Anyone have any experience with Solar? I have been researching it for our home. What I have found is there is a enormous markup on the hardware from all Solar installers. I understand paying someone for their work and expertise but the markup on the hardware plus paying a premium for the install is ridiculous. Last company I looked at was around 80K for a 13KW ground mount system. You want to finance it then the price of the hardware goes up even more plus the interest rate that isn't all that great.... Seems like the industry is shooting themselves in the foot...
I know enough to be dangerous. 80k seems very high to me, but it depends on what you're looking for...automatic transfer switch, multiple days of onshore battery backup, inverter(s), local utility rules of you're intertied...and there is federal and (usually state) credit...new or old construction and stationary or tracking systems... The other key in the number of suppliers and demand in your area. Neighbor to my lot had a tesla wall and maybe 10kw (I think less)....I think he said it ran him 30-45k before credits...
You may find some very good info on some of the you tube off grid videos. I know a lot of them installed their own systems of various sizes. We have a farmer in the family that built his own on farm, a get away from the house log cabin. They not only added a solar array but a small wind turbine to charge 8 batteries.
Yes, but they also upsell...do you really want to sell back to the utility? Do you need an ATS or would a manual switch work? Do you need 3 days of battery or is 1 sufficient. It's sales and likely a commission is involved.
I know enough to be dangerous, I already have an automatic switch over to my home generator which runs off natural gas. I would not live without it, 80K is high, really high. 30k is the system I had quoted that was no battery backup. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We use some solar in arid climates. They use a panel and a battery to power the level sensing circuit and when the level comes up it lights a light and the crew comes out with a generator to power the pump. We have done some solar projects to run pumps to move leachate in landfills. It is prohibitively expensive because in a landfill the pump and level sensing must be operational 24 7, cold climate hard to keep a bank of batteries warm enough to be efficient. Granted these installs are outside in the elements.
