Posted on 03/27/2022 5:05:00 PM PDT by RomanSoldier19
Checked into it....big scam....wanted 30 year contract....word is panels last about 20 years!!!!
It sounds like you have a good location for solar. I was wondering why you didn’t set up a solar hot water system, rather than heating it by electricity?
Way back in the early 80’s, when congress had passed solar tax credits, we installed two panels on the house. It circulated distilled water from the tank to the roof, and did a great job of making hot water. You had enough reserve that you could get through 3 days before the electrical backup heater kicked on. Since hot water is the biggest user of electricity in most homes (A/C excepted), it dropped the power bill about 20%, just by having solar heating.
Not as exciting and flashy as having PV panels, but the system worked for 30 years without service!
Basically I replaced my gas water heater with a hybrid water heater. I couldn't find a way for the reserve water heater to be a hybrid water heater, which is a significant need because the hybrid water heater draws very little power when it runs (meaning my 9 kW inverter has plenty of power leftover to power other appliances without pulling from the grid even when the hybrid water heater is running). Plus I vent the air intake of the water heater from the attic (hot air) so the heat pump on the water heater doesn't have to work hard to find heat in the air to transfer to the water.
Another reason I went the hybrid water heater route is I wanted to vent the cold air into our living quarters. The idea is to be a two-fer: heating water while cooling my house, which I need done 3/4ths of the year, so it reduces my A/C use.
It sounds like a well thought out system. I’d almost cut down my trees to have one!
An old story - I had a job with a company doing solar hot water retrofits, and finally talked my dad into putting one on his house. With the tax breaks, it was cheap but still he wasn’t sold on it.
So, he kept a record on electric bills over the next year or so, and he was proud to declare that his son’s crazy solar contraption actually DID save money! He became our best salesman and had to show everyone how it well it worked.
It does require a well-thought out system to make it work. I'm a software engineer by trade, so I'm used to making a complex system by ensuring the many parts integrate well.
Another thing is inflation rate. Basically, whatever money I save this year increases next year, then more the next year, etc. As my HELOC payments go down because I pay down the balance of the HELOC, the amount I save goes up because energy rates go up. With my current system (no EV, no solar upgrade), at about the end of the 2nd year the amount I save each month on average equals the HELOC payment. From then on I'm in the net positive as far as my checking account goes -- I may still have the HELOC debt but it doesn't hurt my monthly bill paying as much as the power I'm saving helps me (plus the natural gas I'm saving by not having a natural gas bill at all, though exactly how much of that is savings gets complicated because I do consume more power by having an all-electric house). Once I realized that I was sold on the feasibility of getting the system.
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