6Kw going in soon in Aliso Viejo

[Alisobob]

Seems everyone posts their specs right out of the chute.... so here they are...

.

6 Kw Base Price
Solar World SW 250 Poly Panels $23,999
50+ Discount 5% - 1,200
$22,799

Enphase 215 Micros w/ inside cable runs + 1,800
Enphase Envoy + Lifetime Monitoring + 750
Tile Roof Adjustment + 900
Service Panel Upgrade (200 amp panel) + 3000
$ 29,249

Add’l Mgr Discounts - 2,549

Total O.T.D. $26,700

Net after Tax Credit ( 30%)

$18,690
(This works out to $3.11 per KW installed.)

They are coming out to do the roof azimuth testing next week. I went with the micro invertors due to 2 different roof lines. I have 18 panels facing south and 6 panels facing west.

My first move was 2 years ago. I went 100% LED in the house. ( Well, 99.9999%. I could'nt put a LED inside the cloths dryer) This was a $1600 dollar investment that had a 13 month R.O.E. and knocked my "average" SCE bill down about $120 a month!! ( Yea, 2 teenagers who love every light to be on, 24x7) This was about a 40% decline in electrical costs.

I had one chandelier that I had a hard time finding the right color bulbs for... it was the last fixture to convert. Before converting, it alone used more wattage, than the rest of the house combined. I found that pretty amusing. My house is 2980 Sq.Ft. LED's are wonderful!!

So now, its solar time. I had ( gasp) about 800 KwH's of Tier 4 power on my last bill.... Yea, I like A/C.. but that was the final straw. I've used a few online calculators, and they tell me I can bank enough power credits in the mild months, I'll be able to blast the A/C all summer with little to no cost.

I try to be realistic in life, it prevents allot of sadness and regret. Maybe I'll be pleasanty surprized and produce more power than I think I will. We'll see.

I came across this website that shows the importance of proper tilt..... http://www.solarpaneltilt.com/

Surprizingly, I see very few installations with the panels tilted. I doubt every roof is at the optimum angle. I guess we'll see what that little sun following doo-hicky says.

Wish me luck, and I'll let you know when the hardware shows up....

Bob

[Bikerscum]

Others far more knowledgeable than me will be by soon, but one tip.... don't look at the price/watt after rebates/credits for comparison here. Almost all the numbers you will see here are gross.... before credits. Your quote isn't $3.11/watt, it's $4.45/watt.... very high even with the panel upgrade.

Good luck in the hunt.

[J.P.M.]

Already signed/purchased ?

[Alisobob]

No, I'm waiting to get the roof readings back to see how many KwH's this installation will produce.

[russ]

The tilt is plus approx 4% annual production? Buy a couple of extra panels and save the headache.

The 2 axis tracker shows more but is far more problematic and expensive.

[thejq]

Congrats on the energy conservation. But your quote seems really high for socal. I think you can do a lot better. When you call just say your friends installed for $3.5/watt, and ask them to beat it. It will save you lots of BS.

[Alisobob]

I ended up with...

6.05 kw - 22 Solarworld 275 mono black panels
22 Solaredge P300 optimizers
Solaredge 6k inverter

$3.55/w = $21,478 before credit
$2.48/w = $15,034 after credit

My quote for the same sized system with my 200 amp panel upgrade, concrete tile roof upcharge, and monitoring system backed out is $22k precredit, or roughly the same as yours... How do you consider this a bad deal?

[Bikerscum]

My quote for the same sized system with my 200 amp panel upgrade, concrete tile roof upcharge, and monitoring system backed out is $22k precredit, or roughly the same as yours... How do you consider this a bad deal?

Well,

I have a tile roof, no extra charge. My installer includes the lifetime monitoring for Enphase systems at no charge, it's listed as "a $249 value". Panel quotes I've seen here run about $1500.

As said here already, check around. You're driving the bus.

One last note.... those 215 microinverters seem real close to the limit for 250w panels.

Cheers.

[Alisobob]

Who did you use?

[Bikerscum]

PM sent.

[J.P.M.]

No, I'm waiting to get the roof readings back to see how many KwH's this installation will produce.

In that case, run PVWatts with your roof azimuth & tilt, and use 16% or so for system losses. You can estimate output and do the same as any vendor can do without their possible B.S. and hype. Any tilt of about 20 deg. +/- ~10 deg, with any orientation close to south with little shade will yield about 1,500 to 1,700 kWh/yr. per D.C. (nameplate) kW.

As for price, the going rate around here seems to be about $3.50/W on a concrete tile roof, a string inverter and pretty much std. conditions. Depending on your situation, unless something is very strange w/your setup, much more than that and you're leaving money on the table.

Pay your money and take your choice but know that oversizing is not cost effective.

[thejq]

Seems everyone posts their specs right out of the chute.... so here they are...
6 Kw Base Price
Solar World SW 250 Poly Panels $23,999
50+ Discount 5% - 1,200
$22,799

Enphase 215 Micros w/ inside cable runs + 1,800
Enphase Envoy + Lifetime Monitoring + 750
Tile Roof Adjustment + 900
Service Panel Upgrade (200 amp panel) + 3000
$ 29,249

Add’l Mgr Discounts - 2,549

Total O.T.D. $26,700

Bob, there are quite a few people from OC that posted here. Many got less than $3.5/watt. As for your quote, I found it quite strange how is it calculated (not to say they're trying to scam you).
1. All the quotes I have seen and personally received included all the components (panel + inverter etc.). Your base price only includes the panels which maybe an effort to make it look cheap. Then there's the micro-inverters + $1,800, envoy/monitoring + $750. Monitoring is $250 extra, but the inverter can't work without envoy. So by breaking it up, it sounds like you're getting more, but really not.
2. The senior discount and mgr's special sound really fishy. It might be an attempt to make you feel good and muddy the water.

A reasonably good solar quote should include everything you listed except for panel upgrade and life-time monitoring (some even include that) and at around $3.5/watt in SoCal.

[inetdog]

There is pretty good evidence from members that as long as you do not need to change any of the default settings of the Enphase microinverter and do not need monitoring there is no need to have an Envoy.

[Alisobob]

A reasonably good solar quote should include everything you listed except for panel upgrade and life-time monitoring (some even include that) and at around $3.5/watt in SoCal.

Got any company names?

[thejq]

Got any company names?

Plz read this thread http://www.solarpaneltalk.com/showth...n-the-OC/page8. There were some names been discussed. My installer is from SD so it won't help you.