Grid-tied solar

[houstonscott]

Did you plan the garage that way, or a happy accident?

Just dumb luck. HS

 

[Beltman60]

I've been looking into solaredge for some time now
I think it's far superior and safer than anything else
just waiting on a new roof before putting the cost into the solar

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm in hill country and about 1/3 of installs are ground mounted on hillsides... easy to access no issues down the line when it comes to reroof...

 

[buickanddeere]

Ground mount. Never install PV on a roof unless there is absolutely no other option.

 

[Redneck in training]

I am thinking about solar too. Can you say how much was the hardware and how much was the labor?

Our system is 24 kW DC peak or about 34000-36000 kWh/year in our location. We did all work DIY. Total hardware cost was about 54000. It took about six weeks to build mostly due to waiting for the concrete footings to cure. I estimate it took about 10 days of actual work of two people. The system is ground based about 1000 ft from point of connection. Since we are close to a substation our voltage is very close to upper tolerance limit. That required 1000 ft of a cable to handle 120 A with maximum 2V voltage drop. What I mean by all that is that the underlying structure, cable etc added a lot of the expense. The panels, inverters, multidrop cable, racking and all associated hardware (such as panel clamps, stainless steel screws, grounding lugs etc) was 44000.
If you mount your panels on a roof you can save at least 15% of the expense. We used microinverters that are also more expensive than single large inverter.
When we decided to install PV I knew nothing about that. I thought it would be much more involved process but I found it to be way simpler than expected. It is definitely DIY doable.
We bought panels, racking, inverters and all associated hardware at Civic Solar. Since we bought everything there (and I suppose because we bought it close to the end of the year) we got about 10% discount from published retail price.

 

[houstonscott]

Our system is 24 kW DC peak or about 34000-36000 kWh/year in our location. We did all work DIY. Total hardware cost was about 54000. It took about six weeks to build mostly due to waiting for the concrete footings to cure. I estimate it took about 10 days of actual work of two people. The system is ground based about 1000 ft from point of connection. Since we are close to a substation our voltage is very close to upper tolerance limit. That required 1000 ft of a cable to handle 120 A with maximum 2V voltage drop. What I mean by all that is that the underlying structure, cable etc added a lot of the expense. The panels, inverters, multidrop cable, racking and all associated hardware (such as panel clamps, stainless steel screws, grounding lugs etc) was 44000. If you mount your panels on a roof you can save at least 15% of the expense. We used microinverters that are also more expensive than single large inverter. When we decided to install PV I knew nothing about that. I thought it would be much more involved process but I found it to be way simpler than expected. It is definitely DIY doable. We bought panels, racking, inverters and all associated hardware at Civic Solar. Since we bought everything there (and I suppose because we bought it close to the end of the year) we got about 10% discount from published retail price.

With a system that big the efficiencies in micro inverter system vs a SolarEdge solution might pay to switch from micro inverters. The extra power you would harvest over a 25 year period could be gigantic. HS

 

[Redneck in training]

With a system that big the efficiencies in micro inverter system vs a SolarEdge solution might pay to switch from micro inverters. The extra power you would harvest over a 25 year period could be gigantic. HS

Actually the gain would be marginal at best. The difference in efficiency between large inverter and microinverters is very small if any. If you include loss on wiring and connections the overall efficiency is about the same. I would have to buy three inverters because my system consists from three separate banks of panels. That would cost upward of 10000 USD. Only motivation to use single inverter for each bank would be the ability of "island" operation during power outages.

 

[KiwiBro]

Daimler starts selling home/commercial battery packs in September, having been targeting the market since 2009 and having some significant (including utility scale) installations in real-world use for some time. These are similar to their Merc' EV car batteries, tweaked. Installed cost is said to be similar to Tesla's powerwall, so still not feasible on a cost basis for most.

 

[houstonscott]

Daimler starts selling home/commercial battery packs in September, having been targeting the market since 2009 and having some significant (including utility scale) installations in real-world use for some time. These are similar to their Merc' EV car batteries, tweaked. Installed cost is said to be similar to Tesla's powerwall, so still not feasible on a cost basis for most.

Interesting for emergency power if they are located in place you can sacrifice or risk in a fire, but to hold enough power for nighttime unrestricted use, NO. HS

 

[Redneck in training]

Interesting for emergency power if they are located in place you can sacrifice or risk in a fire, but to hold enough power for nighttime unrestricted use, NO. HS

Exactly. The batteries are not designed for everyday discharge/charge cycle. But as emergency supply they are OK. Generator is cheaper but it is noisy and requires fuel. So depending on circumstances the battery might be even cheaper to operate.