries today, I would not try to feed any power to the grid except as part of a virtual power plant that pays me peak rates.
Yes and a lot of people around here already have propane generators because SDGE kept turning off power once or twice a week during the day for the infrastructure upgrades that took years.
You could just run a plugin hybrid vehicle with an inverter and power a house for around around 50 cents a kwh, at $5.00 a gallon gas.
So soon yes I think people may start just using cheap gasoline generator, or their plugin hybrids, to power their houses if electric companies go crazy.
It's already common for people to not want to pay for electric hookup when building new developments. Solar, batteries, and generators are cheaper by a wide margin.
