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I have a smaller home than yours, I have no electric vehicle, and I am probably a little further north than you are, yet my experience is quite similar. About 80% of my electrical needs are supplied by rooftop solar panels, which will pay for themselves in less than ten years.

Did you spend time and/or money doing things to make your house more efficient? I did so, and to be honest I was embarrassed that I didn't do that part many years before going solar. That portion of my energy project was the most practical ROI and the simplest.

> Did you spend time and/or money doing things to make your house more efficient?

I followed that advice. Knocked 35% off the house usage by replacing the AC and reduced peak from 9.5KW to 5.5KW. We’re all electric including heater, hot water, stove, and pool pump.

I calculate a solar install on the house would pay for itself in less than 5 years. We live in Southern AZ and conceivably could use no utility power for about 7 months out of the year.

Thinking of building a house on some property I own and the cost of installing the electric service is comparable to installing an 18KW solar. Tempted to forgo the hookup since it’s not mandatory.

I am mostly mini-split. The older section of the house, soon to be about half of the total is a central air system with ducts in the attic. I have converted it to a VFD type system. On most days just two mini-splits, one 18 Kbtu and the other 9 Kbtu, heat and cool the whole house. My next project, after freshening the attic insulation in the old part of the house to R-60, is to move the ducts out of the attic and into the conditioned space. According BSC that move should result in about a 30% efficiency gain and zero latentency.

Concurrent to foam insulating the walls of the new addition I relented to foaming beneath the deck of the roof in the older section of the house and somewhat sealing the rafter bays to alleviate the air washing of that usually not well insulated area. The attic will not be encapsulated though but vented in the summer. My jury is still out as to the effectiveness of foaming the roof decking but the house seems more uniformly warm thus far.

The new addition roof is foil reflective cool ply roof decking and the ceiling plane will be R-60 blown fiber glass and ventilated.

One of the most disruptive energy users in this house is wash day and the electric dryer. Even after switching to a tankless propane water heater wash day and hours show up on the utility tracking software as hourly and daily spikes.