Is Solar Worth It? My REAL Numbers | DIY solar 

Would you consider installing solar yourself?

thanks for going over the numbers, it was the only thing missing from the first vid

I LOVE that you built this yourself, however I would have done 2 things differently (I manage one of largest solar company in the Midwest and have installed over 1,500 residential jobs). 1. I would have used a cheaper panel. I don't find paying 80-90 cents a watt for panels that aren't more efficient to be worth it. The one nice thing about Panasonic is the warranty, but from experience, panels don't break often enough to justify the 300% increase in cost over similar models. A Trina, Hanwha, or Canadian Solar panel would have offered similar performance at 1/3rd the cost. 2. I would have used Enphase Microinverters. From experience, SolarEdge has a much higher failure rate than Enphase and they cost about the same. Additionally, and I know this contradicts what I said about the panels, but the warranty is 25 years as opposed to 12 (or 20 with an extended warranty) via SolarEdge. From years of experience, I can tell you that a warranty on a panel is next to worthless (because panels don't break) but the warranty on your inverter is 1000% more likely to get used. In this instance, it's worth it to go with Enphase for the increased warranty. I think if you would have made these two changes and used Snap N Rack as your racking, I think you could have gotten your actual installed cost to around $1.10-1.20 per watt. All in all, AMAZING JOB!

bro you're seriously my hero. You did so much research, and knew when you were above your pay grade and hired a pro to do the final electric part. Nice to see all the numbers put together like this!

More than $ savings, you learned a lot of info in the process. Not to mention of doing yourself the ongoing maintenance/repairs for years to come. Nice work!!

This panel can put out close to 100 watts ru-vid.comUgkxOqI2yqX0XVrhR2BMJciTWrHJpG8FhJyg when positioned in the appropriate southernly direction, tilted to the optimal angle for your latitude/date, and connected to a higher capacity device than a 500. The built in kickstand angle is a fixed at 50 degrees. Up to 20% more power can be output by selecting the actual date and latitude optimal angle.The 500 will only input 3.5A maximum at 18 volts for 63 watts. Some of the excess power from the panel can be fed into a USB battery bank, charged directly from the panel while also charging a 500. This will allow you to harvest as much as 63 + 15 = 78 watts.If this panel is used to charge a larger device, such as the power station, then its full output potential can be realized.

Really great video! Nice work.

Thank you for the real numbers. There are people spreading flagrantly wrong numbers on your install video to try and smear solar, so to see them off by several multiples in every respect is satisfying.

Absolutely love your videos on this. It's pushed me to diy it. Permits all done. Ordering panels today. Thank you!!!

I have 46 panels on my roof! It’s been so rewarding! Love it, love this video

I had suffered high bills, and I opted for solar grid which is productive right now,thanks for additional information ,we are on the same page of massive savings.

I have been researching placing solar on two residence and one commercial application ... when I got the jaw dropping estimates, I decided to look into DIY .... Your video was more than impressive ... I plan to do one of my projects to see how it goes and then I will do the others! ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!!!!!

Really informative video. Now I'll try installing almost a same setup on our home to hopefully bring down electricity costs.

Great job! It’s really interesting seeing all the numbers and hearing how much this saved you. Can’t wait to hear about solar with snow.

Really helpful. Concise and clear overview. Excellent content, thanks so much.

As an electrical contractor that has installed solar, I'm extremely impressed with your do-it-yourself,attitude and the way you got it done! I've seen electricians do poor work, where we could use you as an example of what it's supposed to look like at the end! I'm extremely impressed! And now I know the cost of what solar cost as well per kilowatt-hour. I understand is expensive, and the permit and the material but, now that I've seen you do it I will get your book look through it and I will recommend solar now in my area and see if we can get close the kind of return that you had on your system. I've been doing this for 33 years, and I'm extremely impressed with your Acumen, work quality, and the stick to it you need to get the job done! Thank you!

Great info bro 👍

Your videos are OUTSTANDING! The content is outstanding of course, but the production quality is great too! I subscribed! :-) Many thanks for packaging up all of this information! I'm in Western PA looking to install a system myself :-)!

You are a hidden gem sir. Please keep us up to date on the solar generator system.

Wanted to say thank you for taking the time to post your DYI. You certainly did a great job. I have been wanting to DYI this myself and really appreciate you share the helpful links. I also plan to down load your guide. I was wondering how long it took you to get the system up and running. Ultimately it not all that important how long it took. Its really more important that you got it done. Great job and thank again for sharing the information on what you learned and how you got it done.

When it snows you have to remove the snow off of your Panels..if it gets more than a few inches..once the sun comes out the snow will melt off but if it snows more than 2-3 Inches you have to remove the snow off your panels..if you live in a heavy snow area I would build the solar array closer to the ground to allow access to remove the snow manually...snow is powder mist of the time a day can be brushed off with a 2ftwide broom

The electric company here in AZ still screws you over when going solar. SRP charges a flat fee of $32/month for using the grid. Once I pay off my system it wont be a big deal but for now I essentially just lowered my electric bill a bit and added a loan.

Thinking of installing a 7KW system myself.. Great info. Looking forward to more helpful videos.

This is a great video with great explanations of cost! Keep up the great vids!

I appreciate your openness. I always thought solar would cost tens of thousands...but then when you factor in hiring a guy to do it... Doing it yourself always saves you money. Very well done!

Ours is around $20 AUD a month here in OZ. We're looking at adding a switching battery to offset costs further as the credits reduce regularly as more people here switch to solar.

I love the analogy/perspective of the rental property that never has late payments. That's a great selling point

Fantastic video. Great information. Short, sweet and to the point.

So glad it all worked out for you, because you have you have no one’s ass too kick if it failed.

Well done, sir. Thanks for all the information and the free guide. You have more than earned my like and subscribe.

fantastic breakdown of costs, Thanks

Hi Reece great video mate. I put solar on about 3 years ago and it's been great. Although here in Australia we really don't have any really great incentives like you guys do. Just a pretty dismal feedback incentive. It sucks, especially seeing it's sunny most of the time :) Did you get the optimizers? They cost us around $100 per each panel and basically make it so if any of the panels get shade then only those panels are affected. Not the whole array. On a completely different note I have to say a MASSIVE thank you! You actually helped inspire my channel I started a few weeks ago. In fact I'm currently making videos of me fixing large 60" 4k t.vs with nothing but a piece of sticky tape lol. The only difference being I found the t.v' outside in a thunderous hail storm. You wouldn't believe my reaction when it actually worked. So thanks again mate and keep pumping out the amazing content.

I live in Pittsburgh and given how cloudy it is here, Ive been shying away from the idea of solar. This gives me a little hope

Just want to say that I really enjoyed your videos.

From another Pennsylvania resident thanks for the video

Excellent presentation!! You sold me!!!

My bud in Texas installed a very similar system which he averaged 1500 KW in the summer and 900 in the winter. He installed his system last March after the February freeze disaster and paid $18,580 after the 30% credit. The electric rates in his town went up over 40% this year putting his return on investment from 6.8 years based on 2021's rates to four and a quarter years based on the new electrical rates. If the rates continue to go up then he'll end up paying his solar system off a lot sooner. During the winter he pays a $6 connection fee during October November December January February and March then he doesn't pay a connection fee from April through September and he actually generates close to 16 extra kilowatts of electricity per day during the months of May through September as he changed his work schedule to have him away from home from 10am to 7pm, thus his house uses less than a kilowatt per hour during the summer months.

Great Video! Very nice. Thanks for all of the info.

Worth considering that solar panels will help to extend the lifetime of your roof as well which can be an considerable financial benefit as new roofs don't come cheap.

Good work and I appreciate the hustle. Promos gotta pay bills but to give the full story and stay current you'll want to mention Tesla panels. A new high efficiency/low price + installation makes it tough to justify a DIY. Tesla just beats installers by more than you'd think.

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing.

Great video, my name is Filipe and im an electrical engineer in Brazil and my company sells and installs PV systems ! You explained net metering exactly how i explain it to my clients: it's as if the power grid is your battery.

Fantastic stuffs you make bro.... keep going on...Love from India..

in some states it would be 3yrs . because you can get a federal credit and a state level one also. Additional in NY they pay you upto 39 cents for the solar and you pay them 5 cents when you buy power form them. the big payday is when you sell the place. base on the location you can take the amount saved a year on power times it by X. that amount you get to not pay tax on when you sold the house.

Dude: Thanks so much. War is founded on ideology, race to garner resources and nationalism. Young people are driving a stake thru the heart of the first one. You help drive a stake through the second one big time. The next generation will thank you as well.

This is by far the best video I’ve seen, I’m planning to install a 20 kw before end of this year.

This along with the install video are great resources and I wanted to thank you for all of this and the detail of these videos. I definitely will be doing this for my future property and I would love to discuss this with you more in the future if you have some time but I did have one question for you. What is your plan when you need to repair/replace your roof in the future? I assume all panels would need to be removed?

In my opinion you should get about 20kwh buffer battery bank. In those situations when grid will go dark , you will still have power for about a day or two, but in truth for much more because solars will charge buffer bank. I know it can be costy, but in WTF situation it comes handy

Very good info. Thanks

Wow. Our home is total electric. This is great

Very well done video 👍.

Great Job Man

Did a guestimate that you use yearly 25,000kw. It boils down to 2,083.33 kw per month on average. This further breaks down to 69.4 kw per day. Average 8 hours of sun equals to 8.68 kwh. So the minimum amount of panels required with no net metering is 9kw solar system. Since you have 16.5 kw system there is margin for errors and you would enjoy net metering. Not bad for no battery bank. However with the US grid under pressure it may be important to take those savings and invest in a 120kw battery bank. You use on average 10kwh forv12 hours in the night.

a really useful information, thank you

Excellent summary and cost/benefit analysis.

The net metering is a huge advantage you have in the US. In my country I can only get 1/6 of the cost per kWh against what i would pay normally. So I need to make 6x as much energy as I consume to be at net zero. Which makes whole thing just waste of money.

Great videos!

Great installation job! Boy, am I glad (when it comes to building and electrical codes and permits) that I live in the Netherlands. Visited PA quite a few times, loved it everytime. I know how warm it gets in the summer and how cold it can get in the winter. Do you by any chance keep track of your electrical usage for heating and cooling seperately? I live in a typical Dutch 1930's attached house and did insulate almost everything to bring it to current new-building standards. With only 2400 Wp installed I already generate about half the kWhs that I use (3500 kWh/year). With natural gas at insane prices ($71/1000 ft3) I'm moving forward to completely electrify my 7000 ft3 annual gas usage. I'll have to install additional solar panels for that, but here you can just climb onto your roof, mount it, hook it up and have an electrician check and certify it (or do it all by yourself like I do). A friend of mine has to do maintenance jobs on residential roof-mounted PV-installations due to jackdaws and magpies crawling underneath the solar panels and ripping off the insulation of the DC-cables. This has caused fires due to short-circuits, which combined with nesting material, leaves and branches that get stuck underneath the panels burn very rapidly. Just something to check on a regular basis, or prevent birds from accessing by using mesh screen. That way you maintain good ventilation for the PV-panels.

Well Done.... !!!!

been thinking about it but dont know. i'd mess it up lol love the idea tho have been and will keep watching thanks for videos

Goods in US are really expensive, Cool video!

Some serious concerns: 1. Once you have to reshingle your house or of there's a leak, that's going to be extremely labor intensive/costly 2. It sounds like you're only benefiting from SREC. Not all states have this 3. At $16.3k you've only lowered your electric bill by 43% for 15 years. As you said your electric bill was $160 on avg. Well, $16.3k over 15 years is $90/mo. So without the SREC, it's should be noted to the viewers you're not lowering your electric bill to zero. You are more or less just paying a lump sum in advance to lower your bill over a longer period of time. Now I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but it's a bit frustrating when people claim their electric bill "went to $0" and they don't calculate the Total spent over a longer period of time. It's like claiming you're getting a "free" car because you paid for it all up front in cash for $17,000.

You're awesome bro,keep up the great content.!!!!@

YES... You can increase the output of your solar panels

I live in California, i want to do something like this. I'll be looking at your videos for help

Hey. ever think of adding in a water filter/greywater system? like collect rain water (if state allows it) and use that water for toliets/outdoor watering systems and possibly having the water filtered to your hotwater/main system to lower water cost?

Your the man 🤟🏼

Good diy solar cell

aaahhh! so it's not really a "free ride (yet) when you already paid"... Another big factor, is paying cash or financing for the materials and labor. That's another variable to factor in as this will increase the amount of years to get back to even... I am on the research stage as the only way to go with installing solar panels is DIY'ing because $16-17,000 is a big chunk of change, not to mention dealing with contractors and wait time... Great info and great coverage... thanks..!

With geothermal heat pump you can use 5 times less electricity for heating. Also heating your water with sun is the way to go. You can reduce that 20 000kWh to 1/3 .

very nice video. On a side note, you should hide the link also at 3:34 timestamp. i can easily get account number from there. I work in IT. Just a suggestion. very informative video btw.

Hello, for anyone reading this if you are looking into solar as an investment and sorry to say this is the worst investment you can get but solar is a great way to help the ecosystem but this video and RU-vidrs are not accounting for the other risk factors pointed out below. below is the risk factor in a Miami market I run into getting quotes from solar companies. This is with the 90% outset system I have been quoted. Doing the math if I pay the full amount upfront wouldn’t make sense because the return investment, I can get off the stock market or invest in other real estate projects. So, this is my concern if I get it loan out of it for 26% using the tax credit on the loan. The monthly bill is $207 for loans with tax credits. The system doesn’t pay my full FPL bill. Keep in mind my average bill is $280 per month (I know this increase is about 4.4% per year in Miami/FPL energy). This is how I see it. My roof is 3 years old. I have dimension shingles that last about 25 years. So, it can last me the rest of the time with panels. Now accounting for the liability insurance that I have gotten is estimated at $45 per month (this would increase every year by 3%). Also, Miami hasn't gotten a category 3 or higher hurricane in 12 years, and we are due two to four within the next 20 years. Also, I am accounting for the two or four liability insurance claim I need to make, and mostly they going to charge about a 20% deductible. Right now, to remove the panels and put them back electrical technicians for panels are charging $125-$175 per panel (this would go up over time). The degradation I lose per year on the panels. Let says over the 20 years there are about 25k in damages or no warranty repairs. I'm going to pay about a 20% deductible. so around 5k in deductible. That's an extra $20 per month. So, in total, the risk factor is about $271 per month, and this doesn’t cover my full FPL bill., even if you do a system set up with the full cost of my FPl bill the risk factor increase. Two other risk factors took place was selling the property. Even with the increased value of the property, buyers are not interested in buying an old use solar system and roof, so I need to get it replaced. I contact about five green certification realtors in Miami with 20+ years in the market and all said is going to be harder to sell with that use system the buyer would ask for a discount on the price of the home. The other risk factors are roof insurance warranty claims based on the few neighbors that have solar nearby and online forums. Home insurance going to blame the contractor who installs the solar panels for leaks and hurricane-related issues, and I would need to reach out to the insurance adjuster to come to help me with the claim. What I see solar as is basically a way to help the ecosystem and reduce carbon footprint but don’t expect a return with the risk factor.

New sub here. Moving to Upstate NY. I'm going to do this on the ground. I got 15 acres so I got enough room to put them some where

Great Video! How do I know which direction the equator is ? Thank You!!

I self installed in Texas! Only way to go! Payback in 5-6 years!

Net metering has already gone away or is unavailable for many new customers. The utilities want to buy your solar at wholesale and sell you energy at retail and they will be doing this in the future. When they do this your ability to get to net zero you need about twice as much power generation as you use to offset the difference in retail vs wholesale pricing and use the grid as your storage. There's also danger of radio frequency interference (RFI) from many of these systems, research it carefully. Plus when the power goes out they shut down and you have no power at all. Consider other system designs that include energy storage, they may cost a bit more but offer more benefits and savings.

Great video, thank you! How often do you clean the panels? How much time does it take?

Where did you buy your panels, inverters, and racking system from? Great video btw!!

Saw both of your DIY solar video, excellent work! I was curious about how you'll replace your roof shingles when it comes time? I suspect the solar panels will protect your shingles, so your 20-year shingles (guessing) will probably last 40 years?

I installed 12v system to generate power to my farm with 450w solar panel. I don't use inverter bcz less power lost. Thanks for video sharing

Wait the way this is calculated in your country is actually amazing. In my country when you have solar and you dont need the energy and you send it into the grid you get payed about half of what you pay when you need energy and there is no storing up like in your case. So in the summer when you produce a lot of excess you basically get payed half for what you provide and when you need more in winter you pay full price.

All is fine and looks good how it is where you live. Unfortunatly it isn't same for us in Europe..Too much paperwork you can't install it by yourself and another silly things..

The only thing I fear is putting the holes in the roof (for insurance reasons), but when i need to change the roof, I will have brackets installed and do the rest myself. I also live very far north, and have a shallow roof angle, so I might not get great numbers in the winter.

great video

Some states, such as Arizona have lots of sun, but solar is a questionable choice as there are no SRECs and the cost just to have an electric connection is $15-$20/month.

You should look into a DIY Geo Thermal Instalation. A friend of min in OH used to pay 4-500/month Power for electric Base Heaters and now pays 100-150/month. A DIY Geo Thermal System is about $4-5k

81kWh per day average is up there. I personally use about 66kWh (with pool, spa, heat pumps etc) and relatively large home too, and I thought our consumption was excessive. anyways my power bill (in new zealand, where we pretty much get ripped off with everything, very high cost of living) is about NZD$400 per month. be aware no conversion between USD and NZD currencies needed, as we earn and live in our respective countries.

Are you still using baseboard heat? If so have you thought about a mini split with heat pump function? You get 3x the heat per watt that electric heat can get you.

Thanks for Sharing. Would you have made even more if you put solar on both sides of the roof?

Permits vary greatly by City/State. Depending on your Elec. Company, all the drawings, Electrical Engineering Stamps, with limited "APPROVED" equipment defined by Elec. Company (Service panels, meter boxes, shutoff switches, all had to be "approved" from the electric company). Add to this the mounting system, plus, for Roof Mounted, certain cities require Structural Engineer drawings and associated stamps, all mounting systems require engineering specs, including loads, wind loads, mounting hardware etc. Extra meters, how to tie into the grid (Load side vs Line Side) proper sizing of the panel, main circuit sizing on your panel (120% NECA maximum for your main panel circuit breaker and bus bar). I just finished my system, 10Kw system, anything over that I had to register as a commercial enterprise and at that point, forget it. The rules went through the roof. The point, don't be naïve. That 12k that would normally go to the Solar Company that he said he saved, usually covers ALL of that stuff, plus inspections, plus paperwork, plus signoffs from building inspectors, Elec Company inspectors, City ordinances (many have limits with Solar installs). He did mention tho, the actual installation (wiring) of Solar Array is relative easy, all the inspections, paperwork, approvals, signoffs, permits, that will drive you nuts. When you're all said and done, you may look at that 12k savings and say, you know, it really wasn't worth it.

just saw. thanks

Thanks I subscribed. I want to learn Solar

I'd love to just get a Sar system to add a little power to cut my energy bill in half but it sounds so complicated and expensive to get it going from the start to finish plus I don't k ow how to do alot of the stuff needed as far as hooking it up so I'd have to hire an electrician for most of it it just doesn't seem worth it yet....maybe when it's more simple to diy and panels are more efficient and cheaper

Your project is amazing! We in Germany often use batteries (~10kWh) because the cost difference between buying and selling electricity is waaay too high. You get your investment back a few years earlier by purchasing batteries. For the environment's sake, I think we should learn what others do to make pure solar power without batteries more attractive.

Although your home is two storey it does appear to be lower than my two storey home. So I had mine installed. Here in the uk if you have more than I think 16 panels you cannot join the MCS scheme. Micro Generation Scheme. I have 14 panels. I buy my power from supplier A but sell my excess power to supplier B. The scheme guarantees a stupidly high price for my power for 20 years. Which is subsidised by bill payers from the big six suppliers. Complicated and tbh its a scam. But people can't opt out of it unless you use a small supplier. But if you can't beat the scam, join it. So I got my panels. I make about 6 to 700 pounds a year from my panels but my power bill is about 1200 a year. Still worth doing though.

THIS has left me with a MIGRAINE! 🤯

ahhh i just ask a question on your other video, this video answered it lol

Great information. Thanks! Do you have any similar resources for off-grid solar? We are contacting our electric power company about net metering, but do not have SRECs where we live.

Switch your baseboard heat to a Mr cool multi-zone mini split system you can install yourself.

Do you have to clean the panels from the dust that won't go with the rain?