CT solar program

[mustash29]

My town struck a deal with a CT solar company. We went to the meeting Mon night at the High School. Pretty good info, pricing, etc. We have a site visit scheduled for next Thursday. Between the bulk buy/group rate deals with the town, CT incentives & Fed tax credit it is looking like a 50% savings overall. 5 kw system for about 10K, 7.5 kw for 15K, 10 kw for 20K. Purchase, lease or finance options as well as the option to install a generator transfer switch and/or battery bank. Ground mounts are available too.

My concerns are my east/west facing roof & 18 yr old shingles. I know I will have to drop more trees for a better view of the sky, but that will help with the fall leaf clean up too. I was planning on doing some major trimming anyway to make room for more wood stacking & a nice shed.

System basics:
- Grid tie with "buy" and "sell" meter, earn credits all summer, burn up credits in winter, account zeros out in the spring.
- This particular company has installed over 3 MW of residential solar in CT.
- Rough pricing on a 7 kw system = 26K - 5K CT incentive - 6.4K Fed tax dredit = 14.9K
- All black panels, I believe they were 250 w panels.
- Enphase micro inverters.
- 12 yr warranty on the panels, inverters, install, etc.
- System is rated for 25 yrs.

With electric prices in CT very high, we really watch what we use, minimal lighting, frequently used lights are CFL's, planning on switching a few fixtures over to dimmable LED. We do all our laundry in the dryer. We both have busy schedules and hanging laundry in the pollen & bugs in the woods simply does not fly with us.

Summer A/C is currently 2 window units, 12.8K and 8K. I would like to install central A/C, central heat pump, or mini splits at some point. DHW is currently via oil tankless coil but switching to an 80 gal indirect with Nyletherm as priority input, wood back up & oil last resort.

My best estimate of annual usage is approx 7000 kw, the last 12 month average was 6700 kw.

What questions should I ask during the site visit? Anything in particular? I've spent the last 15 yrs turning garbage into electricity for my regular job, so I am pretty well versed in the electrical department.

 

[Circus]

East west PVs have 25% lower output or more. Might even disqualify you for credits etc. I would check before signing anything. Might end up paying the whole bill for little return.

 

[ccg36]

Our town did a similar program with Be Free Solar, lot of hype, they quoted me a system that would produce on average, 100% of my electrical usage. I have a hip roof colonial with east, south and west exposure and the ability for a ground install facing south. Loan would be for 10 years and i would save $200 a year. Not worth it in my opinion. Not sure i will be in the house in ten years, kids will be out of college by then and the house is pretty big for just the two of us. they tried pushing a lease to reduce cost, catch with that is if you sell the house, new owners don't have to take over lease.in my case. it didn't seem to make sense.

 

[peakbagger]

I would strongly urge you to replace the roof before hand as there warranty is null and void if you want to reroof. Make sure they are responsible for the labor to replace microinverters. In NH East west would most likely not qualify as the system does not take advantage of the available light. The panel warranty is awfully short. You should get the brand and model of panel in writing and see if they have third party warranty coverage.

 

[mustash29]

The program is with the same company, Be Free Solar.

I am not interested in financing or lease options, direct purchase is the plan.

There was discussion of a 3rd party warranty/insurance policy on the panels, possibly the inverters too. Have to find out those details.

 

[ccg36]

another down side is the system will not generate electricity when the power is out

 

[mustash29]

Normally that is true for a basic system. If the grid goes down it shuts the system down in order to prevent back feeding the grid and potentially frying a line worker.

If you have a transfer / disconnect switch and battery back up the system it can run with the grid down.

As far as power outages, I have been in this place 18 yrs since it was built. The worst we ever had was HC Irene with a 5 day outage. I used about 15 gal of fuel in the 6250/8250 generator. We had hot showers, hot meals, cold beer and ceiling fans. Probably could have run the small A/C if needed, but I was powering my neighbors fridge & freezer too. I also have a small 2000 watt genny now.

Occasionally a drunk or "race car driver in the snow" takes out a pole or the wind blows hard and you get a flicker but those outages are far & few between and short lived. Maybe a half dozen times per year you come home to blinking clocks from a short term event. That's just a PITA resetting clocks though.

 

[Where2]

Skip the East-West roof mount and just ground mount the proper sized array, facing the proper direction. You'll be glad when you can easily rake the snow off it to get back into production. If you get creative, you can probably come up with something to mount under the panels, and get a rather substantial lean-to roof to stack your firewood under.

As for questions to ask: Quiz these guys about the Enphase Energy Management System (the backup system). I haven't been watching the enphase site in the last few months and just stumbled across that system when you mentioned there was a backup system for Enphase. However, I note Enphase's website says "Product In Development".