Solar Pricing - How do you know.....

[J.P.M.]

Just to throw my $.02 worth of advice into the fray.......if panel monitoring is what attracts you then you can accomplish quite a bit by designing a system with two smaller string inverters. Less parts to fail and you know immediately when a panel or inverter is not producing at a much lower cost than micros or optimizers.

+1. Unless you're a solar geek like a few of us, individual panel monitoring seems to quickly loose its novelty appeal. If individual panel monitoring increases system reliability or improves the performance or economics of a system, it may be worth a sniff/expense, but a negative or neutral effect on those things seems the usual outcome.

[foo1bar]

With 3 roofs facing differently you will probably benefit from microinverters.

Or optimizers(Solaredge)

I went with a Solaredge system.
I had 3 different roof orientations, plus some shading issues.
And I like the per-panel monitoring - although I check it less now than I did the first month.

[Anjen]

Thanks everybody for your help! Josefontao you said if I am using 16kwh per year and wanted to increase my usage is going to be 18.4kwh. I am with you on that part, but lose you when you said I need to produce "less" than I am using. That is the part I don't understand and how would I determine how much less to estimate?

Also why not take the bill to zero? It seems to me panels are cheap (all relative to what we are doing of course) and to add a few in the end (all things considered) is not that much in the grand sceam of things?

[Anjen]

Foo1bar, I assume solar edge is the name of the company? If I am correct it seems most of the resellers are selling NEXUS who is the installer for many companies? So why not call them directly?

[Anjen]

Using NEM, you can easily get away by offsetting %80 of that. So you will need to make 14700kwh.

You need to do your research and your math to find the best possible option based on your usage and again, remember that you dont need to offset %100 of your usage.

What is NEM?

[ButchDeal]

Foo1bar, I assume solar edge is the name of the company? If I am correct it seems most of the resellers are selling NEXUS who is the installer for many companies? So why not call them directly?

SolarEdge is an optimized INVERTER system.
NEXUS is a CA based solar finance company. There are thousands of installers in CA you should easily be able to find another.

What is NEM?

Net Energy Metering.

With Tiered energy bills, the solar that is installed to get you from tier 3 & 4 is much more valuable to you then the solar installed to get you from tier 2 to 1 and the solar that reduces tier 1 usage is the least valuable to you.
You generally can not over produce by very much. If the plan is to over produce significantly then it will not be approved for an NEM interconnect.
If you do over produce a little here and there it is no problem you just don't want to plan on that and the overage will have little value.

[Anjen]

Thanks ButchDeal, so NEXUS is just remarking to the installation company, makes sense. Thanks for explaining NEM, I was also told as you have explained you can't go much above the overproduction.

[foo1bar]

Foo1bar, I assume solar edge is the name of the company? If I am correct it seems most of the resellers are selling NEXUS who is the installer for many companies? So why not call them directly?

There are 3 main components - panels, racking, and inverters - each of those categories have a handful of large manufacturers that most installers use.
For inverters:
Solaredge is the manufacturer of the inverters and DC optimizers for most optimizer systems.
Enphase is the manufacturer for inverters for most microinverter systems.
In string inverters I think there isn't as much dominance by one company.


I went with solaredge/optimizers - most of the benefits of microinverters but a little lower hardware cost (probably a wash when you add in labor and if it's a smaller system) And it moves a lot of the electronics off the hot roof so I think will last longer before failing.

As Butchdeal explained, Nexus is a finance company - they're basically just another supplier for the installers. Think of them as USBank or GE-Finance. They're just handling the finance side of things, they don't do the installs or manufacture equipment.

AdminNote, sorry had to remove your link, no links to that site please.

[josefontao]

Anjen,
As explained above, NEM stands for Net Energy Monitoring. Its a way for the POCO to keep tabs on your usage and if you overproduce energy, then they give you credit for it.
Most people are not home during the day since they are at work and the kids are at school, therefore most of the energy produced during the day results on the POCO giving you credits. You then start using a lot more power at night with the kids playing games and the wife turning on the stove, but by then you would have enough credit to offset that usage. And it gets better, after 8pm the power rates decrease and after 10pm it decreases even further.
Take a look at this graph from my usage:
http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=...60317&gs=0&m=0
As you can see, on that day I consumed 30.6kwh, but my system produced 26.4kwh. Even though I produced less than what I used, SCE will still give me a credit of $1.43 for that day. That is the beauty of TOU and NEM. And this is why its not necessary to offset %100 of your usage.

SCE will not convert those credits into cash, so there is no need to overproduce too much. Just enough to make credits on the winter months and then offset those credit during the summer months when the AC kicks in and the power consumption goes through the roof.

[J.P.M.]

This thread may be an example of how posters, starting with the OP can benefit from the Op reading and informing themselves. Just sayin'.

[Dndpos]

Where do you live in South Cali? I am sure I can get you a much better pricing.

[J.P.M.]

Where do you live in South Cali? I am sure I can get you a much better pricing.

Yea, like about $3.50/Watt. See my post from 03/29 - 0822 hrs.

[Dndpos]

Yea, like about $3.50/Watt. See my post from 03/29 - 0822 hrs.

Sup JPM, Yes, I did look at your post. If I don't think I can get provide better information to thread starter I wouldn't bother jumping and ask. Give the thread starter some room to answer. We are here to help each other. : )

Thanks, and peace.

[solar pete]

Where do you live in South Cali? I am sure I can get you a much better pricing.

Ok so it looks like you work for a solar installer or lead gen company which is it??

[Dndpos]

Ok so it looks like you work for a solar installer or lead gen company which is it??

Sup Pete, I just know how to low balling those installer and lead gen company. I am just a normal person. but I do know extensive about pricing of equipments.


On the side note: Pete, will you please change my screen name to Andy. Please - I can't find where or how to change it.