(I'm only asking about photovoltaic systems. We've already looked at solar water heaters.)
We're considering a home PV system. We have about 400 sq ft of south-facing roof and we use roughly 15 Kwh/day at a rate of approx 15 cents/KWh. (Hey, Oahu utilities aren't cheap but sunny days are plentiful.) The biggest appliances we have are the fridge, washer, & dishwasher. (No air conditioning.)
We think we'd want a minimum of 2 KW of PV panels but we could do more; if we cover the south roof then our livingroom will be much cooler. (I'm seeing numbers around 150W per 15 sq ft panel.) Since we'll be using HECO's net metering we've decided to simplify the system (and its voltage regulator) by not having a battery storage bank. HECO won't buy power from residential customers (yet) and we're not interested in saving money after sunset.
Does anyone else have a PV system on their home or afloat? How long have you had it? What are its specs, what brands did you buy, and how much did you spend for materials? How much are you saving (or how long is your payback)? Do you have to do any maintenance on the system or individual parts? Any problems with the PV hardware? Any voltage-spike issues with appliances or computers? Any problems during power outages? Any words of wisdom? IOW, if you were installing the system all over again tomorrow, is there anything that you'd do differently?
We're considering a home PV system. We have about 400 sq ft of south-facing roof and we use roughly 15 Kwh/day at a rate of approx 15 cents/KWh. (Hey, Oahu utilities aren't cheap but sunny days are plentiful.) The biggest appliances we have are the fridge, washer, & dishwasher. (No air conditioning.)
We think we'd want a minimum of 2 KW of PV panels but we could do more; if we cover the south roof then our livingroom will be much cooler. (I'm seeing numbers around 150W per 15 sq ft panel.) Since we'll be using HECO's net metering we've decided to simplify the system (and its voltage regulator) by not having a battery storage bank. HECO won't buy power from residential customers (yet) and we're not interested in saving money after sunset.
Does anyone else have a PV system on their home or afloat? How long have you had it? What are its specs, what brands did you buy, and how much did you spend for materials? How much are you saving (or how long is your payback)? Do you have to do any maintenance on the system or individual parts? Any problems with the PV hardware? Any voltage-spike issues with appliances or computers? Any problems during power outages? Any words of wisdom? IOW, if you were installing the system all over again tomorrow, is there anything that you'd do differently?