Anyone using solar panels for their house?
 

Seeing as we live in one of the sunniest provinces in Canada, we have been considering installing some solar panels on our house roof to at least partially power our house. We have no idea on the cost or how long it would take to recover that cost in saved electrical. Can anyone share some experiences?

We looked at solar options when we bought our house about a year an a half ago. Using photovoltaic for power is an option, and saskpower has an option to tie your system into the grid so you don't have to use a battery bank (although if you don't you are as susceptible to power outages as anyone else). Unfortunately from a cost effective postion at current power rates it would take something like 15+ years to break even. The break even is less for wind, something like 8 or 9.

What is cost effective on a relatively short time is using solar to heat your water. The more hot water you use, the faster the system pays for itself. We chose not to add the system to our house yet, more out of inertia than anything else. :)

We looked at these options when checking out the Vereco house. They had a demo house set up at the WDM in 2011.

- Ian

Well, we have solar for our cabin at the lake. We went low cost (Crappy Tire variety), and have just enough to handle our lights and small appliances and tools. We use propane for the fridge, stove and hot water (very cheap), and still have a generator for heavier tools (even vacuuming).

The main reason we got the solar was for convenience, so we don't have to run the generator, which is noisy, too. But there is no way you can ever justify solar based based on costs. The batteries alone (which need regular replacement) will cost more over time than any cost you would save from the power company.

Most of the cabins at our lake do have solar and/or wind generators. I can't believe what some have paid for their set-ups,... could buy a nice car for that money. Then they have to pay more after a few years, for batteries, upgrades, and other maintenance. It is just simply very, very expensive for what you get.

But for us at the lake, it is a necessity, as we don't have a connection to power. For me, though, I went cheap with the solar, and more for convenience than any other reason. My diesel generator is still the cheapest by far, for out there, but just don't like the noise and inconvenience.

Thanks for the input! It really doesn't sound very economical! I knew it was pricey, but I didn't think it was that bad. Kinda kills that idea...

Here in Ontario they have a micro fit plan that used to pay 80c a kilowatt. I think they have dropped it to 60 or 50cents now. Basically you don't want to use the solar power as its much more lucrative to sell it back. It's a green incentive / subsidy.

A friend of mine installed solar panels at his cabin (it is lived in yr round)at a huge cost but its what his wife wanted

Benefits he found
-even minimal light generates power even with the snow covering more than 70% of the panels
-his power costs are virtually nil now still has hydro hookup as well as generator backup hydro is only used for his outdoor plugs
-side benefit one of his solar panels is used to heat water during non winter months and does a great job of it
-relatively maintenance free(no need for tree removal or hydro maintenance all lines underground)

Downsides
-battery bank takes up fair amount of room in his basement
-snow load broke a solar panel even with insurance still cost him a pretty penny to replace
-ice buildup a major issue on one of his panels(close to chimney from fireplace)
-he will never ever get back what he put into it costwise

He likes the solar power but as he told his wife if you want solar power on another place she will have to find a way to pay for it as it cost him close to $70,000 to install what they have at the cabin and that was with all discounts too

He is all for green energy but the cost especially up north does not make it a viable attractive solution as everything has to come out of Hongcouver or Edmonton and cost of shipping and even repair costs a lot.

http://www.find-solar.org/index.php is a site that can tell you some costs , how long to recoup and so on . Ive been thinking about this for a while but is expensive .

was looking into solar but seems Edmonton stopped their program a couple years back. Without an incentive program good luck getting a payback on a grid-tie before you'd need to be replacing panels etc. Batteries, seems even with a incentive program a money looser.

Found this thread on Digital Home quite interesting (real life experience with microFIT)

Thanks for the input everyone. I did find a reference where one of the local installed said it cost about $20,000 for a 10 kw(?) system. It should would be nice if they made green energy more affordable!

My friend has his workshop where he uses powertools all the time completely off grid. He used to run a workshop to teach people how to make their own 64w solar panels for just over $100 worth of components/parts. Around here, good deep cycle batteries are not cheap. I was going to run my greenhouse and even my reef tanks off-grid but the economics of this "green" project didn't really work. I may still do it, as much for the "oooh, I'm off grid" factor as anything else. As others mentioned, the pay-back period is very long and so "economic-benefits" is not really a true consideration. If I'm lazy, there's a solar power store a few blocks away where I can buy the panels, batteries and everything else and the guy will give me the instructions for hooking it up (or I'll get my friend over to help). Still, not sure I want to spend $1200+ for a side project.

My friend's currently pricing out a system appropriate for my needs and designing something custom and then I'll make my final decision whether to go solar or not.

Anthony

Enmax has a program now where you pay a down payment and then pay monthly for the next 15 years at zero percent interest. But their price seemed very inflated. But worth a look.

Upfront cost has been what's keeping me out of the solar power game as well, plus the fact that BC is among the least expensive provinces for hydro. As mentioned, getting a solar array up & running is more about the 'green' factor and a little bit of independence rather than savings, or recouping installation costs. I purchased a small wind generator on sale a few years ago & have yet to set that up!

I'm still considering at least starting a system with maybe 2 to 4 large solar panels, for backup power if nothing else. You don't necessarily have to go huge right away. You can start with a couple of panels, batteries & keep adding to the system over time to minimize the inital $$$ hit. Seems solar panels, like LED lighting can still come down in price, but the pricing appears to have levelled out of late, not getting that much cheaper.

The technology contiues to improve though and with the newer MPPT solar controllers, you can get much better efficiency out of solar panels, even on duller days. A neighbour a couple of blocks down the road has covered his roof with panels, I'll have to take a walk down there some time soon & hit him up for info.

If you can swing a hybrid system by combining, wind, solar even micro hydro, you'd have the advantages of different technology, but it gets complicated & who has a creek with an elevation drop of 100' running through their property? I've been to a few backcountry lodges in recent years & most of them rely on solar and/or micro hydro power. It's cost effective for them since the cost to fly in fuel for a diesel or gas powered generator is prohibitive.

Anyhow, I wouldn't necessarily give up on the idea, start small & build on the system as funds permit.

There are a few cabins at our lake that are lucky enough to be near a mountain stream, and have employed small water turbines. Those are by far the most economical, and don't need as many batteries either because of the steady supply of power.

we are locking into a panel bank as well.

what is shocking is the prices thy ask for them

locking at Canadian online stores, the price for a panel is about $ 1.40 to $ 1.50 per W.

now my dad had 4.6 KW installed last January, he send me the quote breakdown as I could not believe it.

he spend 6400 euro on 4.6 KW, of that the panels itself came down to 57 euro cents, that's only $ 0.77 CND/per watt tax (21% tax included).


now the funny thing is, a other family member had a setup installed as well.

thy had panels installed from Canadian solar, thy where 5% more expensive, but than still, that is almost 1/2 of what we pay here.

I was pricing a system out of the states and I was shocked at the price. Cheaper that is. Lol

http://www.mrsolar.com/page/MSOS/PROD/ce/OLS-GTS-40

I was pricing a system out of the states and I was shocked at the price. Cheaper that is. Lol

http://www.mrsolar.com/page/MSOS/PROD/ce/OLS-GTS-40
Wouldn't include installation but with cost of an electrician. And getting a two way power meter would still be way cheaper.

I was pricing a system out of the states and I was shocked at the price. Cheaper that is. Lol

http://www.mrsolar.com/page/MSOS/PROD/ce/OLS-GTS-40
Wouldn't include installation but with cost of an electrician. And getting a two way power meter would still be way cheaper.
Reliability is a big unknown though.

Wow sorry for the triple post there. Tapatalk must be on the fritz. Lol

A friend of ours is co-owner of Solar Outpost in Saskatoon. They do wind, solar and thermal projects. When we built out new house I debated putting a system on the house and garage and he said I shouldn't. Unless we were living in the place for 20 years it would never pay for itself.

And unless I am not mistaken, SaskPower will allow you to feed back into the grid through the smart meter and reimburse you up until your bill is $0. But they will not pay you for any extra power. Silly.

This is the local pricing from the Solar shop near my house.

The one the owner recommended to me is highlighted in blue, but without the need for Inverter/remote & such, it would still be just under $2000 plus tax.



System MPPT .87 KWH FLOODED - 250 Peak Watts DC, 875WH/day
• (1) SL250-30MD 250-watt module
• Xantrex SW2000 Inverter
• Inverter remote on/off switch
• (4) 220ahr 6V Batteries
• MPPT 20A Controller, with remote display
• 30ft #10/2 cable, MC4 connectors
• 8ft #6 Controller Battery Cables and fuse
• 5’ 2/0 inverter cables, fuse & holder
• Battery Series and Parallel Cables -----$1950

System MPPT 1 KWH FLOODED - 300 Peak Watts DC, 1050WH/day
• (2) 150-18M 150-watt mono modules
• Xantrex SW2000 True Sine Wave Inverter
• Inverter remote on/off switch
• (4) US Battery US2200 6V Batteries
• MPPT 30A Controller, with remote display
• 30’ #10/2 cable, MC4 connectors
• 8ft #6 Controller Battery Cables and fuse
• 5’ 2/0 inverter cables, fuse & holder
• Battery Series and Parallel Cables --------$2065

System MPPT 1 KWH AGM - 300 Peak Watts DC, 1050WH/day
• (2) 150-18M 150-watt modules
• Xantrex SW1000 True Sine Wave Inverter
• Inverter remote on/off switch
• (2) MCA 310 AGM 6V Batteries
• MPPT 30A Controller and remote Display
• 30ft #10/2 cable, MC4 connectors
• 8ft #6 Controller Battery Cables and fuse
• 5’ 1/0 inverter cables, fuse & holder
• Battery Series Cable -------$1935

System MPPT 1.3KWH FLOODED - 380 Peak Watts DC, 1330WH/day
• (2) 190-36M 190-watt mono modules
• Xantrex SW2000 True Sine Wave Inverter
• Inverter remote on/off switch
• (6) US Battery US2200 Batteries
• MPPT 30A Controller with remote Display
• 40ft #10/2 cable, MC4 connectors
• Metal Combiner, 8A fuse
• 8ft #6 Controller Battery Cables and fuse
• 5’ 2/0 inverter cables, fuse & holder
• Battery Series and Parallel Cables --------$2625


System MPPT 1.75 KWH FLOODED - 500 Peak Watts DC, 1750 WH/day
• (2) 250-30M 250-watt module
• Xantrex SW2000 Inverter
• Inverter remote on/off switch
• (6) US Battery US2200 6V Batteries
• MPPT 40A Controller with display
• 40ft #10/2 cable, MC4 connectors
• Metal Combiner, 15A cct breaker
• 8ft #6 Controller Battery Cables and fuse
• 5’ 2/0 inverter cables, fuse & holder
• Battery Series Parallel Cables ----------2860

System MPPT 2 KWH FLOODED - 570 Peak Watts DC, 1995WH/day
• (3) 190-36M 190-watt mono modules
• Xantrex SW2000 True Sine Wave Inverter
• Inverter remote on/off switch
• (8) US Battery US2200 Batteries
• MPPT 45A Network Controller
• 40ft #10/2 cable, MC4 connectors
• Metal Combiner, 8A fuse
• 8ft #4 Controller Battery Cables and fuse
• 5’ 2/0 inverter cables, fuse & holder
• Battery Series and Parallel Cables -------$3245


System MPPT 2.6 KWH FLOODED - 750 Peak Watts DC, 2625 WH/day
• (3) 250-30M 250-watt module
• Xantrex SW2000 Inverter
• Inverter remote on/off switch
• (8) US Battery US2200 Batteries
• MPPT 60A Network Controller
• 40ft #10/2 cable, MC4 connectors
• Metal Combiner, 15A cct breaker
• 8ft #4 Controller Battery Cables and fuse
• 5’ 2/0 inverter cables and 250A fuse
• Battery Series and Parallel Cables ---$3605

For the panels, they are selling for:

100W MONO PANEL 100W INFO $146 = $1.46/w
includes cables and MC4 connectors

150W MONO PANEL 150W INFO $220 = $1.47/w
includes cables and MC4 connectors

So these prices are right inline with KevinK's quoted prices per watt for panels.

it was $ 0.77/watt so this is still 2x

the Canadian solar once you can find online for $ 0.82/watt

I was comparing to your online prices ($1.40-$1.50/watt) from your earlier post.