🏡 Better Homes OffshoreDrilling's (mostly) DIY Solar install extravaganza.

[OffshoreDrilling]

Sup.

I purchased my first home last year in May of 2021. Solar has been on my radar ever since we started seriously looking for a place. I'm making this thread as a repository for everything from walking through my thoughts on installing solar, how to fund the project, the economics of everything, documenting the process from beginning to end and a place to post my updates when we actually have the system up and running.

More to come.

Edit: I'm going to attempt to make use of the newish Tabbed Thread feature to keep things organized and let the general discussion unfold here. Thanks for the site upgrades Mook

Click to read more...

 

[Jimy Bilmo]

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

Jared and DIY? Sign me the fuck up

 

[SpeedSpeak2me]

Tagging Nccstud since he’s on the solar stuffs.

 

[Nccstud]

So I didn't DIY any of my system myself because, well...just no. Anyways...got mine in with the 30% credit. Took out a loan for it. The way they structured the loan made it make a good amount of sense for me. Here is the cliffnotes of the loan.

• My budget bill was ~$240/mo with ComEd prior to anything solar.
• No money up front
• 20 year loan, 4.99%
• 16mo interest only. ~$275/mo.
• Refinance after 16mo(this is enough time to get all the incentives back)
• If I would have refinanced all that in, my payment would be ~$160/mo

So basically I would pay an extra $35/mo for 16 months and then save $70 for the rest of the loan. I ended up taking the $40k worth of incentives($62k total system cost) and paying down other debt that was higher than the 5% instead. So my "solar bill" is now more expensive because I didn't refinance the loan at all.

56 panels, ground mounted and static. Batteries didn't make sense for me. I produce roughly 2.5MWh per month from March -> September, and probably 1.5MWh in the others on average. My consumption is probably the opposite of that(all electric house). I store credits through ComEd upwards of 6MWh going into the winter and end up consuming all of that....electric heat is fun!

My bill in March usually is higher because I consume all of my power and have to get it from the grid...but I would rather have that than the opposite way. On April 1st...any credit that my account has goes away and starts over for the year...so overproducing solar power would just screw me in the end.

Also...increasing electricity rates don't matter to me, other than in March when I have to actually buy it from ComEd. So the $$$ comparison above doesn't take in to account any rising prices of electricity.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

Soon I'll be doing the same except no grid tie. That energy is all mine.

 

[Nccstud]

Soon I'll be doing the same except no grid tie. That energy is all mine.

I only tied to the grid cause I couldn't afford to store it lol

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

I only tied to the grid cause I couldn't afford to store it lol

True DAT. Thankfully lifepo prices have been dropping pretty consistently and outperform lead acid in every way.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

Soon I'll be doing the same except no grid tie. That energy is all mine.

unless you have an electric car I dont think the battery tech is worth it. They're expensive and dont have a terribly long life. Eventually the tech will catch up or i'll get an EV and make it economically viable.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

unless you have an electric car I dont think the battery tech is worth it. They're expensive and dont have a terribly long life. Eventually the tech will catch up or i'll get an EV and make it economically viable.

15+ years seems good enough for me....

All Products - Batteries - EG4-LiFePower4 - Signature Solar

signaturesolar.com

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

Not cheap though, thats for sure. But you gotta pay to be your own power station

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

15+ years seems good enough for me....

All Products - Batteries - EG4-LiFePower4 - Signature Solar

signaturesolar.com

15 years of design life with 5 years of actual warranty.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

I'm fine with comed being my battery for now

 

[Chester Copperpot]

Enticed. Found a house I'm extremely interested in and it would be a great candidate for solar.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

15 years of design life with 5 years of actual warranty.

True.

 

[SHARKBITEATTACK]

Cool project, look forward to seeing what happens

 

[FESTER665]

Get a wrecked Tesla and use that battery like Massie did…

 

[Stink Star]

LFP seems like a much better idea for grid storage than NCA lipo. They like being at 100% and nobody cares about the lower energy density because volume and mass aren’t a concern for stationary storage.

 

[PANDA]

Following.

Do they allow this in your neighborhood?

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

Following.

Do they allow this in your neighborhood?

They’re allowed anywhere in Illinois. There’s law that prohibits HOAs from banning them.

 

[wombat]

Just watched my neighbors house get a few panels yesterday, fucking guys were QUICK. 5? guys out there, 2 doing wiring / electrical, 3 doing panels, I think they were there less than 3 hours

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

They’re allowed anywhere in Illinois. There’s law that prohibits HOAs from banning them.

Also would look pretty shitty to an Hoa saying no to being “green”.

 

[Turk]

Based on my math, it’s not worth it yet. There was a similar thread on Reddit stating the same, except for very specific circumstances like Shane’s.

Interested to see how this progresses Jared.

 

[Turk]

15+ years seems good enough for me....

All Products - Batteries - EG4-LiFePower4 - Signature Solar

signaturesolar.com

Isn’t the capacity super low on this? 5kwh probably wouldn’t last the average night for most houses in the summer.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

Based on my math, it’s not worth it yet. There was a similar thread on Reddit stating the same, except for very specific circumstances like Shane’s.

Interested to see how this progresses Jared.

Why do you think it’s not worth it? Too long to get ROI?