Started my solar project

[RalphVa]

You're lucky your electric provider allows that much. Ours only allows a collection amounting to about the average of your usage. They only bank excesses, and then it gets used up at night. They don't allow much excess from month to month.

By comparison, another MG colleague has a different electrical provider. They put in a big enough array to generate essentially all their electriciy.

Actually, unless I cut down a couple trees to allow sun light to the house roofs, I have no other place to put any panels. Covered the approximately SSW facing carriage house roof with them.

Ralph

 

[Grumpycat]

The Federal law only mandates a utility purchase up to what you buy from them in kWh. But also stipulates the utility may pay as little as their "audited incremental cost of generation." For TVA that is $0.015/kW. A penny and a half.

To grid-tie to a TVA utility one must have the system "designed and installed" by a NABCEP "associate". No different than letting laws be written by lobbyists. Helps preserve the installer's 100% markup.

In the process of building new home in a county served by a TVA utility which permits one to install PV but will not pay for any power I generate. That would be a separate contract with TVA and for 1.5¢ I don't see any point in bothering paying the markup for a blessed design. Currently live under a different TVA utility which outright forbids any PV system connected to the power grid which is not from an NABCEP associate. As a result, I don't have any PV at all.

Alabama Power (a division of Southern Company) owns the PSC lock stock and barrel so they have instigated fees where one owed Alabama Power which essentially negate any grid-tie credits one earns for production. There are virtually no PV systems under Alabama Power.

 

[grsthegreat]

I love the idea of solar power, but here in north idaho.....not worth it. Not enough sun. Heck its cloudy today as i type this. Now if i lived in the Mojave desert id go for it.....

Also wondering....is there really 9 cooler months there. I thought you had 1 cool month and 11 scorchers.

 

[orezok]

Also wondering....is there really 9 cooler months there. I thought you had 1 cool month and 11 scorchers.

I live at 3500MSL so it does get cold in the winter. The lowest I have seen in the 20 years or so that I have been here is 12*. We also get snow almost every winter. Three 15 inch storms during that time. You gotta be careful about what you see in the movies

 

[Grumpycat]

I love the idea of solar power, but here in north idaho.....not worth it. Not enough sun. Heck its cloudy today as i type this. Now if i lived in the Mojave desert id go for it.....

Also wondering....is there really 9 cooler months there. I thought you had 1 cool month and 11 scorchers.

You really need to do the math before reaching that conclusion. Most of Idaho gets 4.5 hours/day of "full strength sun". Thats sort of a calculation shortcut to compensate for cloud cover and time from sunup to sundown. If you have a 300W panel then a good guess is 300W for 4.5 hours and nothing for 19.5 hours. Not really the way it works, more during the summer than winter but the 365 day average would be 1.35 kWh/day from one 300W panel. Same as for me in AL/TN.

1.35 kWh/day is about $50/year at 10¢/kWh.

Solar Insolation Map: How Many Sun Hours Do You Get? | Wholesale Solar

 

[cdaigle430]

You really need to do the math before reaching that conclusion. Most of Idaho gets 4.5 hours/day of "full strength sun". Thats sort of a calculation shortcut to compensate for cloud cover and time from sunup to sundown. If you have a 300W panel then a good guess is 300W for 4.5 hours and nothing for 19.5 hours. Not really the way it works, more during the summer than winter but the 365 day average would be 1.35 kWh/day from one 300W panel. Same as for me in AL/TN.

1.35 kWh/day is about $50/year at 10｢/kWh.

Solar Isolation Map: How Many Sun Hours Do You Get? | Wholesale Solar

Thats correct, I live in Maine and get up to 32kw on my 7kw daily. Even if you pay alot of money for having it installed you will get your return. I have 7 more years for my return to be fulfilled but....in 7 years I will thank my past self for having it installed every time I get the electric Bill

I bought the Panasonic HIT 340 watt panels with a 25 year warranty....and if the power company stops giving credit I will buy a battery pack to store as much as I can.

Sooo maintenance free-cleaning the panels every so often is about it. I honestly cannot think of a down side.....Whatever you do stay away from the lease or lease to own programs. That and when it snows and covers the panels for a week at time.

These systems are modular so you can add more if needed later on. Solar panels run better cooler...so our panels in the colder areas will produce more efficiently than Arizona with full sun and 115 degree heat.

Mine will generate even when its overcast. Right now its complete overcast, my panels are active and generating 1kw. My house is consuming .57kw so I am sending .33 kw to the grid for credit On a completely cloudy day mind you...not much but im not buying electricity right now.

 

[grsthegreat]

Sorry, but we pay $0.05 per kwh hydroelectric. I know people that have $35,000 solar arreys . And they never expect to se a return to investment. I just fixed a generator for one person offgrid yesterday. They were replacing 13 batteries That were failing... big expense. The only reason they stay off grid is utilities want over $45,000 to bring them power. When they put in their system, she told me that the utilities would not bring them power for any amount of money as there was no infrastructure inplace.

My monthly elect bills are very low. I personally have no use for solar. So far this season i have used ac unit 1 day. If i lived in desert than my views would mostlikely change. With my current elect usage, it would take me 25 years to see a return. But in those 25 years there would be added expenses to the system like the batteries this lady was replacing. ....based on $35,000 investment

 

[BoylermanCT]

Sorry, but we pay $0.05 per kwh hydroelectric.

Must be nice. I pay $0.2572 per KW in CT.

 

[grsthegreat]

Must be nice. I pay $0.2572 per KW in CT.

That’s horrible

 

[Grumpycat]

Sorry, but we pay $0.05 per kwh hydroelectric. I know people that have $35,000 solar arreys . And they never expect to se a return to investment. I just fixed a generator for one person offgrid yesterday. They were replacing 13 batteries That were failing... big expense. The only reason they stay off grid is utilities want over $45,000 to bring them power. When they put in their system, she told me that the utilities would not bring them power for any amount of money as there was no infrastructure inplace.

At 5¢/kWh your PSC isn't giving the utility company much of anything to build infrastructure. Here the incremental cost of generation is 1.5¢/kWh and among nearby TVA associate utility companies the residential rate is 8.5¢ to 11.5¢. The 11.5¢ utility quoted $10,000 to run 400A 4000'.

You say nothing of what kind of batteries your friends are using. Deep cycle marine batteries are cheap but they are expensive per kWh over their short life. There are some utility grade lead-acid batteries but even they are not up to what is available now in lithium chemistries. Lead-acid holds a lot of power cheap but doesn't like to be cycled. Lithium is expensive up front but is much cheaper per kWh over its usable life.

The street price for a Tesla Powerwall is $7200 for 13kWh useful storage including BCU and AC inverter. Problem is that it needs another couple thousand of Tesla Energy Gateway to monitor what is coming in and out but after that you can add as many Powerwalls as you want. The Energy Gateway is the thing that tells the Powerwalls to charge or discharge.

Today there are many others competing with Tesla at competitive prices. Which is easy because Tesla Energy vendors tend to be greedy snobs.