Looking for home solar advice

[Galluprivian]

Another nice thing about this is that the wiring and inverters are very easy to access. The 'roof' is the panels.

Sponsored

 

[Iatros786]

We are getting ready to build a new home..

Any suggestions on how to prep it for solar?

Also timing : build the house with panels or prep it and add later? (Tax credit, cost etc..)

Thank you

 

[louisdeg]

Try to find a bunch of earth first type hippies who are into it for the planet. They might charge less. I had a local outfit install mine 15 years ago I’m really happy with it. Check for state programs for loans and carbon offset credits. Micro inverters are definitely the way to go, I have an Enphase system that I can monitor from anywhere over the web. Make sure your roof is in good shape first, my installers discovered that my asphalt was shot and it took 5 months to have the roof done. I missed April -Oct. Net metering is a must , some utilities have bought enough legislators to allow them to screw you on power you “sell” back to them. A good installer will put your interests first and know all the angles. A large nationwide outfit is probably going to screw you on price and sell the equipment they get the best deal on. Most installers use google earth to evaluate your roof for a quote. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveat_emptor

 

[Bristlecone]

Good Morning everyone,
I've started shopping solar panels for my home. I looked into SunRun but they told me I could only get 10 panels on my home. I think they half-assed their assessment because they just used a satellite photo of my roof to determine how many they could fit. There are other homes in my neighborhood that have the exact same roof with up to 20 panels.

Anyways, I'm looking for advice on Solar providers I should look into. I know about Tesla but I also know about their <sarcasm>legendary service</sarcasm> I have some rather high power requirements and I'm looking for solutions that will also let me charge my truck. I'm still kind of a noob at this so any advice is appreciated. Links to good education sites or youtube vids are also appreciated.

Thanks,

Since you're in Colorado, try Independent Power in Boulder. They did our first 4.3 KW system in 2007, and our 6 plus KW addition this July. Great experiences both times. One caveat: the company was acquired around the time our second project was finished and I can't really vouch for how it's being managed since the acquisition.

 

[NY_Rob]

We are getting ready to build a new home..

Any suggestions on how to prep it for solar?

Also timing : build the house with panels or prep it and add later? (Tax credit, cost etc..)

Thank you

Keep in mind that your best production will result from southern facing panels on a non-super steep roof. Of course you can work with a split east/west panel setup (which is what I had to go with) as well, but it requires more panels for the same amount of production as southern facing panels.
-Don't settle for anything less than a microinverter based system vs. obsolete optimizers + string inverter based systems.
-Make sure your rafters are rated sturdy enough to hold the weight of the panels + mounting rails. Check with local solar installers to find the recommended rafter size for your roof span + panels.
-Leave a pathway to add more panels at a later date by running heavier gauge wire now.
You can also leave the array/circuit in the area next to where you might consider expanding in the future under max capacity (say you're allowed 20 panels per circuit leg... only install 5 panels on that leg now leaving room for 15 additional panels later). My installer didn't charge any extra to install the next larger gauge wire when I told him I would consider adding panels in the future. When I did decide to add additional panels about a year after my full install, all they had to do was install the rails and add panels then tie that in to the junction box we left on an under utilized array we designed just for that purpose. It was super easy and parts and labor costs were minimum because no re-wiring was needed. The whole addition was done before lunchtime!


Ps.. I'd build the home and run it for at least a couple of months (especially A/C months in FL) to see what your consumption is, then you'll have something to base your design plan against.

 

[NY_Rob]

Try to find a bunch of earth first type hippies who are into it for the planet. They might charge less.

Lol... #1 rule... hippies don't work.
Well actually, that may be #2 rule.. number one rule is hippies don't shower

 

[BigSkies]

I'm going to make a suggestion that is entirely separate from solar. Before you put a huge amount of money into solar panels, look at your energy usage first. Get a home energy monitor and see what is using electricity in your house. I recommend the Sense monitor if you have multiple panels/subpanels, and the Emporia monitor if you have a single panel.

I've been working on energy efficiency and home electrification projects for a little more than a year. While putting solar panels on your home is great, there are a number of ways you can get to the same result, sometimes for cheaper. Also, it's great to look at converting gas appliances to electric if solar is in your future.

I've gone a bit "completionist" with it, and should be able to cut my gas meter entirely in the next few months. You don't need to go as far as I did to get good results though.

Here's what I expect my energy usage to have changed from. My house does have a tiny 2.3kW solar system I will upgrade at some point in the future, and I do not have an EV yet.

	2020	2023 expected
Electricity Usage (kWh- net of solar)	6,216 kwh	8,613 kwh
Natural Gas Usage (therms)	913	0
Annual Bill at $0.16/kwh and $1.16/therm	$2,054	$1,378

Having made these changes, I can entirely eliminate my gas bill and the energy efficiency improvements will allow me to get away with a smaller solar array than I would have otherwise needed. Here's some of what I did:

1. The home energy monitor helped me understand what used energy at what times. Just having this knowledge, I naturally changed some habits without thinking about it too much. I probably saved a couple percentage points here. This included putting things on smart plugs, finding "always on" vampire drains, and discovering that my radon fan was comically oversized and using nearly $100/yr in electricity.

2. Changing out my gas water heater for a heat-pump variety had a massive ROI. Somewhere north of 20%. This will look even better if you can do it with the new inflation reduction incentives.

3. Replaced my AC/furnace combo with a cold-weather heat pump. This was expensive, but I'm happy I have it. It's still new, so I still need to see exactly how much it will use over the winter. My installer estimates 3,000kwh/yr, which makes it break even on heating with gas at around $1/therm, but it will save me a couple hundred dollars in cooling over the summer. Gas is currently about $1.16/therm here, so this should be some decent savings. Particularly when I pair it with solar.

4. A whole house fan works wonders in the Colorado climate. I installed it this year, so I can't fully separate out the impact of the heat-pump and whole house fan. But my overall cooling usage will be about 45-50% lower than it was in 2020. I estimate this has only a slightly higher ROI than solar panels, but it makes a decent difference in home comfort as well.

 

[RoadRunner]

2. Changing out my gas water heater for a heat-pump variety had a massive ROI. Somewhere north of 20%. This will look even better if you can do it with the new inflation reduction incentives.

Thanks for this post!

Regarding changing out the gas water heater for a heat pump - I've been considering this as well, especially since our heating is all done via hot water/baseboard heaters. We have no forced air/ducting, just a large gas boiler and hot water tank in the garage.

Can you recommend any resources to help figure this out? No experience with heat pumps and don't know where to start. We also have a gas range in the kitchen which we could change out to induction and get rid of our gas bill entirely.

One major hesitation with this is that if the power goes out currently we still have hot water, heating, and ability to cook. If we switch all that to electric we'd have to install a battery backup or we'd be SOL in a power outage. Haven't had any major power outages in 3+ years here, but not sure we want to risk it. Any thoughts on this?

 

[BigSkies]

Thanks for this post!

Regarding changing out the gas water heater for a heat pump - I've been considering this as well, especially since our heating is all done via hot water/baseboard heaters. We have no forced air/ducting, just a large gas boiler and hot water tank in the garage.

Can you recommend any resources to help figure this out? No experience with heat pumps and don't know where to start. We also have a gas range in the kitchen which we could change out to induction and get rid of our gas bill entirely.

One major hesitation with this is that if the power goes out currently we still have hot water, heating, and ability to cook. If we switch all that to electric we'd have to install a battery backup or we'd be SOL in a power outage. Haven't had any major power outages in 3+ years here, but not sure we want to risk it. Any thoughts on this?

With the heat-pump water heater, the biggest challenge was finding someone to install it. Most contractors don't understand them, so they either won't give a quote, or will give an insanely high quote to deal with any installation issues they inadvertently cause. I had two plumbers ghost me, and one quote me $5k. Hopefully this will change pretty rapidly with the inflation reduction act incentives. I ended up paying an electrician $500 to do the wiring, and a did the plumbing myself. It was easier than you'd think.

I'm a huge proponent of the heat-pump water heaters. It's a high ROI project, both in terms of energy savings and emissions savings. It's also much simpler and cheaper than dealing with the larger HVAC projects.

That being said, there are several complexities with the heat-pump units that either add complexity, or make them not appropriate for certain homes. They are:

1. They need a decent amount of airflow. I forget the exact numbers, but it's something like being in a minimum of a 10x10 room. You'll need to add ventilation if your water heater is in a closet. It's not overly complex, but you'll burn the water heater out if you don't do it.

2. They have a condensation line that needs to be drained somewhere. This wasn't an issue in my installation location, but it can be a challenge in some homes.

3.They make a decent amount of noise. It's fine in my basement, but I wouldn't put one in a house where the water heater is adjacent to a primary part of your living area. It's roughly comparable noise to a small window AC unit.

4. They cool and dehumidify the surrounding air. This may be a benefit or hindrance to your home depending on climate. Some people choose to vent the cool dehumidified air outside if it makes a big difference to them. I'm fine with keeping it in the house.

Whether it makes sense to get home backup systems depends a lot on you. I don't think I'll get one where I live, but we rarely have major outages. I'd think about it differently if I lived in a place with more routine outages. My major gas appliances (water heater and furnace) still needed electricity to run, so this isn't a change for me. I just have to get through an emergency with 50 gallons of hot water (which seems plenty to me). I have a propane barbecue, and several camp stoves I can use for cooking in an emergency. I also like that Rivian and some other EV's have a small V2L capability. It's not enough to keep the whole house going, but it will power the refrigerator and a few small necessities. This is sufficient in an emergency for me, and a major selling point for these EV's.

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

Tons of great information in here!!! We went with a Tesla system and two Powerwalls in AZ. Here is what I would do and think about. Tesla was very responsive, has a higher resale value (if home is sold) and was more cost-effective. I would not accept any panel size under 330W (not sure where Tesla is today). 400w+?

1. Get two local companies to come out and based upon input you've received ask a few questions and let them put their proposals together. Most will fall far short of your requirements on energy production. Remember production varies as the sun moves further away from your location. You'll be at 55-65% max of total panels in winter (clear days). Out of this experience you'll gain some knowledge, installation challenges, etc., only seen by a live person.
Note. To charge an R1 even at 38-48A you'll need solar production of at least 16kW just for the truck, house needs and loss over panel size.

2. Do the Tesla online calculation (at least 2 powerwalls) and size your system for a minimum of 16kW/24/32 (I don't know what your roof can support) and go from there.

3. Set-up home with either mini-split AC units or do a high efficiency/high SEER heat pump for cental air.

That's the bare minimum in my opinion......

 

[Hoo D. Hoo]

I also agree with this and am only posting again because I meant to put it in my original post above. Adding now since plenty of other locals have mentioned Photon Brothers. When I contacted them for info, one of the owners (it's 2 pairs of brothers) actually ended up coming to my house for the site visit because he lived in my neighborhood and he showed up on his bike. It was COVID times, but I got the biggest kick out of it. Many other posters have mentioned the larger regionals/nationals just subcontract this and I also appreciated that Photon Brothers has their own crews and they were great.

I love that. These are the kind of guys you want.

 

[Hoo D. Hoo]

I put 16 panels on a structure that I use as a shade for outdoor eating. The taxbreak counts for the structure as well. I used enphase micro-inverters as well. I've had two fail in three years but it doesn't knock out the whole system and they send you a new one right away (when you tell them). I have a grid inter-tie which works great but we have very few power outages. I did most of the work and I use the structure almost every day. The panels are 300w so the whole system is 4.8kw. I'll probably need more but I currently produce an extra megawatt a year or so which I get paid for by our city.

Yes! That looks great. Looks like you live where sunlight is close to unlimited.

I put 4 panels on my shed. The biggest holdup to the whole project was getting the shed built. During the pandemic, people learned to bake sourdough, then they all got dogs, and then it turns out everyone decided they wanted a shed. The usual 4-6 week delivery time turned into 18 weeks.

 

[Tahoe Man]

Try and get more panels to face the most valuable part of the day, usually late afternoon.

Don't oversize the system either, at some point in the future, regulators will start to penalizing solar owners via extra fees, etc.

 

[RoadRunner]

Oversizing a solar system makes sense if you are planning to use the extra power eventually. It's much cheaper to do it all at once, than to have to go through design and permitting a second time. There's also no guarantee that they will penalize you for having excess capacity. In fact, it's also possible you'll be able to sell the extra power back to the grid, depending on where you live, politics, etc.

 

[SANZC02]

One more thing, cheapest is not always best. I could have got cheaper panels but went with REC 375 watt panels. They are warrantied to have 92% of rated capacity after 25 years. I’m happy with them after a year, included the link so you can compare what panels are being offered in any quote you get.

Sponsored