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This was built by a solar company, not the author directly, but the actual parts making up this system are pretty damned cheap. ~$4200 in panels + $2000 inverter plus additional hardware (mounting, cables, fasteners). Then labor costs. Net output was 10,894 kWh, inline with a 20 year estimate of 193,545 kWh. If we just divide $6200/193545kWh (ignoring additional costs!!) that'd be $0.032/kWh. One other data-point: da…
I am surprised at these power bills, at least in my area the implied "savings" are 2-3 times what my bill is on any given month. Huge house maybe?
I’m based out of California, and generate excess energy. My electric bill is now just ~$100/year.
Interesting to see a post about this from someone else who I'm assuming is in a northern climate (they say New England). One of my biggest questions about solar is, what happens when it snows? Do you have to get up on the roof and clean them off by hand? Or do they have built-in defrosters?
> One of my biggest questions about solar is, what happens when it snows? Do you have to get up on the roof and clean them off by hand? Or do they have built-in defrosters? Nothing. In northern climates rooftops usually have more of a pitch to them so snow doesn't accumulate (because you don't want the roof to collapse). The panels, because they are black, will generally collect enough heat to melt the snow in a day…
Doesn't seem like that would matter once covered by a few inches of snow. But otherwise your points seem solid.
Interesting to see a post about this from someone else who I'm assuming is in a northern climate (they say New England). One of my biggest questions about solar is, what happens when it snows? Do you have to get up on the roof and clean them off by hand? Or do they have built-in defrosters?
We have panels on our roof, a two story house, also in Austin Texas, not so lucky as my parents. With the area maxed out we still have to pay for about 25% of the electricity we use.
> The unsubsidized all-in price for buying and installing the panels was $25,525.43... after counting this $6,636.61 tax credit, the subsidized price was $18,888.82 Looks like a 7 year return on investment after subsidies, 10 years without.
This was built by a solar company, not the author directly, but the actual parts making up this system are pretty damned cheap. ~$4200 in panels + $2000 inverter plus additional hardware (mounting, cables, fasteners). Then labor costs. Net output was 10,894 kWh, inline with a 20 year estimate of 193,545 kWh. If we just divide $6200/193545kWh (ignoring additional costs!!) that'd be $0.032/kWh. One other data-point: da…
What are you using to estimate the raw panel cost?
> I ended up getting a 7.56 kW solar panel system consisting of 21 LONGi panels[1] and 1 Solar Edge inverter[2].
[1] https://www.solaris-shop.com/longi-solar-lr4-60hph-360m-360w...
[2] http://www.solardesigntool.com/components/distributeddcinver...
Interesting to see a post about this from someone else who I'm assuming is in a northern climate (they say New England). One of my biggest questions about solar is, what happens when it snows? Do you have to get up on the roof and clean them off by hand? Or do they have built-in defrosters?
Usually if any significant amount of the panel is exposed, they will start to heat up from the sun and defrost the rest. Its a significant reduction in performance, of course, but still worthwhile if utility power is expensive.