Total Cost Breakdown of our Solar Power System & How Many Years to Pay for Itself. 

This Video was intended to give everyone an idea what it would cost to build a system like this. I was very lucky to have the EP Cube system provided to me, so my actual costs were $14,374.08, and my pay off time will be 5.5 years. But I wanted to make sure people knew what the real world costs would be and how long it takes to break even. When I edited the video I wasn't happy with how I worded a few things, and didn't want to misrepresent the actual facts, so made this comment to clear things up.

You saved a fortune on labor that most others would have to pay out. Excellent skill to have! The peace of mind must be remarkable, now that everything is done. It was a joy watching you install all of this over the year. Thanks for going through all of that extra effort. God bless

You did great. It looks beautiful. I was a electrician for 48 years. My 3 sons are electrical engineers, graduated from Purdue. I’m now 82. Thanks for sharing jim

Thanks for the update on solar and your amazing system. I had always wanted to run solar and even some wind turbines to help offset the sun not being out or at night. You have the perfect barn for that!!! Have a Merry Christmas with family!!

Great work on the video. Thanks again

Thank you All for the show Lucky Edmonds in Candler NC

Evan, did you cover trenching cost , inspection cost, and the cost of building your 'special' room ?

Thank you for sharing.

Thanks Evan

Thanks for the update and Evan you didn't break anything in the video 👍

Good info Evan! Such a shame they only pay you so little.

Nice work! Your numbers are very similar to mine.

This series on the solar system installation was fantastic. Really, really informative and well done. Thank you!

You're blessed to be able to do the work. Any estimate what labor may have been? Thank you and Merry Christmas.

Great analysis. It might behoove you to do another cost analysis adding say 50% more batteries, so you can use more of the solar you produce rather than selling it back to the power company for pennies. Remember, that electricity rates don't go down, only up. We're retired FT RVers who discovered we love to boondock off-grid. We lived in our motorhome off grid for 10 months last year. We designed and built our electrical system ourselves (my son is an electrician and he kept me safe), which allows us to be electrically self-sufficient, without the need to connect to the grid anymore. It sure is a liberating feeling to know no matter what happens, if electricity rates skyrocket to over 40 cents/kwh or more like they are in Hawaii, it won't affect us in the least. We started by building a 620-watt liftable solar array on the side of our motorhome. Our side array makes a nice bedroom window awning too, practically lifting itself with a couple gas struts, and it's easy to clean, standing safely on the ground. Lifting the array to the exact angle needed improves its efficiency 20-30% compared to horizontally mounted panels, even more in the winter, when the sun is lower in the sky. Next, we built a 12v, 560ah LiFePo-4 battery using 8, 280ah prismatic cells and a Heltec 330amp (1,200a surge) BMS to start my generator, with a 5a active balancer. These cells fit perfectly under the steps of our MH where our old pair of golf cart batteries used to reside. We insulated the battery compartment, cut a small hole in our step risers and installed a tiny computer CPU fan to keep this space at close to room temperature, so we don't have to worry about the BMS shutting down charging due to low temperature - or their life reduced from getting too hot. If you add all our 12v system components together including the liftable array, wiring, converter/charger, inverter, charge controller, breakers, wiring, battery monitor, etc. this system cost us under $3,500. It has already paid for itself several times over the last 5 years, not just in the cost of electricity, but in the cost of staying in RV parks. Boondocking is mostly free, but RV parks can average $45 a night or more. Even at their discounted monthly rates, most RV parks cost $400-$750/mo. + metered electricity. Having proven the concept, we expanded our system. By mounting the solar array on the side of our coach, we left the roof free to rack 8, 550w solar panels down the length of our 35ft Class A, 15" off the roof, above our AC, vents, etc. These cost us 51 cents/watt shipped to our door. It shades our entire roof, allowing plenty of cooling air underneath, increasing solar output and reducing the heat load on the air conditioners. Our 4,400w array can run both our A/Cs, our household appliances and charge our batteries at the same time, even in winter. We can even run our mini split heat pump 24/7 providing both A/C and heat powered by the sun. We use a Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W Inverter/100A charge controller/battery charger, saving us space as well as money compared to a system built with individual components. We chose this particular unit because it supports up to 500 volts of solar power which was needed for our 400voc solar array. Our 48v battery uses 16, 320ah prismatic cells and a 200amp Heltec BMS to keep it safe. Together with our 7.1 kwh 12v bank, we have a total of 23.5 kwh of batteries onboard (slightly more than you have, though our storage needs are far less) - kept charged by 5,020 watts of solar. We removed our old rooftop bedroom A/C and replaced it with an EG4 28.5 seer-2 mini-split heat pump on the upper rear of our motorhome. It's super quiet and cools as well as our 14.5k btu soft start equipped Furrion we have up front, but only draws about 1/3rd the power. It heats efficiently too, reducing our propane usage. Our total budget for both 12v and 48v systems was around $11,500, including the $1,500 high-efficiency heat pump. We have no need to hook-up to power pedestals or run our generator anymore, as we run everything in our MH strictly off the sun. We travel around the country a lot, visiting National Parks, and doing the tourist thing, mostly boondocking out west. We spent last winter in Yuma, AZ, but we're visiting our son in NC now, where boondocking places are pretty rare. We found an RV park that is letting us camp in a spacious site without hook-ups for only $100/mo., saving us $500/mo. off their FHU rates. At this rate, our 48v system will be paid for soon too. BTW, I didn't take any money from the government for my system, so I'm not beholden to them in any way.

Very cool, thanks mate

Merry Christmas everyone and God Bless!❤❤❤🌲🎅🤶

Nice work keep up smart man

Excellent breakdown on real world cost for a diy install. Im looking forward to a one year review to see what your payback time looks like. Its hard to trust people online to give an honest review, I trust you to do that.

Merry Christmas

Your training and experience explains how professional your installation looks. Using the old adage of labor cost=material cost, a person who doesn’t have your skill set would expect a 20 year break even. A rather risky investment. Your videos provide a great deal of good information.

Good to see some real world actual numbers on a DIY system. I'm starting to kick around the idea of a system, especially when you start to see the costs of used panels these days.

Thank you for dumbing it down for us mere mortals❤😅

I has been incredible to watch your Solar Battery Growth since you first two "EcoFlow Pro Batteries" then adding on Solar and more batteries... NOW you have your own Power Plant!!!!

And also glad to see that cardboard out on the last oil change!!!! Love the videos and the time you take to film and edit . Personally, I think it is the best filming on RU-vid.

Merry Christmas!

Compared to having a $20k whole house generator installed, your system could wind up making you $8k, so you might end up $28k ahead. And I'm sure building it was quite satisfying, too.

How great to spell it out in dollars and cents so people understand the facts. No bias, just simple facts. Thank you!

So it looks like you start buying power at 6 am. Have you considered getting up an hour later? That would cut your purchased power in half. Another thought would be to buy one more battery. Do you think that would eliminate buying any power? The power company buying from you for 3 cents is like robbing from you. I would do everything I could not to buy from them. Another idea-putting timers on the freezers and refrigerator for that 2 hours to hold off buying power. Just ideas. I think you did a fantastic job on the solar. You still have plenty of room on that roof! Another idea-use the ecoflows to run the refrigerator and freezer at night. Then you could recharge them later in the afternoon instead of sending that power to the power company. I run my fridge 24 hrs a day off my bluetti ac200p.

Good video Evan. I started with 12kw and batteries but have bought another 12kw in panels (30cents per watt from signaturesolar) and another solark 12k inverter. Plan to install when I get time this year. The main assumption is more expensive power over time but there's some chance they come out with fusion power at a fraction of the current power rates. I say this because there seems to be a lot of emphasis in the media on this and they tend to relay what happens before it occurs. I mention this also because my family considered a solar farm lease deal and it fell through. That turned out to be a blessing. I found out that when the solar farm goes bankrupt the creditors will put a mechanic lien on the landowners property (which no property owner would expect) which would lead to losing the land because the land owner would not be able to pay it. This is how the state of indiana is handling this type of scenario that is not covered in the lease agreement. So beware of any land lease for solar, wind, etc. The end result could be a huge land transfer with either a market crash or cheap power due to fusion. The WEF has already said you will own nothing and be happy. You have to think how that is planned to happen. Gov Holcomb of IN has spoken at the World Economic Forum 5 times already so it seems he is helping make this happen.

You would have to double that price with labor included.

Awesome video!!! Thank you!

The only factor you didnt calculate is installation cost because were not cable

You need to vote in what we have in Ohio. Here we can buy our electric from any where in the country. I just locked in 6.2 cents for 3 years from Dynegy in Texas.

Evan, I'm sorry if this was discussed earlier but here in South west central PA we get SREC credits which I think would amount to more than a thousand dollars a year for a system your size.

What a great system! Professionally done (obviously) and the cleanness of it makes me happy. Pretty cool

So the power company charged you $300 to sell power back, then pays you 1/5 the price they sell it for... Wow... Lol.

All said and done you guys are ahead of the game! Great install series!

But you didn’t figure in your labor. If you can’t do it yourself it’s a lot more.

I’m in Uk my brother had his fitted 15yrs ago his payback rate is 45 . On his first winter he went to Florida for 8weeks on his return he was looking forward to do the readings well he generated very little and he used loads from the grid. He went ballistic phoning everyone in the end his wife told him in the rush to leave she left the hairdryer on . The fuse on the panels had blown hair dryer was dead too

If you added more batteries, would your grid usage decline enough to justify the cost of more batteries, or would you need to buy more solar panels also, which would increase the size of the whole system? It seems logical that storing 15 cent electricity for your own usage is better than selling it to grid for 3 cents every time your batteries are fully charged. .

You may have already been asked this but . . . What would a decent sized generator do to keep you up and running or sell more power back to the power company?? I don't know if it would be cost effective or not. Maybe a diesel generator of commercial size???? Just curious!!

warranty is only worth something if you can claim it ... let's see how many solar companies will still be in business in 10 years from now.

I enjoy all of your videos. Did you figure what you are saving on your electric bill on your breakeven point.

Hopefully I'm around to see the 15 year video of you replacing the batteries....

Id like to know what more it would take to become independent and cut the power company off. Eight more panels? One more battery? You already have the emergency generator if the system fails or its cloudy for a week. That would have to be cheaper than dealing with the power company.

Thanks for sharing this Evan, we were just talking about Solar the other day and this will explain the costs really good to my son. You did an awesome job with the instalation and there was no halffasting anything, you did it corectly. Stay safe and keep up the great videos. Merry Christmas to you and Rebecca and your families. Fred.

Thanks for keeping track of all the costs and analyzing the returns! When selling for $0.03, possibly an electric vehicle might work to soak some of that up - even a lawn mower? Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Awesome video and explanation, I am in the same situation, I built and installed my own system, but my electrical company doesnt buy back for hardly anything as well..... so much for wanting people to go green lol, I dont currently have batteries and being in texas im covering around 55%, AC is a killer, hoping to add batteries in the next year or two.

Great job on the install and video Evan! Our future homesite on the farm is pretty far from the service tie-in. I’m about to calculate off-grid solar vs grid. Costs will be pretty close but the government rebate makes the solar more competitive. I’m just not sure I want to be completely off-grid!

Awesome informative video⚘️

I avoided the pitfalls with the utility company by making all my own electricity & storing it in a bank of batteries. I don't sell them anything. Be forwarned that you should buy all your equipment & materials in the same year because the IRS only lets you claim the 30% credit once in your lifetime. I also did my own install. The credit lowered my tax rate, I got another credit from my state, and I ended up getting combined tax refunds only $1000 less than the cost to buy everything. And my solar reduced my utility bill massively, not counting gas service. My utility company immediately contacted me & wanted to know how I lowered my usage so much. 😅

Very interesting video and I love your channel.I know you are a friend of Pete on Just a few acres and I am concerned that I haven’t seen a post for a while.Do you know if all is well with him? Merry Christmas to you and your family. Bob from Canada

Looking at your graph at 10:18, there's a flatline from 12:30pm until about 3pm, which appears to be the battery at 100%. Could you add an additional battery to the system and peak higher than that? If so, this would also allow you to install a wind generator which runs all the time and have a much more flexible system.

15 cents??????????? PGE Santa Cruz CA RESIDENTIAL RATE PLAN PRICING tier 1 36 cents per kWh tier 2 45 cents per kWh going "green" isn't cheap or smart.

👍 thanks 😊

I just dont think its right that you have to pay the power company to start selling back, and then they dont pay you squat for the power you sell back. Systems rigged all the way around. Great video Evan! Merry Christmas to you and Rebekah!👍🎅❄️☃️🎄

So what would it cost too hire all that done ? Twice of materials ?

When the grid goes down it will be priceless.

I don't think its worth the money you spent. The cost is to high in my state. Because my state is considered a low light state. To many cloudy days. To make it worth it, you need more batteries store all the power and don't sell them nothing

Would it not make sense to increase your battery bank by about 20-25% and never use grid power. Seems like that would make the ROI speed up given the disproportionate buyback rate

Great video, what’s the life expectancy of the panels on the roof ? N merry Christmas to u n Rebekah !!!🎄

Is there a design life for the photovoltaic panels? I believe they start to degrade in capacity over time. You mentioned the batteries, but not the panels. Just wondering. Another plus for roof mounting the panels is not having to keep overgrowth off of the panels. Where I live, summer is a season of intense growth of brush and weeds. A ground mount would be a real problem for me. I do like your use of wireways. They allow for easy extension of the system and any necessary wiring changes. An excellent choice.

👍👍great info thank you, happy christmas and new year to you all.

Wow you buy power for 15 cents per kilowatt hour! Our winter rates are 35 cents and the summer rates are 50 cents per kw hour!

I’ll stay with the grid and diesel tractors!!!!

@71 I don't think investing in a solar system would be wise of me, financially. I don't want to sound morbid but statistics are what they are. Speaking of which, thank you for sharing all of that data. I was very interested in that aspect of your solar setup. I know I can't take it with me but it's just my nature not to be wasteful and it's hard to change my ways after so many years.

Great job on the install and information, Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Man you got ripped off , I got a 15k sol ark, Sinclair rack, Canadians solar 415 bifacial x32, shipping, eg4 280amp indoor, for 21k.

Could've purchased more hay machinery with that money

Do you have solar power to the animal barn. Merry Christmas to you & your family

What about the cost of the permits and inspections?

Anyone engaging an electrician to do this work would have to multiply your final figure by about 5 times so out of reach of most folks !

A very interesting video Evan but you didn't appear to take into consideration the savings you also make from not having to buy much electricity. I wonder what the difference is between your monthly electric costs now with your solar system as opposed to before you fitted it. This would also be a saving so would mean the system would pay for itself even quicker or am I missing something? Love your videos. Keep up the good work. Merry Xmas to you all and I hope 2024 is everything you wish for and more. Slangevar. ❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

That price you used, did not include your labor ...correct?

You have a lot of freezers that what using the most power when your both working your so close to being totally off grid but every little bit helps your eating better than someone who buys all the groceries at a store and you know what it was fead 😊

There were no commercials. Might want to check that

Does the insurance have act of God exception?

That was a great breakdown of your system. We have a nearly 200 acre farm in eastern Missouri and putting up a solar system with battery backup is a goal for us. All in under 30 thousand dollars before the tax credits isnt bad for the size of your system. Give's us plenty of ideas. Thanks for posting this...

So what your saying is it's not worth it

Did you include the cost of insurance.

Thank you ! Merry Christmas!

one thing he didnt mention. interest, how much is interest for 20K over 10 years, and if you invested 20K how much would that make so you could pay your electric bill. well at 6% loan for 10 years your monthly bill would be 222.00. more than your electric bill. so no savings there. if you invested 20K for 10 years you make 10K at 4%. making half you electric bill per month. paying half your bills for 10 years and still have 20K. maybe in 10 years solar will cheaper, and you wouldnt have to borrow to get a replacement one, since you still have the 20K. and we tax payers would have saved the 10K you got in federal breaks,

How much of your time did it take to install if you can put in a dollar amount

Evan, this video was one of your very best. Your degree and experience are paying off big time from the professional installs to the articulate accounting and presentation. Extremely impressive.

Man it wouldn't pay for me to do solar my electric is cheaper

Great video, it's a shame the power companies get everything in their favour.

great explanation of your system. i am not sure that thinking of having the system pay for itself is a correct way to think. do you put this same thought process into a tractor? or your truck? or into a new pair of boots? electricity is a need anymore and producing your own has benefits that are hard to measure. grid issues now affect you less if at all and you can also look into ways to share your extra power with others than the power company. I am sure they would love to pay twice what the utility company gives you and it would double the amount you get. Try to think about your power production like you do with other things you produce at your farm.

Why do people consider thier solar system as an investment that must make a return? It's great that it does, but do you consider that your car is an investment? Is it meant to make a return? Well done on your installation. I'm envious!

Hi..... Evan thanks you for showing your video homestead bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋👍👍👍

🎄Merry Christmas Evan & Rebekah!🎄

One way to check your break even analysis is to divide the $19,000 by 120 months. That equals $158/mo. That is the amount your electricity bill must be reduced by each month (on average) in order to recoup your $19,000. If your january 2024 electric bill isn't $158 lower than the 2023 bill, you won't break even in 10 years.

$30,000 is what I’m looking to spend for a similar system given I won’t be doing all the labor. Sounds like your system generates an annual savings of $1,800 give or take. This would total a savings of $54,000 over 30yrs. Then I think to myself ok great but what if I invested $30,000 in stocks Which generate $1,800/year at 6% return rate. This would total $142,000 in earnings over 30 yrs. I want solar, everyone says to get solar, but upon doing some grade school math it appears it’s going to lose me near $100,000. System is still stunning and I wish I had it on my home

That's a lot of work for a $8,000 potential payoff. Assuming nothing breaks and nothing needs to be replaced in 15 years. But, if power goes by down for a couple days, you're covered.

You should also consider that money used to pay the power company is taxed heavily. To pay the power company 1$ I have to earn $1.37... Now everybody's tax situation is different. Most people who are considering purchasing a system like this will have a similar tax burden. This will significantly change your rate of return calculation. For your calculation $1,886/$19,161 = .0984 or 9.84% rate of return on your investment of $19,161 not including the tax escalator. Using your numbers with my tax situation it 9.84% x 1.37 = 13.4 % rate of return....(I know this oversimplifies it as tax rate is not linear) either way its a fantastic rate of return on your investment. My electric company has to pay one to one on energy produced so its a better deal for sure with us on the net metering. Also they charge significantly less for off peak hours of electricity so batteries don't really make sense in that situation. Either way Kudos to you for putting together such a baller system!

Sell the system you have now ... build a new system with Victron multiplus 5000 2x and victron mppts ...and build a battery yourself from 16 eve cells 280ah 14.8kw per unit 2300$ about ... put in 4 of them. that would be enough for you. and just lay the roof FULL of solar .. .the lower roof can handel more if you turn the pannels and dubbel the rows... calculate it for the topside ... use chatgpt if needed hahaha and your battery needs to be at least 40Kwh if your out with 20Kwh in a day . dont worry about selling it back... the thing is inflation in 10 20 years youll be paying dubble the price of electricity ...so build and just maintain your system over the years. and most important thing ...manage your loads because if you just keep running stuff like I DONT MIND ...your better off being connected to the grid and going on a vacation. or you separate the load of the hous from the panel side... so your high demand loads run from the grid...and the rest runs from the battery ..that means splitting the main board up yes...lots of work and thinking about things ... but thats just how it work if you dont want to over spend more than you already did ...

My utility company does the same thing. I wish we had redox flow batteries more readily available for residential applications in the U.S. they have near infinite cycle life, 30 plus years. Just have to worry about a couple mechanical pieces like a fluid pump. Non-flammable. Less energy dense but that doesn't matter for residential applications.

Nice job. I still think a bifurcated system that has your base load covered and the other side for instant use you can eliminate that early morning power purchase. New salt based batteries are coming as well that can store more and last longer. You have a decent sized house so 82% is pretty good. The area under the curve being larger than than above tels me another battery is needed for storing perfect days.

If you did not Grid tie, could have saved quite a bit, but well done...gonna go with a simple one for charging car like your first setup with power stations.

Did you include the increase in your homeowners insurance in your pay off time? That $400 extra isn't a one time cost, it's every year. Also I wouldn't assume your utility company will continue to pay that already paltry rate, as more people adopt solar, don't expect that to increase and expect any payout to be capped.