Home Solar thread

[Okhotnik]

Looked at it several years ago. I let the sales guy estimate the payback period (ROI).
When I asked him about the warrantee period on equipment, I got radio silence.
No thanks.

A coworker has solar electric on his house b/c "I can afford to do my part." Has an electric car too.
I've got thermal solar for the pool though and that just lets the filter pump add free heat.

Does your co worker have any idea where panels are made and what material and carbon costs go into the manufacture and transportation to market of those panels. Is his e car powered by good emotions and good intentions? Emotions and science typically don't work very well together lol

 

[RS_Non-Res]

Definitely PoweredByEmotionAndGoodIntentions(TM). Watches a lot of TV too.
I guess I wasn't snarky enough.

 

[doc holiday13]

Well as a short update, I was able to talk with a guy at work(but waay different department) and he happens to live just up the street from me. He did solar a year ago and its a dang good system. Very similar in size to mine. He's a numbers nerd because he does lots of reverse engineering and design work. He gave me all his spreadsheets about his system, competitors systems and how his system is actually performing. PLUS he's got a years worth of data from the power company..

At this point its basically a no brainer. I know there is skepticism and I do understand it because like most people here on RS; I don't buy the liberal "go green" agenda. But given our locality laws, regs, and power companies it makes sense to do this even if the panels only last 10 years.. It makes sense

 

[doc holiday13]

So I've did some shopping and I signed a contract. In my area there are some incentives. First I'm allowed to deduct the cost of cost of my solar project from my property value. 2nd I'm allowed to sell solar energy credits. My power company has 2 types of grid tied agreements. the first one trades 1 for 1 on Kw generated vs consumed and allows you to carry credits forward. The second being power purchase agreement where they buy all the power you generate. I'm doing the credit system agreement. Based on my power usage my system is designed to generate just 97% percent of my historical usage.

My system has been installed since Feb 10. I only had it on and running for a few days on my last bill but my bill dropped from ~$130 down to $83. My monitoring system has my consumption about 100kw more than I've generated. Based on my locality, I think it makes sense. I'll generate a significant credit during the summer so I think I'll come near a break even point. If I pay an extra $50/month I should be paid off in about 5 years . The micro inverters have a 15 year warranty and the panels have 25 year warranty on performance