Took the solar plunge

[Gliderjohn]

The system was installed today. Took a crew of four about six hours to do the complete job. Covers about 80% of the south roof of my 30x50 garage/shop building. If you drove in and parked in my yard you would have no idea I had a solar system. Nothing at all visible from the front.
Now we will wait and see.
GliderJohn

[yogidozer]

I think you made a good decision. Storms are becoming more frequent, and when the power goes out you won't need to store gas to fuel the generator.
As far seeing it from the front, I wouldn't worry either way, I think they look cool.
Hope the roof underneath was in good shape. The panels should actually increase the life of the shingles, keeping the sun off them.
I think it should keep the house cooler as well, especially because solar panels face the south.
Good luck with it.

[oldbike54]

I think you made a good decision. Storms are becoming more frequent, and when the power goes out you won't need to store gas to fuel the generator.
As far seeing it from the front, I wouldn't worry either way, I think they look cool.
Hope the roof underneath was in good shape. The panels should actually increase the life of the shingles, keeping the sun off them.
I think it should keep the house cooler as well, especially because solar panels face the south.
Good luck with it.

 Metal roof . I do agree , solar panels look kinda cool .

 Dusty

[Lannis]

Of course my house is a simple carpenter's house without all the "design elements" of the neighbors.

I designed and built my own house too.  It's built exactly like a "Federal" style house of 1810 - 1830 would have been built here.   There's a central hallway on each floor running from the front of the house to the back, with a porch over the doors front and back, so that the prevailing breeze can go through and the doors are shaded.   Makes a heck of a difference in the coolness factor ....

Lannis

[Bulldog9]

As I get closer to retirement, I'm planning an addition on my house which will increase my garage capacity. Part of my design plan is to install a natural gas powered generator coupled with a new main panel, battery backup and solar system of some type. Ideally I would love to install the Tesla roof on to the addition, but it doesn't look like it's ready for prime time yet.

I've just begun researching solar systems and there's a wide selection to choose from.

[larrys]

Storms are becoming more frequent, and when the power goes out you won't need to store gas to fuel the generator.

Uh, no. Unless your PV system has a battery bank, when the grid goes down so does your PV system.
Larry

[Rough Edge racing]

 Our electrical bills average 50-70 bucks a month.. No solar or wind, just common sense to turn off uneeded electrical loads when not needed...and the work of heating with wood...
 I do see more solar panels around here even though it 's far from a sunny place..It's a great idea aside from the expenense of installation...

[rocker59]

Uh, no. Unless your PV system has a battery bank, when the grid goes down so does your PV system.
Larry

The only appealing thing to me about personal wind and solar would be the ability to have a battery bank and having the ability to retain power when storms knock out The Grid.

Our utility bills are so cheap, there is no $$$$ benefit to paying for solar panels that don't power the house independently from The Grid.

[Testarossa]

A few years ago I put 280 watts of PV on the top of my van, feeding 250ah deep-cycle batteries. But the rig on top of the van weighs about 120 lb. I just bought a couple of 120w Kingsolar flexible panels that weigh about five pounds each and will conform pretty closely to the curve of my fiberglass hightop. And they're 23% efficient compared to about 15% for the old solid panels. So that will improve the handling and gas mileage on the van. The steady improvement in solar panel costs and efficiency continues to astonish me. New panels retail at about $1.50 per watt now and if you shop smart you can buy stuff well under $1 per watt. That means the panels are a small fraction of the cost of installing -- the big costs are labor and the inverter, and the batteries if you go that route. If you do it yourself it's really cost-effective now, even where electricity is pretty cheap. We've been paying 11 cents, but Tri-State is raising the rates for coal-fired supply so our co-op rates will probably go to about 15 cents later this year, with future costs unpredictable but certainly going higher. Meanwhile the costs of renewables go down steadily and are already lower than Tri-State charges. The co-op is working to get out of the Tri-State contract so we can buy from cheaper sources. We have good water here and landowners are starting to put in micro-hydro. In water-limited areas the cost of coal-fired electricity is going to soar because they won't get the cooling water they need.  The 2.6kW PV system that feeds the house is equipped to put out 1000w of AC in an grid-failure emergency, so I'm going to build a back-up battery system to run our NG boiler controls in a winter outage plus some lighting.

[Gliderjohn]

Activated the system earlier this morning. It was cloudy with some sprinkles and it was still putting out over 1.6KW. Now with heavily filtered sunlight it is up to almost 3KW out of a possible 8KW. Will be interesting to watch.
GliderJohn

[Testarossa]

Will be interesting to watch.

My (nominal) 2.6kW system can peak at 2.75 on a cold brilliant winter day (chart below is Feb 20, 2018, partly cloudy and about 15F). Max is usually 2.4 in the heat of summer. Total production in 2018 was 4100 kWh (average 11.25 kWh/day or 1.9kW average output. At midsummer it's interesting to see output spike when you cool the array with a garden hose.

[Gliderjohn]

Received our electric bill for June today. We had a high use month between two sump pumps running regularly, A/C running a lot, etc. Our electric company basically bills at the first of the month. The solar was activated mid morning of June 10th. The bill was about 60% less than it would have been. Although we had a lot of rain this month, it was mostly at night so we had quite a few mostly sunny days and long days. Looking good for the solar operating less than three weeks.
GliderJohn

[Gliderjohn]

Update,
Just received first bill with a full month's use of the solar system. It was a high use electricity month with only five open window nights so A/C was used a lot, well pump with a lot of yard watering, etc. Was also a very sunny month with most rain and cloudiness being at night.
Well...the bill was MINIMUM CAHRGE, no electricity use charge.
GliderJohn

[Chuck in Indiana]

Awesome.. 

[LowRyter]

wow.....no electric bill for July???

[John Ulrich]

Way to go Gliderjohn.   

I have two friends that each purchased homes in AZ with existing systems and net out around zero or get a few dollars back monthly.
I had a solar provider (Costco provider for whatever that’s worth) give me a quote to reduce my $150ish, all electric home, bill. They quoted me a system that would only save me $30-40 a month....I had to do the math, they were evasive.  The rep could not understand my hesitation at not jumping on.  I said I want more panels to cover my total needs.   She said the engineers say that is unrealistic. 

They stay in touch with me.  My reply is the same.  “I want more panels for more juice.”  They want people to lease for 20 years and make payments which end up costing more than what the electric bill is now.  Many law suits in AZ over that.

[double.d]

I had a 6kw 20 panel system installed for 15k. Yes it was very expensive but is the best quality with each panel having its own inverter. The manufacturer monitors the system and guarantee they will come straight out and replace any faulty component.
I purchased our original system when the govt were offering the 44c per Kwh for life feed back tariff and now coupled with the 26c feed in tariff we are in credit with every bill to amount of 1/4 of the monthly repayments.

[Lannis]

I had a 6kw 20 panel system installed for 15k. Yes it was very expensive but is the best quality with each panel having its own inverter. The manufacturer monitors the system and guarantee they will come straight out and replace any faulty component.
I purchased our original system when the govt were offering the 44c per Kwh for life feed back tariff and now coupled with the 26c feed in tariff we are in credit with every bill to amount of 1/4 of the monthly repayments.

Doesn't sound like a very good deal for anyone but you, with the power company paying .44 per Kwh for solar electricity from you, where they pay .06 per Kwh from the generating stations.   

Who's paying the difference?   Never mind, I already know.

Lannis

[Gliderjohn]

From John Ulrich:

I had a solar provider (Costco provider for whatever that’s worth) give me a quote to reduce my $150ish, all electric home, bill. They quoted me a system that would only save me $30-40 a month....I had to do the math, they were evasive.  The rep could not understand my hesitation at not jumping on.  I said I want more panels to cover my total needs.   She said the engineers say that is unrealistic.

There are some "Fleece" companies out there one has to watch for. So much info is out there that it is pretty easy to self educate. I probably would not have done it if I could not have paid cash for the system.
I used a local company with a great reputation that has been doing this for a number of years. They also monitor my system through the internet.
GliderJohn