Are solar panels worth it in 2024?
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 23 окт 2023
- Solar Panels On My Net Zero Home … Still Worth It? The first 100 people to use code UNDECIDED at the link below will get 60% off of Incogni: incogni.com/undecided Are solar panels on your home worth it? And did I go too far this time? Well, I’ve shared my experiences living with solar panels on my previous home for five years now. Including the pros and cons of it. I just moved into my new factory built home with the goal of achieving net zero energy, which means more solar. I've experienced going solar twice within five years. Both with the same solar installer, in the same state… but with very different houses. How did I go about sizing my solar panel system to try and hit that net zero target before I actually lived here? And what challenges did we run into… because there were some challenges. Hopefully you’ll find something to take away from this if you’re considering solar for yourself.
Watch 5 Years with Solar Panels - Is It Still Worth It? • 5 Years with Solar Pan...
Home batteries and virtual power plants: • How My Tesla Powerwall...
Video script and citations:
undecidedmf.com/solar-panels-...
Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:
link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide
Follow-up podcast:
Video version - / @stilltbd
Audio version - bit.ly/stilltbdfm
Join the Undecided Discord server:
link.undecidedmf.com/discord
👋 Support Undecided on Patreon!
/ mattferrell
⚙️ Gear & Products I Like
undecidedmf.com/shop/
Visit my Energysage Portal (US):
Research solar panels and get quotes for free!
link.undecidedmf.com/energysage
And find heat pump installers near you (US):
link.undecidedmf.com/energysa...
Or find community solar near you (US):
link.undecidedmf.com/communit...
For a curated solar buying experience (Canada)
EnergyPal's free personalized quotes:
energypal.com/undecided
Tesla Referral Code:
Get 1,000 free supercharging miles
or a discount on Tesla Solar & Powerwalls
ts.la/matthew84515
👉 Follow Me
Mastodon
mastodon.social/@mattferrell
X
X.com/mattferrell
X.com/undecidedMF
Instagram
/ mattferrell
/ undecidedmf
Facebook
/ undecidedmf
Website
undecidedmf.com
📺 RUclips Tools I Recommend
Audio file(s) provided by Epidemic Sound
bit.ly/UndecidedEpidemic
TubeBuddy
www.tubebuddy.com/undecided
VidIQ
vidiq.com/undecided
I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you. 
Наука
What’s your dream solar setup? The first 100 people to use code UNDECIDED at the link below will get 60% off of Incogni: incogni.com/undecided
If you liked this, check out 5 Years with Solar Panels - Is It Still Worth It? ruclips.net/video/hxj8mNzv8PI/видео.html
Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:
link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide
Get a wind turbine too.
Hey Matt! Did you think adding the solar panels onto a metal roof can affect the efficiency of the solar panels due to radiant heat generated? Ex. overheating
Did you consider getting a wind turbine? If so, what was the reason you decided against?
You mention that your system has the ability to cut off from sending electricity onto the grid in the event of a grid failure. Is there any switch that you have to throw manually to ensure that your system is isolated? When I got my generator (40kw, Deere powered), I looked at an automatic start generator, but it would have at least tripled the cost and would have required complete replacement of the main entry panel. It would have had to include a very expensive switching system to cut off the main line, or I would have legally responsible if my generator sent power back to the mains while they were being worked on. Does your system include something comparable?
I'm more north than you, with a 14.5kW East-West facing array (40 LG NeON panels on 40 IQ7a) and produced 17,000kWh last year. I suspect you'll hit 20MWh.
We’ve now lived in our newly built efficient house in MA for 2 years. It’s 3000 sf with a garage connected by a breezeway. Many of our choices were similar to Matt’s: metal roof, 15 kW solar with Enphase microinverters, all electric appliances including convection cooktop and heat pump water heater and clothes drier. We’re grid-tied with a propane backup generator. No batteries yet. Our house has a simple barn-like design (2 stories) so all the panels are on the south-facing roof. Cooling the house to 77 in summer and heating to 70 in winter, we ended up more net-positive than expected. That includes charging an EV. Lifetime numbers are 53.6 MWh produced and 8.7 MWh imported from the utility. We have consumed 14.6 MWh and net exported 39.0 MWh. So we overshot by quite a bit, but we wanted to cover the entire south-facing roof with panels for esthetics. At least we’ll be covered for panel degradation over time, for a second EV in future, and for the likelihood that we’ll want to be even warmer in winter as we age. We’ll probably get batteries in ~8 years when the SMART incentive program expires. That program pays us monthly for exported power. Last year that added up to $3000, though it is subject to tax. By the time we’re ready to add batteries, I anticipate that cost will come down and performance might improve a bit over today’s offerings.
77 in summer? I would die at that temp.
@@jamskinner isn't 75/77 like the general human ideal??👀
@@MelloCello7 My house doesn't go over 18C (65F).. Like @jamskinner said, I would also die having to live in 77F. 65F would be my day time temp with lowering it to about 60F at night. I also live in Canada, so its pretty clear that location changes your standards of temperature.
Thanks for sharing! What kind of HVAC system for heating/cooling?
solar panels are a net loss of energy every single time they are implemented - it takes more energy to produce each panel than that panel will ever give back - they can't be recycled, so every single panel today will end up in a landfill
So happy for you and your wife getting all moved in! I know what a great feeling it is to be in your forever home. As always thank you for all the great information presented in a easy to understand method.
I love to see your installation and hear from your learnings. Next week I will expand my actual solar carport by installing a solar fence adding another 7,5 kWp.
I think you'll achieve your net 0 goal based on how well researched your amazing videos always are. I certainly am hoping that you do anyways, as you're more than deserving of achieving what you want with how much you've given to me and so many others who watch your videos in terms of valuable information and inspiration for what the future can look like. I look forward to your update video(s) to find out the results you ultimately achieve. Thank you for all the great information and resources you provide.
Thanks Matt. I purchased my place in central california with a PPE solar solution a couple years ago and one of the first things i did was install a Sense monitor at the junction box. My stats for J-D 2022 were pretty close to yours. My system generated 16.7MWh of energy and we consumed 14.7 MWh of energy with a 34% independence from the grid. Your design looks very well thought out. Nice job.
Only 34% independence?
@@rogerphelps9939Yeah, that number seems really low since they produced more than they used. Seems like it should be 100%, right?
Not so fast. Production not only varies throughout the year, it also varies even more drastically throughout each day. Even if you have a battery(ies), once those fill up you rely on being able to push energy back to the grid. Otherwise that power is wasted and can't offset your usage when the batteries are empty, or when the sun goes down if you don't have local storage. So you're not being independent if you're using the grid as storage.
In a nutshell, it doesn't matter which way the energy is flowing. If the grid is involved, you're not independent. You can only be 100% independent if you're 100% off grid.
@@awo1fman I would also add that CA has a massive stock of homes that aren't even insulated, much less including any other improvements in energy efficiency.
@@awo1fmanno because it's exported
Either you had solar for 50 years or you're operating a small nuclear reactor. Your system produced 16.7kWh not MWh :)
Thank you for doing so much for the environment and then make great videos about it! You inspire!
Great video. Glad you touched on battery solutions. I think it's going to be the next growth phase for residential solar owners.
Love keeping tabs on your progress. I hope you do end up meeting your goals, you've put too much work and thought into things not to.
Firstly, thanks very much for all the great videos and info on solar. Because of you, I signed up for solar sage (a few years ago) and finally decided to pull the trigger over the summer. Solar Sage had about 8 contractors reply with quotes. I independently reviewed each one and picked "Solar Roof and Air" out of Clearwater, FL (and TX). They seem competent, but there have been hiccups with our install. Nothing major so far. We have the commissioning for our system within this week (or next).
Our setup is: 29 panels (Q.PEAK DUO BLK ML-G10 SERIES), w/ ENPHASE IQ8M-72-2-US inverters. And (2) 10KWh Enphase IQ Batteries, and the Enphase IQ System Controller 2.
The energy company, Duke Energy, is pretty good about solar... and set up our meter to be bi-directional. Looking forward to tracking our energy generation and usage. I think I have space for another 20 panels if needed.
Matt, Your original solar video was a big reason why i ended up deciding to have a solar array installed at my new house. Here in Idaho, power is fairly cheap as there's a lot of hydro-electric, but my new house has no natural gas and is purely just electric. We went with a 18kw-dc and 15kw-ac system that is sized to do 120% of my last years power usage, as the panels degrade over their lifespan, roughly 20 years.... as I'm sure you know, my system will still be able to produce more than my annual usage. I'm also set up on a net metering program as well as have a metal roof somit made alot of sense. So far I'm loving it!
Definitely some good nuggets of information in here! Thanks
Literally approved my solar proposal today. We over-sized our system a bit (32 x 410w panels for 129% of our estimated usage) to accommodate EV charging (which was not reflected on current electric bills since we just got the vehicle) as well as our intent to change out our AC+Gas setup for a heat pump in the coming years. I do have some lingering worries that maybe I’ve guessed wrong on my estimates, but we’ll see.
My house was built in 2005, and while it’s not as drafty as older homes, it’s also not super energy efficient. My wife and I don’t see this as our forever home, but we still enjoy the thought of reducing our carbon footprint, reducing our utility bills, and increasing our resell value.
I love these videos as a great way to consider other factors in our project that we may not have foreseen.
His energy production is at most 12,470 kw..... The Enphase IQ8+ has a maximum continuous output power of 290 watts. That times the 43 panels is 12,470 kw. Remember in your calculations that just because the panels can produce 400 watts each does not mean that all that power is available. I learned this the hard way after I bought my Enphase system.
Yep, that is a common problem in designs. Solar companies are quoting the DC potential of the panels and not the max continuous output of the inverters (or microinverters). @@brianrothrock5893
This series is very helpful for planning my net zero project in Alaska.
Hopefully Enphase improved on their quality since I installed mine 12+ years ago since my Envoy Gateway only lasted 9 years before failing and they only give a 5 year warranty even though they give 20 years on the micro inverters.
The only good thing was I was able to purchase a used gateway and their tech support did all the programming to reprogram the used gateway, they were great in that aspect, good luck with your system!
Very Informative Matt. Thank-you 😊.
congrats on the new place .. I was about to remodel my home till I found the perfect wall system and so I discovered I wanted to wait lil bit longer because of new building science
Looks great. Congratulations! 🎉
I'm still really interested to hear more about that company you mentioned in your other video, Terra Sonic. I'm super fascinated to hear more about smaller drill rigs meant to help drive down the cost of ground-source heat pumps, and make ground-source heat pumps more realistic for smaller properties.
Please. I'd love to heat more about that.
Thank you and good morning!
We're in AZ and I had a 7 KW system installed last November. We just recently had to pay for electricity during the months of August and September because we started late for amassing credits last year. Next year, I hope to make it the whole year without paying anything for electricity, which is tough when the summers are over 110 F most days. I'll let you know how we do in the future, but so far, it's a win.
I am really looking forward to hearing your final results in a year from now. My house seems to be fairly similar to yours, so I really want to see the comparison.
Thank you Matt. 😎
We have a 10.45 kW solar installation with a 40/60 E/W split here in Perth, Australia. We added 2 Redflow ZBM2 batteries for 20kWh of storage. Even with ducted heat pump air-conditioning, we still have not needed to use any power from the grid.
I am really liking the redflow batteries as they do not use lithium and have no capacity degradation over their life. Oh, and they are fire retardant so no risk of burning your house down.
I am looking to build a similar home in Eastern Missouri. Trying to find a panelized manufacturer close to me. I am really learning a lot from your channel!! Since I have several acres to work with I am entertaining using solar trackers and pole mounted arrays. I can also do horizontal geothermal instead of drilling down.
Awesome video as always. Giving me so many ideas for my next home! Totally agree, states should step in and regular solar standards NOT TOWNS. I only found out about different town regulations after I had my solar installed, and then my parents had theirs installed.
Congratulations on the new home, it looks beautiful!
Towns shouldn’t exist imo. Why do we need hundreds of thousands of the same laws, boards, etc. so much fucking waste for these useless administrators making 100-200k to do nothing. On the other hand, I do believe towns have the right of free association.
@@nothingtoseehere93 So you get cities with 1 - 3 million people, it's in a state that for the most part is rural, as most states are, and state politicians draw district maps for voting that aren't equal in population, they CERTAINLY aren't in Texas, so you end up with a lot of rural people in the state govt. and they're supposed to legislate the complexity of very large cities.
Uh huh, RIGHT. That doesn't work though in Texas that's what the state govt. is trying to force by greatly restricting the types of laws/regulations a county can pass.
No thanks I think our city govts. in large cities often do MUCH better than the state does in understanding what laws should look like.
There's basically no similarity between small towns/rural areas and large cities. THAT is why you have city govts. And you wouldn't shrink the overall SIZE of govt. much by not having them because you STILL have to deal with police and the functioning of that city and ALL you'd be doing is passing that to a STATE assembly assigned to that city.
solar panels are a net loss of energy every single time they are implemented - it takes more energy to produce each panel than that panel will ever give back - they can't be recycled, so every single panel today will end up in a landfill
Even so many states create laws that interstate business a nightmare. The result is that only big businesses can manage interstate commerce, which helps them, and ultimately hurts the little guys. Neither political party can seem to figure this out.
Is your mom worth it in 2024? I think not!
Thank you for the information.
I am installing a 13.91kW behind-the-meter, ground-mounted PV array this week at the back of my property. It's on a South-facing, fixed-tilt rack, mounted on screw piles, with bifacial panels. All of this is being done in conjunction with upgrading my insulation and going fully electric with heat pumps wherever possible. My ultimate desire was to always have the option of "islanding" my home when the grid goes down and being able to run off the panels and batteries alone but that wasn't as economical as just remaining grid tied, so that's what we chose. As presently designed, I expect to offset the bulk of my energy usage, but not all of it. As we gain experience as to how our PV system operates and how increasing our efficiency altered our energy needs, we will expand the system by just adding more racking on each end of the existing rack. It's really great to watch you go through the process and share your experiences with your roof-mounted system. Great video!
Excellent Video, Keep up the good work
I don't understand why you used IQ8+ (299W) and not IQ8H (380W) for 400W panels. At the peak of the day when your panels output 400W, these inverters are operating at 75% efficiency. I replaced my IQ8+ with Hoymiles HMS-2000-4T-NA (475W) on my 400W panels and every week I see peak output from my panels exceeding 400W. I have data where they output over 500W!!! Clipping is horribly inefficient. I use the Hoymiles micros with my Enphase battery and they work well together.
Might be more than the batteries can take at once. In which case the energy would be wasted anyway.
Clipping losses are generally pretty negligible because you output more efficiently with higher DC:AC setups in lower insolation conditions (mornings, afternoons, partly cloudy, fall, spring, winter, etc) which helps negate the losses at peak sun conditions.
@@andRwhoo Not where energy costs are high, not by a longshot. Clipping 25% at the peak of a good day is not negligible IMO. Worse yet, on the not-so-good days when there are intermittent big fluffy white clouds, the 400W panels can output up to 500W, which makes up a bit for passing clouds, but if the inverter is clipping at 299W, it's a loss in addition to the clouds! IMO, unless the utility has a limit on what you can install, there is no sense in clipping.
@@drewharrison6433only if you can’t feed it into the grid 😅 if you can feed the grid you won’t have an issue
@@Playingwithproxies Yeah. He did say he's on grid. I am not. I forgot that my situation is different. There is no grid here.
Very smart of you to choose a metal roof. I messed up and put on a shingle roof before installing the panels. But I goofed up again by letting the installers mount the micro-inverters underneath the panels. What a bad idea. When one micro-inverter failed it meant climbing on the roof, lifting the panel, removing the bad inverter and replacing it with a new one. And this is a two man job. One to hold the panels up while the other person changes the inverter. I learned my lesson. When I expanded my solar system I had the micro-inverters mounted where they can be reached from the ground without a ladder if there is ever a problem. Thanks for sharing this video.
When I asked a master electrician about your easy to reach ground-level Microinverter setup (but with Power Optimisers) I was informed that there would be a noteworthy loss in voltage for all the extra cabling, having them closer to the panels is better for efficiency. The failures including labour should be included in warranty to fix them I suppose it wasn’t in your case.
@@JaylanYilmaz …When the original contractor broke my micro inverter during installation (on the roof panels)that inverter was obviously under warranty. That contractor went out of business so another contractor came out to do the job. Changing the inverter on the roof is a two person job and only one technician arrived. He waited in the front yard for 8 hours and a second person never arrived to help him so he got in his truck and left. The job never got done. The reason the inverter broke in the first place was because the original contractor only sent one man to do the job. When he attempted to hold up the rack with one hand and attach the inverter with the other hand he lost his footing on the sloped roof and dropped the rack, breaking the inverter. I was fortunate that the second inverter on that rack as well as the 4 panels attached to it did not break. So even tho there is a slight efficiency loss I would rather have the ground mount and be free of the problems associated with roof mount. At present, 12 of my panels are ground mount. When it is time to put up a new roof I will relocate those panels to the ground. If in the beginning I knew what I know now, all my panels would be on the ground. That broken inverter has never been repaired. I am just fortunate that I produce enough power from the remaining panels the the loss is negligible.
5 KW of SunPower solar on our southern Nevada house. We installed an induction cook top and a heat pump but our water heater and dryer burn city gas, as does our outdoor barbecue which is staying. The big problem is our breaker box is maxed out and it will cost major funds to go bigger. The gas appliances do not burn as much as it sounds because of high ambient heat in the summer and low ambient humidity so we hang dry most garments and take cold showers during triple digit heat. Even the barbecue gets a free hundred degrees in the summer.
Metal roof is a must for forever homes !
Standing seam metal is better than the screw down kind.
The rubber grommets deteriorate in Texas sun in a few years.
I fix plenty of them.
Good video. Thanks for the update. I live in Seattle and have the same solar array - REC 405w + IQ8 (plus one panel) and paid almost the identical amount.
We won’t be doing batteries as there is no time-of-use or buy back programs here.
Outstanding Matt,
This was another fantastic video.
I hope to begin our coastal Beaufort, NC Solar retirement home project this spring. Thankfully our VA home sold this past summer so we've begun the County & HOA "preliminary" site plan & concept review phase (basically step-1, of placing the house box on property site plan with electric, water, sewer, driveway, trees, Flagpole, ... & patio placements). 😎
I'm guessing YOUR factory-built home builder is NOT here in Coastal NC??? But after watching your & Ricky's projects, I may need to seriously reexamine considering them and other factory-built options, especially as I'm looking for as close to net-zero as possible and want great discipline and attention to the same details as yours and as in my last super-tight home.
Cheers, Eric
Appreciate you sharing your new solar build. We also have REC panels & they've been pretty great. I don't believe I have the same model as yours, as mine are just 300W per panel vs your 400W, so overall we're capable of about 13.5 kW from the array.
Nicely done, looks great! I might reach out to you in a year or so to discuss some of the choices you made regarding the house build as I approach doing mine. Thanks again for sharing your build experience.
His energy production is at most 12,470 kw..... The Enphase IQ8+ has a maximum continuous output power of 290 watts. That times the 43 panels is 12,470 kw.
thanks again matt , luv you
Your new house is awesome so simple but so efficient! My goal!
Very informative video. Well done!
Cool that you included coverage of the Enphase IQ8 islanding capabilities. I think you ought to include some mention of the fact that it does not come standard with every IQ8 install. The homeowner would also need to install a certain switch that will tell the micros to go into islanding mode, else they will still turn off when the power is out. That added switch and its accompanying equipment will run the homeowner something north of $5k including installation.
Great info Matt, thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it Ron!
Matt, thanks for the info! It seems like you would size your battery bank to be able to absorb at any moment the most energy that your solar array could generate. That way during peak solar collection hours, you won’t leave any power “on the table”. And therefore you are not concerned about “shutting the system off” unless your batteries are fully charged. Is that a design consideration or would you end up purchasing a lot more battery capacity than needed?
Thanks for this one! Im going solar for the second time on a second home.
I have the same system. I've been happy with it.
Oh man that must be so frustating having the cable externally routed on a new build at 12:20 in the vid. I removed drywall to run conduit so i could avoid external routing on a 50 year old home. I am a bit OCD. These videos are great thanks for the info I will be keeping an eye out for that roofing material when we replace ours. Our steel roof is 50 years old and still good.
I live in a new house 2 years old now. Heat pump and all just like you. I live in Denmark so weather is close to what you have.. We live 4 people in this house and for the first 2 years we used close to 5000kw pr year ..So around 400kw pr month .. I am still amazed at how mutch energy you think you will use =) .. Kinda looking forward to more updates on those numbers .=)
When it comes to power estimates, I have always heard to oversize the system.
So basically, you calculate the extremes with the least efficiency. So you would use estimates and standards from a non efficient and energy hungry home as your base point. Then, when calculating power production, you estimate on the extreme ends. You take your highest use day and size the panels to meet that on your lowest production day. So essentially, your middle off summer needs are met with middle of winter production. Then, when it comes to battery storage, you always plan for three days minimum. More is better, but plan for storms and down time. It is better to have a system that can run your house at 2x or even 3x rather than constantly going back and forth with relying on the grid. But yes, always remain tied to take advantage of the money you can earn from selling back.
I have an Enphase solar system for 3 years and the Enphase batteries for 2. The integrated solution is excellent. My solar payback is likely to be slightly less than 7 years and the batteries about 10. While 10 years is not a great ROI, compared to a generator backup which has no return (ability to sell power to the grid) it is excellent. We had multiple short duration power outages this summer with no inconvenience. I made these investments a couple years before I retired and am very pleased with the near zero utility costs I have in retirement.
I like how you were saying the solar installers were good sports about the rough in inspection. They needed to be because they are the ones responsible for that inspection being passed or failed, them not completing the inspection was on them
Well done More on the house energy systems please
Love your stuff. Would love a fitness technology episode-Feel as though you would be good at it and make gains
Your issue with local regulations is so typical of Massachusetts. We are so parochial with local fiefdoms so eager to over regulate. Then our politicians wonder why housing is so unaffordable in Massachusetts. This sort of nonsense drives me crazy.
Due to regulations, entire cities no longer go up in flames.
Great video! How did I not know about Enphase IQ8+ ability to provide backup power directly from the solar panels? We need to hear more about this feature as batteries are expensive and all I want at this stage is to use my panels to keep the house running during the day and charge a smaller portable battery to cover evenings and days of low/no production.
I put up about 40 of the 430 Watt LG panels on my system a couple years ago for a 19 KW system, also with Enphase inverters, and that cost me $60 Grand, including $2k for a new electrical panel, so that sounds about right.
Glad the solar crew took the time to point that out and let you address it properly. A LOT of crews would have just slopped on a butt load of sealer on it and moved on.
If the mounting rails ran "vertically", rather than horizontally, natural convection currents can work unimpeded to cool the panels (which have a negative temperature coefficient meaning they lose efficiency as the temperature increases)
Great HAT! Matt
I feel like we get waaay more value out of your reviews of your personal experiences. Please give us more content like this!
Living in Montana, there are a lot of people that live off-grid. I thought about solar but not only does the state/county not pay you for energy put back into the grid, they only allow you to have a credit of so much energy and then zero out your account every year, essentially stealing the energy that you have stockpiled.
going net positive is really not a issue, since in winter its really hard with the shorter days and often cloudy weather a super large array of say 16kwh for a typical 4 person daily use on eco may only produce 3-5 kwh a day than 35 in summer, i use rec alpha and absolutely love them if i had the choice the first array the last year of lg i would have waited a year for the rec alpha, even in shade they have proved excellent daily and really helped in the buffalo winter outage disconnected from the grid, even if it didn't charge the car i still managed to keep the water heated, and kept an air to air annex alive. but i would never go heat to water again for the main property that's listed, ( 20kwh heat loss and nothing i can do about it due to listing) we fitted a retro suspended floor to accommodate the under floor heating loop the 3400 ft main building had that and the inline hvac unit replaced and existing 70's air diffusers replaced with a second loop heat pump both 11kwh, it chewed through 19000 kwh in one year with 4 months off where's the air to air only used 6000kw total (it was negative 20) but still that wiped out all solar production and still left me with a 4k bill (we had a second meter put in so I know what was used for house hold as it was on a a different string of the three phase, what's worse is it never exceeded 63f. as the temp dropped we resorted to heating via the wood fire which defeated the point of the heat pump it was that bad, yet the annex was lovely and warm , we ditched the heat pump and have sold them, and replaced with a propane filled modern bosch combi 55000 btu nothing has changed bar the loop temps increased and flushed yet again, , that has had absolutely no issues heating in fact its too warm we had to turn it down, but it just proves that heat pumps are not the answer for some buildings, if you have a modern insulated or built since mid 90's there's no issues at all going heat pump providing you increase your loft to r30 and have modern windows, or willing to insulate inside for extra r , listed buildings like mine couldn't do that, we had to follow the original and go to hemp and treated wool mix, r 10. which sucks. now that we have had the first snow, with modern heat controls our usage heats 3 times a day for a few hours as top up. and is comfortably sitting a 72f day in day out, usage so far predictions are about 1600 for winter a huge saving, for electric our production is being diverted into a 30kwh battery array that keeps everything off grid and still have a surplus going back unlike last year, so play the numbers game with the utility topping up when getting cheap exporting when rates are high, so far the utility still owes us about 500 bucks that may change once net metering 3 kicks in next march,
I built my home in Nova Scotia Canada 3 years ago and installed 10kw of solar panels, in NS the system is sized by a certified installer based on the house size(number of bedrooms) hence the size of my solar array. I do not store power but "sell" power to NS power my surplus and draw when I don't make enough power for my demand. On the anniversary of the system being installed, the books are balanced and either NS power sends me a check or I pay. Happily in all the years I've been in the house NS power has sent me a check. My home when build was with efficiency in mind, it's super insulated with 14" fully insulated walls, all LED lighting etc. I would not build a home without solar!
As for costs, the system installed was $24k Cdn. At the time of installation I qualified for a solar rebate of $5750 and and energy rebate for the entire home of $9k Cdn. Using this all into the costs I feel I have almost completely paid for my system as power here is very expensive and only increasing.
Here on PEI we get screwed, if we produce more power than we use in a year we don't get paid anymore, Maritime Electric did away with that
I tried to go solar in 2021 when I was doing a couple of ther upgrades to my house. I wasn't even planning battery storage yet and even with incentives all of the quotes I was given had payback periods in the 20 year range. Adding in a battery made that change to never.
My main problem is that the roof area I have is small so I would need to figure out a way to get more panels, like maybe over my deck, in orde to get the labor to equipment ratio down some.
No wonder so few people around my area have it. It sounds great until you change from looking at the marketing material to reality.
I've done 3 different builds and the one thing in common is I'll always have solar.
Because I'm going for off grid. I'm looking at using Renogy 450W bifacial panels. Which can give me up to 585W per panel.
Will bifcials work with rooftops?
@@irokpe6977
If you do your own research. You'll be able to answer your own question.
I needed a rough in inspection here in MA as well! Though my installer seemed to know to look out for that.
There’s no hope for standardizing solar install rules, towns have no interest in working together or making the archaic process of inspections any easier
Thanks for this excellent video! We are preparing to install a 29 panel, 11.745 kWh system. Total cost without a battery is right around $36000 (before tax credits).
Panels: Q.PEAK DUO BLK ML-G10+ 405
Inverters: IQ8A-72-2-US Microinverters
We wanted to add a battery, but that’s another $17000!
Does your stated cost include the battery?
Here in Thailand, solar panel systems are popping up everywhere. The government itself has huge solar arrays all over the place. I am building a new house in northeastern Thailand and will be one hundred percent off grid. It's actually one big house with several small bungalows for when we have guests. All of that will be off grid too.
So our house started 30,000kWh, then we sealed it and updated mechanicals, and it went down to about 16,000kWh. Then we solar/battery, and the net energy went to 5,000kWh. This last year, we did grid-export from batteries, while raising our energy usage, and net energy is at 8,000kWh (but our bill is way negative).
Next steps are replacing WH with a HP, and washer/dryer with a HP. I figure we could get back down to about 5,000kWh with the same energy usage profile. Maybe less on a good year. Although, to make up the rest, I'd like to add a few 2kW wind turbines out back to help in the Winter.
A very informative video. I was surprised by the steep prices for solar you mentioned. You're looking to $3150 per kW, I got a quote for a system with Jinko all black solar panels and Enphase IQ8+ inverters and that system equates to roughly $1500,- per kW in the Netherlands, so even considering we get no grants it's quite pretty cheap here.
But it's still a good investment for you, even considered the higher prices for solar and cheaper electricity from the gris in the States.
The possibility of the Enphase system to operate stand alone is a bonus, however power outages are very rare in the Netherlands, I'm 58 now and experienced only once a power outage that was more than just a short flickering of the lights and lasting for half an hour. I'm not sure if the stand alone operation acts quick enough to keep computers running without rebooting or crashing.
As a solar installer, you would have no need for a battery they are honestly still not worth the price. As well please look into other types of systems before settling on endphase. There just so many possible failure points when you have micro inverters and almost certainly will have some issues 10 years down the road. My apologies for the negative talk but I don’t trust lots of companies to install that many connection points properly.
Couple of points I want to make. Going solar depends on what you are willing to spend. If you have a lot of money going off grid and selling back your excess energy is the best option. Grid tied with net metering is nice yet if you have a too big of a system you will end up with a surplus of energy credits. Which means if approved you could rack up 100s if not thousands of dollars in free future energy credits which might take years to get back. Every time you get a new and better energy efficient appliance you will then earn more and more credits. What is you decide to go off grid and then all of those credits pretty much are use less. Now if you were to say get an EV you could eat those credits up pretty easy. Then you dip in to your reserves and now need a much larger system.
If you are building new then consider the type of roof you want. Do you want a nice clean roof to which you can max out the most amount of solar or do you want a roof to reflect how pretty your outside of your house is.
Interesting. I've just gone with 16.6 kw Solar system and a Powerwall 2. In spring (now for us) I'm probably generating 100 kwh a day and using about 70 kwh including the car. Winter definitely goes the other way as we're in a cold area with Heat Pump based hydro
heating
DUDE!!! I gotta know where you got that Tetris lamp? That thing is AWESOME!
We are in the Hudson Valley by Kingston NY and have a 16kw grid tied ground mount. It was turned on September 22 2022 and for the first year it has produced 20,086.79 kWh which means we are net zero. The PVWatts Calculator was right on in calculating the electrical production. The system has 40 Qcell Duo Blk G10 400 watt panels and 40 Enphase IQ 7A microinverters. Cost after all incentives and tax credits was $30,840. The location has limited sun as there is a forested hill to the west which means the mount is in total shade by 3-5P depending on the season. Our home is all electric geothermal, induction, electric car, pool and the system has saved us $5000+ in this first year. The house was built in 1987 and is pretty well insulated but not up to the standard of Matt's new house.
I'm in Kingston, how was the process? Any tips?
Thats a lot of power! I do live in a small one bed flat (apartment) but I only use 3,000kwh a year. So you’re generating almost enough for my annual usage each couple of months and that's with bog standard electric space and water heating, none of that fancy heat pump stuff.
I'm surprised you didn't go with a more natural set up but I'm sure you had a style as well.
you will for sure hits it. since we have similar size home and i also go all in with electricity. I est my house will use around 12,000 kwh this year. During this past winter my highest month was 1350kwh Jan-Feb. I don't have all the latest and greatest tech like your house. I use minisplit instead of geothermal.
i want to see more videos on your new house!
In much earlier video you mention Passive House, therefore wondered if you've compared the costs for perhaps additional insulation and higher performance windows (but with the lower heating/cooling and overall energy requirements, and lower cost for higher capacity plant and solar array/battery) vs a net Zero Energy Building with the higher energy requirements and plant (and solar PV/battery system) but potentially lower upfront costs for insulation, windows, etc?
I finally got to net zero for the first time this last year.. It wasn't cheap to get there, but I fulfilled a dream I've had for a long time. First in 2010, I had a 3.6 KW put in. But I was still using propane for heat in the winter, and hot water. Two years ago I decided to go all in on heat pumps. But first I expanded my solar from 3.6 to 12.4KW. This actually turned out to be overkill, but at the time I didn't know how much I would need. In 2021 I had a Rheem/Ruud Presteige heat pump installed. I took out my propane hot water heater and put in a Rheem heat pump one. I took out my full electric dryer, and installed a Samsung heat pump dryer. The winter before last, I had set my heat pump lockout at 20 degrees. Here in southern NM, in the winter we sometimes get down into the teens at night. I ended up using around 15-20 gallons of propane for the backup furnace. Almost there. Since the heat pump didn't seem to have any trouble heating my 2200 sq ft house with the outside at 20 degrees, last winter I lowered the lockout to 15 degrees. We never hit that, and it never called for propane. Did it. Net zero. I bought an 2023 Bolt EUV last November, and even charging that, I don't come close to using my excess electricity I produce. The last piece of this puzzle for me, is a battery back up, and I'm doing all the research I can because that's such an expensive part of all this. In the meantime I have over 22,000KW's in the bank with PMN, and I just can't see ever using them, that number increases each month no matter my usage. I've never paid them more than their base connection fees/taxes which is $7 something a month. For that, they've been a great battery bank, except for when on rare occasion we lose power. Then I'm dead in the water just like everyone else. So my quest for a battery bank/inverter continues.
Here in gujarat india we have 24/7 power supply and power cut for maintenance or pruning of trees before the rainy season to avoid trees falling on trees is the only time there's power cut for a few hours,so investing in back up loke batteries is a waste both of money and batteries, moreover a rebate or subsidy is void unless its an on grid system only .No hybrid system is required, at least in urban areas
the main issue I see with most solar installations: you have the panels, you have an inverter to create AC, the inverter checks if power from the net is incoming and shuts off when it is not. therefore no power from solar during a blackout (there are ways around it, essentially you need to make sure that no power gets sent out into the grid during a blackout - you don't want to fry the electricians fixing the network)
the battery requires DC, most devices in the house require DC, so additional AC-DC converters.
so if you build a house from scratch, consider a DC power system. with the current advent of USB-PD and more and more devices capable of it, you can save on money and energy losses due to needless conversions.
sure, if you want to sell a surplus of power, you need an inverter.
Matt, thanks for the video. How much was the equipment versus cost of the installers?
Who did you have install the kit? They must have been upset when the inspector added requirements to adhere to.
Don't forget that for the enphase batteryless power you need a different configuration for your panels. I can't remember the details off the top of my head, but is is almost as costly as getting a battery.
Your videos are fascinating, and I've learned alot about energy efficiency and the energy effitient systems.
Question: many of the high efficiency systems are very expensive (geo thermal hvac). Why not use a low cost conventional systems (heat pump and heat strips) and add a few more KW to your solar to offset the inefficiency?
Our roof is flat so we did the grunt work by ourselves after getting the required engineering stamp. Then hired an electrician to do the wiring to the panel. Saved a ton of money.
Well done
I have a 10,000Sq f home with met zero home energy use including charging a model Y. Planning to add more solar for my long awaited cyber truck .
The mistake I made was estimating the solar needs before adding a heat pump and it does use a lot of electricity. I also had no idea that Jan-March of 2023 was going to be the cloudiest in 18 years, which really hurt solar production. Happy I did do a battery backup as power was lost twice, and with our system the only reason I knew it went out was becasue the SPAN app on my phone told me it had. Good luck on your net 0 dream.
Thanks for sharing!
I approve this message.
3:42 - "... with no shade"
Tree shadow on panel: exist 🙂
I built my 1st house about 3 years ago. It has 55 solar panels on it and that seems good and all... however, I'm not 100% satisfied. After looking online about building a house, they say that experience is key! So, by the time you've built your 3rd or 4th house, you should really know what you want and how it all should work.
You plan is pretty cool. If you have the space and sun etc. why not ?
I wish I could do that but for me it does not make any sense whatsoever. Next step would be to couple a heating unit with a stirling engine. This would be perfect for you during the winter, since you will have to heat your home as well.
There ARE also some additional state incentiveS (PLURAL)
Hey Matt, great vid. I live in MA too, would you be willing to let me know who your installer was? Would like to research them for one of my quotes.
Are you considering adding additional panels on the roof if you don't meet your net metering targets, or even just to minimise grid usage more during the year? lots of room up on that roof.
Might look like a lot of room, but some towns in MA have stupid minimum clearance requirements for solar panels that dramatically shrink the usable roof area. My system has panels on the north roof, even though they would fit on the south side, because the town wouldn't let the installers put them "too close" to the roof edge. Given that Matt's west-facing panels could have fit on the south-facing roof, I suspect he ran into the same problem.
Good point on the regs. They were mostly got rid of here (in Ireland) last year so no such limit on # of panels. Although easy/West panels aren't as productive as south facing, they are more active in the morning/evening when a house needs the power most. I hope to add a few east/West panels on my setup next year for that reason.
@@darthrainbows I'm running into the same problems in CT. So many requirements that it's honestly turned me pretty sour on the entire thing. It's almost like they just try to discourage you from anything, and if you decide to go ahead anyway, it's way more expensive and intrusive than it should be. And they wonder why people don't pull permits for things, even if you want to do the right thing (like follow the rules, or help the save the planet!)... There's may too much government and oversight these days!
Love 🎉 the intro music 🎶
As electrical demand increases, the benefits of having power generation on houses gets smarter and smarter. It's a distributed grid that can take some of the weight off the local power plants and power lines. While the tech is still relatively new, I think that this is definitely the way of the future. Hopefully they can come up with some reasonable regulations to have it all tie together well. It just makes sense.
What you did not mention that you go from DCsolar to AC via µiv then rectified to DC again for storage then made into AC again when you use the storage battery in the evenings. All these conversions retain only 90-95% of the energy (at best)...not ideal imo, but it is very flexible
Dream solar setup is off-grid (doing without the requirements of grid operators and requirements), charge the batteries with the grid if you must. I'm also not a fan of Enphase micro-inverters, not only they are expensive but they are underpowered compared to the latest solar panels that aren't even cutting edge. Enphase also less efficient (compared to panels charging batteries) because it converts DC to AC, then AC to DC to charge batteries. You are basically paying more for less. Very few solar and battery RUclipsrs use Enphase.
It's good the solar team were observant for the screw, but you should be working from current good procedures for the area, it would be handy if localities created simplified checklists though instead of long documents.
Good info. Great channel. You mentioned inverters to create AC from DC. Here’s a huge question: Why? Lights and electronics all use DC these days and many get their power via a controlled circuit- USB C. Are there BLDC based motors to replace highly inefficient AC induction motors used in compressors (hvac), etc? Essentially can we use DC power for all power needs in a house? And finally, is this less wasteful than constantly converting between AC and DC power.
Great to see your new roof is a light colour - my guess is Colorbond Surf Mist
Back in the early noughties, New Scientist had a full page ad which stated that, if every roof on the planet were white, the planet would be 1°C cooler...