Going solar?

Hey! Crap, I did and totally blanked out on it! Thanks for the poke.

Your roof is pretty sizable! You can fit at least 17 panels on each side. Since it’s an east/west facing roof, you’ll probably be quoted for panels on both sides so that you can sun throughout the day.

Even better news is that you’ll be able to fit a system up there to cover your usage AND you can use less expensive, lower KW panels. You’ll need more panels that way, but you should be seeing a cheaper installation cost!

My panels were $2.75/W installed, due to my needing the 320W LG panel. I had a quote for Seraphim 315W panels for $2.50/W. On you roof, if you go with more 280W panels, it should be WAY down in price in comparison.

When you get the free assessment, just toss their quote on over and I can tell you if it’s good or bad. When I did my system, CIR and Solar Liberty both came in with similar systems and in the end, they negotiated both of their prices down. MEANING, the first offer is the sucker offer. :wink:

So how has the solar output been in winter? Short days… snow…

Bump since no one replied.

You still having problems accessing the old account? I sent you an email about it.

I was below my target output but it was a colder and snowier winter than average so that was to be expected. I didn’t lose out on much though because even with clear skies my estimated output wasn’t much over the winter months. System has been cranking serious power since March and looks to be on target for the estimated yearly production despite putting out less power than estimated over the winter. Solar Liberty told me they always estimate low and other than the months when the snow never melted off my panels it’s gone over the monthly estimates every month.

April-August are my months when it’s supposed to build enough credits to get me through the winter when I don’t produce enough to cover our usage. We had some bills over the winter where we didn’t cover our usage but that was expected since the system wasn’t turned on until late July last year and we missed too much of the credit building spring/summer sun.

Thanks for the info. I am still wondering about the south towns, we seem to get many more clouds here.

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May was a good month. Made my last payment on the system in April so the 1 year 0% deal worked out perfect and I own it. Less than 5 years until my break even point, less once National Grid’s rate hikes go into effect, then its sit back and watch the profits shine down.

Figured this might be there best thread for this:

Wait so they are complaining because they still have to ramp up power like they have always done at dusk because solar can’t make power at night. How fucking stupid.

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This i’m sure is part of the reason musk is pushing powerwalls. Pump power in during the day, out on the grid at night.

Still happily contributing to this duck…

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How does that translate to actual money and rate of return?

My portion was 7200 after all the tax credits. Zero interest loan for a year and paid my portion off in 11 months. I’ve generated over 5300 dollars worth of electricity. By the end of this summer it would have paid for itself had it not been for the fact that it didn’t get turned on the first year until the end of July and I missed over half the really good power generating months that year. Will still pay for itself the next year, meaning I’ll have 18 years of panel warranty left where it’s just pure profit, plus what ever it lasts beyond the warranty.

Electric rates will go up over that time, meaning it gets even better.

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Very cool, I’m curious if I’d have similar results in MI

All depends on the incentives. My 30 panel system came to 22500, but with the two state programs plus the fed my cost was only 7200. At 7200 it was a no brainer.

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This is why I’ve held off, the incentives just aren’t that good anymore. My wife and I also don’t use a ton of electricity so the break even point would take longer to get to. I’m hopeful they’ll offer some better incentives again but who knows.

I hope not, no reason to use tax money like this, but if some stupid’s do, mind as well capitalize on it.

I’ve never thought of this until now. Do you need a freshly done roof for them to put solar panels on? If you don’t and say 5 years from now you end up needing a new roof, do you have to have them come out and uninstall them for the roofers to install the new roof, then reinstall the solar?

if you need a new roof look into the solar tiles from tesla. Two birds, one stone.

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Yeah, they will inspect your roof and if it’s not in great shape they will recommend getting the roof done before putting the panels on. I had done mine 3 or 4 years prior so I was good to go. Looking at how they’re mounted it wouldn’t be a huge job to take them off during a re-shingle, at least in the scope of how big a job it is to replace a roof anyway. There was also a structural engineer consulted and he had them add a small knee wall in my attic to divert the additional roof load to the center beam in my house. This later became a pain in my balls when I remodeled the house and took down that same load bearing wall, but my structural engineer buddy was able to help me rebuild the knee wall to land on the giant engineered beam we recessed between the roof joists. This was all permitted work and signed off by the town engineering department as well.

This is what I’d be looking into if I was going to do it today:

NOTE: I haven’t looked into it that much so don’t considering this an endorsement. I’ve just seen a little about it and it looks very interesting.

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