85-87% reduced in last 10 years
this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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I was still quoted 40K CAD. 20 year ROI. Not feasible for me.
If you are willing to DIY you can cut that number dramatically. Out of curiosity what was the size of the array in that quote and did it include battery storage if so how much chances are that you can cut it by anywhere from 50% to 75% if you're willing to Simply purchase directly and install yourself. The amount that installers charge is absolutely asinine usually 50% or more of that quote is just the installation which is in the same because it's not difficult at all. People like to act scared like oh that'll be difficult or hard or dangerous, it's extremely simple you're dealing with DC which is very straightforward everything is very clearly labeled on that equipment and it's quite simple to do yourself
Is there a go-to source for diy product and instructions? I'm interested in doing this in the near future.
I can't think of any One-Stop shop for literally everything, but there is a lot of great material out there both on forums and on YouTube. If you take it one step at a time and look at each individual piece of the installation you'll be able to find fantastic instructions for all of them fairly easily.
If you are in the US I recommend purchasing from signature solar, they have a lot of great bundles that will both save you some money and get you everything you need. I'd also say they have the best battery storage options, their rack mount batteries and their new wall mount battery are both fantastic and very easy to work with. They also sell solar panels by the pallet which helps you get a nice large array at a good price.
If I had to pick the hardest part it would just be making sure you get the grounding right on the inverter, if you're not careful it's pretty easy to end up with a ground Loop which isn't particularly dangerous but it will cause lots of weird little issues like flickering lights and other annoyances. But it's fairly easy to correct it it's usually just a result of people connecting both the input and the output on the inverter as well as bonding the secondary panel to the primary panel which creates a ground loop. The solution is as simple as just don't connect to the input power ground to the inverter only connect to the output ground so that it has to go through the ground Bond on the panels
It will definitely sound like a lot, but again if you just take each individual piece by itself it's very straightforward very simple and you'll be able to get it done while saving an absolute asinine amount of money compared to an installer.
I will warn you that if you try to do gridtie, which is where you're able to send excess electricity back into the grid. That comes with a lot more red tape and can get a lot more complicated. I personally did an off-grid setup, which still uses the grid as a possible input so if my batteries are dead and there's no sun out I can still use the power like normal it's just not capable of sending Excess power back out into the grid so there's a whole bunch of red tape that I don't have to worry about.
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Is that paying cash for the solar system or financing? Financing can devastate the ROI with interest rates today. I'm looking at as long as 12 year ROI with possibly as short as 7 year ROI if I consider the USA's federal tax incentives. My slightly southern latitude (a border state with Canada) also likely contributes to slightly higher generation results using the same equipment.
How are the government incentives in Canada? I'm super envious of your great hydro power, my neighbor.
Bruh I got quoted 50k in St. Louis last year, would take decades for roi
$50k is a pretty large installation, 18kw-22kw I'd guess for solar only (no battery storage). I'm hoping thats only a max of 100% replacement of electricity sourcing (meaning essentially no net grid consumption after you're installed). What's the price per KWh for electricity delivered to your door in St Louis? Its gotta be pretty crazy cheap if you're that large a consumer of electricity and you're paying in cash with no battery, and still looking at multiple decades of ROI with the US federal tax credit.
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In Canada you can get a 40k loan from the federal govt that is 0% interest on a 10 year term for doing green upgrades to your home. My solar generates more in credits than than the cost of the loan over the year. The Greener Homes Program is a bit of a pain to jump through all the hoops but getting thousands off in grants and a 0% loan is worth it.
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Well it's the company/ies not the product
Was that recently or last year? Prices were out of control last year. Here prices have dropped almost 30% just since May.
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I hate to be pedantic, but the things in the picture are windmills... you know giant whirly things that are powered by wind... kind of very different from things that lie around and absorb sunlight.
You want pedantic? Those are wind turbines, champ. Windmills are used to mill grain, no matter how many people like yourself try to bastardize the term to apply to anything that rotates with air.
What's next for you people, pinwheels are now windmills?
Sorry, but not all wind mills are used for grain. Some ground stone and other material!
What if the turbines are hooked up to an electric milling machine ?
Then it's a windmilf
I told you I hate to be pedantic.
Fair enough.
Thank you! Seeing this more and more often and it drives me insane.
Wait until you hear what creates wind!
Beans?
There's a man in the clouds who blows really hard.
But the plants he eats grow in sunlight.
But, but... what if we put solar panels on the windmills? ;-)
Actually I double checked and solar-assisted windmills are a thing though not likely what's shown in the picture. Actually now I'm wondering if you could also use solar to concentrate a local heat differential and power a wind turbine (though liquid is probably more efficient)
That is inefficient, we should put windmills on solar panels.
Solar Panel Windmills. Checkmate, nukular nerds.
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POV reading this headline while paying $0.4-$0.5 /kWh
Are you using solar?
It's the same here (Denmark), and it's not about whether we use solar, but if countries more suited for it do, which should decrease the price of electricity across countries. Just like when the Ukraine war caused gas to increase in price, electricity of all of Europe increased in price, disregarding their use or dependency on gas.
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Ah yes. This is why batteries in Aus cost the same as they did 10 years ago. Capitalism working as intended
Think of all the profits you're delivering to shareholders!
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I looked into getting solar installed. Best I could get in my area was $45k for a 10kW system or $97k for a 20kW with 2 power walls for storage. F that, even with government subsided rates.
That's just absurd, why is it so expensive for you? You could install it yourself for the most part, it's not super complicated, just physically difficult. And then pay an electrician $500 to connect the inverter to your main panel.
Lack of competition, but mostly greed.
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If we use tax money, if it is important for entire world and survival of humans, then we wouldn't even care or notice
Maybe raw battery cost has reduced but installed storage is 30% more expensive than it was a couple of years ago, and it was too expensive then..
probably when using carbon cathodes instead of cobalt, the energy density drops from 300wh/kg to just 150wh/kg, so u would need extra anode/electrolyte mass to store the same amount of energy.i bet that those prices hikes are a result of diversion from rare earth metal mining..but just a guess
Thanks, China.
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