DIY Solar or Have Someone Else do It?

[pstu24]

I know there have been more and more resources about solar, and while I would love to DIY, I must admit I'm not a professional on this.

A few concerns I have are I live in the Northeast (Lake Erie), so while we get plenty of sun for a few months, I also have winters that seem to be 4, 5, 6 months some years. I'm also concerned at my roof, because if the roof I have is in good shape, but is about 10-12 years old, would it be smart to put in solar panels that last for 20 or 25 years and then I will need to remove them anyways when I put the new roof up (or doesn't that matter)? And then as much as I would love to just do this myself, I'm not an electrician, so I don't know how to hook it up to the box, what the local codes are, how much surface area I can use (my roof is a fairly flat pitch with 1/2 facing South-Southeast, and the other half facing North-Northwest) so should I even put panels on the north side?

I guess my question is as MUCH as I want to do this myself, I also was trying to look into it and a couple of websites (energysage, and then a local company within 20 minutes of my house) have provided quotes. The best quote so far is coming in at $15,000 with installation and all. The cost per watt is coming in a $3.48, and when I look at my most recent bill it is coming in at 527 KwH used and the bill was $80.43 ... but I don't quite know if that is the right number to be comparing...

So while I believe I can get that way down by doing it myself, I don't want to make a costly mistake in the process and cause damage?

I'm continuing to read the board and pick up info, but I'm just trying to see if there are any tips, lessons learned, or general resources you guys have had in going through a solar process. And, if you did it yourself or had someone else do it for you, would you do it?

Thanks in advance!

[sherr]

The best quote so far is coming in at $15,000 with installation and all. The cost per watt is coming in a $3.48, and when I look at my most recent bill it is coming in at 527 KwH used and the bill was $80.43 ... but I don't quite know if that is the right number to be comparing...

Those are not comparable numbers, no. Watts are a measurement of how fast energy is consumed (or produced), Watt-hours are a measurement of how much energy is used.

So your potential installation you said was going to be $15,000 / $3.48 per watt = 4,310 Watt installation. Which means in ideal conditions with the panels would produce 4.31 kWh (thousand Watt-Hours) per hour. That's all the "$3.48 per watt" figure means; they took the total "price to get it installed" and divided by the instantaneous power generation capacity. It's telling you nothing about what your average electricity costs would be with solar.

If we assume you'll get about 4 "perfect hours" worth of generation per day (averaging in weather and the sun not always being 90 degrees overhead of the panels) that would be 4.31 kWh * 4 * 30 = about 517 kWh per month. Which is about what your usage was.

So that's how you compare the size of the array with your usage. Comparing cost is a matter of amortizing the $15,000 over 20 or 30 years, assuming that you'll have some efficiency drop-offs towards the end of their lives. If we pick 20 and ignore efficiency drop-offs then that would be $15,000 / 12 / 20 = $62.50 / month that you're paying for the panels.

I don't really have much to say about your other questions, other than if you're asking these types of questions I'd say you want professionals involved.

[sherr]

The cost per watt is coming in a $3.48

I hesitate to mention it because I'll sound like a total Tesla Fanboy (I own a car, I'm not employed by them nor do I have stock). But since I'm interested in Tesla I noticed that they recently announced plans to deliver solar installations at < $2 per watt.

I find the dumbed-down pricing on their website to be really irritating, however it seems they now sell solar panel installations in exactly 4kW increments for $11,400 each (before Federal tax refund) (you do not need a Powerwall). I guess the < $2 / W figure is after the federal tax credit ($3,420, (11,400 - 3,420) / 4000 = $1.995 / W).

I'm not sure if your earlier quote was before or after the tax credit. Probably before, since most companies would not include that. But even so that might be a way for you to save at least a grand.