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

[OffshoreDrilling]

FESTER665 love wagos too. I didn’t think they made them for #10, saw them at Menards and picked them up.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

Inspection scheduled for tomorrow

 

[frank]

I was asked by a friend if I wanted to help sell Solar down by me, he said it has been super easy of a sell and the installers do great work. My friend was in the energy sector back in New York, he told me he called and set appointments for about 10 companies and only 3 showed up and of the three only one was a really legit company for installs and products. He now works for them and said it easy money if you show the savings and and money coming back.

Need to look into this more as the install looks amazing and the roi looks great!

 

[Jimy Bilmo]

I was asked by a friend if I wanted to help sell Solar down by me, he said it has been super easy of a sell and the installers do great work. My friend was in the energy sector back in New York, he told me he called and set appointments for about 10 companies and only 3 showed up and of the three only one was a really legit company for installs and products. He now works for them and said it easy money if you show the savings and and money coming back.

Need to look into this more as the install looks amazing and the roi looks great!

Tell him to put it on your house, so you can speak to the value and benefits of solar firsthand. Worse case, you got free solar

 

[frank]

Tell him to put it on your house, so you can speak to the value and benefits of solar firsthand. Worse case, you got free solar

Already had the convo! He is in the process of having it installed on his house, just Little harder and more hoops to jump through with the HOA nazi’s / and Karen’s in the neighborhoods, where by Florida state law no HOA can block the installation of energy to one’s property! They can only say how many panels and what side of the roof. Suck it Karen’s lol

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

Finished up the last couple things tonight. Printed out a fresh panel schedule with every circuit identified. Hung and wired 8 CO/smoke detectors. Applied the last couple stickers.

Should be good to go for inspection.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

I’m $18,426 into the project so far. That’s permits, engineering, lumber, upgrades to attic to make it easier to work, tools I didn’t have, all the solar parts.

I have some wire but not enough to do the whole project. Expecting to be just under $19,000 when I’m done

And the grand total is……..$19,333

I’ve got a couple hundo worth of fittings, boxes and misc materials left over I could return. Hanging onto it though, ill need it for another project at some point .

 

[jason05gt]

And the grand total is……..$19,333

I’ve got a couple hundo worth of fittings, boxes and misc materials left over I could return. Hanging onto it though, ill need it for another project at some point .

Sorry if I missed it because I only viewed the last two pages so far, but what is your break even point for the project?

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

Sorry if I missed it because I only viewed the last two pages so far, but what is your break even point for the project?

It’s going to depend how much I get back in SRECs.

Possibly getting paid to install.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

“Wow, this is really nice work”

 

[Jimy Bilmo]

FUCK YEAH, Man!!

 

[Jon01]

Nice work Jared - that's gotta feel great!!

 

[Jimy Bilmo]

Funny how a dude does this by himself and the inspector is impressed, yet these multi-million dollar companies just get by, most of the time.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

Profit and customers wanting the cheapest price.
You want conduit in the walls and not across your roof and down the side of the house? Another day worth of labor for a couple guys, then all the drywall patching.

I understand. Can’t run a business if you can’t bid something competitively or offer a premium product someone is willing to pay for.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

inspector told me I should go into business

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

This is nuts that you did it all yourself. So basically thanks to lots of knowledge and willingness to work, you're at zero net cost and have free energy for eternity.

Is this like your fav project you've ever completed?

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

I think I enjoyed doing our nursery more, just because it had a lot more meaning getting that room together for our kid.

Wife also made this whole project a miserable fight every time I’d ask for some time to work on it. That sucked the fun out of a lot of it.

Overall it was about as hard as I’d expected. Prob in the lower 1/2 of things I’ve ever DIY’d. don’t really consider it DIY too much because my skills/background are in mechanical/electrical. It was just something different than I’m used to working on.

 

[GLADIATOR]

This is just awesome! I didn’t realize that Comed paid that much. Every time I have been approached by a “solar” rep they always mention it would be free to me. So if I went with a contractor I am guessing it would be a sloppy job if they have to do it for what comed pays back, right?

 

[Shawn1112]

This is just awesome! I didn’t realize that Comed paid that much. Every time I have been approached by a “solar” rep they always mention it would be free to me. So if I went with a contractor I am guessing it would be a sloppy job if they have to do it for what comed pays back, right?

You have been in sales since dinosaurs roamed the earth. You know damn well nothing is free with sales people. Your paying for it some how, some way

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

Solar is not free. The ideal situation would be to pay cash, and live in the house long enough that you see the ROI from electric bill reduction.

30% tax credit and the value of the SRECS are the only guarantees.

If financing it, you better make sure you’re going to still be in the house when it’s paid for. They’ll sell you a line of bullshit how panels add to the value of your house, they don’t except for the right buyer.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

All the final paperwork submitted to ComEd. Once they give me the OK I can turn this bad boy on just in time for the worst month of solar exposure.

And my dumb ass thought I was going to start this project in march to have it running before July.

 

[Yaj Yak]

Solar makes sense to me. Either make a $200 payment to panels or ComEd. I’d DIY too so payoff would be relatively quick. You’ve got until 2024 before the solar tax credits disappear. Knocks almost 50% off the price counting federal and IL. ComEd sells you back what you put into the grid at some discounted rate. So you get it back from them at say a 90% discount. They get a 10% cut of your generation.

Electric rates are only going to go up IMO. You have to look at it from a whole house approach. If you can switch over to appliances using electricity (except range because fuck that) you are mostly using things during peak production hours for your solar and if you have enough of an array, you use zero.

-heat pump water heater is super efficient, could duct the exhaust from that into the garage for some cooling.
-electric dryer or heat pump dryer(prob too inconvenient with kids)
- ERV captures the heat/AC/humidity from your exhaust and puts it back into the fresh air intake
-dual fuel furnace so you use heat pump (electricity) for your heating needs until you’re down below 20-30* where it starts losing efficiency, you then have gas to take over. Plus, redundancy having two heat sources.

solar panels are pretty much all warrantied for 20+ years and maintain 80% of their capacity at that age. They will more than pay themselves off.

This is the future of homes. Everything electric.

so talkin in bored thread, and snagging this quote from you from boutta year and a have ago, do you think you'll convert most of your appliances to electric now that you're solar ?

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

so talkin in bored thread, and snagging this quote from you from boutta year and a have ago, do you think you'll convert most of your appliances to electric now that you're solar ?

Yes. That was part of the justification for going Solar.

Heat pump water heater this winter some time.
Replacing attic furnace with a heat pump and electric strip backup in spring.
Electric heater going up in garage soon.
My range is already electric.

Basement furnace is going to stay for a bit, that’s going to be a heat pump though too eventually.
Clothes dryer is gas and brand new, not going to fuck with that yet.
All that leaves is fireplace and natty gas feed to grill. Down the road those would be easy enough to convert to propane and just have a 100lbs tank on the side of the house where my gas meter is at and just plumb it into existing gas pipe.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

And then more solar panels.

I’m probably 5+ years out on electrifying everything.

 

[Jimy Bilmo]