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Category: Community
Forum: Teams
Thread:  Join "MyOnlineTeam" Today - Chapter 48 |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 563
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brown chris
Master Cruncher California - USA Joined: Nov 18, 2004 Post Count: 2419 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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[skip] Honestly, I watched my electric bill drop from $350 a month to $63 and I haven't cut back at all. Two days ago when I got home from work, my meter read 61030. Tonight when I got home I read it again and it read 61039 after two days! [skip] It was great hearing this. I put some feelers out, but I never heard of SunGevity. If there are any problems with the panels, inverter, etc., do they fix them? I have been looking at Sun City Solar Energy, but a recent search did come up with SunGevity. The thing is that I have lived in Monterey county California for 33 years and I am in the process of remodeling my home right now (not DIY). I don't think I will want to move or sell my home (you never know), but I am thinking more of purchasing a system outright instead of doing a lease.  Sungevity has a guarantee that the panels they install will provide the advertised amount of power. If that is not happening, they will fix it so it will do what it is supposed to do. I do have some responsibility in this, though. If my trees grow up and shade the panels, I have to trim them. I also have to clean the panels off every few months. If any thing breaks like the inverter or any of the panels, they will fix that. If I develop any roof leaks because of the installation of the panels, they fix that. If this system ever quits performing, they will fix it as long as it's not something stupid on my part. They even carry their own insurance on this system, so I don't have to add it to my home insurance. But, that's if the system is leased. If you are buying the system, that's quite a bit different.I wouldn't buy it just because it's still way too expensive. Even with the rebates, it would still cost about $30,000 (for what I have). The monthly payments would be over three times what I pay and if something breaks, you have to pay for a service call. It's still not worth it to buy them. The panels and the inverter are rated to last for 25 years. After my 10 year lease expires, I have a choice to upgrade my system and pay the same monthly price. In 10 years, I'm pretty sure that the panels are going to be more efficient. If so, I can have them replaced and sign another 10 year lease. If I don't want them anymore, they will just take them away and I'm done with it. Honestly, I would not consider a purchase as the system is still very expensive. With this lease, I am saving more that I am spending on the payments.
BIG BANG THEORY: In the beginning there was nothing... which exploded
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
brown chris
Thanks for all the information. You give me a lot to think about. I have been making inquiries and I will use what you said before signing any lease. I do have to wait for the remodel to be completed. |
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brown chris
Master Cruncher California - USA Joined: Nov 18, 2004 Post Count: 2419 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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brown chris Thanks for all the information. You give me a lot to think about. I have been making inquiries and I will use what you said before signing any lease. I do have to wait for the remodel to be completed. Glad to help. I too had been looking for a long time, but couldn't justify the price. The only downfall about this system is something that I was ignorant about. I thought if the power went out during the day, I would still have power. But, the way the system is designed, it if doesn't sense 220v coming in from the commercial line, the inverter shuts off and quits producing electricity. Since this system feeds the grid, the power company doesn't want power coming back at them when they are trying to fix whatever caused the outage. I'm sure there is a work-around for that, though. What I would love to do is have these panels charging a rack of batteries and just cut out the power company all together. But the equipment and the batteries are very expensive. I'm in this to save money, so that would defeat my purpose.
BIG BANG THEORY: In the beginning there was nothing... which exploded
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RT
Master Cruncher USA - Texas - DFW Joined: Dec 22, 2004 Post Count: 2636 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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brown chris Thanks for all the information. You give me a lot to think about. I have been making inquiries and I will use what you said before signing any lease. I do have to wait for the remodel to be completed. Glad to help. I too had been looking for a long time, but couldn't justify the price. The only downfall about this system is something that I was ignorant about. I thought if the power went out during the day, I would still have power. But, the way the system is designed, it if doesn't sense 220v coming in from the commercial line, the inverter shuts off and quits producing electricity. Since this system feeds the grid, the power company doesn't want power coming back at them when they are trying to fix whatever caused the outage. I'm sure there is a work-around for that, though. What I would love to do is have these panels charging a rack of batteries and just cut out the power company all together. But the equipment and the batteries are very expensive. I'm in this to save money, so that would defeat my purpose. I never thought about the fact that the inverter shuts down when the power is off but it makes a lot of sense. Since you are going through the inverter backwards through the transformer, you would be putting high voltage back onto the high voltage line that they are working on. Previously, this would be dead because the feed from the power plant was down. This would make it twice as dangerous on the power workers. There has to be a way for them to just cut the feed back out of your house...perhaps in the meter...where if there were no power from the power company, it breaks contact with your house wiring..that way you could keep your power in the house. OH Good Afternoon Team  Still drinking coffee |
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keithhenry
Ace Cruncher Senile old farts of the world ....uh.....uh..... nevermind Joined: Nov 18, 2004 Post Count: 18665 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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brown chris Thanks for all the information. You give me a lot to think about. I have been making inquiries and I will use what you said before signing any lease. I do have to wait for the remodel to be completed. Glad to help. I too had been looking for a long time, but couldn't justify the price. The only downfall about this system is something that I was ignorant about. I thought if the power went out during the day, I would still have power. But, the way the system is designed, it if doesn't sense 220v coming in from the commercial line, the inverter shuts off and quits producing electricity. Since this system feeds the grid, the power company doesn't want power coming back at them when they are trying to fix whatever caused the outage. I'm sure there is a work-around for that, though. What I would love to do is have these panels charging a rack of batteries and just cut out the power company all together. But the equipment and the batteries are very expensive. I'm in this to save money, so that would defeat my purpose. Chris, talk to an electrician about how generators get hooked up so that they don't feed power back out when they kick in. It sounds like the same thing and probably could use the same solution. I believe you use what's called a transfer switch. You route the power from the panels through it and somehow it only goes to the specific circuits hooked to it. |
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keithhenry
Ace Cruncher Senile old farts of the world ....uh.....uh..... nevermind Joined: Nov 18, 2004 Post Count: 18665 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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MyOnlineTeam Daily Statistics for 02/12 - All Members:
----------------------------------------Team rank movement report =========================
Points milestones report ======================== No points milestones found.  Runtime milestones report ========================= RT reached 89 years of runtime  Results returned milestones report ================================== No results returned milestones found. New members report ================== No new members found. Retired members report ====================== No new retired members found. For the week as a team: Statistics Total Run Time Points Results Team Records: Results Returned: 12/19/2007 2,522 Points: 01/27/2011 826,037 Runtime: 01/25/2006 1:123:00:53:34 Good crunching folks!!!!! |
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keithhenry
Ace Cruncher Senile old farts of the world ....uh.....uh..... nevermind Joined: Nov 18, 2004 Post Count: 18665 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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MyOnlineTeam Daily Statistics for 02/12 - Active Members
----------------------------------------Active team members report ==========================
Note: Active members are those who earned points in the prior 30 days. Top Twenty active members returning points today: 01: RT - 139,762 points 02: judson Somerville MD - 80,159 points 03: GeraldRube - 65,505 points 04: Coingames - 57,664 points 05: finman - 44,683 points 06: David Autumns - 43,676 points 07: dkt - 37,385 points 08: brown chris - 35,353 points 09: xroule - 32,953 points 10: NiceMedTexMD - 31,430 points 11: parmesian - 30,528 points 12: keithhenry - 17,940 points 13: darth_vader - 17,804 points 14: Alain Bryden - 13,026 points 15: Vuj - 12,569 points 16: lawrencehardin - 11,672 points 17: Mike OSullivan - 11,636 points 18: Rene Punt - 10,591 points 19: Blueprint - 7,171 points 20: PohSoon - 6,139 points Total points returned today: 753,642 Active members returning points today: 39 Average points per member active today: 19,324.1538 |
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darth_vader
Veteran Cruncher A galaxy far, far away... Joined: Jul 13, 2005 Post Count: 514 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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brown chris Thanks for all the information. You give me a lot to think about. I have been making inquiries and I will use what you said before signing any lease. I do have to wait for the remodel to be completed. Glad to help. I too had been looking for a long time, but couldn't justify the price. The only downfall about this system is something that I was ignorant about. I thought if the power went out during the day, I would still have power. But, the way the system is designed, it if doesn't sense 220v coming in from the commercial line, the inverter shuts off and quits producing electricity. Since this system feeds the grid, the power company doesn't want power coming back at them when they are trying to fix whatever caused the outage. I'm sure there is a work-around for that, though. What I would love to do is have these panels charging a rack of batteries and just cut out the power company all together. But the equipment and the batteries are very expensive. I'm in this to save money, so that would defeat my purpose. Chris, talk to an electrician about how generators get hooked up so that they don't feed power back out when they kick in. It sounds like the same thing and probably could use the same solution. I believe you use what's called a transfer switch. You route the power from the panels through it and somehow it only goes to the specific circuits hooked to it. - D (I'm still sitting on the fence ....) |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
brown chris Thanks for all the information. You give me a lot to think about. I have been making inquiries and I will use what you said before signing any lease. I do have to wait for the remodel to be completed. Glad to help. I too had been looking for a long time, but couldn't justify the price. The only downfall about this system is something that I was ignorant about. I thought if the power went out during the day, I would still have power. But, the way the system is designed, it if doesn't sense 220v coming in from the commercial line, the inverter shuts off and quits producing electricity. Since this system feeds the grid, the power company doesn't want power coming back at them when they are trying to fix whatever caused the outage. I'm sure there is a work-around for that, though. What I would love to do is have these panels charging a rack of batteries and just cut out the power company all together. But the equipment and the batteries are very expensive. I'm in this to save money, so that would defeat my purpose. Chris, talk to an electrician about how generators get hooked up so that they don't feed power back out when they kick in. It sounds like the same thing and probably could use the same solution. I believe you use what's called a transfer switch. You route the power from the panels through it and somehow it only goes to the specific circuits hooked to it. I believe what could be done would be to use a solenoid powered by the grid so if electricity went out due to a transformer failure, a line going down, etc, the solenoid (or solid state equivalent) would open and prevent any power provided by batteries or solar panels from getting back into the grid. Unfortunately, this looks like an engineering design problem yet to be done. |
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keithhenry
Ace Cruncher Senile old farts of the world ....uh.....uh..... nevermind Joined: Nov 18, 2004 Post Count: 18665 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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brown chris Thanks for all the information. You give me a lot to think about. I have been making inquiries and I will use what you said before signing any lease. I do have to wait for the remodel to be completed. Glad to help. I too had been looking for a long time, but couldn't justify the price. The only downfall about this system is something that I was ignorant about. I thought if the power went out during the day, I would still have power. But, the way the system is designed, it if doesn't sense 220v coming in from the commercial line, the inverter shuts off and quits producing electricity. Since this system feeds the grid, the power company doesn't want power coming back at them when they are trying to fix whatever caused the outage. I'm sure there is a work-around for that, though. What I would love to do is have these panels charging a rack of batteries and just cut out the power company all together. But the equipment and the batteries are very expensive. I'm in this to save money, so that would defeat my purpose. Chris, talk to an electrician about how generators get hooked up so that they don't feed power back out when they kick in. It sounds like the same thing and probably could use the same solution. I believe you use what's called a transfer switch. You route the power from the panels through it and somehow it only goes to the specific circuits hooked to it. I believe what could be done would be to use a solenoid powered by the grid so if electricity went out due to a transformer failure, a line going down, etc, the solenoid (or solid state equivalent) would open and prevent any power provided by batteries or solar panels from getting back into the grid. Unfortunately, this looks like an engineering design problem yet to be done. This seems like a pretty common issue that has to have a ready answer so I did some digging. The solar panels generate DC current. Your home uses AC current. It's the inverter that converts the DC to AC. Being able to use solar to have power during an outage appears to use a different kind of inverter. As for the different kinds, here's this from the wiki: Stand-alone inverters, used in isolated systems where the inverter draws its DC energy from batteries charged by photovoltaic arrays and/or other sources, such as wind turbines, hydro turbines, or engine generators. Many stand-alone inverters also incorporate integral battery chargers to replenish the battery from an AC source, when available. Normally these do not interface in any way with the utility grid, and as such, are not required to have anti-islanding protection. Grid tie inverters, which match phase with a utility-supplied sine wave. Grid-tie inverters are designed to shut down automatically upon loss of utility supply, for safety reasons. They do not provide backup power during utility outages. Battery backup inverters. These are special inverters which are designed to draw energy from a battery, manage the battery charge via an onboard charger, and export excess energy to the utility grid. These inverters are capable of supplying AC energy to selected loads during a utility outage, and are required to have anti-islanding protection. Sounds like Sungevity uses the second kind instead of the third. |
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