Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Solar installation – due diligence?
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June 10, 2015 at 7:31 pm #817654
wakefloodParticipantHey all. Anyone have a recommendation of where to start to gather data on whether a solar installation would pencil at my home?
Have a nice sized, exposed roof area that looks like it could be a good application but don’t want to start with bad assumptions of ROI.
Is/are there resources that can help me walk through how much I could capture, what types of applications might work best, etc.? Do I have to start by talking to a vendor? I’d rather not but maybe that’s just the way it has to be?
Recommendations gladly accepted.
June 10, 2015 at 10:08 pm #824840
dhgParticipantWakeflood: Talk to a local family-run company that did a great job, above and beyond what was required, for my friends: West Seattle Natural Energy. Keith Hughes and his family usually have a booth at every local festival. Keith is a great no BS guy so you’ll find you can get good answers to your questions. 206-459-8442.
June 11, 2015 at 1:27 am #824841
wakefloodParticipantThanks much, I’ll give them a ring!
June 11, 2015 at 10:40 pm #824842
beefParticipantDoes it face south (east/west orientation can work though)? Is there any shade on the area you would like to install between 9-3? What is your current yearly electrical use? How new is your roof? If it needs to be replaced in the next 10 years, you may want to do it now. How up to date is your electrical panel? These are good questions you should ask.
A kW of generation will take about 4 panels @ 250W per panel (mine are 270W). I think the standard dimension for panels is about 40″x65″. This can give an approximation for how much generation based on your roof area. You can expect 1 kW of capacity to produce about 1000 kWh over the course of a year in the Seattle area.
I currently have a 10kW system installed oriented east west that was installed last fall. During these fine June days I am producing around 65 kWh per day. It is glorious.
I used Puget Sound Solar (PSS) during the Solarize WA push last summer/fall. While I think their prices may be a little higher than smaller installers, they did a quality job, answered all my annoying engineering mind questions, and really have found the best monitoring hardware/software on the market (egauge). I think to date they have over 800 installations in the Puget Sound region spanning the last 15 years. They will gladly come out and do a site visit to check the solar radiation for your location. They will also provide a variety of options in a spreadsheet based on various sizes of system and provide you with a ROI.
Now is definitely the time to get involved to get the most benefit out of the incentives/rebates. The 30% federal tax credit expires at the end of 2016. If you choose WA made panels and inverters, you can enjoy a production credit of $0.54/kWh produced up to $5,000/yr. Yes, produced not just net. SCL puts on a separate meter to monitor how much your solar system produces and uses this for the basis of your credit. This credit currently is set to expire in 2020.
My calculations have my system paid off by the end of 2019, beginning of 2020. I was able to acquire a loan from Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union who works in conjunction with PSS. The offer a solar loan at 4.25% with a loan repayment schedule from 3-15 years.
I have been trying to convince all my neighbors and friends to look into this.
June 12, 2015 at 4:07 am #824843
CO2isPlantFoodParticipantStart by looking at NREL solar resource maps and KNOW that tilt = latitude for collector is the ONLY way you will get optimal for any direction of roof orientation.
Do you realize the environmental damage done during the manuf of cells -> panel ??
Do any of the solar cronies point out that the tax credits / subsidies given simply mean that other governmental services are NOT getting the funds they could be ( roads, bridges, schools )
So, is this the kind of neighborhood your trying to keep up with ?
OR, are you one of the catastrophic global warming, water vapor amplified – climate change – climate “disruption” – carbon pollution fanatics ?
Well, gotta love all those “green jobs” you are creating !
June 12, 2015 at 5:41 am #824844
dhgParticipantGreen indeed. Take a look at Germany. Their aggressive move to solar is paying big dividends. They decided that they could take the cost of building another power plant and instead use that money to fund solar rebates with the view that solar will replace power plants. And it works. 50% of their electrical is solar: http://theweek.com/speedreads/451299/germany-gets-50-percent-electricity-from-solar-first-time
June 12, 2015 at 3:46 pm #824845
wakefloodParticipantThanks beef and all who dropped a note. I’ll be sharpening pencils for a while as I see what makes sense. Excited to be doing the investigation.
Maybe others around me (by the ferry) are pondering the same?
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