I think we've all had a knock on the door from somenone trying to set up an appointment with you to see how much you can save on your electricity bill if you install solar on your house. Some of those folks can be a bit pushy, but that's not the reason for this post. I keep on asking myself, if solar is so wonderful and we can save a lot of money, why isn't every house lined up with solar installers? I get it, you need enough roof real-estate, and there are areas more opportune for solar benefits than others, and there's never such a thing as free lunch. It costs to get the equipment, it costs to get it intaslled, if you want to grid-tie it the electric company needs to make sure it's A-OK, you'll need a permit. Those costs start to add up, Everyone needs to make some money of out this deal, we're not working for free here. Here are some notes that I figured I wish I knew withouth having to setup an appointment.
- Your Elecctricity bill will be lower, but you'll have another bill on top of your electricity bill. Unless you pay for the install and materials out of pocket, instead you're probably getting a loan for the 15-30K.
- Most grid-tie systems do not help you in an outage, they need city power to function. I don't know about you but if I have solar I want my lights on, when everyone elses are off.
-- There are things like the power-wall from Tesla, it's basically a big battery add-on for your solar array. That's more like it but that sounds expensive.
Here are some of my thoughts:
- What about those Jackery, Bluetti, Pecron Solar Generators? Those things are awesome I want one :) They market them for so many use-cases. Camping, Emergency Power Backup, RV. I think they fit those use-cases pretty well, though I personally I want one for camping, and a possible backup to my backup.
- I've been seeing some/a -lot of videos of folks that say that building your own Solar generator is the way to go. I think it really depends on a couple of things: where are you intending to use it? Whta are you hoping to power? I'll tell you about journey building one. I set out to power a Window AC Unit for free.
Here's my build so far:
- 10 X 230 Used Watt Solar Panels ($240)
- 1500Watt Internet, ( Facebook $65)
- BougeRV MPPT 30A ChargeController 79
-BougeRV PWM 30A Charge Controller 39
-12V 100AH LifePO $130
-Cables, Breakers, ~$80
Each Charge Controller will host 2 Solar Panels in Parralel.