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travellerw
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# Posted: 16 May 2025 10:51pm
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I purchased a couple of panels for our cabin about 2 years ago from a local "one man company". On the weekend he reached out and said he was liquidating his current stock and would I want any panels. He offered me the same panel I bought for my cabin (Jinko 540W bifacials) for $140CND.. Not kidding...
Dammit, I didn't need anymore projects. But I guess our new house is going solar.
P.S. Those panels have been performing WAY beyond my expectations for the last 2 years!
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paulz
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# Posted: 17 May 2025 06:29am
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Good score! That’s how I ended up with so much stuff around here. ‘Never turn down a good deal.’
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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 17 May 2025 10:21am
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Sweet! 10,800w! That ought to do the trick!
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travellerw
Member
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# Posted: 17 May 2025 10:52am
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Sigh.. I've been doing research and its going to be a can of worms. At our cabin there are almost no rules as its considered agricultural land. However, here in the city the rules are crazy.
For one, they take your last 3 power bills, average them out and will only approve a system capable of producing 10% more than that (Seriously). So its pretty common for people to rent hot tubs, borrow bitcoin mining rigs, crank AC with space heaters on, ect. Drive up those bills so you can install a big system.
Then there are the permits and engineering required. Even ground based systems require engineer sign off for the structure. Huh, how would this be different from a covered deck?
Sigh.. So that is going to be a fun lava pit to navigate.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 17 May 2025 11:11am - Edited by: gcrank1
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A friend here bought something like 36 235w? panels for his house project in a small town here. He didn't check into what would be required.....the town fathers made him get an engineering report on his roof for the array and did not pass (major rebuild topside needed for the weight and wind). So he figured he could build a grd mount to also act as a back yard shade....Nooo,
and he'd have get a sign off from all the neighbors within view.
It looks to me like they Do Not Want solar on residences there and you Must be grid-tied for occupancy permit.
Run the numbers based on ALL your costs (and time) to do the solar then calc the roi.
Maybe investing in the power co stocks would effectively reduce your bill too without the work and expense of becoming an aux power co for them?
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travellerw
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# Posted: 17 May 2025 12:40pm
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Quoting: gcrank1 Run the numbers based on ALL your costs (and time) to do the solar then calc the roi. My guess is that you'd be better off investing all that money in your power company stocks to let the growth offset your bill.
We are lucky that the house is on a 3 acre acreage. So I don't have to bother with neighbour sign off. I'm doing ground based, so no roof engineering report. However, depending on the inspector I may been an engineering certificate on the structure (mostly for wind). Some inspectors are waiving that as long as you follow an existing design (which they can provide).
I have run the numbers a bunch and I'm pretty sure I can keep the whole job under 10K. If so, I should get payback in 6-7 years.
Its much harder to calculate the affect it will have on the property value. I'm guessing the bump in property value will be larger than the cost of the whole job. If was to hire a "solar" company this job would run between 18K-30K.
Not to mention the side effect of essentially bumping my service to a 200A service (at least during the day).
So all in all, I think its going to be worth it. However, its going to be a pain in the ass to DIY. I like a challenge, but we will see how much grey hair I have after this!
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 17 May 2025 02:37pm
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Panels are 'cheap' now, but what are you planning for storage?, it is expensive.
Or maybe you are going to forego storage and only use the solar electric when it is producing? (micro-inverters?)
Anyway, maybe you are better with the numbers than me...seems like I make my best estimate (always rounding up) then find I needed to double it  Now I just do that and Im way closer. Still cant account for my time though.
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travellerw
Member
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# Posted: 17 May 2025 02:48pm
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The plan (so far) is grid tied and using the grid as the battery. Sell when overproducing, pull when under producing.
I will most likely go with a growatt hybrid inverter that can have a battery added at a later stage. However, not sure I will ever add it since its only real purpose would be for backup in a outage. We have not had a single outage in 6 years.
As to time.. Yup, for most people the time cost is big. For me, I really don't count it as its my "entertainment". I don't watch TV or sports or play any sports. Instead I do things like this as I like learning new stuff.
I buy and sell enough stuff at auctions that I'm pretty good at estimates (and finding super deals on stuff like Teck 90 cable). I also have connections in the oilfield so I can get stuff like pipe for a decent price.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 17 May 2025 03:48pm - Edited by: MtnDon
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Our home has been solar powered with a grid-tied system since 2018. We looked at having a system installed professionally. We ended up with a DIY system because I had a friend with a couple of decades of experience with system design that included working with a number of power utility compaies across the western US. He helped steer us through the regulations and paperwork.
Speaking of that, once the local power company saw that we seemed to know what we were proposing they were not too bad to work with. My biggest frustration was working at the slow pace that seemed to be the poco norm. Our installation also coincided with a local building boom that also had the city building department inspectors working under a backlog of all inspections. So combined there was a fair anount of waiting for the next inspection.
Micro inverters or string inverters? If string inverter(s) do you figure on using power optimizers? Again, just curious.
EDIT: I see I missed a post while typing.... Looks like a string inverter for you. We went with micro inverters because the panels had to go on the roof and because of the roof slopes configuration we would have needed three string inverters or change the panel layout to something we did not like.
Regarding the limiting of the system size to what has been historically used, there is a valid reason for that, from what I've been told. The small local neighborhood section of the power grid has a maximum design capacity. To try and ensure grid dependability the poco limit alternative homeowner power generation to avoid overpowering the equipment. That's it in a nutshell. There are also resons to not overbuild the panel size depending on factors that can vary between locations and power companies.
EDIT: Our poco grid tie system takes the average of an entire year as generation varies widely summer to winter.
Does your poco offer true net metering, where each kWh of energy credit into the grid can be withdrawn as the same kWh of energy at any future time? We also do not have time of use metering in our area (for now at least).
With our plan excess generation collects and is saved as kWh credits until they may be used. If we were to use more than the acculated credis of kWh we would then be charged for that on the next months billing. Our plan does not allow for any credited kWh to be converted into being paid cash to us. Because of that it would have made no sense to install a larger surplus of panels.
Our poco does have an optional generation plan where excess generation can be paid out to the homeowner. That has a Catch-22 though. The kWh purchase is at a much lower rate and not worth the expense of the extra panels.
Our system has paid for itself. Since month 1 we have never paid the poco for any energy at all, just the meter fee which started at $8.14 and is now $16.10. We have a considerable credit saved up, enough to allow me to install a split mini for the garage workshop heating and cooling. (After installing the solar we upgraded the furnace and A/C as well as a new more efficient refrigerator and water heater. All-in-all we are very happy we bought the solar system.
By the way, our homeowner-owned system increased our house value. Many neighbors around us got leased or PPO systems about the same time. Some of those people have run into problems when selling their homes. IMO, solar is great ONLY if you own the system.
NM is a very solar (and wind energy) friendly state.
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MtnDon
Member
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# Posted: 17 May 2025 04:46pm
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FWIW, we manage quite well with 3.6 kW of panels in total, and temperatures require a lot of A/C
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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 18 May 2025 09:30am
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Quoting: travellerw Then there are the permits and engineering required.
FWIW - I don't know if it's applicable but our local solar supply place here in AZ ( NAZ Solar Electric) referred me to a company called Green Lancer. They can do all the engineered drawings and provided any other needed documents for the permitting process... according to NAZ. They tell me they are very reasonably priced for the services as well. There website/business is geared towards contractors but they will help DIY folks as well.
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Nobadays
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# Posted: 18 May 2025 09:43am - Edited by: Nobadays
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BTW.... I just scored 19 brand new Trina 255w smart panels from a guy near us... he even delivered them... for $37 each! The crazy thing is I only ordered 15 from him but he had a broken pallet with 19 on it so gave me all 19 for the price of 15!
He and a partner bought out a bankrupt solar company warehouse. He still has 100 pallets of the 255w, 20 pallets of 325w and all the goodies that connect to the smart panels for monitoring and rapid shutdown... as well as a stack of Sunnyboy grid tied inverters. He is selling a complete 10kw grid tie system, minus the mounts and wiring for $2,395.
I can hardly resist! But like you travellerw... I don't need another project!
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travellerw
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# Posted: 18 May 2025 12:34pm
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MntDon - Thanks for the great post, it validates some of my plan.
I have designed and built many boat based solar systems, however this is my first grid connected system.
I'm going for a string inverter for a few reasons (ability to do hybrid in future if I want, higher voltage/smaller wires, easier monitoring). I have been studying code, and our local code states that I need an RSD even on a ground based system unless the inverter is 1M from the array. My inverter will be farther than that so I can take advantage of the high voltage from the array. Since I need an RSD device at each panel, it looks like only a slight bump in cost to do a combined RSD and optimizers. I have absolutely no experience with optimizers so I need to do some research (I don't even know how they work).
As to our local poco. If you overproduce, it is stored as credits. They are required to pay out any credits every 3 months. I haven't got into the weeds as to the actual payout values (are you paid less than purchase costs). Although these rules have been changing every year for the last 5 years as the poco lobbies the government.
As to building a bigger system. I understand the local equipment explanation. However, it makes it hard for the homeowner to plan. I eventually want to install a heat pump which will change my usage MASSIVELY.
Nobaddays - Thank you for the suggestion. I will absolutely check out that company.... and... whats one more project ;)
Anyway.. I will post back as things progress. It will probably be slow though.
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travellerw
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# Posted: 18 May 2025 12:47pm
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Ahh.. One other thing I forgot to mention. We have an electric car and will probably have a second one sometime in the near future. So between those things and the heat pump, I'm actually hoping a 11K array will be large enough.. We will see.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 18 May 2025 01:04pm
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I wouldn't depend upon any current contract with a poco as a 'lasting document'. Any calcs id make would only include that as a short term thing subject to change at any time.
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