With the recent advancements in the solar cell, is it worth waiting for that technology to be unleashed or is it best to just go forward with the existing technology in the Southwest given the abundance of solar radiation?
In many states, the local utility will not perform interconnection without the installation being done be certified installers. Better check with your local utility before you do it.
Very interesting video. Thanks for sharing. I do think that the market for off-grid systems with batteries - or ones that are installed by DIYers who don't have formal arrangements with their local utility to buy excess produced energy back (ie: system sized and configured to use the grid as an occasional backup battery, if you will, with no grid back-feeding) are the great evolving and largely untold solar story of our time. Sure enough, you didn't have any data on such things. This isn't your fault, but almost certainly the one of the statisticians who you obtained your data from, who aren't quite yet thinking outside the box. The traditional image of the folks who do this are survivalist types who live far away from the city, where reliable grid electricity is simply unavailable. One might imagine a picture of a dusty back room of a wilderness cabin, full of venting flooded lead acid batteries in a house wired with appliances that run exclusively off 12VDC cigarette lighter receptacles. But lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells and modern inverter systems have made this 1970s era picture postcard increasingly obsolete. The price and availability of this increasingly-sophisticated equipment has dropped considerably in the past few years, brought on in the wake of the plummeting price of PV panels we witnessed in the years before that. Most professional solar installers - and, indeed, many solar consumer advocates who spend much of their time defending things like equitable net meter rates at public utility commission hearings, along with greater adoption of renewables on the grid by utilities - are simply unaware that such DIY systems even exist. Or if they do, they're simply not aware how sophisticated the market around them has become. For perspective, I live in Arizona and have observed over the last decade the corrupt nod/wink relationship our Corporation Commission has with the utilities in making conventional distributed rooftop solar less attractive to consumers. I'm also watching with concern how the PUC in neighboring California has been recently gutting long-standing net metering agreements with homeowners and, resultantly, destroying the legacy distributed solar industry there. Meanwhile, you can now purchase fully warrantied and UL certified non-grid-tied systems for about what you would pay for an equivalent DIY grid-tied one. You've also got a bevy of RU-vid content producers who have successfully made these installations and are freely sharing how they've done it.
Wow, incredible comment. Love everything you said here. I do wish better data existed around DIY installations. And yes the DIY market has matured greatly in recent years and offers so much possibility for homeowners interested in going that route.
Excellent commentary. I'm sort of one of these folks - my system is 32.7kw rooftop solar on custom racking with battery backup (soon to complete a new 121kwh LiFePO4 array) that powers our house, wells, 4 heat pumps (heating 6 zones), and EV chargers for ~90% of our local transport. However, in contrast to what you described, it was pretty simple for me to setup with my utility for grid-interactive net metering. Here in MT, it's just kwh-for-kwh (for now), so they act like a giant, more-or-less infinitely efficient battery. We could still run independently without burning wood during most of the year if we flipped the switch, but as long as the grid's available, I might as well use it. To do net metering, I just had to submit an application which included a form and two drawings I had to do (fake CAD via Google Slides/Presentation), have a friendly approved solar engineer review and stamp them, and then submit my three inspection tags from the County (the meter swap inspection, the trench inspection for the trench I dug to get from the shop to the house, and the final inspection). For the final inspection, the inspector got out of his truck and left the truck running. He pointed at the panels and said, "those are the solar panels?" I said yes, he saw that I had red stickers on the conduit, and he got out his approval tags. I had to take him around to three other locations to do a more complete inspection, which I mainly wanted because I'd learned so much esoteric stuff and worked so hard to be code-compliant! I'm sure in draconian places like CA and other states infested with unchecked regulation and attitudes that government solves everything, I could never have become a near break-even but slightly net-exporting power consumer, but it was certainly worth the time and effort. Our kids are 5th generation on the land and the 4th generation in the house, and for the whole time they're growing up, we should be pretty set on energy inputs and energy fungibility.
Oh man - I hate to think what my installs would have cost. So far, I've engineered and installed 32.7kw of rooftop solar on my shop and house, all with custom-fabricated racking to get the angles I wanted, as well as 6 zones of heat pumps and a 2-bay EV charging setup, and I'm currently building a 121kwh LiFePO4 array from raw cells to enlarge my storage. I've never actually calculated or had someone estimate the install cost for my system but I'm sure it would me measured in limbs.
That sounds like an insanely impressive system. Just throwing this out there - I've been wanting to do some video tours of people's systems and yours sounds perfect. If you're interested, feel free to reach out (email is in my channel's About section) and we can try to set something up!
@@footprinthero Cool. I'll put it on my calendar to get in touch with you, but I really want to get my battery array done before I call the system (temporarily) complete. My existing 44kwh-nominal FLAB array is embarrassing - the voltage droops too low for my voltage cutoff with high but normal domestic loads. The LiFePO4 is slow progress with an infant at home plus work, but I'll definitely give you a shout when I've gotten that set up.
raises hand, ma i interject for a minute? roof mounts are great, but ground mounts are better..I mean immagine the dirt and grime that builds up over time. so, I am going toget a little mean now... and blow away those costs. i Purcahsed a 3k aims inver for 438, then the following month I purchased a 60 amp MPPT charge controllwhihc allowed me to cheat a little. I purcahsed 1,500 watts worth of solar panels over a 5 month time. and then I purchased a few of those shop cords. you know those 3 prong units me set me back maybe 150 bucks.. snip snip, went the ends, then the really expensvie part I purchased 4 90 ah battery.. hey don't laugh the higher the AH the higher the cost..So I put the thing together with 2 savety switches, and fired the thing up..oh, there was a few cave eats, 1 the system did not need permits as it was not attachted to the building nor was the electrical tied in to the system. 2 I wound up getting a new 120 v washer and dryer. and for night time i would up getting Mr Buddy heater. Wedid this becasue my wife plugged in her PC and it was tosted I saw flashes and heard a bang so, I cut the powr to the box and notified the land lord, this is when my expierimnet created an uninteded off the grid lifestyle for 5 years. sure the land lord fixed the outlet. but we never powered the the main back on.. I mean we were doing great for a 2,500 dollar system. and that is where I must say, DIY can save money, but you really know what you are having to do otherwise.. well..BBQ ....and I don't mean BBQing a bruger. the most facinating thing are the inverters if and when they are made right by the manufacutring companies, are much safer than house hold power, as to days equip have GFI built in and a great deal more. and the system shts down..or.. well in really bad cases... blows the internals blowing all the fuses. and well I hope one learned thier lesson..but if you do not know what you are doing..STAY AWAY, RUN FELIX RUN...and find a freind who knows how to do this kind of work. becasue the fire Pixeis love those people who don't know what they are doing... I watched a lot of youtube videos before putting something together. pus I was tought about electrical things from an uncle I had..So I was comfortable and cautious when working th the system I built, oh..vacuumes..they really suck....thier continous power cleaning one's floor..eerg...then you have to steam cleaners..ugg....heaters and microwaves , and even clothes dryers are freindly they have thermostats like cooking ovens. ... and ways, thanks for the video...I think them offgridder folk knew what was coming...and some of us called them crazy?
