Who knows what about solar panels?

[Paul B]

It would cost me 162,000. pay for itself in 48 years
pretty sure they wlill be much cheaper here in a few years.

My system cost me $2,500.00 I had to lay out about $17,000.00 but I get almost all of it back except for $2,500.00
It's a no brainer. The system pays for itself in three years.
I am selling them now

[BigAl07]

Paul can you provide me some more information on what you're selling now? I'm currently the "Green Guy"in our company and need as much info as I can get

[Paul B]

I will be installing it this week and will provide information

[Triggerjay]

a 5kw grid tie system system that will generate about 550kwh a month can be had for around $30,000 before all the incentive credits. works out to about $10,000 for us here in our area. It says a 5kw system will power the average 2500sq ft home. There is no battery bank, just the grid tie, which reduces the cost of the system. During the day, you feed to the grid, and power your house from it.. so if you have buyback (which I thought was federally mandated at 1.5 X's the purchase rate to all the util companys in the us) they buy from you in the day, and at night, you buy from them... so its close to a break even on the utility end of things. I have been looking into a system for the new house.

Jason

[Paul B]

My system will give me 4,000 watts when the sun is shining. I was originally installing 16 panels but I ordered 6 more. It's a no brainer. The system will pay for itself in 3 years.
I am waiting for a missing part or I would have it installed already. It takes about 3 or 4 days to install for one person.

[Paul B]

I installed half the system, 11 panels which are giving me about 20 amps. I will install the rest of the system in a couple of weeks.

[Frankie]

Ah Long Island! I am coming up soon to visit my mother and brother.
Very cool project Paul. I was watching Project Earth on Discovery the other day and they were talking about doing this from space. Very interesting concepts. What I saw on that show though was a prism light concentrator the made the solar cell work almost 75% more efficient. You might want to check out the show in your area.

[Paul B]

Paul can you provide me some more information on what you're selling now? I'm currently the "Green Guy"in our company and need as much info as I can get
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Al in NY we are charging about $8.00 a watt to install the system. So for the system I have which is 22 panels it would cost about $32,000.00 to have the system installed which would save me in NY $900.00 a year in electricity.
I am getting back about $14,000.00 in rebates from the utility and another 5 or $6,000.00 in tax relief from the state and federal govt.
so the total cost of the system if I had to pay for it installed would be about
$11,000.00 which would pay for itself in about 12 years, less if power rates go up.
Of course in NY we have the highest labor rates, it may be much cheaper where you live.
I can get you a system or information if you like.
I just turned mine on for the first time last night. It has been running for 4 hours and I only have half of my 22 panels installed. It is cloudy here and the sun is hardly out, so I am only producing 800 watts. I will see what happens when it gets sunnier.
I also have (and sell) a wireless device which tells me how much electricity is costing me in dollars per hour. When the sun comes out today I want to turn off my solar array and I should be able to tell exactly what I am saving in real money per hour.
The Solar unit inverter tells me how many watts it is producing and how much CO2 I am saving and also the total power it made since I installed it along with how much it produced for the day.
Paul

[Paul B]

Well I tested it with half my panels installed and the sun out.
It was generating 1,400 watts and my power cost meter was telling me I was paying 7 cents an hour for power. This was without the fish tank or air conditioning on. When I turned off the solar array, the power meter read that I was spending 15 cents an hour for power. So it saved me about half the cost of electricity. If the full 22 panels were installed, all of my electricity would have been free. I also am waiting for the power company to come and change my meter for one that goes backwards so I can sell power to the utility company. That is also part of the service and the cost of the meter and installation goes to the power company.
I am waiting for a day which is not overcast to see what the maximum output is. I am sure in NY it would be less than the mid west.
That 7 cents figure sounds low, that is because I have 3 refrigerators in the house and when the compressors are not cycling, they don't hardly use power and the fish tank was off.
My consumption is usually closer to 43 cents an hour and it sometimes goes up to $1.25 when something kicks on.
My electricity costs me aprox $2,700.00 a year and this is supposed to generate about $900.00

[Intranick]

Another alternative that is kinda a meet in the middle deal.. that I do.. is check your local power company and see if they have any alternatives availible.. I currently pay a little extra for electricity to get wind source.

this doesn't change where my power comes from, just what facilities I pay for. The reason I dont mind paying more, is I feel it encourages them to continue to put up wind plants - almost a trickle down concept

[Paul B]

Today I finished installing all 22 panels, now I can't wait until the sun comes out to see how much I am generating

[BigAl07]

Paul....


"The sun will come out tomorrow... tomorrow... tomorrow......"

I'm excited to hear as well

[BigAl07]

Paul the forecast for SUN up your way today doesn't look GREAT! Looks like our Nor-Easter is gonna bring you some nasty weather! Maybe the sun will... Come out TOMORROW... Tomorrow... TOOOMOORRRRROOOWWW

[Paul B]

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Paul the forecast for SUN up your way today doesn't look GREAT! Looks like our Nor-Easter is gonna bring you some nasty weather! Maybe the sun will... Come out TOMORROW... Tomorrow...

Al, it is dark and raining like hell here now but surprisingly the panels are generating almost 400 watts right now which at least feeds my reef.

[BigAl07]

Yeah they should get something even on cloudy days. Over cast days will shock you how much you're still making.

What are you using for storage if any?

Are you able to "sell any back"?