Raleigh Residential Solar Photovoltaic (PV) decision, details, numbers, and pictures (vs, estimated)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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I wouldn't worry about stopping posting. It's easy enough to ignore if you don't care.
For interests sake, have you tracked down any "vampire"devices like power supplies and such previously? Now thatby can monitor, it will be interesting to see just how much they are using,
I wouldn't worry about stopping posting. It's easy enough to ignore if you don't care.
For interests sake, have you tracked down any "vampire"devices like power supplies and such previously? Now thatby can monitor, it will be interesting to see just how much they are using,
Yes, actually. Here are some things that cause my night time "minimum" power usage to be at least 600-700W (my best estimates so far):
175-225W: 2 refrigerators combined when not "on" meaning when the compressors are not actively cooling or freezing
100W: radon pump that keeps radon out of my basement
150W: misc stuff plugged in (?) - night lights, alarm clocks, stove clock, battery chargers, phone chargers, cable modem, alarm system, NAS, router, wifi, etc
60W: 2 DVRs
30W: 7 outdoor lights (2 are LED at 4W each and 5 are CCFL at 4W each)
That only adds up to about 500-550W but we're getting close. Must be some items I'm not aware of but I'll track them down eventually. Could just be things I can't do much about though. I'd be interested to see what other similar homes have as their "minimum" usage.
For those interested, here is my solar production for this year. You will notice a gentle ebb and flow of total energy produced between summer and winter. This is a 4.7kW system with Enphase inverters. (Power company is Progress Energy. Total invested is $8000.)
For those interested, here is my solar production for this year. You will notice a gentle ebb and flow of total energy produced between summer and winter. This is a 4.7kW system with Enphase inverters. (Power company is Progress Energy. Total invested is $8000.)
Dan, one clarification - yo9ur output looks good. You said total investment of $8000, but I assume that's after all the incentives and rebates, right?
Just got my October bill - granted it had some residual production from Sept. 12-26 that had not been credited yet, but even so, the bill totaled $17.53. My previous October bill with the same average temperatures during the month was $147.
Based on how well this is going I'm signing a contract to add another 4kW in January to bring my total production up to 10.5kW.
Just got my October bill - granted it had some residual production from Sept. 12-26 that had not been credited yet, but even so, the bill totaled $17.53. My previous October bill with the same average temperatures during the month was $147.
Based on how well this is going I'm signing a contract to add another 4kW in January to bring my total production up to 10.5kW.
Better use the tax credits while you can. Does the NC one stack if you cant use it all in one year and have to use the 5 yr method? So for the 2013 tax year would you get 1/5 of your 2012 system + 1/5 of your 2013 system? or would you have to push those credits further out?
Do you have any south or east facing room left on your roof (I seem to remember you split your existing install up over 2 roof planes)? Is there any economy of scale in the second system - does it get to use any parts of the first system to save money, or is it completely separate?
Better use the tax credits while you can. Does the NC one stack if you cant use it all in one year and have to use the 5 yr method? So for the 2013 tax year would you get 1/5 of your 2012 system + 1/5 of your 2013 system? or would you have to push those credits further out?
Do you have any south or east facing room left on your roof (I seem to remember you split your existing install up over 2 roof planes)? Is there any economy of scale in the second system - does it get to use any parts of the first system to save money, or is it completely separate?
My understanding is that you can take up to 50% of your NC tax liability as a credit each year, max. The credit from each tax year must be 100% finished in 5 years or less. I am checking with my accountant to be sure we can still deduct everything but due to the smaller size of the system I think we should be okay.
If you have a huge NC tax liability (congrats if you do - that means you're making a ton of income) then you can take up to 50% of it as a credit for the solar per year.
My 2012 system can be credited for 2013-2017 and the 2013 system could be credited for 2014-2018, but if my liability isn't high enough to take all of 2012's credit by 2017, chances are I wouldn't be able to max out the 2013 credit in full.
The last bit of really good south facing roof would be what we're installing with this next and last installation. There are no other really good areas that aren't shaded by the sun for at least half the day once this area is complete.
No economies of scale - this would be a separate inverter running the other panels but it will still feed back in and reduce my overall usage and get net metered (I'll often have over production that I want to save up for later use).
Sometime in late October, we passed our first megawatt hour of production. Right now we are at a total of about 1135 kWh since the system was turned on back on Sept 14.
Out of those, I would say about 1/3 of all days have been very poor production from weather. So potential is higher than this, but I'm still happy with output so far and look forward to my 3rd array installation in January.
I got my check from Progress on Saturday for $5290. That was nice to receive!
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