Help with solar quote in Murrieta.

[Gmoney!]

Hello all. I am new here but looking to add solar. We bought a house in Murrieta and I drive a rav4ev around 100 miles per day due to work.

Here is my experience with two quotes.

First quote was a bid using Sunpower panels, i think around 23 of them with a single inverter. They estimated our need at 7.2 kw system which I think is high. Installed price was $37,000 and change which was over $4 per watt.

Second quote today was more inline with the magic $3.50 per watt. They pitched Kyocera, LG and Trina panels, about 24 of them, total of 6.2 kw system and pricing was between 21,000 and $23,000.

Both systems would use a single inverter i believe.

The sunpower guy wanted to put all the panels on my street facing roof which faces south east. The second company pitched putting 13 panels on same side and 11 on roof facing opposite (to backyard). He estimated the 11 panels may produce 10-15% less.

I have read good things about the kyocera, not as much a out trina or lg though i see many of you have had LG installed.

Third company will be out tomorrow to pitch their plan.

We use very little A.c. Even in the summer. Last summer we averaged 14kwh per day in the dead heat of summer. My car i use about 30kwh per day a d charge only during super off peak.

Appreciate any input or advice, experience you can share especially if you live in my area and used local companies.

G

[Gmoney!]

Financing seems to be an issue since sunpower company had more options to finance but overall the payments was going to be more than what i pay now for electricity (200-250 per mo).

The cheaper system after fed credit i could possibly pay it off in total. But we do have a kitchen we want to remodel so it might make sense to just finance at the lower interest rate. If we reamortize after tax rebate we will be at around $125 per mo for 12 years and after that it will be all savings.

Of course I am not sure if i will keep driving and ev or not in 3 years when lease is up so it makes things a little interesting to figure out.

[sensij]

If you would like to verify the installer's production estimates, you could check out PVWatts. If you have a sloped roof but are unsure of the pitch, 18 deg is probably an OK number to use until you have better information.

Sunpower systems are often priced more than others, but it is difficult to justify the increased cost in either the production or the promise of warranty support.

It sounds like you are on some kind of time-of-use rate plan with your EV. That is definitely a consideration in the economics of going solar. Ideally, you would have a SW facing roof for your PV system to benefit from TOU the most. If you share your annual electricity usage (breaking out the EV) and bill, and the specific rate plan you are on, you might find members willing to do a more detailed analysis.

Cash is often the least expensive approach, if you can afford it. There are financing options out there that can be competitive, even after the financing fees are included.

Kyocera, LG, and Trina all make panels that are hard to differentiate from specs alone. You could look up the specific panel model numbers here. The scores assigned by that site can generally be correlated to the technical information in the data sheets.

I'll PM you the approach I took to my install, in San Diego.

[Carl_NH]

By your usage 14KWH/Day this is 5100KWH a year before your Honda EV usage.

If you are planning to have an electric vehicle long term is a factor as putting up solar is not a three year investment as you know.

[Alisobob]

The sunpower guy wanted to put all the panels on my street facing roof which faces south east. The second company pitched putting 13 panels on same side and 11 on roof facing opposite (to backyard). He estimated the 11 panels may produce 10-15% less.

The opposite of SouthEast is NorthWest.

I dont see N/W facing panels producing much at all....

[Gmoney!]

Another issue is whether I keep driving an electric car. This Rav4 lease was good because I got the $2500 state rebate and have unlimited miles. Im not sure that the next car deal will be as good. I could go to a hybrid car like volt.

If NW doesnt get much sun what else would I do? I could probable move some vents and fit 23 panels on that southeast facing front roof.

[Alisobob]

I had quotes splittlng my system into 3 arrays.... East ,South ,and West.

I moved some vents, and went 100% South.

So glad I did.

East would have been the biggest mistake. Where I live, mornings are usually foggy, and it burns off around 10:30 or so... right about the time the east facing panels would have gone into the shade.

Moving vents now, pays off later.

[Gmoney!]

I have zero shading issues, from what i saw today both sides of the roof got sun, only issue is sun goes down now and by 4:30pm there is no sun, so not aure what the efficiency will be on that backyard roof. How can i figure my azimuth for both roofs so I can check online for production?

If I plan to not have an electric car, it might be easier to fit everything on that southeast roof.

Even with car, 23 300w panels should be plenty.

We have no fog here.. I guess not much rain either

[Carl_NH]

I have zero shading issues, from what i saw today both sides of the roof got sun, only issue is sun goes down now and by 4:30pm there is no sun, so not aure what the efficiency will be on that backyard roof. How can i figure my azimuth for both roofs so I can check online for production?

I would do three PVwatt assessments - one for each side of the roof then one for all panels on the southeast orientation. This should give you an idea of production.

If you have a smartphone, use the compass app to determine the direction, then get your roof pitch (angle) for example a 12/12 pitch is 45 degrees, so a 6/12 pitch is 22.5 degrees. In PVwatts you can locate your house and place the panels on the roof too - its pretty close..

As far as sundown @ 4:30 the backyard production would be lower, but most of the energy production will occur 9AM to 3PM this time of year.

[Gmoney!]

Ok so a third quote today. Also pitching Sunpower.. He says 16 panels will be enough, about 5.3kw system, solaredge inverter and solar optimizers (do i realy need these if I have zero shading issues?). His price was $29,000 before rebates. That is an astronomicay high $5.5/ watt.

Whats interesting is he says we probably cant get more than 19 panels on the front roof, and he thinks 16 is enough where the other sunpower guy pitched 23.

He also said that going to a panel like LG only saves about $3000 and you dont get the true 25 year warranty like with sunpower. Sounds like a sales pitch.

I figured my roofs are at azimuth of 119 and 299. I then compared the two roofs at PVWatt, used a 23 deg pitch one of the installers used, and using the premium panels roofmounted it gave me about 10,000 kwh per yr on the 119 azimuth roof and 8300 on the 299 roof so a out a 17% reduction.

So that begs the question, the cheapest quote i got this far used 13 panels on the 119 roof and 11 on the 299. I an thinking if I go with cheaper quote, better to max the 119 roof to put 20 there and then maybe 4 on the 299 roof or just do away with that and stick to 20 panels.

Any advice?

At this point I am thinking in two and a half years i will get rid of the electric car and go to hybrid type car.

[Carl_NH]

I would max out the 119 roof at 20 panels or 6KW with 300W panels and do one 6KW string inverter and no optimizers if you don't have shade.

A good price would be $20-21K and with top end panels like sunpower $24K. If they are 335W panels that's 10% more than a 300W panel so I would not pay more than 10% more.

Another way of looking at this is you can do 18 330W Sunpower or 20 LG or similar 300W panels and you have roughly the same output.

[Gmoney!]

Sensij, got your PM but cannot reply back until I get ten posts so i'll reply back soon.

[Gmoney!]

I would max out the 119 roof at 20 panels or 6KW with 300W panels and do one 6KW string inverter and no optimizers if you don't have shade.

A good price would be $20-21K and with top end panels like sunpower $24K. If they are 335W panels that's 10% more than a 300W panel so I would not pay more than 10% more.

Another way of looking at this is you can do 18 330W Sunpower or 20 LG or similar 300W panels and you have roughly the same output.

Well so far the sunpower people have been way more expensive, 29-37k, no way I can justify that, especially when LG panels seem to be decent backup option. What about the Kyoceras, i know they are poly but seem to get good reviews.

[J.P.M.]

I would max out the 119 roof at 20 panels or 6KW with 300W panels and do one 6KW string inverter and no optimizers if you don't have shade.

A good price would be $20-21K and with top end panels like sunpower $24K. If they are 335W panels that's 10% more than a 300W panel so I would not pay more than 10% more.

Another way of looking at this is you can do 18 330W Sunpower or 20 LG or similar 300W panels and you have roughly the same output.

Pricing by panel rather than by the Watt gets confusing. FWIW, in zip 92026, two SAM runs, one on a 5 kW sys. using S.P. 327's (16 X 327) and the other on a 5kW sys. using LG 300's (16 X 300) gives the LG 300's a slight advantage in initial annual output per nameplate Watt. Close, but LG wins that one under identical conditions, orientations, annual loads and identical inverters. Still an estimate, and S.P. will degrade a bit less/yr., but IMO, not enough to make up the up front price hit on S.P. if it's much more than about 5% or so.

[Gmoney!]

I have seen some good deals on an online solar wholesaler who has some pretty attractive system pricing.

Are solarworld panels with solar edge inverter a good deal?

They have a 6.7kw 24 panel system with a solaredge 6k inverter and IronRidge XR100 mounting hardware for $12,500.

Drawback is I have to pay all cash for it, but are there installers who will just install this system? If so could I finance their labor and how much am I looking at for just installing?