Hi, in case anyones interested, I thought I’d chronicle my lo-buck grid tie system.
Just A couple years ago we got a bid to do a 7 kW system on our house and the price came in at $41,000 this seemed ridiculous to me so we put it on the back burner. Fast forward to last year, I started a job with a small solar company, I have never worked in Solar before however I’ve been in construction my whole life.
although I’m not an professional installer, I do own some heavy equipment (skid steer, backhoes etc) I ended up doing many complete groundmount systems (sometimes completely alone do to millenial/zoomer inability/willingness to work) So I’m not an expert, but I am competent in the trade. (at least the groundmount, site survey, commisioning, permitting side, roof work really is a young man’s game!).
anyway, here we go:
How much did it cost?
Well, keep in mind, I got somewhat good pricing from the contractor supply house because we bought alot of product from them (12 roof mounts and 1 ground mount per week)
BOM
26 380 watt Qcell duo9+
26 iq7+
xr10 rail(bought from another solar contractor on craigslistgetting rid of it for cheap)
Flashloc comp feet
Envoy combiner (no cell kit, got too much EMF already)
various parts railsplice, micro bolts, sunrunner clips etc etc
6 guage wire (i like to keep voltage drop under 1%)
Anyway, all in I’m under 14k including permit and plans which were 500 bucks even. (gotta love small red counties, my permit was issued OTC in 15 minutes for 200 bucks even!) You should expect to pay double that and wait weeks or months in some AHJ’s.
First pic is of array/string 1, 13 panels on my south elevation. Just completed that yesterday. Only took me 2 days, including a 55 foot attic run which actually was the hardest part. Assembling the array is really quite easy, anyone can do this if they’re reasonably fit. Humping the panels up a ladder alone was prolly the 2nd hardest part, but really not a big deal.
2nd pic is array complete. I have it temporarily hooked up to the envoy and I’m getting ok performance from 09:30-16:00.
My “380 watt” panels have not exceeded 305 watts though
next phase is array 2, this will be tougher as its a 12/12 roof. I will update as I progress if there’s any interest.
Just A couple years ago we got a bid to do a 7 kW system on our house and the price came in at $41,000 this seemed ridiculous to me so we put it on the back burner. Fast forward to last year, I started a job with a small solar company, I have never worked in Solar before however I’ve been in construction my whole life.
although I’m not an professional installer, I do own some heavy equipment (skid steer, backhoes etc) I ended up doing many complete groundmount systems (sometimes completely alone do to millenial/zoomer inability/willingness to work) So I’m not an expert, but I am competent in the trade. (at least the groundmount, site survey, commisioning, permitting side, roof work really is a young man’s game!).
anyway, here we go:
How much did it cost?
Well, keep in mind, I got somewhat good pricing from the contractor supply house because we bought alot of product from them (12 roof mounts and 1 ground mount per week)
BOM
26 380 watt Qcell duo9+
26 iq7+
xr10 rail(bought from another solar contractor on craigslistgetting rid of it for cheap)
Flashloc comp feet
Envoy combiner (no cell kit, got too much EMF already)
various parts railsplice, micro bolts, sunrunner clips etc etc
6 guage wire (i like to keep voltage drop under 1%)
Anyway, all in I’m under 14k including permit and plans which were 500 bucks even. (gotta love small red counties, my permit was issued OTC in 15 minutes for 200 bucks even!) You should expect to pay double that and wait weeks or months in some AHJ’s.
First pic is of array/string 1, 13 panels on my south elevation. Just completed that yesterday. Only took me 2 days, including a 55 foot attic run which actually was the hardest part. Assembling the array is really quite easy, anyone can do this if they’re reasonably fit. Humping the panels up a ladder alone was prolly the 2nd hardest part, but really not a big deal.
2nd pic is array complete. I have it temporarily hooked up to the envoy and I’m getting ok performance from 09:30-16:00.
My “380 watt” panels have not exceeded 305 watts though
next phase is array 2, this will be tougher as its a 12/12 roof. I will update as I progress if there’s any interest.