Yeah, I am going to need your phone number, for all kinds of questions


But it is all kinds of interesting,
It's probably a good thing that I don't understand half of it, I could see it consuming me.

$30k would be 22 years of my current bill. (and our rates aren't low)

spoke with a builder , appraiser.

at this stage of the game his reason for installing these is either:
A. he is environmentally conscious.
B. seeking some tax credit

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
It works out economically here in so cal. Even more so if you have an electric vehicle.

Same here, I have both, and have saved myself thousands of dollars. 5 figures at this point. I didn't have anyone standing around with their thumb up their asses during my installation. If anything the only issue I dealt with is the city electrical inspector being a prick and delaying the system from being legally turned on for no reason. kwh rates have gone up here too so my savings goes up every time they do it. And I get paid the same kwh rate for the power I put back on the grid as I do for pulling power from the grid.

I have learned a lot from my home, array, and cheap EV. So much so that I will move to another state in the coming years, out in the country. I will buy property with a well and will be 100% self sufficient (power/water) by the time I am done. Except I will double up adding a windmill to my solar array so I can keep the entire property at 70 degrees year round without spending any money to the fuckhead power companies.

Solar is pretty good out west. Definitely helpful in rural mountain areas.

One day they'll have it sorted out, efficiency/cost wise, and better batteries will eventually be common.

I don't think this is solar specific. This could describe a lot of home improvement work.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
The next door neighbors are having solar panels put on their house.

After five hours , I've come to the conclusion that the three guys up on the roof , they are on a mission.

but the five guys on the ground that have been chatting it up , discussing and cracking wise , for four hours straight , they are the master minds.

Nary a one has lifted so much as a pencil , just yakking away and then looking at the roof, jaw jacking like their lives depended on it, then look at the roof.

would have been a good time to point a c.c.t.v. cam their way.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
It works out economically here in so cal. Even more so if you have an electric vehicle.

With or without the state and federal subsidies?

Home solar systems, not unlike electric cars, suffer the same fatal flaw....Storage. Most of the country requires home systems to possess the ability to store significant amounts of power for all those less than sunny days. Today's battery tech is improving but is still incapable of meeting that need. Same thing as the mileage anxiety that electric cars suffer from. Until battery tech makes its next technology leap, this will always be the achilles heel of solar and electric vehicles.

And what is infrequently disclosed and discussed is the impact to your homeowners premiums via the installation of solar panels on the roof. Most carriers require additional premiums for solar panels, and I've seen a number of instances of insurance carriers trying to deny water intrusion claims under or around the panels. One carrier here in Florida (damn if I can remember which one) will void your homeowners policy all together if solar panels are installed.

Solar might one day evolve to serve a large part of the country. But today, it's nowhere near where it needs to be to meet consumer demands.

Depends on the situation. For the cost of undergrounding power to the house we could have put in five of the off grid solar systems we did complete with 48V x 1700 amp hours of battery bank and a backup propane powered generator. Not having a meter reader drive up to the house to read a meter is just a pleasant side benefit. No standing around when our system was put in either.

we have a lot of solar here in Tucson and right now the cost to install is about $3100 per kW and no net metering

And now back to the original reason for this thread,

Seems that all the talking ,discussing and second guessing got done on day one.

Nothing got done on day two because the city inspector was by and told them that the wiring they had would not pass code,

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
And now back to the original reason for this thread,

Seems that all the talking ,discussing and second guessing got done on day one.

Nothing got done on day two because the city inspector was by and told them that the wiring they had would not pass code,

That’s pretty typical for a lot of construction projects. Since you can’t schedule a time for the inspector, the entire day has to be blocked off for him. For certain phases in homebuilding, we have steps which have to be done consecutively and not concurrently. Makes buyers think nothing is happening and they start asking questions.

Here in central Florida, we get plenty of sunshine yet I still don’t see too much solar.

:

the city inspector for tiny town lives 12 houses away

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

And what is infrequently disclosed and discussed is the impact to your homeowners premiums via the installation of solar panels on the roof. Most carriers require additional premiums for solar panels, and I've seen a number of instances of insurance carriers trying to deny water intrusion claims under or around the panels. One carrier here in Florida (damn if I can remember which one) will void your homeowners policy all together if solar panels are installed.

My homeowners did not change a penny. And opposite to your "stories", the panels actually saved half my roof. We had a nasty hail storm come through that caused plenty of divot damage to my shingles/roof. My roofer comes out and says the roof will have to be replaced but the good news is the shingles under the panels, which is half my roof, were mint and would not have to be replaced. So in the end I only had to replace 1/2 of the shingles on my roof, and that means the cost was half. The panels suffered zero damage and are stronger than my roof. So my first hand account is the opposite of what you are saying. The panels have another benefit, they prevent 1/2 of my roof from heating up as much in the summer so they lower HVAC costs. It's been all win in my experience.
And I pay zero for fuel for my daily driver.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

And what is infrequently disclosed and discussed is the impact to your homeowners premiums via the installation of solar panels on the roof. Most carriers require additional premiums for solar panels, and I've seen a number of instances of insurance carriers trying to deny water intrusion claims under or around the panels. One carrier here in Florida (damn if I can remember which one) will void your homeowners policy all together if solar panels are installed.

My homeowners did not change a penny. And opposite to your "stories", the panels actually saved half my roof. We had a nasty hail storm come through that caused plenty of divot damage to my shingles/roof. My roofer comes out and says the roof will have to be replaced but the good news is the shingles under the panels, which is half my roof, were mint and would not have to be replaced. So in the end I only had to replace 1/2 of the shingles on my roof, and that means the cost was half. The panels suffered zero damage and are stronger than my roof. So my first hand account is the opposite of what you are saying. The panels have another benefit, they prevent 1/2 of my roof from heating up as much in the summer so they lower HVAC costs. It's been all win in my experience.
And I pay zero for fuel for my daily driver.

Where do you live? Perhaps that's the difference. Here in Central Florida the issue for insurers is hurricanes. It's hard enough to even find homeowners coverage as many companies will no longer write policies here. For those that will, they've noted that most solar installs here are angled off the roof which contributes significantly to the 'lift' a roof encounters in high winds. That lift can either add to stripping the roof from the home all together, or simply contribute to the damage certain areas suffer. Regardless, if you're putting panels on your roof here in Central Florida you can look forward to higher premiums, or in worst case, potential cancellation of your policy.

Has anyone messed around with their own set up? I have been considering adding some panels to my work shop along with batteries and an inverter and over time adding to it until I can hopefully run my entire house on solar.

We have a guy at the local farmers market who converted his mobile knife sharpening business into being 100% solar powered. He has two large solar panels on the roof of his van and a few large automotive batteries hooked together along with a power inverter. It’s a super cool set up!

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
Where do you live? Perhaps that's the difference. Here in Central Florida the issue for insurers is hurricanes. It's hard enough to even find homeowners coverage as many companies will no longer write policies here. For those that will, they've noted that most solar installs here are angled off the roof which contributes significantly to the 'lift' a roof encounters in high winds. That lift can either add to stripping the roof from the home all together, or simply contribute to the damage certain areas suffer. Regardless, if you're putting panels on your roof here in Central Florida you can look forward to higher premiums, or in worst case, potential cancellation of your policy.

I'm in Texas. No hurricanes to deal with in my area. We do get severe storms, high wind speed, floods, hail, and the occasional chance of tornadoes.