Home Solar Panels

[2050z]

Anybody out there have solar panels on their house?

[Slew]

My parents have them on their new house. They seem happy with them but the house is huge so they still get an electric bill every month. There's a guy here in Lindale that installs them all over Texas.

[Cphil87]

Fil has two sets .. But we built a structure is backyard .

[Kdog]

Are you looking at the kind that tie into the grid or planning to do a battery bank and go off the grid?

[2050z]

I guess both.

[Kdog]

I looked into getting the grid tie in solar panels on my home in Texas. Basically these panels wire into the grid and there is a meter that keeps track of how much electricity you put back into the grid and it is deducted from your utility bill. It is not back up power. To me the payback wasn't all that great (paid for itself in 5-6 years) and besides that they could only get 8 panels (as opposed to 10) on my roof. So the payback would be even longer. That assumed that everything stayed working perfectly and there were no problems. Lots of people in my neighborhood have them though.

I have a system that I purchased for my cabin in Wisconsin that is off the grid. I bought it a few years ago. I have been using the battery bank and just charging it with a generator, the solar panels are still in the box. I finally hired someone to put them up (but the work has not been complete.) It is a 110V modified sine wave system. I changed the wiring around in the cabin so that I could switch automatically between generator power and the battery bank. I need the generator to run the well. This is the system I have.

http://www.earthtechproducts.com/xantrex-powerhub-1800-with-5-panels.html

I also put in 2 transfer switches that automatically put the system on the generator (once the generator has been running for 30 seconds.)

I have been thinking about building something like this for my deer camp in Texas. I did a little research about it and it doesn't look to tough. Also thinking about maybe doing something for a back up 120V system at my home in case the power goes out. (Which it hardly ever does.) If I did it at home I would just use it for my 120V power. (I have a separate 240V panel that does my AC, swimming pool, etc.) Need to research it some more to see how big of batteries I would need and what size inverter, and solar panels.

Here are a couple of links I saved from my preliminary research.

http://www.altenergymag.com/content.php?post_type=1650

http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f16/d-i-y-solar-generator-less-than-500-a-15496/

[TX_Hoghunter]

In so I can find this thread again when I built my house in Fruitvale.

-john

[2050z]

Thanks for the information

[9452772]

I have 10,000 watts. Takes care of about 75% of my total load.

[Tmag]

What about liability insurance required by your electrical provider if you are still hooked into them?

Ours requires $1 million minimum.

[JayB]

I am bringing up this 5 year old thread because the wife is interested. I don't think it is worth it, but I will listen to folks that aren't selling me something.

Company says panels tie into grid. My electric bill average is about $153/month and my payment would be $141/month (if I financed 20 years).
Is there really a value here? Do they just make up numbers? What is life expectancy of panels? Maintenance? I am sure with answers from smart people I will have more questions.

.....and God Bless America.

[DRT]

I recently looked into it for the second time in 3 years. The idea is very appealing to us but a lot of the national reviews are less than even acceptable.
The last guy promised to get somebof his happy customers to talk with me about their experience and that was 4 months ago.
I guess he is still looking for one.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[Greenheadless]

I am bringing up this 5 year old thread because the wife is interested. I don't think it is worth it, but I will listen to folks that aren't selling me something.

Company says panels tie into grid. My electric bill average is about $153/month and my payment would be $141/month (if I financed 20 years).
Is there really a value here? Do they just make up numbers? What is life expectancy of panels? Maintenance? I am sure with answers from smart people I will have more questions.

.....and God Bless America.

IMHO, 20 years is WAY too long for payback. Anything over 5 years and I wouldn’t consider it. I would think the life expectancy on the equipment wouldnt be much more than that, and/or newer technology would outpace the effectiveness of the equipment.

[RR 314]

I am bringing up this 5 year old thread because the wife is interested. I don't think it is worth it, but I will listen to folks that aren't selling me something.

Company says panels tie into grid. My electric bill average is about $153/month and my payment would be $141/month (if I financed 20 years).
Is there really a value here? Do they just make up numbers? What is life expectancy of panels? Maintenance? I am sure with answers from smart people I will have more questions.

.....and God Bless America.

Are you saying you will pay almost $40K over a 20 year period for the panels? Man, that sounds nuts.

[JayB]

Thier install price is $40k. Interest on that is 1.5%.

.....and God Bless America.