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Hello everyone I'm so excited to have found this forum today. I have a small Grid-tied Solar system installed on our Vacation home here on Lake Havasu. We are actually on the CA side of the lake and our Grid provider is SCE (Southern California Edison). I actually live in Lake Havasu City, AZ a short 15 minute boat ride away on the other side of the lake where we are blessed with much lower electricity rates than here on the CA side (about 1/2) where we must live with a terrible 4 tiered rate structure. Lake Havasu for those of you that aren't familiar with this part of the world is actually part of the Colorado River network that includes Lake Powell, Lake Mead, Lake Mohave and Lake Havasu which is the last "Real Lake" before the Colorado makes it way south and eventually dumps into the Pacific ocean in Baja California. We are very often the "Hottest spot in the nation" many days during the summer months. We are technically in the Mohave Desert so we enjoy some of the best solar generation climates worldwide or at least this is what I am told with more than 330 days a year of direct sun.
Well I'm a Realtor and also pretty handy around the house so after selling a home to a friend here last year who is a licensed Solar Contractor in the Los Angeles area I asked him to help me design a system that would ideally get me to a "Zero" cost (net usage) place based on our historical usage over the past 5 years. He designed a system specifically for my home, sold me all the components, talked me through the installation including a couple of personal inspections throughout the process and most importantly helped with all the documentation, engineering and paperwork needed to get everything installed, approved by the local agency and the get us set-up with SCE on a Net-metering plan.
Here is the system we came up with;
1. Qty 18 Kryocera KD245GX-LFB panels
2. Qty 18 EnPhase M215-60-240-IG
3. Qty 1 Enphase Envoy system monitoring module which is connected to the internet through a Ethernet cable
The system is installed on 2 separate parts of the house both south facing and each consisting of 9 panels each. and according to the plans the overall system meets the following specs; System Size
4,410 watts DC
3.755 kWh AC system
For those of you that might be looking at these components and thinking "Hey those components are outdated"......you're right for sure but most everything was "new surplus not previously installed) and pieced together to hit a VERY AGGRESSIVE price point even though all the mounts, rails and fittings were all brand new. It actually only took me about 30 man hours to do the complete install as a one man operation (Once I had everything loaded up on the roof) even with my learning curve which was steep on the first branch but not so much on the second branch.
I have been watching my daily production via the Enphase enlighten software and I can see my daily net metering on the SCE website (to the hour) even though it's typically delayed by at least 24 hours ans sometime more.
I'm looking for ways to learn more here for sure and hopefully I can provide some usage data from my area and maybe even a little DYI feedback if there any of you guys on here as well. In my case I am in a VERY REMOTE location that is really only accessed by boat and is a very difficult trip over 8 miles of very rough dirt road so the DIY solution was partially driven by this dynamic.....I'm not REALLY a cheapskate
Well I'm a Realtor and also pretty handy around the house so after selling a home to a friend here last year who is a licensed Solar Contractor in the Los Angeles area I asked him to help me design a system that would ideally get me to a "Zero" cost (net usage) place based on our historical usage over the past 5 years. He designed a system specifically for my home, sold me all the components, talked me through the installation including a couple of personal inspections throughout the process and most importantly helped with all the documentation, engineering and paperwork needed to get everything installed, approved by the local agency and the get us set-up with SCE on a Net-metering plan.
Here is the system we came up with;
1. Qty 18 Kryocera KD245GX-LFB panels
2. Qty 18 EnPhase M215-60-240-IG
3. Qty 1 Enphase Envoy system monitoring module which is connected to the internet through a Ethernet cable
The system is installed on 2 separate parts of the house both south facing and each consisting of 9 panels each. and according to the plans the overall system meets the following specs; System Size
4,410 watts DC
3.755 kWh AC system
For those of you that might be looking at these components and thinking "Hey those components are outdated"......you're right for sure but most everything was "new surplus not previously installed) and pieced together to hit a VERY AGGRESSIVE price point even though all the mounts, rails and fittings were all brand new. It actually only took me about 30 man hours to do the complete install as a one man operation (Once I had everything loaded up on the roof) even with my learning curve which was steep on the first branch but not so much on the second branch.
I have been watching my daily production via the Enphase enlighten software and I can see my daily net metering on the SCE website (to the hour) even though it's typically delayed by at least 24 hours ans sometime more.
I'm looking for ways to learn more here for sure and hopefully I can provide some usage data from my area and maybe even a little DYI feedback if there any of you guys on here as well. In my case I am in a VERY REMOTE location that is really only accessed by boat and is a very difficult trip over 8 miles of very rough dirt road so the DIY solution was partially driven by this dynamic.....I'm not REALLY a cheapskate
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