4.5 kw system quote

[T-ROY]

Hello all.
I am getting ready to install a 4500 watt system and just received a quote. Since I am totally ignorant when it comes to solar power, I was hoping that I could get some of you to take a look at the quote below and let me know what you think, good or bad. (GRAND TOTAL IS $13,600)

Thanks in advance,
T-ROY

*48 volt system, 4500 watt running/9000 watt surge Pure Sine Wave, 120/240 volt AC @ 60Hz, Auto transfer switch Inverter/Charger, includes electrical distribution panel wired complete, cables, hardware, remote digital display control panel and conduit boxes an (Entire system is wall mounted):$6,150.00

*16 - AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat), non-gassing and maintenance free batteries, parallel and series cables, 2-metal ETL (UL) rated battery enclosures: $5,600.00

*5

[T-ROY]

forgot to mention, I am in the midwestern united states

[Sunking]

[QUOTE=T-ROY;7032] *5

[dzsolar]

i am a little confused by your description. however, i don't think you gain a good price.

[Mike90250]

I'm just guessing without model #'s for inverter....

Buying a car, 4 rubber wheels, 1 spare, 4 doors and a hood with engine under it. Is $32,000 a good price?

[Aussie Bob]

Looks like an offgrid 1kw system that can be expanded to 4.5Kw, by adding more panels down the track. Not sure about the pricing there but if you have a grid available, maybe consider dumping the batteries and going ongrid? That would save some $$$ in not needing batteries, but it depends on what you want and what you have to work with there.

Who is doing the install? Have you got quotes there for the install?

[Sunking]

To answer your question the price is very steep, and the claim of generating 3 Kwh may or may not be stretching the truth a bit as it depends on where you live.

Two things bother me about the system.

AGM batteries: While there is nothing wrong with AGM they cost two to three times more than flooded lead acid batteries. AGM's are best used when the batteries will be oriented in unusual positions or in sub-arctic temperatures.

Lastly there is no info on the inverter and way too large for such a small system. From the description it sounds like it is an hybrid inverter, but cannot tell. If so that really drives up the cost. Lastly at a 4500 watt rating is just watt too large and the efficiency at low power levels (below 1000 watts) will be terrible not to mention consume quite a bit of power in the stand-by mode unless you turn it off when not in use.

[Sunking]

Forgot too mention is if you have access to commercial power, it would be in your bank accounts best interest to only go with grid tied system, and avoid a stand-alone battery system. With a battery system it will be highly unlikely you would ever achieve an ROI or EROI.

At the quoted price assuming you could actually use 3 Kwh per day would cost you $13,600 / 5745 wh = $2.48 per Kwh. You can buy @ 12-cents per Kwh so you would be paying roughly 20 times more for electricity than you do now if on grid. After the 4th or 5th year you will need to replace the batteries which based on AGM cost $240 per Kwh at today's prices will run around 16 Kwh x $240 = $3840. Not worth it IMO, but that is just the engineer in me talking.