After retiring earlier this year, my wife and I decided to dramatically downsize our home. We're in the "we can still change things" phase of planning a new home build. Since this will likely be our last home, and plan to be here a long time, one of the items on our wish list is a PV array that will offset as much of our electric bill as possible. Even though I have a technical background, I know little about residential grid-tied PV systems. Naturally, I began my research on the web, which led me to this forum.
We have come to the conclusion that we should complete the house and live in it a while before installing a PV system. This decision was driven by several factors:
As the title says, I have some planning questions that I hope more knowledgeable and experienced forum members can help us with:
PV Preparations
Our builder suggested that the electrical for the house could be designed in anticipation of a future PV installation, but he's looking to me to identify what those might be. What sorts of things could we do? Main breaker box/panel choice? Wiring run(s)? Roof Pitch (one of the roof segments will face due south with zero shade)? Others?
Xcel Energy
Does anyone have experience with grid-tie to Xcel Energy IN TEXAS. From what I've read thus far, what Xcel does and allows in Texas is very different than what they do and allow elsewhere. Colorado, for example, seems to be more renewable friendly than Texas, offers more to the consumer and demands more from PoCos. How Xcel is to deal with when it comes to grid-tie? Do they actually restrict system size? What do they actually pay for power fed into their system? Any other insights?
I'm sure I will have more questions as my knowledge increases, but I'm still doing my due-diligence and am still very much in the learning phase of this project. I welcome any and all input. Please also correct me if I've drawn incorrect conclusions from my (limited yet) research.
Thanks in advance,
Tenaya
We have come to the conclusion that we should complete the house and live in it a while before installing a PV system. This decision was driven by several factors:
- Our builder knows less about PV than we do and is not comfortable being involved in the install.
- Our "old" house is vastly less energy efficient than the "new" house will be. Aside from old (read: poor) insulation, the old house is all electric. The new house, on the other hand, has natural gas available for HVAC, water heating and cooking.
- We live in Texas, where incentives are not as prevalent or large as some other states.
- Our PoCo, Xcel Energy, seems to restrict PV system size based on historical energy consumption (since the house will be new, we need to "build up" some history).
- We do NOT want to delay the start of construction.
As the title says, I have some planning questions that I hope more knowledgeable and experienced forum members can help us with:
PV Preparations
Our builder suggested that the electrical for the house could be designed in anticipation of a future PV installation, but he's looking to me to identify what those might be. What sorts of things could we do? Main breaker box/panel choice? Wiring run(s)? Roof Pitch (one of the roof segments will face due south with zero shade)? Others?
Xcel Energy
Does anyone have experience with grid-tie to Xcel Energy IN TEXAS. From what I've read thus far, what Xcel does and allows in Texas is very different than what they do and allow elsewhere. Colorado, for example, seems to be more renewable friendly than Texas, offers more to the consumer and demands more from PoCos. How Xcel is to deal with when it comes to grid-tie? Do they actually restrict system size? What do they actually pay for power fed into their system? Any other insights?
I'm sure I will have more questions as my knowledge increases, but I'm still doing my due-diligence and am still very much in the learning phase of this project. I welcome any and all input. Please also correct me if I've drawn incorrect conclusions from my (limited yet) research.
Thanks in advance,
Tenaya
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