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How many people here are using solar power for some or all of their home's power usage?
I just got "permission to operate" today from the local power company in what turned out to be a fairly fast 8 week process. I ordered my system the final day of June and it was installed in July, but with some inspection issues and waiting for the power company ended up taking until almost the end of August to turn it on.
I paid all cash for my system, $15,800 upfront, but in the end it'll be just $3,600 or so out of pocket after rebates, tax credits, etc. It is estimated to provide 37% of our electrical usage per year.
I love watching it today when it was the middle of the afternoon because I could read the meter and see we were sending power to the grid, even though I was running full AC and everything else.
I think it will actually even out the electric bills more because contrary to some people's experiences (?! I don't get this...), we use way more power in the summer than the winter. At my old townhouse, my electric bill would routinely be $90/month during the winter and $200/month in the summer. Heating is pretty cheap and easy, but AC is very expensive even with the most efficient systems. I installed top-of-the-line Trane models with the best SEER ratings available from them (and a ductless mini split in the basement from Mitsubishi with a 30 SEER), but still my bill has went from $140/month in the spring to $200 last month.
Everything in the house is energy efficient, more or less. LED TV, all LED lighting throughout, Energy Star appliances, etc.
I went with SolarCity for the install and we have a total of 21 panels.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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In our climate with sun only reliably 8-9 months of the year, investing in home solar is futile. In summer when the sun is available, our electric bill is less than $100/month even with AC at times so it wouldn't be cost effective. I still do what I can. Currently I have solar powering the waterfall pump on my fish pond, the fan in my greenhouse, and the trickle charger for the battery on my riding mower. Also, a bunch of solar lights around the yard. None of that is saving me much on electricity but it gives me a bit of satisfaction.
We live in Maui where there is lots of sun. We had ordered a 5.6kw solar panel system but the week we submitted the application to the local utility, they stopped accepting new solar power to the grid. They said there was so much unregulated power coming into the grid it was destabilizing it. I can see that in a way - they have no idea what they need to produce on any given day because weather can change rapidly causing big spikes and big drop-offs in solar power as clouds go over the island.
So we can still put up a solar panel system and we can use the grid for back-up, but we cannot sell power to the grid when we produce it and then buy it back later. In other words, the grid used to serve the purpose of a big battery, but that is no longer the case. We can put in solar panels with our own battery, but that gets a lot more expensive - batteries will double or triple the cost of a solar power system.
It is really unfortunate since Hawaii is the ideal place for a high amount of renewable energy but the grid is so old and creaky it cannot handle it. A lot of people (me included) are angry that the power company does not seem interested in fixing the grid so it can accommodate solar power.
We live in Maui where there is lots of sun. We had ordered a 5.6kw solar panel system but the week we submitted the application to the local utility, they stopped accepting new solar power to the grid. They said there was so much unregulated power coming into the grid it was destabilizing it. I can see that in a way - they have no idea what they need to produce on any given day because weather can change rapidly causing big spikes and big drop-offs in solar power as clouds go over the island.
So we can still put up a solar panel system and we can use the grid for back-up, but we cannot sell power to the grid when we produce it and then buy it back later. In other words, the grid used to serve the purpose of a big battery, but that is no longer the case. We can put in solar panels with our own battery, but that gets a lot more expensive - batteries will double or triple the cost of a solar power system.
It is really unfortunate since Hawaii is the ideal place for a high amount of renewable energy but the grid is so old and creaky it cannot handle it. A lot of people (me included) are angry that the power company does not seem interested in fixing the grid so it can accommodate solar power.
You may still be able to get a permit, but you need to have it small enough that it will not go back into the grid. At least this way you can contribute to green energy. I know someone who installed a single panel on his home because his application for whole home solar was denied. He just kept reducing the panels until he got it approved. His system also has a stand alone switch over in case he looses power from the grid, he can run his fridge on solar during the day and not loose all of his food.
We have Solar Power. Our system is not net-metering grid-tied. We are grid-assist grid-tied. Most of the time we are off-grid. Though we can flip breakers and go back to using grid power when we want to.
We have 4400 watts of photovoltaic panels, our battery-bank is 48vdc at 600ah.
Before installation this system was estimated to produce around 80% of our consumption. The work was completed 11 months ago, now we are adapting to using power mostly during sunlight hours. Our system's lack is in the battery-bank. If we had more battery, we would never need to shift back to grid power. As it is when we have two days in a row of cloudy skies, we have to go back to grid power.
Our system cost just under $20k before the credits. Now we begin depreciating the rest of the cost over the next 7 years. 1/7th each year.
You may still be able to get a permit, but you need to have it small enough that it will not go back into the grid. At least this way you can contribute to green energy. I know someone who installed a single panel on his home because his application for whole home solar was denied. He just kept reducing the panels until he got it approved. His system also has a stand alone switch over in case he looses power from the grid, he can run his fridge on solar during the day and not loose all of his food.
Yes, we can get a permit for a system of any size we want, but it cannot push power to the grid. That means if we don't use the power, it is thrown away. Unless we have batteries and I don't want those - they are expensive and don't last long.
Our average daily consumption is about 2 KW, but the trouble is we use 1KW during the day and 3 KW during the evening. We could put in a 1KW solar power system for maybe $8k in cost, $4k after tax rebates. That will save us about $800 a year. It will take 5 years to recoup the expense. We are going to do that but it would be better if we could be net-zero for the entire day and night and we cannot unless the power company goes back to net metering.
Why not go with a bank of golf cart batteries.......they actually last for many years .
I have been told many times, both on solar power forums and from among my off-grid neighbors; that it is very common for off-gridders to kill their first battery-bank at around 10 years.
It takes a while to become adjusted to the lifestyle of living off-grid.
Now that we have been using solar-power for nearly a year, I can see it. How many times we have came home after dark and started doing stuff, before we realized that we were on battery.
For anyone new to off-grid power, you may be better off to buy cheap batteries for your first 10 years. Then later if you want to, buy the more expensive batteries for your second round of batteries.
Why not go with a bank of golf cart batteries.......they actually last for many years .
What you need to pay attention to with any battery - FLA (flooded lead acid), LiFePo (Lithium iron phosphate), aqueous, or whatever, is the number of cycles and depth of discharge (DoD) they are designed for.
FLA batteries are the cheapest - about $250-300 per KWH of storage. But they have terrible DoD (about 50% max), so you need to buy twice what you need to store. But the real bad thing is that they have a low number of charge cycles before they die - about 2000. (You figure one cycle per day, so 2000 = 6 years).
LiFePo have very good DoD and are better in cycles. But they are expensive, from $450-$650/KWH. However they are approaching 7000 cycles of lifetime so will last 2x what a FLA will last.
Golf cart batteries are a lead acid battery that is designed for DoD. Most car batteries have very bad DoD because all they are supposed to do is crank the starter. At any rate, golf cart batteries have a low number of cycles - better than most FLA, but they are also more expensive.
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