Battery Frame Bolt - Found it!

[Patcon]

I put a PV system on our house in December.  I've been really pleased so far. I will probably expand it at some point

[grannyknot]

9 hours ago, Patcon said:

I put a PV system on our house in December.  I've been really pleased so far. I will probably expand it at some point

Photovoltaic? Is it still the case that the panels will never pay for themselves in savings or has the efficiency improved enough?

[Patcon]

2 hours ago, grannyknot said:

Photovoltaic? Is it still the case that the panels will never pay for themselves in savings or has the efficiency improved enough?

Well that really depends. Lots of moving parts. What the system cost, if there are any tax credits or rebates, KwH costs and peak rate costs and such.

For me, being a contractor, I opted for DIY. Now I got a couple of quotes from local PV installers in the $45k-$52k range for about a 10Kw system. Here in the states, in SC I get about 50% as a straight tax credit. So if I owe $5k and have a $5k credit, they offset each other and I pay nothing. So essentially the system costs half of what the initial cost was. Now, this is all provided you owe taxes and in a sufficient amount to be able to use the tax credit. For many years with a large family and relatively low income these number didn't work for us.

I just couldn't make the numbers work for me at the quoted prices. So I found a complete system online and installed it my self.

24 LG 330w panels triple black with Enphase micro inverters and an Enphase combiner. This means that the power leaving the panels is AC current as the DC is converted as it exits the panel. This is much easier for me as I am familiar with working with AC power. DC is a lot more dangerous and cable sizing is completely different for DC power.

I paid about $13K for a 7.9Kw array and had another $3k or so in misc, conduit, wire and labor to install it. After the rebates I figure it's paid for in about 60 months. So far I have been really pleased with getting much smaller power bills even with 3 teenagers still at home. I need to reroof the main part of the house and when I do that I will probably expand the system to be close to net Zero. I would also like to have a stand by battery system. Enphase has a new battery designed for their system. They are still quite expensive though. Battery backup adds more complexity too because you need magnetic transfer switches to protect utility workers.

Chris,

I am sure you are technically capable of doing this type of work! Whether your local municipality and power utility will let you is another question. The other issue is the roof work. None of he system parts are very heavy. Even the panels are only 30#s or so. But my roof is only 6:12 so 22 1/2d of pitch. Almost perfect for my latitude. A steeper roof would be more challenging but my coworker is still very young and his balance is good which makes it a lot easier. We took about 2 days for install but like many things we could probably do it twice as fast the second time.

Hope that helps

Sorry for the thread jacking

[psdenno]

3 hours ago, grannyknot said:

Photovoltaic? Is it still the case that the panels will never pay for themselves in savings or has the efficiency improved enough?

We get the 26% federal tax credit on our system and the estimated time to recoup the cost is about 6 to 7 years.  Ours started producing in January and by May we had we had a $600 credit with the electric company.  Our only monthly electric bills have been a few dollars for the monthly connection fee the electric company charges.

We inquired about including a battery system along with the panels and were told by two companies it was an unnecessary cost and not to do it.  A single battery won't run the entire house and the cost is about $14,000 per battery.  A less expensive solution to power failures or brownouts is a natural gas generator or the new electric Ford 150 pickup which can be used to power the house in emergencies.

[Patcon]

I had a customer who bought an old 4x4 Ford explorer. He took the rear driver shaft and connected it to a generator. He could run his whole house off of it. He could move it around using the front drive of the 4x4. It made a really discreet quiet generator!