# Solar System



## Tom (Aug 15, 2010)

Finally got it done. I have a new hobby. Watching my electric meter run backwards all day. It sit there watching it and giggle like a school girl. SCE is going to start paying ME now! We use around 39 kwh a day in the summer, but we are generating over 50! WOO HOO! I also had a panel optimizer system installed and can track what each panel is doing, and has done all day, for any day, past or present.

I LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!

There are two big banks of panels. One on the backside of my roof and one over on the awning on the side of the house. Here's the view from the back of the back yard.






Here's the view from my bedroom window.





Here's another view of the panels on the awning on the side of the house.


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## Yourlocalpoet (Aug 15, 2010)

Oh and there was me thinking you wanted to discuss the Sun and all the other celestial objects bound to it by gravity...


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## DoctorCosmonaut (Aug 15, 2010)

Nice! Awesome set up. Way to go green! Now you don't have to fork that huge bill from all your tort lamps  Sounds like what I need to do!


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## RV's mom (Aug 15, 2010)

Very nice indeed. We're thinking about this, have to do the research..

teri


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## Tom (Aug 15, 2010)

sharkstar said:


> Very nice indeed. We're thinking about this, have to do the research..
> 
> teri



Yeah, there is a lot to learn. I had quite a few misconceptions before I did it. There are a lot of companies out there doing it too. I didn't care for some of them. Have several of them come over and give you their spiel. You'll start to get the whole picture after the third one.

If you do decide to do it, go big. Just put up as many panels as you can fit. Its much better to generate more than you need than not enough, IMO.


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## BethyB1022 (Aug 15, 2010)

Nice set up. I'm looking forward to doing this myself one day.


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## jdawn (Aug 15, 2010)

We did this a year and a half ago, and are sooo happy we did. It's great for us because we are in a rural area that gets powers outages that can sometimes last for more than a day--it was an investment for sure, but it has definitely paid off. Being in a high desert area, we get more sunny days than cloudy days. And, no more spoiled food in the freezer is a real plus too!

I know what you mean about the meter going the other direction, its great to see it running in YOUR favor for a change (we call it making 'sun money')


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## Yvonne G (Aug 15, 2010)

One thing to bear in mind...if you generate more electricity than you use, you don't get any money back at the end of your true-up period. You end up giving it to the electric company for free. In my opinion, it would be better to break even, that is, try to have a system installed that generates the same amount of electricity that you're going to use annually, and not go over.

With my system, my meter runs backwards every day during the months of May through September, then, with all the over cast days we get here and the turtle/tortoise heating systems, I start having to pay. This year I only had to pay about $400 at true-up, as opposed to the $3,000 annually I was paying before solar.


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## Tom (Aug 15, 2010)

Yvonne, this changed back to them paying YOU as of January this year. When I first started looking into it last Sept., they didn't pay if you generated more than you use. As of Jan. 2010, they DO have to pay you if you generate a surplus. In reality, they probably are only going to pay a fraction of what we would have to pay them, but its still something.

My start date was Monday 8-9-2010, so I'll let you know how it works out in a year.


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## dmmj (Aug 15, 2010)

what's the estimated time ( months/ years?) before you break even for the cost of instalation and cost of panels?


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## Tom (Aug 15, 2010)

dmmj said:


> what's the estimated time ( months/ years?) before you break even for the cost of instalation and cost of panels?



They say 6-7 years, but with the way they are increasing the rates, it will probably be sooner. The rates have more than doubled in the last three years, according to my own electric bills.

The system will last for 30 years or so. The panel manufacturers claim a 1% decrease in performance annually, but in practice they are only seeing about 1/2 a percent. Panels manufactured with 1990 technology are still up and running fine today. Today's panel are made much better and the guess seems to be 30 years or so for an efficient working lifespan. The whole system has a bumper to bumper guarantee for 10 years and they say some of the inverters from 15 years ago are just starting to break down. Again, the inverters are much more efficient and better built than they were in 1995.

Also, just having it up there adds 60-90k to the value of the house, if we were to try to sell it. How nice would it be to move into a house with NO electric bill?!


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## TylerStewart (Aug 15, 2010)

So when the end of the world happens, everyone meet at Tom's house. He'll have a warm shower and XBox360 waiting. 

I've been considering this after we move in a few years... We would be on a private well (on our property), so having your own power source that was pulling water from the ground you would be pretty self-reliant. I dig it.


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## Tom (Aug 15, 2010)

You'll have to bring your own X-box. I've only got the PS3.


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## dmmj (Aug 15, 2010)

I can bring the beer.


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## Yvonne G (Aug 15, 2010)

Except, you really DON'T have your own power source when you install a solar system. The inverters require the electricity from the power company in order to work. When a car hits the power pole down the block and it shuts off the power to my neighborhood, my power goes off too.


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## TylerStewart (Aug 15, 2010)

When I was researching it a while back, they had both "stand alone" types, and grid tied types of setups.... They also had a combination that can be tied to the grid, but cut from the grid if you wanted it to be cut from the grid.


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## Tom (Aug 15, 2010)

emysemys said:


> Except, you really DON'T have your own power source when you install a solar system. The inverters require the electricity from the power company in order to work. When a car hits the power pole down the block and it shuts off the power to my neighborhood, my power goes off too.



True, but I'm trying to rig mine so that I can run all the big power stuff, by operating the inverter with a small generator. What we can't figure out is what to do with the excess power generated by the solar system. Normally it would run the meter backwards and flow back into the grid. If the grid is down, where does all that power go?

A large back-up of batteries would be the obvious solution here and that's what Tyler's referring to by the "stand alone" system.


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## Annieski (Aug 16, 2010)

My husband and I just got approval for our system. When done, we should be "storing" 15,000 kwh of energy. It was interesting to find that Ca. and NJ are the only 2 states so far to offer the huge benefits that go along with solar energy instillations[our out-of-pocket will only be $1,200]. My neighbor already had his done---and when we loose power--so does he[ no way to get around that,as of yet]. I can't wait to not have a "bill" [even if it's just for a couple of months].


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## dmmj (Aug 18, 2010)

aldorathomas said:


> Tom, your solar system is very nice and good. Solar system has many benefits like there is no need of electricity while using it and electricity generated by your solar power system is clean, renewable and reliable. Great work tom and another thing which I want to say you is that your house is really very nice.



I agree tom's house is very nice.


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## Yvonne G (Aug 18, 2010)

And another polite spammer comment bites the dust!!


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## Tom (Aug 18, 2010)

emysemys said:


> And another polite spammer comment bites the dust!!



Cue the song by "Queen". Da da da dada da da da...


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## Danielmarkwogh (Sep 9, 2010)

Wow I am very Glad on your work, Its really fantastic work, Very nice set up. I think its very good idea to save the energy with free 
cost. I always to think to use solar energy system in my home but I all time failed to buy that system because I had so many social home work so I can not to do much time behind for that but I think I will get very soon.


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## Josh (Sep 10, 2010)

VERY NICE TOM! Solar is the way to go! I can't wait to hear how it works out for you, what you make back, etc


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