8 Costly Solar Mistakes to Avoid When You Design Your Solar Panel Kit 

You're lucky you're not in the UK my supplier gives 3.5p per unit. Which is just under 10 percent of what they charge me on import 😕

@@keithhobbs1 Better if we all go off grid, then they’ll beg for access to rooftop power. Or if groups of people band together say on each block. They can negotiate better prices collectively. Or, governments can wake up and smell the coffee, and regulate for equal price each way, just with time-dependant tariffs. So we put power into the grid at peak times, and try to use most of our car charging, washing etc at off-peak times.

I pay an average of 4.1 cents per KWH and I get .8 cents per KWH. But to be honest, I used to pay 13.1 cents per KWH so it's still a plus. Last months I sold back about 230 KWH more than I bought, but with the Air conditioning starting up now, that'll change in the next few months.

She did say you won't be able to use the battery when the grid goes down as its unsafe for technicians repairing the grid to have micro producers sending electricity back down the line.

@@ianwynne5483 May wish to watch the video again. 3:31

That is not correct you can use batteries when grid down. You can not generate power when grid down.

@@jenallen5202 if you get the hybrid inverter without back feed and use a generator interlock circuit breaker you power up your system and the inverter doesn't know the difference

Mini deep cycle lithium ion batteries will certainly change The Scenario soon

Exactly. The whole point at first for me was to have a backup for when the grit goes down and not have to worry about storing huge amounts of gas for the generators. So grit-tied does no good for that.

Yep this video is misleading at that. If you got the pannels have the batteries 🔋 flip a switch and go off grid if your grid is no longer up.

@@rjvanloon4769 I guess it depends on how much it stores doesn't it? The battery power may only last one night, right? What if like in TX the power outage was for a week or more and in winter no less?

Yep, and if you're in a rural area, where you might be a very low priority line repair, you'll want a secondary power system, be it batteries, or a generator. No matter what, you'll need some form of BMS if you use batteries, and it may actually be worth staying away from the "used Tesla Cells". Some have an AMAZING luck, but I've heard of people buying a battery system, tying it in, and finding in 6 months that half the cells can't hold a charge at all... I'll have a grid tie system, but I'll also have a battery solution. Still in my very early planing stages, especially considering I'm not sure if we're building on our property or somewhere else. I want the property, SWMBO want's local. :(

@@WreckDiver99 It always made me wonder, if you have a pack with say 100 cells and 10 have "worn out", wouldn't it stand to reason the remaing 90 are probably very close to being worn out also? we went with a 6.6kw on-grid no battery system. Our electricity cost first month (November) went from $110 in 2020 to $42 in 2021. We sell back more than we use.

Just add a shutoff on the grid side.

Don't forget the battery will be shot in 10 years. A gas-powered generator beats it hands down - it's 10x cheaper and maybe I'll have to replace a couple of gaskets once in 20 years... Yours is the solar mistake #9.

Batteries are not expensive anymore. There are UL listed rack mount LFP 5.12kwh units now less than $2k. And even just having 10kwh to pull from in the evening when energy is most expensive in most areas is a no brainer. And the cost is dropping by roughly 18% a year and has been for the last decade. Much like solar. Which retail by the pallet is 45-55 cents a watt now. Compared to $175 in 1978.

@Jackson Parker just go off grid

Only go off-grid if you have a generator. If you don't and your inverters go bad, what do you do? Generator is good, but you need to do a stress test once a month.

@@mthompson965 Well what do u do if ur generator goes bad u buy a new one right ?

Some solar companies have done a lot of harm to the industry by lying to customers and selling their shit very expensive. I sell solar panels for a living and it's become very difficult. A lot of people have become very distrustful and I don't blame them. If you are interested in solar panels please let me know. We have customers in west Texas who ended up with credits for 2020 between $300 all the way to $926. I know it's hard to believe but it's no lie.

I would like to talk more to you about an off grid system install is there a link or other source besides this to contact your company?

Frankensteen ! Frankensteen! When will anyone get it right ?

We have our system over a year now and the payback time was estimated at 6 years. With the current rise in energy costs in Europe the payback time is reduced to 4 years! Our energy provider allows a 1 to 1 deduction (our cunsumption is negative) and the buy back rate of the surplus is only 40% but it is absolutely a good investment. We over invested in 50% more pannels against the advice of the bare minimum (the additional cost were only 15%) to be ready for the heathpump wich was installed recemtly.

Is there enough sun in the uk?

There is no gate to the return so everyone sends electricity back. You pay fit it they don't tell you and absolutely no money

P 2

She actually addresses that later in the video

@Dan Quayles ITS SPELT POTATOE! batteries are most definitely an insane expense, it would take extreme measures before the person with full battery backup would look wiser than the person with a Honda EU7000. I think that a lot of people with full battery banks are preppers though and they consider it an expensive vice.

Did you put the federal tax credit back into the loan?

and the grid doesnt store it haha

"because the grid fails" It wasn't so much the grid failing rather the green energy production. Windmil generators froze in place and solar panels got covered in snow.

@@datsuntoyy windmill and solar were just a small fraction. The majority still depends on natural gas and oil, aka fossil fuels. These pipelines froze and burst, the entire fossil fuel supply failed, while green energy still managed to function in part.

@@totallyaccuratebotansimula9493 Funny how Coal froze and solar panels worked with a couple of feet of snow on them. Try again.

@@datsuntoyy Coal didn't 'freeze'. Oil and gas pipelines froze because they did not have enough anti-icing measures. When water freezes it expands and ruptures the pipes. And once the pipe is burst, the whole supply line is broken. That was the biggest factor that shut down the grid, because it couldn't handle the increased demand after this happened.

This sounds extremely far o me. Getting 90% back is an awesome deal.

Yeah they are dog's. They pressure you saying stuff like you only can get this deal today yata yata

It sound like the company you were dealing with, was not supportive and patient with you. That should not reflect on those companies in good standing for customer service.

right

The ideal would be south orientated at an 90-[your latitude] degree angle. This will give you the peak spreaded around noon. To spread the peak it is not unusual to have pannels facing part east and part west at an 30 dergree angle.

There are a lot of overpriced scams. Not as innocent as you suggest.

i know right lost all my food the grid went down for 3 days

@@JonOffgrid you didn't put out your food in a cooler in the freezing weather? I did that for 3 days.

@@keg10609 I did that for years when I lived in Colorado

@@JonOffgrid I'm sorry to hear yiu went through that. Do you live in Texas by any chance?

@@keg10609 worm here

Rule number One for tax-deduction: You need to pay tax in the first place. Just out of curiosity: How much lower is your electricity bill with the system in place?

Very good, Doctor.

My electric bill is 1/3 cost of electricity, 2/3 cost for “delivery charges.” Even if I 100% covered my electricity needs with solar, I would still have a small bill to remain on the grid

@@dougf9900 that sounds like a standing charge, you're paying to be connected to the grid should you ever need to access extra electricity.

You're right, except for one little thing. Local electricity generation does not burden the distribution network. Distributors like to promote virtual batteries because it brings them carefree profits. I'll explain. Each village has its own transformer and believe that no energy produced from the panels will get out through this transformer (it can get if there is no consumption). For example, there are 50 houses in that village, of which 5 houses have an On Grid (battery-free system). The distributor will calculate the purchase price of energy in kWh, which is only a small fraction. This calculation is based on those 45 houses that consume your panel energy at a lousy purchase price, but the distributor sells it to 45 houses at full price. In addition, you pay for electricity meter rental, power distribution and virtual battery. The distributor in the locality collects more money than in the normal state without panels. The distributor keeps this condition with a good tariff, which will offer you and you will save a little money, which is not a significant saving. If the panels buy another 20 houses (50-5-20 = 25), 25 houses are no longer financially interesting for the distributor and they come up with a fairy tale that it would overload the network and not connect these houses to the distribution network. However, network congestion exists, but from large solar power plants in front of the village transformer. This is true of so-called network congestion. But otherwise I agree with the others. It is better to stay in the network and get a large UPS with batteries (hybrid) for the panels. Batteries can be lead traction, which are cheap and safe. Their capacity is not high, but they have a greater depth of discharge than car batteries. If the power supply is interrupted or you switch off the distributor circuit breaker yourself, the solar UPS switches to battery operation. Every kWh that does not have to be paid to the distributor is a saving.

@@DL-kc8fc The problem with your local argument is that this only applies if a few have solar panels, if most houses in that local area have solar panels, they'll all produce power at the same moment and likely will have to offload this to outside the local zone (ie. industry). Local grids with lots of solar are only less difficult to operate if you have some battery back up to store some of the charge.

@@MDP1702 But I write about it all the time. I'm not talking about an open distribution network vs. industry, etc., but about the network behind the transformer in a small locality, such as a village. If the location behind the transformer is saturated with photovoltaics, it is not financially advantageous for the distributor and he does not want to connect most houses with new photovoltaics "on grid". Therefore, I write clearly and unequivocally that in that case it is good to install a hybrid (photovoltaics with batteries, ie a backup method of UPS). The distributor himself will offer this solution because he will keep your dependency. The island system is really for the minority community, which will never endanger the distributor. The distributor regulates the "on grid" by offering you an unfavorable purchase price of your energy. If the distributor registers energy production in the local network, he will fine you for illegal electricity production. Why? Because the main main electricity meter at the transformer brakes and the distributor loses the profit in the locality. Yes, it can happen that at the time of minimal energy consumption, the sun shines very well and energy is overproduced. The local network does not take anything from the main network and therefore the power engineers talk about network congestion. It's such a technical terminus. The actual network congestion tends to apply to consumption for which the network was not designed, but the power engineers have come up with a fairy tale that suits them. In fact, consumption is not implemented and this creates "surpluses" in the main network, into which the constant power from hard sources "flows". This power must then be "burned" somewhere, because it cannot be regulated throughout the state. In order to avoid disproportions and damage to transformer stations, energy will be provided to another country, even free of charge. Likewise, farmers prefer to destroy their overproductive crops so that they do not have to compromise on the stock exchange. Never believe that a distributor wants to lose market dominance. Paradoxically, ordinary people's photovoltaics help him increase profits.

@@boblatkey7160 supposedly that is actually what they are doing with EVs to decrease charging times.

because the power company will charge primium rates for what you give them and give you a %5 discount on what you use . So you make $100 a month in power that they use.....then you use $105 a month you think your bill is $5 a month right? your bill....$103 a month!

@@crazypjk so they are ripping you off

@@crazypjk My montly bill went down to €5,- and the annual refund is ~€800. System will pay for itself in less than 6 years, not to mention the free electricity. This will change since we recently got a heatpump installed. The reason NOT to invest in a battery system is that I need 20 Tesla walls to cover the period November-January.