This is an ongoing set of posts about our experience going solar. For those of you reading this series for the first time, if you would like to start at the beginning, here is the link to Part 1. BTW, I have not figured out how many posts there will be. I keep figuring out more things I want to say about this.
The story so far: we signed a contract on 2/8/2019 and went operational on 3/26/2029. On June 14, 81 days in we achieved two interesting milestones.
But we will get to these milestones in a minute. First great words of thanks for the support of energysage.com for playing the part of educator and honest broker. (This link contains an affiliate code that pays me, at no cost to you, should you choose to use it).
Second, many thanks to the great folks at Solar Energy World, who sold us our system and have done a stellar job supporting it.
You may wonder what the big deal is regarding post go-live support?
They did all the paperwork they had committed to and they did it right. I should also thank BGE, our local utility and Anne Arundel county, as everyone cooperated to get this project operational in less than seven weeks.
I am also receiving communication from Sol Systems, the folks who are tracking and will be brokering our SRECs (Solar Renewable Energy Credits – see previous posts). The timing was helpful as the period we went live was sunny and very solar productive.
There is a web site and a phone app I use to monitor the production. They set me up with this even before the panels were live. The app depends on communication from the inverter. In effect a cell phone is installed in the system, though just for transmitting data (and receiving software upgrades).
One of those upgrades happened about a week after installation and caused an issue. The system would stop reporting information for hours at a time, sometimes more than a day. The folks at Solar Energy World maintained contact with me the whole time. They came to the house a number of times, even on the weekend to reset the system and get it functional again.
To be clear, there was never a malfunction with the panels. They never stopped producing energy and sending it to my house and sending the excess back through to BGE. They just stopped reporting what they were producing. Really they just stopped reporting the hourly/daily/monthly statistics. The actual production meter, located inside the unit, never stopped working. The problem for me was tracking what was produced.
I was not the only person experiencing the problem, other customers were as well. Solar Energy World had a meeting with the inverter manufacturer and it turned out to be a software bug. After a few tries, they finally came out with a stable version. The maintenance support guy came and installed it on my system and we have been getting data steadily ever since.
This post-installation support, resetting my system several times, and keeping in touch with me and getting a stable version installed was why I chose a full service local company. I feel like they did a great job.
Now, about those milestones
Check out the Lifetime energy box in the upper right corner of the picture above – sometime June 14th we passed 3 MWh of production! This was day 81 of operations. This was an important milestone in that this was the 3rd MWh this quarter and we should get paid for this a few months from now.
I wish this would scale. If we produced one MWh every 27 days (3*27 = 81), we would produce over 13 MWh per year. It is reasonable to assume that we will not produce as much during the winter months, when there is much less daylight.
The following picture shows our second milestone:
99005 – this means we have sent over 1 MWh back to our utility!
When we went live on March 26th, the meter read 00012. Since then we have produced more electricity than we have consumed. In fact, we have produced about 1 MWh more! (Read this like an odometer going backwards – from 00000, as we produced the next KWh, the meter went to 99999 – since then it continued backwards to 99005).
So some very simple, rounded math:
Total electricty generated by our panels in 81 days: 3 MWh Total electricity sent to our Utility in 81 days: – 1 MHh Total electricity used by us in 81 days: = 2 MWh (or 2000 KWh) Our KWh daily usage 2000/81 = 24.69 KWh/day
If we were to keep at this usage rate all year long we would only use about 9 MWh per year (24.69 * 365 = 9012). Of course the big air conditioning season is just ahead of us and we both like it cooler than most people, so our usage this summer will increase a bit.
On a humorous note, we just replaced the two light bulbs in our refrigerator (old ones were 40 watt each) with LEDs that are 1 watt each, but seriously, how often is the refrigerator door open?
Still, our rolling 12 months prior to panel installation showed us using 10.5 MWh per year, so maybe we will end up driving that down. This is one of those ‘time will tell’ items.
One last surprise
Our utility, BGE, pays any surplus production once a year in May. Since we went live March 26, our first billing period was through April 25th and we had a surplus of 446 KWh at that time. They sent us a check last month for this surplus:
In Part 2, Show me the Money, I predicted they would pay us less than retail for this electricity, as we were a vendor and they make money by buying low and selling high. I predicted this amount would be about .05/KWh or $50.0 per MWh.
As you can see from the check above, they paid us full supply retail, about .087 perKWh. This is motivating. The more we conserve, the faster the payback.
And finally, and proudly, here is our most recent bill, showing two months of no usage:
Electric bill first two months post-installation.
So 81 days in, I am a solid fan of our decision to go solar!
I have several thoughts on the next topic I want to write about:
The social utility of going solar (how it helps the neighbors and the utility company)
Some samples of daily graphs to show how much power we generate under different weather conditions
Some whimsical thoughts in the form of rewritten song lyrics about my changing attitude towards the weather. (this one may be the hardest)
If you have any ideas for future posts or other feedback, please leave some comments, or drop a note to tiedyeseniorfi@tiedyeseniorfi.com. Thanks!
understand how it can reduce your electric bill
and possibly provide some income,
have determined that you’re a good fit
(physically and financially) to purchase one,
let’s discuss how to find an installer.
I am going to discuss two methods, the wrong way and the right way.
Wrong Way
My first two attempts to find a solar panel installer were the wrong way. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes. Basically, for my first two attempts to find an installer, I just Googled “Solar Installers in Your Area.”
I figured (correctly) that giving local installers a fair
shot first was the right way to go, since it’d be easier for me to hold them
accountable for follow-up maintenance.
I have some experience with in-home sales folks and the techniques/tricks they use, so I felt confident I could deal with this.
Attempt 1
I made an appointment with Vendor A. They sent Salesman A, who was reasonably effective at his job. He patiently explained the product, the installation process, the payment process and answered all my questions. He took measurements of my roof and collected a copy of my most recent electric bill.
He was not there to pressure me to sign a deal. In fact, he needed to send all the information he gathered to someone at his office. The office would then prepare a report showing Salesman A’s recommended installation plan and what it cost. Salesman A delivered everything he promised, including a detailed proposal.
So why was this the wrong way? In part, because he never
followed through – I challenged him on some points in the proposal and he did
not respond. A few weeks later he apologized (apparently some personal issues
kept him out of touch). But more
importantly, I lacked the context to
be able to understand the proposal – I had nothing to compare it to. (Stay tuned, I’ll help you solve this problem
in just a moment).
Attempt 2
I made an appointment with Vendor B. Vendor B did a lot of
pre-qualification work on the phone, including requiring that Mrs. TDSF be there as well (Vendor A
worked with me only).
ALERT: When an
in-home sales caller requires all decision-making parties to be at their
initial presentation, you are going to get a high pressure presentation. Danger
Will Robinson. Aooga! Aooga!
Mrs. TDSF and I are not rookies at this – this is not our
first rodeo, we did not fall off the turnip truck last night, and we weren’t
born yesterday. We knew what to expect – and we got steam-rolled anyway.
Let’s be clear. No
matter how much experience you have at this game, the sales folks ALWAYS have
more. Sigh.
Salesman B was nice. He was professional. When I say
high-pressure, it was done with the softest touch, with nuance, with finesse. Before
I knew it, I was signing a contract and writing a deposit check. Ugh.
After Salesman B left, something felt ‘off’ in my gut, so I
called a friend of mine who has solar panels. We discussed the contract. Here’s
what Salesman B proposed in his contract:
26 solar panels, at 305 watts per panel.
26 * 305 = 7930 watts or 7.93 KW.
The panels manufacturer is Mission, a reputable company out
of Texas.
The inverter manufacturer is Enphase, also a reputable
company.
Nothing wrong so far…
Except the price: $30,000.
My friend did not want to say it explicitly, but he made it
clear that this price point was too high, and I should investigate.
So I did. And I didn’t get much sleep that night. The next
day I cancelled the contract with Salesman B. Fortunately, if you sign in-home
contracts of this sort you have 3 days to change your mind, at least where we
live.
Here’s why I decided not to go with Salesman B:
It’s all about the math. Solar system prices are generally compared by using this simple equation: Price/Watts. In this case:
$30,000 / 7930 = $3.78 per watt (rounded).
This simplicity allows systems which may use different equipment to be compared based on the results they achieve.
As you’ll see in a moment, this price turns out to be not
just high, but ridiculously high.
For comparison, Vendor A wanted to install 39 solar panels,
at 300 watts per panel, (39*300 = 11,700 watts), also for $30,000.
In that case, the cost was:
$30,000/11,700 = $2.56 per watt (rounded).
That’s a BIG difference in price per watt.
The Goldilocks
Problem
I intuitively felt that the first offer was for more panels
than I needed (and the price was more than I wanted to spend). The second offer
was for less panels than I needed – at the same price as the first offer!
So, how to find the ‘just right’ solution? I needed enough panels to supply my electricity needs, and I needed them at a reasonable price. I wanted to drive our bill to zero, but I also didn’t want to spend more than about $14K (net after incentives). The formula for the purchase price, where I live (due to incentives described in Part 3) is:
Purchase Price * .7 – $3500 where:
.7 accounts for the 2019 30% federal tax credit
$3500 accounts for the state and county
incentives we are eligible for
Right Way
That night that I stayed up, I did a ton of research, and finally found a really great web site, EnergySage.com . This site is a great way to find a solar installer that will meet your needs.
(Please note that the link I am using is an affiliate link.
If you care to support my site, please use this link.)
EnergySage.com provides a lot of educational material to help you understand how solar panels work and how the installation process works. Most importantly, they act as an honest broker. You register on their site and they provide you with bids from affiliated, vetted installers. Then you contact the bidders as you wish, and decide which installer is best for you. They operate much like an Angie’s List or Home Advisor, except specifically for solar panel installation.
I registered on the site, and even posted the contract from Vendor B that I had just cancelled. I also talked to someone from the site, who patiently answered many questions. They were very helpful, and I highly recommend using them.
Note that the bidders cannot see your personal contact information, rather they contact you through the portal, so you have no risk of getting spammed.
I got 3 bids through EnergySage.com immediately, and a few more over time. This screenshot shows examples of the quotes I got (vendors masked):
Real quotes on our Energy Sage page.
These are the summary boxes, with all the details for each
bid just a click away. Note all the great information presented in these boxes:
Number of reviews (and average rating)
Price/watt
% need met (how much of your electric bill their proposed number of solar panels will cover)
Net price after incentives (Net Upfront Price)
Payback estimate
Specific panels and warranty
I initiated discussions with all 3 vendors. Two were based
out of Virginia, and one was local. All were very friendly, professional, and
knowledgeable. The sophisticated high-pressure sales tactics were nowhere to be
seen. I very much enjoyed my discussions with these vendors, and regretted that
I had to tell two of them “no deal.”
Through these conversations I learned something really interesting. The predicted annual production of a solar panel in MegaWatt Hours (MWh) is approximately:
Kilowatts of installed system = number of panels * watts/panel
Predicted annual production = Kilowatts of installed system * 1200
If you know how much electricity you use (10.5 MWh in our
case) you then can figure out how many panels you need to cover your usage:
For our usage, 8.750 Kilowatts * 1200 = 10,500 MWh
In my case, 29-30 solar panels at 300 watt/panel would cover about 100% of my usage (8750/300 is 29.17).
Some Notes about these Numbers:
Different panels are rated at specific watt values. These values are determined through industry standard testing. Basically, under optimal conditions (sun at a certain angle, panel mounted at a certain angle, air temperature at a certain value) an individual panel will produce a specific number of watts at any moment in time.
Note that a panel rated at 300 watts will not produce 300 watts all the time.
This rating number is at or close to the maximum production value possible for that panel, under ideal testing conditions.
It is possible that a 300 watt panel will produce 300 watts (or slightly more) for a limited time during the day (they work better when the outside temperature is colder), but most of the day it will produce less.
Over the course of the year a given panel will be exposed to some number of hours of sunny weather, cloudy weather, and rainy weather. Trees or other objects in the distance can throw shade as well.
The expectation is that the 1200 number used in the equation above will roughly approximate the total production in a year. Of course, some years are rainier than others, so this number is just for planning.
Now that I had this information about how individual panel production relates to annual power production, I was able to think more clearly about our options.
I concluded that the original salesman who wanted to sell me 39 panels was overdoing it, and the high pressure salesman who wanted to sell me 26 panels was a bit under.
Either way, both salesmen were charging $30,000 (or a net of $17,500 after incentives). This was more than I wanted to spend.
Originally, I wanted to spend $25,000 total, for a net cost of $14,000 ($7500 tax credit plus $3500 from the state and county = $11,000 in incentives and $25,000 – $11,000 = $14,000 net cost).
Surprisingly, it turned out that the first bid (shown above) from EnergySage.com was from a local vendor called Solar Energy World – the same vendor who gave me the original 39 panel bid from Attempt 1. So, if Attempt 1 was “the wrong way” why was this bid, from the same vendor, different?
The key difference was the salesman who put in this bid, Daren Weatherby. Because the bid came through EnergySage.com I didn’t have to deal with high-pressure sales tactics.
Instead, Daren came to my house on a number of occasions and really listened when I explained what I needed. He was very responsive, and provided me with enough additional information and a new bid that I felt comfortable accepting.
Daren measured the part of my roof with the best southern exposure, and determined that we could fit 34 panels on the roof. This is more than I apparently need. Daren explained that I have some shade issues, so I will need a few more panels than I initially estimated, in order to get the production I wanted.
The 34 panels fit nicely, and basically take up that whole section of roof. Daren admitted that he was over-provisioning a bit, but he emphasized that he wanted to under-promise and over-deliver.
The final contract I signed was for 34 solar panels, each rated for 300 watts. So the size of our system is:
34 panels * 300 watts/panel = 10.2 Kilowatts
Using the 1200 number mentioned above for planning annual output, this system will produce about 12 MWh per year, at least the first year.
10 Kilowatts of panels * 1200 = 12 MWh per year (I am rounding for simplicity as this is for planning only)
Note that panels will produce less output over time. About 25 years from now, this system will produce about 85% of what it’s producing now, or about 10.5 MWh per year (about what we use today). In effect, Daren was future-proofing the system for us.
So, what did it actually cost us?
We paid just over $27,000 for the system (before incentives) or $2.65/watt. This was a little more than I wanted to spend, but less than the other bids. After incentives, the whole system will cost us about $15,400, or about $1.51/watt.
Think about that. We are generating all the electricity we will probably use (and then some) for the next 25 years, for about $616 per year (25 * $616 = $15,400) by paying in advance – this doesn’t even include the additional post-installation incentives I discussed in Part 2 and will elaborate on in a future post.
Compare this to the $1433 we are currently spending per year (at current prices, which will probably go up) and I think we are getting a great deal.
I asked Daren for a referral code to embed here, but he doesn’t have one. He said to ask for him at solarenergyworld.com and mention me (TDSF) as the referrer.
The two take-aways from this post are:
Use EnergySage.com to get bids from approved installers in your area, and to learn more about the process.
If you live in the Maryland area, please consider using Solar Energy World, and specifically ask for Daren Weatherbee. They’re a great organization, and Daren did a great job for us.
In Part 5 of this series I will describe the installation
process and show you what you get (besides the panels) for all this money. Stay
tuned…
