I looked online at some of the national solar installers (www.1bog.org and www.solarcity.com) - typed in my address and electrical usage, etc. and was pleased to find that my house was well suited for a solar system. And I was even more pleased to learn about all of the federal and state incentives which make the project more affordable.
I called a number of local installers as well as the two national ones above and set about distilling the competing proposals into something which I could understand. In the end nothing was compelling me one way or the other so I asked a friend who recently had panels installed and he recommended a particular brand and panel due to their high efficiency. I went back to the installers to see who could supply such a system and that was that.
For me if the system is going to be operable for 20 years it makes sense to go with the most efficient one (within reason). Besides I didn't know if I was getting a "Hyundai" or a "Cadillac" (no offense intended). I calculated the payback to be linear even though the up-front cost was higher. So thank you Tom for the good advice.
[above - my roof before work begins]
Nice house! What percent of total will the panels get you?
ReplyDeleteThe panels will generate approximately 82% of my last years electrical usage. I only expect this to go up if and when I get the electric car.
ReplyDelete"This is a net-metering enabled PV system, which means that when it is producing more electricity than is being consumed at the residence, the excess electricity will be fed to the grid for a credit. When consumption exceeds
the PV system’s production, electricity will be drawn from the grid.
The PV system has no batteries and does not provide emergency backup power. It will shut-down automatically during a power outage and will restart automatically when the power has been restored."