My Solar PV Thread

[freebeard]

I agreed to do that work for him at $40/job. I'm going to get paid to drone! My wife can't give me so much grief about buying it now. I'll take her out to dinner.

Even if you break even you come out ahead.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Even if you break even you come out ahead.

He gave me 4 jobs today, and I'll try to complete 2 of them light permitting when I get off work.

8 jobs would pay for my drone, not that I ever thought it could would pay for itself.

2 fully charged batteries and a couple SD cards ready to go.

[oil pan 4]

If I get a drone I'm too tempted to make a weapons system pay load for it.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

If I get a drone I'm too tempted to make a weapons system pay load for it.

Not necessarily a bad thing. I will mention here that I took my drone out for a quick spin after finally getting it to work with an Android device (iOS is dead forever), and it made an uncommanded 180 degree turn while landing. There's footage of me dancing around on the enclosed deck worried while trying to reverse the controls in my mind so I don't run it into my face. An uncommanded flame thrower event would have been more worrisome.

[freebeard]

I'd settle for a siren with soap injection that would make a firehose worth of soap bubbles; for, ya know, tactical area interdiction.

[redpoint5]

Bidding solar jobs is terrible. The initial quoted price is a starting point, and then you've got to set each company against the other to work the price down. It's all complicated by bidding 2 jobs because they might come in high on 1 job, and low on another. Just when I was ready to sign with a local company and pay a 10% premium for their slightly better product, the other guys drastically cut their bids and suddenly that local company is a good 30% over.

I've got them down to $2.66 per installed watt before subsidies, and $1.60 after. My parents are down to $0.75 per watt due to their increased subsidies, and that's for 100% production capabilities, which is about 3 kW unsubsidized (max subsidy goes to 6 kW and they need ~9 to cover 100%). Their break even on electricity alone is about 5 years.

Tesla is giving some effort now, and their pricing matches the best price I've found not factoring in the ODOE subsidy, and handily beats it by $1,500 if Tesla can obtain that credit. Do I gambe on a company with a bad reputation to potentially save $1,500?

[hayden55]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Bidding solar jobs is terrible.
Tesla is giving some effort now, and their pricing matches the best price I've found not factoring in the ODOE subsidy, and handily beats it by $1,500 if Tesla can obtain that credit. Do I gambe on a company with a bad reputation to potentially save $1,500?

No. Tesla is known for bad customer service if anything goes wrong. Doesn't seem worth it. Best to go with the standard local install for the least headache.

[Piotrsko]

Construction bond exceeding the value of the higest bid.

If the awarded bid fails, the bond kicks in and finishes the project.

Contractors generally don't like bonds.

[redpoint5]

All materials are sitting in my garage. Here's what I'm having installed tomorrow:

Nameplate output: 6.4 kW
Annual production: 7215 kWh
Silfab 320w panels x20
P320 Power Optimizer x20
Solaredge SE 6000H Inverter
$16,600
-$1,280 ODOE
-$1,920 Energy Trust
-$3,484 Federal tax credit

$9,916 final cost
$1.55/watt

2 weeks later my parents are getting:

Nameplate output: 8.88 kW
Annual production: 11,000 kWh
Hyundai 370W panels x24
Power Optimizer x24
Solaredge SE7600H Inverter
$23,000
-$5,000 ODOE
-$9,000 Energy Trust
-$2,340 Federal tax credit

$6,600 final cost
$0.75/watt

[ME_Andy]

Originally Posted by hayden55

No. Tesla is known for bad customer service if anything goes wrong. Doesn't seem worth it. Best to go with the standard local install for the least headache.

Our service from Tesla has been fine for the 2 years we've owned it.