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What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

scotthelme.co.uk

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Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#81

Post by pixl97 »

lm28469 wrote: post #16
Aboutplants wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s about double the average household so I would imagine spending that money and effort into energy efficiency would pay off way better that solar and batteries.

The average household doesn't have two electric cars though

Yea, averages don't work well when talking about single units without any further details.

How many sq/ft is the house?

Is it filled with windows facing south?

Are they firing a continuous laser beam at the moon?

2-3x usage is actually pretty typical when looking at a single house when comparing to average. It's when you start getting close to an order of mag difference that you're an outlier.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#82

Post by lm28469 »

UltraSane wrote: post #73
lm28469 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about geothermal water/water installs for central heating. No one is heating their place with air/air heat pumps besides americans who haven't figured out that heating spaces via air is shit tier in term of comfort and efficiency

says the guy calling heat pumps "voodoo appliances"

I forgot HN doesn't understand humor, I'll try to turn it down next time my bad.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#83

Post by IAmBroom »

willis936 wrote: post #8
sounds wrote: post #3

The US clean energy tax credit is only available for equipment installed on or before Dec 31, 2025 https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/residential-clean-ene... As a result, more used solar should become available on ebay. I'm excited to see what I can do on a shoe string budget.

Don't be surprised when the answer is "not much". Apply supply and demand to electric power generation. If your grid rate is getting hiked then so is the market price of used solar.

Assuming the entire used market is efficient, which I doubt.

There will at least be a lag.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#84

Post by Dylan1312 »

jstsch wrote: post #12

Battery prices are getting really low, if you're willing to do some DIY. Just received a 15kWh battery from China. A 'Humsienk'. Combined it with a GroWatt SPA3000TL-BL inverter. Total price, 1600 euros. So close to the magical 100 euros per kWh. Driving it with some interesting combinations of Raspberry PI's and serial interfaces and custom written Go code, but it works... :)

Did the same, got a solar installer to fit panels on garage and a solis hybrid inverter. They fitted a CT clamp on my meter and a lora device on both sides for it to communicate with the inverter.

Then bought a 16kwh battery for ~£1500, installation was plugging in a positive, negative and ethernet cable and configuring the inverter to use the battery. (if my home insnurer is reading this, I had an electrician friend double check while helping with some other work)

Definitely recommended for anyone who likes tinkering, thousands cheaper than installer pricing.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#85

Post by latchkey »

vasco wrote: post #51
boringg wrote: post #34

9-11 year payback isn't bad based on the projections. You could probably goose it a bit with inflation of electrical prices (depends on how the electrical policies change and what they pass through). I'll also add theres some O&M coming down the line. Inverters @ year 10, small maintenance and Im assuming you re-did your roof before you installed. Anyone putting solar up make sure you do it at the same time as a roof…

Almost all simulations I've done across 3 countries with 3 different payback models for selling back to grid (one of the three doesn’t allow selling back almost anything above your consumption), I could never make investing in Solar not being a gamble. You really need to gamble on odds of replacing equipment being very low for it to make sense. And in practice most people I anecdotally know that run it, after 5-7 yea…

Having power when your entire neighborhood is off, priceless.

[edit: yes, I assume you also get batteries, I know that solar alone doesn't magically power your house.]

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#86

Post by toomuchtodo »

apercu wrote: post #24

My electric bill was up 35% year over year from 2024 to 2025 - only two of us live here and there were no infra changes or new appliances. I really need a solar solution but I feel so far out of my wheelhouse.

https://solarunitedneighbors.org/help-desk/

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#87

Post by mattmaroon »

latchkey wrote: post #85
vasco wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost all simulations I've done across 3 countries with 3 different payback models for selling back to grid (one of the three doesn’t allow selling back almost anything above your consumption), I could never make investing in Solar not being a gamble. You really need to gamble on odds of replacing equipment being very low for it to make sense. And in practice most people I anecdotally know that run it, after 5-7 yea…

Having power when your entire neighborhood is off, priceless. [edit: yes, I assume you also get batteries, I know that solar alone doesn't magically power your house.]

Well there are other, far cheaper ways to get that.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#88

Post by zdragnar »

lm28469 wrote: post #44
BeetleB wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who spends $50K on heat pumps? They're not anywhere near that expensive.

I'm talking about geothermal water/water installs for central heating. No one is heating their place with air/air heat pumps besides americans who haven't figured out that heating spaces via air is shit tier in term of comfort and efficiency

When your annual temperature range is -40 to 40 C (or a bit over 100 F) central air HVAC is a life saver.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#89

Post by boringg »

latchkey wrote: post #85
vasco wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost all simulations I've done across 3 countries with 3 different payback models for selling back to grid (one of the three doesn’t allow selling back almost anything above your consumption), I could never make investing in Solar not being a gamble. You really need to gamble on odds of replacing equipment being very low for it to make sense. And in practice most people I anecdotally know that run it, after 5-7 yea…

Having power when your entire neighborhood is off, priceless. [edit: yes, I assume you also get batteries, I know that solar alone doesn't magically power your house.]

Whats funny about that -- is you assume thats the case - but a lot of solar isn't installed to be backup power. With Storage yes, but straight up solar -> no.

Re: What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

#90

Post by systemtest »

boringg wrote: post #34

9-11 year payback isn't bad based on the projections. You could probably goose it a bit with inflation of electrical prices (depends on how the electrical policies change and what they pass through). I'll also add theres some O&M coming down the line. Inverters @ year 10, small maintenance and Im assuming you re-did your roof before you installed. Anyone putting solar up make sure you do it at the same time as a roof…

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