We live in New Mexico which has lots of strong sun year round. Lots of solar companies in Albuquerque. Ours is a new build house with a tile roof. We had 10 solar panels installed last summer for about $13,500. Very good company Sun State Solar which I would highly recommend. They handled all the installation and electrical work. We only pay $8.31 per month on our electric bill which is just the taxes and fees. The panels produce more than enough for our house and our Model Y.
I went solar here in southern New Mexico in 2010. I paid $31K for my 3.6 KW ground mount system with 16 Enphase micro inverters. After the Fed and state tax rebates the system actual cost was $16,800, which paid for itself in 7 1/2 years. Since May of 2010 I have had a zero bill. Yes we are allowed to completely zero our bill here with PNM. Plus they pay me every month for my excess which averages about $65. When my 13 year contract runs out in three years, I'm going to expand to the maximum allowable 10 KW, (grid connected). At that point I want to get an EV. I also would like to see about Air Source heating and cooling. Maybe air source hot water also. Solar was a lot more expensive ten years ago when I got mine. But we were given an attractive contract from PNM to compensate. They pay me 13 cents/KW for everything I generate. Coupled with their rate of 12 cents, they pay me about 25 cents when I make the meter spin backwards. I pay them 12 cents when it spins forward. NM no longer has any tax incentive, and I think the Fed one is going away too.
Fully support your comments regarding battery backup systems. I am hopeful they will reduce in cost considerably in the next year or two when timing combines with deliveries of the Model Y to Australia. I currently have a 3.5kwh system which cost 8.5k in 2008 and which reduced by power bills to zero for the pass 12 years. Good luck with your system
Good Job Ron, liked how you spelled out how you made your decisions. Also, good job getting quotes and researching contractors, a bit of work ahead of time can definitely save some headaches from them later.
Hey Grandpa Ron, I really enjoy your videos! Thanks for sharing great info about your exploration into the cost analysis of home solar. I'm curious about your searching up historical data on your local power company. Did you look much into that in an effort to determine how much and how often they increase rates? If so, how did you find that info?
Tyler Mitchell I did look up rate changes for sdge. They have gone up a lot over the last few years. For my estimates I just used current rates. Hard to predict the future. Will be doing a follow up video soon.
I have 2 arrays - one from a local installer last year and one I put in this year for my EV (picked up Model Y last week). I have the sunniest roofs in the neighborhood and had my garage roof redone April of last year. That's when I decided to cost it out and I should see an 11-12 year ROI on my first array, it will produce 6200kWh a year roughly (5.3kW array, I live in SE Michigan). I decided to install another array for more power for my EV, put in 2.5kW 8 panel array on my house south facing roof with Enphase micros in April this year. It generates 45% of what my main array does - would be higher but I went with IQ7 over IQ7+ micros to save money and not overproduce power. It should generate 2800kWh which would power my Model Y for over 8K miles a year. Should be about perfect. Since I self installed this array it will pay off in 5.5 years! I'm loving my solar. If you are good with house electricity, installing solar with microinverters is very easy imo! I had a lot of fun doing it, the hardest part was drilling the holes in my roof into the rafters (hard to get it started but it went very well). I only missed one, right beside it and moved the drill over 1" and they are all perfectly in the rafters. If you have some extra money and the correct roof, power rates, I highly recommend solar!
You did mention microinverters so that is great. My system is 3.98KW. LG panels with microinverters. I got 65% off with Federal and State refunds so very worth it. I think you should be a little careful saying cloudy places though as they still have a lot of sun. I am in the Chicago area. The system just costs a little more to compensate for shade. You got a good system with a new electrical panel, but hard to confirm total costs as most people would not get solar if they had to replace the panel. Your case you had a reason and it worked out well. Did you get LG panels? Looking forward to your next vid!
Marc Spunt I have Sunpower panels. They just completed the electrical panel so I can now charge the Tesla but still waiting for ok to turn on solar. Should take 2 more weeks.
Ah, see, great choice, Sunpower using Panasonic as far as I know, which are just a bit better than LG. Did you get a quote from Tesla on panels? They did not install in my area at the time...
