Grid-tied solar

[houstonscott]

Anyone have an two axes active tracker. Wife doesn't want PV on roof. I'm looking at Wattson, or Allsun trackers for a 3-4kw system. HS.

 

[Redneck in training]

Anyone have an two axes active tracker. Wife doesn't want PV on roof. I'm looking at Wattson, or Allsun trackers for a 3-4kw system. HS.

HS forget tracker. It is cheaper to add pannels. Putting panels on the roof will save you about 20% of money. Tracker will deliver about 25-30% more energy. Adding four panels will do the same for about less than quarter of the tracker cost.

 

[houstonscott]

HS forget tracker. It is cheaper to add pannels. Putting panels on the roof will save you about 20% of money. Tracker will deliver about 25-30% more energy. Adding four panels will do the same for about less than quarter of the tracker cost.

No, I don't want roof leaks, reading on the subject leads me to think roof mounts are all about chasing roof leaks. I'm going tracker. HS

 

[sseelhoff]

Third quote received today. About $12K net for a 9100 KWh system. German panels, U.S. inverter. Roof mounted.

 

[SirReal63]

Do you have to be on battery to use the DC? WE have to be grid tied to get the utility rebate, which is a big financial incentive.

After doing a little more digging into the DC powered mini-splits I found a hybrid, so no battery required but it looks like the best way is either a standalone DC powered Mini-split or one of the combinations. The price isn't really that bad either.
DC Solar Air Conditioner Heat Pump | Solar Air Conditioning | Solar Heating | Manufacturers

I also have some links to DC powered refrigerators and freezers, in a variety of power configurations, and use about a third of the energy.
Sun Frost Energy Efficient Refrigerators

 

[Jim Nelson]

Until we received our permit to operate today I didn't know the size of our system in KWh,it's 3.337,which is 14 panels. How did you calculate your KWh size? I'm new to this and to the best of my knowledge electricity is about 85% voodoo and the rest plain old black magic.

Third quote received today. About $12K net for a 9100 KWh system. German panels, U.S. inverter. Roof mounted.

 

[dave1949]

Until we received our permit to operate today I didn't know the size of our system in KWh,it's 3.337,which is 14 panels. How did you calculate your KWh size? I'm new to this and to the best of my knowledge electricity is about 85% voodoo and the rest plain old black magic.

The rated size of a system should be the number of panels times the wattage rating of each panel.

Ten 250 watt panels would be rated at 2500 DC (direct current) watts, or 2.5 DC kW. Hours doesn't enter into the rating.

The panel rating is a nominal value based on what the panel would instantaneously (any given moment in time) produce under optimal conditions (temperature, angle of mounting, solar intensity).

A good quality grid-tied system will produce about 90% of the DC kW's as AC kw's.

 

[sseelhoff]

Until we received our permit to operate today I didn't know the size of our system in KWh,it's 3.337,which is 14 panels. How did you calculate your KWh size? I'm new to this and to the best of my knowledge electricity is about 85% voodoo and the rest plain old black magic.

We are not calculating it. We have supplied the contractors with two years worth of electric usage data. We average 9500KWh per year. The 9100KWh system will take care of approximately 92% of our needs based historical usage. We told them we wanted to get as close to net zero usage as possible. Per their projections, Most months we make it. A few months we do not. We are looking at a mini split system and a tankless water heater to make up the difference. New windows would help, but we are taking this in phases.

We turned on our a/c today for the first time this summer. No cold air. Turns out we have a leak in the coils. Also turns out that when they built the house in 2007 they used equipment from 2003. NO warranty. The old system is about to be obsolete on the refrigerant-meaning if we don't replace the coil, next year we can't refill. So we can ride it out one more season(?) or replace our a/c system and stay ahead of the curve. This is turning into an expensive summer.

 

[Jim Nelson]

Thank you both,I get confused with all the figures they throw around. We also gave them our billing history but only one year so we ended up with this company mostly because of recommendations of neighbors.The other company we got an estimate from was $5000 higher for 2 less panels.
We are on propane here so 3 years ago we put in solar water heater because the house was already plumbed for it and we backed it up with a tankless heater.Last year we used 37 gallons of propane and this year we haven't bought any and still have 65% in our tank.Our neighbor put in a tankless and his propane usage dropped by 60% so they are a good deal. I understand what you are saying about the ac situation as our furnace and condenser unit went to heck last year and that's all we replaced but know the compressor is 17 yrs. old and will go soon.Fortunately the climate here is mild enough that we don't need it very much.
Good luck with your upgrades.

 

[madmax12]

We are not calculating it. We have supplied the contractors with two years worth of electric usage data. We average 9500KWh per year. The 9100KWh system will take care of approximately 92% of our needs based historical usage. We told them we wanted to get as close to net zero usage as possible. Per their projections, Most months we make it. A few months we do not. We are looking at a mini split system and a tankless water heater to make up the difference. New windows would help, but we are taking this in phases.

We turned on our a/c today for the first time this summer. No cold air. Turns out we have a leak in the coils. Also turns out that when they built the house in 2007 they used equipment from 2003. NO warranty. The old system is about to be obsolete on the refrigerant-meaning if we don't replace the coil, next year we can't refill. So we can ride it out one more season(?) or replace our a/c system and stay ahead of the curve. This is turning into an expensive summer.

I know old school is ride out the heat with open windows (or find a cave). But I went back to new old school with window units. It's not as attractive, but neither is it all or nothing or as expensive.