I'm about to sign for a ~9.4 kW rooftop array on PG&E's E-ELEC plan, and the reason it's happening is my wife's pottery kiln.

She fires twice a week now. By my rough math a firing is 40-ish kWh, all 240V, eight hours or more, and it's what wrecked our last two summer bills. The plan is to run it midday straight off the panels. Array is Enphase IQ8 micros, installer's pick, so that part is settled.

The battery isn't. Mostly I want it for evening peak shifting since NEM 3 export credits are weak, plus the PSPS shutoffs we get once or twice a year. I'm not trying to back up the kiln, just fridge, internet, lights and the furnace blower.

Powerwall 3 is my lean. It's the installer's default and the inverter is built in, so it's one box. What bugs me is that service goes through Tesla and nothing about it feels easy to expand later.

Enphase IQ Battery 5P matches the micros and everything lives in one app.…