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On another forum I frequent an individual mentioned a fairly expensive HVAC efficiency upgrade he was considering. I mentioned that if he had a good solar exposure that he would be better off putting in PV. He thought PV was too expensive. I ran a few numbers using PV watts and just the federal rebate and it looked good to him. I suggested he check the state and local incentives to improve the payback. He called up a few installers for estimates and was blown away by how much Duke and other rebates would contribute. His numbers looks to be that the system would be about 1/4 of the cost out of pocket. He is now planning on installing a fairly large system assuming he isn't underwater from the hurricane.
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Great if you live in the upstate with Duke Energy. I live near the midlands with SCE&G. They were both mandated by the state to offer incentives to get more power from renewable sources. Dukes answer was 1 $ per watt of solar which would have been 8840 $ on my system payable the first year. On SCE&G i get a PBI (performance based incentive) of 4 cent per kw of everything I generate for the next 10 years. This works out to about 450 $ a year or about 4500 $ spread out over 10 years....Comment
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Just a quick update.... Inverters are mounted and roof racking going in on the barn. I'll post a pic when complete. Shouldn't take all that long.
Curious... We are putting in a Solar Edge system, but won't have internet capabilities other than perhaps sporadic useage of an iPhone as a hot spot (we're kinda in no man's land - AT&T won't even drop a land line, let alone u-verse or cable). Can we still monitor production on a local intranet in the barn? or do you have to talk back to the Solar Edge servers?Comment
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You can press the button on the inverter to see the current power being produced, how much was produced so far that day, and cycle through the optimizer's reports.
But AFAIK all the fun stuff like graphs of production is only available via the solaredge website - which requires the inverter to send the data to their servers.
If it were me, I'd be getting internet to the house - even if I had to pay for cell data to get it. Or if I had to pay $6K for someone to run a line to the property.
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Thanks for quick reply... Any idea how many gigabytes of bandwidth we're talking about per month? We'd be looking at a mile of coax (or more) to get cable, so if we put in internet it most like has to be satellite or a cell tower hot spot.
Please don't take offense to how I ask but.... Other than being able to see pretty screens is there any real, tangible benefit to a constant connection to the Solar Edge serviers? This install is to lower operating costs on the farm. An added expense of an internet connection could be appropriate if it were offset by some sort of performance enhancement, etc.Comment
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I don't think there'd be a significant performance benefit.
It would mean you could notice issues faster. (ex. one of the panels goes bad - you won't notice the decrease in power - but the per-panel screen on their website it'll be obvious)
I think the bandwidth is fairly low. I have not measured it, but my guess would be less than 1 GB/month. You could ask solaredge directly.
It is possible that you may have wireless internet provider in the area as well as cell and satellite.
They usually use something similar to WiFi - but setup that it can handle distances of miles from their tower to their customers.
Is the house near the barn? Or within sight from the barn's roof?
If you have internet at the house you can do your own wireless bridge to the barn if you have line of sight.
That might also be useful if you also want a security camera there (ex. see who is coming in and stealing anhydrous)
If the house is right next to the barn, if it were me I would run the mile of coax. It'd be a business expense that would just happen to also be useful for my persnoal use.Comment
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Thanks again for the fast & honest responses. Maybe periodic connection to the web to check system health may be enough (perhaps with manual power monitoring). Unfortunately, home is just as remote as barn with respect to phone / internet utility availability. We hope to get all the panels up this week followed by wiring and inspections over the next few weeks, so I best be getting in touch with Solar Edge as you suggest so as to vet out my options.Comment
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Quick update. Inspection and commissioning is scheduled for tomorrow. Forecast is nasty, but here's to hoping we get can follow through and get the thumbs up to turn it all on. County and Daddy Duke are scheduled to be on-site.Comment
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Gratz!Comment
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County inspector didn't show. Trying to get this rescheduled. Blah
On a more interesting note... I hear that in the low country of SC near the coast, one of the power companies is now offering like a $1.80 per DC watt rebate. I have only heard that from one source, but it's a pretty rebutable source. If true, you would literally make money simply putting the system in - let alone on the power it generates. Anybody else on here able to comment / confirm?Comment
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And we are on-line. Came in just under the wire for 2016 taxes. County inspection, then Duke engineer inspection, then finally Duke meters were installed on 12-30-16. That was close.
Now if the clouds would just move out of the way and let the sun hit these panels
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You make me seriously want to move. No matter how the tax works out thats just amazing.Comment
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Yeah. Really feel good about this install. Final numbers worked out to a < 1.5 year payback (saved on not having to dig a new electrical trench). It's putting out about the power that I estimated it would with PVWatts, and we've had a really bad overcast January. Here's the final install (forgot to put up pics when we got done).
Left Angle Small.jpgRight Angle Small.jpgLast edited by Robert1234; 01-26-2017, 02:53 PM.Comment
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