zanydroid
Solar Wizard
Oh the $500 likely assumes local pickup or sharing a pallet with a friend. I doubt you can get 5-6 panels delivered for $500.
I'll be reaching out to the utility company soon asking for quotes for a new service at the road, and I can ask about other options.
Perhaps I don't fully understand, but I don't see how running conduit and having the utility company pull wire through it could possibly be cheaper than a $1200 triplex 2 AWG direct burial for a 30 amp service. I mean, the conduit alone must cost $1/foot at least. But, never hurts to ask I guess.
For reference, my parents were recently quoted $40,000 to run service 1200' down their driveway. They decided to go off grid with a real beefy system for about the same price.
Can you share your math? I figure in a good location you get 1.5 kWh per year from each installed 50 cent Wp of capacity. That's 30 kWh of juice over 20 years for a simple cost of 1.67 cents/kWh. When I include cost of money and panel degradation over those 20 years I get 2.5+ cents/kWh..... I think I can do it for $0.50/W, bringing cost of power down to $0.01/kWh (amortized over 20 years.)
Yes, if you can get 5000 full cycles of usage before they age out. That's 14 years of full daily cycling. If you size them for dark winter days you'll get maybe 100 full cycle equivalents per year. If calendar life is 15 years your simple cost rises to 17 cents/kWh. Well over 20 cents with cost of money.Lithium batteries are around $0.05/kWh (amortized over cycle life.)
Yep, I see where you're coming from. Always better to oversize and future-proof when possible.Your idea of installing too small of a service and then using the batteries/inverter like a cistern in a low flow well system is fine on a property that already has service and you're maybe trying to do an outbuilding or something but doesn't make financial or end result sense when you can just do a bit more work and get a full grid connection.
I don't think anyone knows if LFP calendar life is going to be a cliff or more gradual. I doubt every cell will die at the same time, though maybe one of the cells will die and the battery is not equipped with cell bypass / inverter not capable of handling flexible input voltages once cells start being bypassed. If ESS are designed properly to eek out the last bit of lifespan out of each cell, or someone is willing to do surgery you could probably get a lot more years out of it, especially lightly cycled.Yes, if you can get 5000 full cycles of usage before they age out. That's 14 years of full daily cycling. If you size them for dark winter days you'll get maybe 100 full cycle equivalents per year. If calendar life is 15 years your simple cost rises to 17 cents/kWh. Well over 20 cents with cost of money.
when I get the new 305w panels on backorder I will be selling about 5kw of used 250w and 240w panels for probably about 10 cents/watt, so $500 maybe $600. the new 305w were 28 cents watt I think.Wow - how can you come up with a 2kW PV array for $500 let alone less? I'd love to find that kind of deal.
Yep, I see where you're coming from. Always better to oversize and future-proof when possible.
A bit of research shows that the minimum conduit size for 100A service is 2". 2" schedule-40 conduit is $2.70/foot, so $2160 for 800 feet, not including the glue, elbows, etc. Plus... it's a lot more work to lay conduit than to throw a bendable wire into the ground. If I come across a rock while digging my trench, laying that conduit is gonna be a challenge.
I'm also not crazy about having a utility-owned transformer and wire run coming right up to our doorstep.
Resale value has no importance to us, as we plan to live here the rest of our lives. If anything, let's keep that tax assessment as low as possible!
when I get the new 305w panels on backorder I will be selling about 5kw of used 250w and 240w panels for probably about 10 cents/watt, so $500 maybe $600. the new 305w were 28 cents watt I think.
used 250w panels from private parties will end up dirt cheap
I could just make another ground mount but mine are beefy ironridge and cost at least 2k for diy
Can you share your math? I figure in a good location you get 1.5 kWh per year from each installed 50 cent Wp of capacity. That's 30 kWh of juice over 20 years for a simple cost of 1.67 cents/kWh. When I include cost of money and panel degradation over those 20 years I get 2.5+ cents/kWh.
Yes, if you can get 5000 full cycles of usage before they age out. That's 14 years of full daily cycling. If you size them for dark winter days you'll get maybe 100 full cycle equivalents per year. If calendar life is 15 years your simple cost rises to 17 cents/kWh. Well over 20 cents with cost of money.