diy solar

diy solar

Delta Pro vs DIY in a minimalist backup battery application?

wow such differences!. Based on our roof angle, facing due south and our zip code, looks like my peak sun hours are over 5 , but we'll round down to 5. I'm assuming that means in theory my system should produce around that (system size * peak) per day, considering it will produce some in non-peak hours of daylight? Assuming that, I can see where seth said a 15kw system would probably cover our 3x the national average usage. In theory, a 10kw system with 5 hours of peak sun would generate around 50kwh/day if I'm understanding all this :) Thank y'all for the guidance. Need to watch that will video next :)
You can use this site to estimate your solar production. I find it to be pretty accurate, as long as you fill in the parameters accurately:

 
As a data point, my 7.5kW system on my roof that faces south/southwest can regularly produce over 50kWh here in Ohio, as long as the skies are clear.

Of course, on those super dark rainy days I'm lucky to get 5kWh!
 
wow such differences!. Based on our roof angle, facing due south and our zip code, looks like my peak sun hours are over 5 , but we'll round down to 5. I'm assuming that means in theory my system should produce around that (system size * peak) per day, considering it will produce some in non-peak hours of daylight? Assuming that, I can see where seth said a 15kw system would probably cover our 3x the national average usage. In theory, a 10kw system with 5 hours of peak sun would generate around 50kwh/day if I'm understanding all this :) Thank y'all for the guidance. Need to watch that will video next :)
Thanks for the info - that makes sense :) ! We’re actually in an ideal spot for solar - fairly unobstructed, back of the house faces due south, a nice shiny metal roof, and I’m in south texas - I need to get some panels on the roof :)

Yeah I would guess that with an unobstructed southfacing 15kW system in Texas you would pull more than 50kW/day on average... my system at half the size will do that pretty easily in the summer. When you get solar installer quotes they will usually include a heat map of your roof that guesstimates its production potential. It's all pretty hypothetical though until the system exists and you see what it does, but those can be useful. I found Energysage pretty good for getting a bunch of quotes.
 
To clarify, my solar panel system is 7.6kW, but this doesn't mean that it's max daily generation is under 10kWh... rather, the system can (theoretically) generate up to 7.6kW per hour (if conditions were ideal). So, today, for instance, it produced a total of 48kWh.

Our house is 1500 sq ft, no pool, no well, one fridge, central AC, electric dryer and range, gas furnace and hot water. Looking at my Sense monitor, we used 571kWh last month, so call it about 20 kWh/day. (Goes up in the winter.) On the other hand our solar generation last month was 1064kWh, so almost double what we used. The way it works here in CA (for now...) is that you get credited for your excess kWh, and you spend those credits at night, in the winter, on days with low sun, etc. So at the end of the day, no bill.

You definitely use way, way, way more power... still, a 30kW solar panel system seems way too big to me. (Note again that we could have used *twice* the amount of power we actually did last month and my 7.6kW system still would have basically covered it!) Average residential solar installs in the US are like 5-6 kW. So even you are 3x the natural average (which is sounds like you are) that would suggest 15-18kW, not 30. Are you in some sort of super low-light situation, with a lot of shade obstructing where the panels would be? Otherwise 30kW sounds way bigger than you need.
I'm also in CA and have similar kW use. We average about 21kWh daily over the last 2+ years. I'm getting solar quotes right now and one of my concerns is our roof, we moved here 13 years ago and I don't know how old the roof is. Also, my electric panel is only 100A and may need to be upgraded so that's an additional cost.

Because of the possible added cost of a new roof in the next 5-10 years and an upgraded panel, I'm also looking at just using an EcoFlow Delta Pro together with self-installed solar panels to partially offset my electric bill instead of going with a grid-tied solar electric system.

Anyway, which solar company did you end up going with and if you don't mind my asking, can you share a ballpark figure of the cost of your solar electric system?

Quotes I've received:
Current Home Solar: 4.68kW system, $25,300
Project Solar: 5.80 kW system, $13,500
SCE-Electrum: 5.6 kW system, $25,800 to $26,800
Powur: 5.46 kW system, $28,200

Thanks in advance.
 
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