The Truth About EVs And Solar

[trutolife27]

Another good video by our friend Alex on autos.

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[ajmartineau]

Ha, you beat me to it. I was amazed at how far away his panels are.

 

[trutolife27]

Ha, you beat me to it. I was amazed at how far away his panels are.

yes, I noticed that too. Alex does a great job telling things in normal terms and not getting too techy on the subjects.

 

[jhalkias]

Holy smokes! What a setup!

He just about talked me out of ever considering solar as a home installation.

 

[timbop]

Holy smokes! What a setup!

He just about talked me out of ever considering solar as a home installation.

Yeah, it is a little... depressing. I am still going solar this year, but I guess I'll just have to live with only being able to generate a portion of my electricity

 

[Badger_Prof]

Our solar is part of a community solar array at a nearby municipal airport. We purchased a share equal to access to 1/2 of our monthly average electricity use. The buy in price was pretty low but our electricity cost is now locked in to no more than 10.9 cents per kilowatt hour for the next 20 years even if we move elsewhere in the service area. Does not have potential advantages of a private rooftop array but has many other advantages.

 

[FASTNF]

I watched the video and I am not sure I agree with him regarding off grid versus grid tied. I put in 6 kw of grid tied solar several years ago and have not purchased electricity in over 8 years. I charge two EV's and run my main house and the guest house off of the system. The guest house is all electric. I use more than I produce the coldest three months of the year but during the rest of the year I generate more than I use and generally get a check form the utility at the end of the year for about $100. Also there is a lot of green energy prodution in the area where I am so all around it pretty good and a lot less expensive than his system Below is a picture of my system and the Wind farms over the hill form me

 

[AllenXS]

I watched the video and I am not sure I agree with him regarding off grid versus grid tied. I put in 6 kw of grid tied solar several years ago and have not purchased electricity in over 8 years. I charge two EV's and run my main house and the guest house off of the system. The guest house is all electric. I use more than I produce the coldest three months of the year but during the rest of the year I generate more than I use and generally get a check form the utility at the end of the year for about $100. Also there is a lot of green energy prodution in the area where I am so all around it pretty good and a lot less expensive than his system Below is a picture of my system and the Wind farms over the hill form me

What is your total electricity cost per annum compared to pre solar installation including the $100?

 

[jhalkias]

Yeah, it is a little... depressing. I am still going solar this year, but I guess I'll just have to live with only being able to generate a portion of my electricity

I did an online analysis. Problem is the best roofline on my house has 3 dormers. I couldn’t fit enough panels and the house would look ridiculous. If it were the back of the house that would be different. And I don’t have acres of land.

 

[FASTNF]

I have net metering. My meter runs forward and backward. Forward if I am using electrictiy. Backward if I am producing electricity. So the utility company bills or pays out based the net production for the year. My net production , the difference between what I produce and what I use is always negative. Meaning I produce more than I use in a year. So the utility company pays me for the excess that I produce over usage. Though I get payed a wholesale rate not retail for the excess.

 

[phidauex]

Community solar is great if your area has programs. It is a lot more cost and environmentally efficient than many small individual projects. I do have a little solar on my little roof, but for many people community solar programs make a lot more sense.

Offgrid, however, I can't recommend - you have to overbuild so much of the system to ensure reliability that the actual environmental benefits are greatly reduced. If you size your system so you have power for three days in the winter, that means your system is oversized in the summer, and not harvesting as much energy as it could. Grid connected systems always generate as much as they can, so their environmental impact is much smaller. People like to think about getting "off grid" to protect the environment, but we actually benefit a lot by sharing infrastructure and working together.

 

[FASTNF]

What is your total electricity cost per annum compared to pre solar installation including the $100?

Its not quiet that simple. I installed a heat pump and went from using propane or wood for heating to using electricity for heat. My annual electric cost was about $400 year prior to the solar install but I also saved about $1000 in propane and $500 in wood that I was using for heat. In addtion I went from about $1100 a year for gasoline for my Volvo S60 and truck prior to leasing an EV to about $100 a year for the truck and lawn care. So total saving after the solar was installed was about $1900 a year in Electric , propane and wood. After I leased my curent EV that saving went to $2900 a year. The origional cost of the solar array was $12000 after tax credits. So the system has alredy paid for itself.

 

[Mopey]

I did an online analysis. Problem is the best roofline on my house has 3 dormers. I couldn’t fit enough panels and the house would look ridiculous. If it were the back of the house that would be different. And I don’t have acres of land.

You might try pole mounting. It is more expensive but I was able to fit a 6.7 kw array in a pretty small area and I am able to manually adjust the tilt to account for the wide variance in seasonal sun angle here. This is in September.

 

[LOEzell]

I watched the video and I am not sure I agree with him regarding off grid versus grid tied. I put in 6 kw of grid tied solar several years ago and have not purchased electricity in over 8 years. I charge two EV's and run my main house and the guest house off of the system. The guest house is all electric. I use more than I produce the coldest three months of the year but during the rest of the year I generate more than I use and generally get a check form the utility at the end of the year for about $100. Also there is a lot of green energy prodution in the area where I am so all around it pretty good and a lot less expensive than his system Below is a picture of my system and the Wind farms over the hill form me