About to make the jump

[billmoody1]

Hi- Long time lurker - 1st post
I have been going to some solar shows that let you go around and see individuals installations and meet their installers in Central Texas.
I have decided on an installer who is an electrical contractor, that has been around a long time, and I believe will be around. There are two
master electricians and one will be on the job site at all times when job is being installed. Customers seem to love them.
The panels I wanted are Panasonic 335w hit because of the heat down here and because of Panasonic being a company that may be around
for the warranty of 25 years. I built a metal workshop about 4years ago so the roof should be good for many years. The shop is 30'x54' with 12' sidewalls.
The panels will be on the half of the roof facing 210 degrees southwest.There will be 40 panels with two SolarEdge 6000H-Us inverters and SolarEdge
monitoring. The system will be 13.4 KW and should produce 19090 kWh/year which should cover about 91 percent of my needs. If at some future time
I want to cover 100 percent or get an EV or batteries become feasible the second inverter will let me add on up to 5000 more KW. Price is $35,640.
I will pay cash of 10,692 and finance with a home equity loan of $24,948. Price per watt should be about $2.66 per watt before the 30% tax offset.
Is there any questions about the system that jumps out at you that I may not have thought about.

Thanks -- Bill

[Ampster]

If you expect to buy an EV in the future you may want to consider one of the inverters being a SolarEdge 7600 that has an EV charger built in. If your electrical panel is nearly full this may save you a breaker slot. You or your electrician/advisors can make that tradeoff based on your particular situation.

[khanh dam]

"

SolarEdge

monitoring" WHAT IS THIS EXACTLY? Are they individual units attached to each panel? for a shed you might be able to not need module level shut down, and that would save about $2000 to $3000 in costs. In 15 years those panels will be worth maybe $80 each,. Warranties are basically worthless when panels prices are so cheap. Besides does the warranty cover labor? lets say one panel goes bad, The warranty covers the $40 panel but doesn't pay the $200 to replace it. best "possible" scenario all panels go bad and you get a good replacement, but that is very very rare.

those Panasonic panels cost over $1 a watt! buy some panels around 50 cents a watt, Heck you could buy double the amount of panels and replace them all after 20 years and still come out ahead of what those Panasonics costs. I've never used gallium Arsinide panels so maybe they get you back the extra $6000 in costs over the lifetime? just washing panels regularly would probabaly give you better efficiency as well.

in short I would be getting middle of the road components not top of the line.

[billmoody1]

Ampster--thanks for your reply -- I thought about getting the EV charger but don't think an EV will be in the "near" time future and as
I have plenty of room in my panel and I wired the shop myself--if I need the charger at a later date I "should" be able to do that myself

Khanh dam- thanks also for your reply -- from my understanding(and I may be wrong) the labor is covered- also my installer is an authorized
Panasonic installer and Panasoic gives a workmanship 25 year warranty. My installer -who seemed genuine(but I've been taken before)
said product and labor would be covered and the replacements he has done - for Panasonic - on panels he has installed and others
Panasonic has asked him to install for someone else has covered labor and product. I am having an installer put this up on a roof for me so finding a price under
a dollar a watt might be a little difficult. If this was a diy and price was the only consideration(but is a factor)I might have gone with Misson Solar
as they are made in San Antonio which is about 30 miles south of me.

[khanh dam]

I am not talking about DIY. I am talking about what the contractor pays for the panels. the mission solars are much less expesnive, so if installer saves money he should pass that on to you. Just google the price of the panels, of course the installer gets a discount but relatively speaking if a panel is double the price you are paying a lot more for it.

[billmoody1]

Khnah Dam--you asked what solar edge monitoring was-- as I understand -- I will have optimizers and will be able to monitor each panel from my own personal computer
--should I be wrong please correct me- thanks Bill

[billmoody1]

khnah dam - I will be using Solaredge p400 optimizers. In your previous post you mentioned washing the panels for more efficiency . I don't think I will be doing that
as my workshop walls are 12' plus the slope of the ground I need a 16 to 20 foot ladder to get up there and walk around, also the studies I've seen that it doesnt
make that much of a difference over the years time if you factor in rainstorms. I considered a ground mount for the purpose of washing but thinking about theft I like the
idea of them being on a higher roof and if the studies are correct then its a wash. (pun intended) Thanks for your concern for my pocket book as in most things I'm
the conservative type. Just bought a new car as the old one had 271,000 miles and I do all my own maintenance. Bill

[Ampster]

......I will have optimizers and will be able to monitor each panel from my own personal computer

SolarEdge also has a phone app.

[billmoody1]

Ampster;
Thanks---didn't know there was a phone app--hadn't even thought about it. Oh and if J.P.M. reads this; I have double paned windows; good insulation-one of my
two air conditioners is higher efficiency and less than a year old--but the swimming pool needs the pump updated to a variable speed and a robot instead of the side
discharge with an extra 3/4 hp motor(came with the house - didn't want the pool but wife over ruled.Waiting for water heaters with heat pump to become more reliable and
cheaper. Thanks
Bill

[Billybob9]

If you have shading Issues it's Enphase or SolarEdge Basically. No shade SMA is half the price. To me optimizers are just more stuff to go wrong but they do serve the purpose of Monitoring, shade issues and Rapid shutdown. Well see what happens as things are getting bigger ( little by little ).

[khanh dam]

well, if you have no shading I personally think individual monitors are a waste of money. of course they might be required under nec 2017 . It's kind of a grey area. homes need it , ground mounts do not need it, not sure about a workshop.

you need to clean the panels or they will drop in effciency. especially if you have bird poop (optimizers help) or dirt roads that can kick up lots of dust. Kind of pointless to buy the best solar panels then never clean them so they perform worse then regular priced panels that are kept clean. There are sprinkler systems that can be installed to help with this, and also super long window cleaning poles.

[billmoody1]

Khanh Dam; could I just use a hose end sprayer with some type of glass cleaner in it?

[khanh dam]

sure why not. or just pay somone to clean them

[billmoody1]

khan dam --this solar is one of the few things I'll let someone do for me- I'm mostly a diy guy

[khanh dam]

diy solar is not that hard with micro inverters. Most of the work is just grunt work of screwing and bolting stuff together. Permits, electrical design, inspections etc can be handled by someone else, but hard to find competent people to do that.