Awesome that you're getting close.
RMC wrote: ↑Fri Oct 09, 2020 4:34 pm
Okay. So, I finally got a company out to my house to talk about solar power. Waiting for them to send me all the information that we talked about. But basically, they are willing to finance the entire system at 2.2% for 25 years. 30-year warranty on all the panels, but only 10 on the inverter and back-up power supply. There is a 24% (I think that is what he said, will have to wait for paperwork he is emailing to me), that is factored into the cost.
Federal ITC is 26% this year, drops again if the system isn't installed by 12/31.
I use 40,000 Kw? again have to learn the units and everything, a year currently. We are 100% electrical house with Geo Thermal for heating and cooling. So here are my questions:
Holy shit, that's a lot of power.
Somewhere around 2x my home, and I have 2 electric cars (but also don't have my hot water on electric, and about half my heat is gas). Units are kWh (kilowatt-hours) for energy production, Watts for power rating/production.
1) They said that they base everything off 4 hours of sunlight a day. He said I would get 8 hours a day with ground mounted south facing units? True/False?
My advice is to not think about it this way--it complicates things needlessly. They should have given you an estimate of your annual production, ideally based on the
PVWatts calculation from NREL. Assume that this will be pretty accurate, and don't worry about the finer details, especially since you aren't (it sounds like) going to be net metering or finessing things in a time-of-use plan where the finer details might matter.
Compare what it should produce annually to what you use annually and go from there.
2) Since they base it on 4/hrs day, the unit is only guaranteed to produce 20,000 Kw annually. But if we get the 8/hrs. day then it would produce the 40,000 KW I need. A little worried there, since contractually they would only be bound to providing 1/2 the power I need.
There is no chance they gave you an estimate that could be off by 100% (if they are a reputable company). Again, take the PVWatts estimate and use that.
3) My budget for electricity a month is 400. The financing for the solar power equipment/installation/permits, etc. is 370 for 25 years. I can pay it off early, with no penalties. So that would be a constant, and even with a small occasional electrical bill, I would be making money in the long run.
Sounds good to me, esp if you pay it down early. Once you have an electric bill close to zero is when it gets fun.
4) 30-year warranty? Is that good?
I haven't seen more than that. 'Normal' when I was looking was 20-25 years for the panels, 10+ for the inverter.
5) Currently in Ohio, I cannot "sell" my electricity back for cash, but I would get credit for it against my bill. So okay, not bad if it works out.
So long as you are not overproducing, that should be fine, I'd think.
6) He implied that solar power added value to the house, he said something like 80k increase in value, I think that might be high, but what has everyone else experienced?
You'll get lots of opinions on this. The short summary of my own research is while the system is not fully owned by you (with no payments), it will not be a net positive in home value. Once it's paid off, it will be.
7) Any questions that I should be asking?
I would nail down their estimate. I have two separate systems on my roof from 2 companies (a local and Tesla). In both cases they gave me an estimate that proved remarkably accurate for annual production.
You should also understand how you will monitor the system. Each inverter manufacturer handles this differently. Tesla and Enphase (my systems) both have decent systems. So does SolarEdge. Make sure you will be able to monitor the system reliably, preferably at the panel level (so you can spot any that might need replacing rather than wondering why your system seems to be producing less and not being able to look deeper than that).
One thing that is definitely not needed but that I love about the Tesla system is that they also install CTs in your panel to monitor consumption. So not only can I see what I"m producing, but what I'm using, the net in/out each day, etc.
I would also look at the costs not only relative to your electric bill (which is a good thing to do to make sure the system makes sense at a high level) but also at the $/W level for an absolute comparison as to whether the system is priced well or not. After ITC, your $/W these days should probably be below $2.50, and could be below $2 (Tesla is the cost leader and is more like $1.50, though I am not necessarily recommending you go there). Note that this is dividing the post-ITC cost of the system by the nameplate capacity of the panels, in W (not the estimated production, which is in Wh). Eg if your system is 30 300W panels, for $18k after credit, your $/W is $18,000 / 9,000 W = $2/W.
Looking at the cost solely relative to your electric bill is like buying a car based on the monthly payment. It works, but you can get taken for a ride.
Hope that helps.