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I indeed do have a ground mount system. I have one acre, and while I have a lot of trees, there was a pretty good clear spot about 100' from the house (if you look at threads I've started, you can find my installation thread with lots of pictures). With some serious negotiation, I got a high quality professional installation @ $2.83 / watt -- which is a very good rate for the San Diego area. You might want to look at Q.Cells as the performance to date has been stellar and the cost per watt is substantially below LG pricing.
Sadly we have absolutely crazy electric rates in SDGE territory. My 10,000 KWh usage last year cost just shy of $3,000. I sized my system for an estimated 13,900 kWh production as I wanted to be able to use a lot more A/C in the summer -- as it turns out now fully understanding TOU, I'm probably sized bigger than I need. Having said that, my (after federal tax credit) investment of $15.9K pays back in a little over 5 years at no increase in usage, and much quicker when you factor in what the extra production (if I used it all) was worth at $0.40 per KWh (the price for use above the baseline tier).
The sad part is that after making this investment earlier this year, we closed this month on the purchase of 12.67 acres and thus will be selling our house sometime next year. I'll never know how much of my solar investment I'll get back from the sale price of the house, but I'm confident that it is some indeterminate $ figure -- when I sell, I will have a years worth of usage and "true-up data" to show a negative $ bill to a very small $ bill (the $10/month minimum less any excess production @ approx $0.04 / KWh),
Sadly we have absolutely crazy electric rates in SDGE territory. My 10,000 KWh usage last year cost just shy of $3,000. I sized my system for an estimated 13,900 kWh production as I wanted to be able to use a lot more A/C in the summer -- as it turns out now fully understanding TOU, I'm probably sized bigger than I need. Having said that, my (after federal tax credit) investment of $15.9K pays back in a little over 5 years at no increase in usage, and much quicker when you factor in what the extra production (if I used it all) was worth at $0.40 per KWh (the price for use above the baseline tier).
The sad part is that after making this investment earlier this year, we closed this month on the purchase of 12.67 acres and thus will be selling our house sometime next year. I'll never know how much of my solar investment I'll get back from the sale price of the house, but I'm confident that it is some indeterminate $ figure -- when I sell, I will have a years worth of usage and "true-up data" to show a negative $ bill to a very small $ bill (the $10/month minimum less any excess production @ approx $0.04 / KWh),
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