I presume it's customary to post an introduction here. My name is Sarah. My partner and I live on waterfront on the American East Coast. I've been a long-time electronics and energy nerd, but I've been watching the solar world from the sidelines as solar prices have dropped and dropped - waiting for the better deal and the shorter payback window. We are now biting the bullet. The last straw? Putin's stranglehold over Europe because of energy dependence. So many wars have been fought over energy, when we have all the energy we need shining down from the sky and blowing all around us (at least after we work out storage issues - perhaps through green hydrogen)!
We're 60'mumble years old, and our solar system will probably live longer than we do, but it has to start somewhere, right? Our children or the next owners of the home will enjoy probably another 2 decades of free, zero-carbon power after we've both been put in the ground. I figure our payback will be about 7 years, and the next 13'ish years of our lives after that will be gravy. However, we feel very strongly that I want to take the right steps to leave a better planet for our kids and grandkids (only one so far).
After a lot of research, we decided to buy a pallet of used Sunpower SPR-E20-435 panels that have been recently decommissioned from a solar farm. I don't know how old they are, but there's only so old they COULD be. I will pair those with Chilicon inverters. I think the panels were US-made, before Maxeon was spun off as a Singaporean company, and the Chilicon inverters (division of Generac) are also US-made. That's important to us. As a country, we need to start leading again in solar manufacturing. I want to support our local solar manufacturers as much as possible.
Our design will be slightly unconventional, in that I will be running a lot of copper from the panels to the garage, where I will have the microinverters. This will be to keep them cool, keep them out of the weather, and preclude my having to climb up on the rooftop at age 75 to break apart the array to replace a microinverter. I'm already getting too old for rooftops! The Sunpower panels are probably good for 40 years, and the components of the inverters likewise are 40-year rated (tantalum caps, no potting, etc.). I imagine the panels have already seen 5 years of that service, so I think the system will be good for 35 years (or actually more).
Prior to this, we have been very compulsive about reducing our energy usage. Our biggest step was to replace our aging central HVAC with Mitsubishi mini-splits and zoning our household to heat and cool mostly the spaces we are occupying. Our house transitioned from being an energy pig to an "average" household of 1000 kWh/mo, which is darned impressive considering the size of our home and our exposure to brutal wind, especially in the winter. Of course now we're dropping all that to net-zero.
So I am here to learn and share. I hope to meet fellow travelers in solar energy and become part of the movement to transform our energy infrastructure.
We're 60'mumble years old, and our solar system will probably live longer than we do, but it has to start somewhere, right? Our children or the next owners of the home will enjoy probably another 2 decades of free, zero-carbon power after we've both been put in the ground. I figure our payback will be about 7 years, and the next 13'ish years of our lives after that will be gravy. However, we feel very strongly that I want to take the right steps to leave a better planet for our kids and grandkids (only one so far).
After a lot of research, we decided to buy a pallet of used Sunpower SPR-E20-435 panels that have been recently decommissioned from a solar farm. I don't know how old they are, but there's only so old they COULD be. I will pair those with Chilicon inverters. I think the panels were US-made, before Maxeon was spun off as a Singaporean company, and the Chilicon inverters (division of Generac) are also US-made. That's important to us. As a country, we need to start leading again in solar manufacturing. I want to support our local solar manufacturers as much as possible.
Our design will be slightly unconventional, in that I will be running a lot of copper from the panels to the garage, where I will have the microinverters. This will be to keep them cool, keep them out of the weather, and preclude my having to climb up on the rooftop at age 75 to break apart the array to replace a microinverter. I'm already getting too old for rooftops! The Sunpower panels are probably good for 40 years, and the components of the inverters likewise are 40-year rated (tantalum caps, no potting, etc.). I imagine the panels have already seen 5 years of that service, so I think the system will be good for 35 years (or actually more).
Prior to this, we have been very compulsive about reducing our energy usage. Our biggest step was to replace our aging central HVAC with Mitsubishi mini-splits and zoning our household to heat and cool mostly the spaces we are occupying. Our house transitioned from being an energy pig to an "average" household of 1000 kWh/mo, which is darned impressive considering the size of our home and our exposure to brutal wind, especially in the winter. Of course now we're dropping all that to net-zero.
So I am here to learn and share. I hope to meet fellow travelers in solar energy and become part of the movement to transform our energy infrastructure.
