Need advise! Building new house and putting up solar

[bashing]

Hi folks, need your help. I am building a house and want to put a 20kw system on my roof. I have the space for it and the planning but I don't know where to start.
I have spoken to a few vendors about panels and QCELLS is what keeps popping up in the quote. Is QCELL a good brand? the G10+ model I believe.
I will be DIYing it when the framing finishes very soon.

My question is as follows:
1. what brand of Solar panels is the best that will not break the bank and will give me a good performance.
2. What brand of optimizer is good for a such system? I have heard enphase and SolarEdge P405
3. What brand of inverter would I need for such a system? Would I get 2x 10kw or other kinds?
4. What else do I need to get permit from my county to have it install myself?

Many thanks in advance

 

[BentleyJ]

Why a 20kW PV array? What is that based on?
Do you want battery back up vs. just grid-tie? If battery back up is it for the whole house or is there going to be a critical loads subpanel? The time to decide this is now while under construction.
If you are building a new house the electrical engineer may have listed the proposed loads. A system is sized based on needs and demand.

 

[bashing]

There will be no batteries and it will be grid tied to NV energy. The reason I want to put 20kw is to meet or exceed my power consumption. It is a 6500sqft home with 1200sqft garage which will be climate controlled. I figure my average cost of electricity be $350 per month therefore I want a system that is big enough to offset the consumption.

 

[WindWizard]

It is good that you want to jump into Solar. There are lots of decisions on your part. Grid tied gets very particular on the solar equipment that you need to purchase. You should look it up or linkup with another DYI who has jumped through all of the regulatory requirements for the state of Nevada. I do know that you will need to submit all sorts of paperwork and have lots of inspections and that if it is not up to code it will not pass and they will not allow you to export electricity to the Grid.

 

[Quattrohead]

When you go over 10 Kw, you are into a tier 2 system and it gets a whole lot more complicated.

 

[bashing]

When you go over 10 Kw, you are into a tier 2 system and it gets a whole lot more complicated.

care to elaborate?

 

[bashing]

Any insights on this topic?

 

[2TrevorJ]

20 kW may not be enough for summer with that much conditioned space in LV. Recommend you wait and design your system after you get utilization numbers from your first summer in the house.

 

[bashing]

Thanks but I really don’t want to tear into the roof afterwards. I will also be able to ground mount about 20KW later down the road.

I want to have install it and be finished with roofing. Don’t really want to go and add or remove later down the road. Except adding the ground panels when I have my workshop up and running.

 

[740GLE]

Is there room for a ground mount?

It’s just as easy to get on the roof after a year or so.

You’ll learn a ton from a ground mount that you can apply to a roof mount later on.

What’s the size of your electrical service drop?

 

[bashing]

450amp

 

[67King]

There will be no batteries and it will be grid tied to NV energy. The reason I want to put 20kw is to meet or exceed my power consumption. It is a 6500sqft home with 1200sqft garage which will be climate controlled. I figure my average cost of electricity be $350 per month therefore I want a system that is big enough to offset the consumption.

I'm curious to know how you came up with 20kw? I'm in the same boat, building a house. Supposed to break ground in a few weeks. A little bit smaller, but similar workshop. Builder is saying he'll bring 400Amp service in. I'm looking at splitting that into two 200A panels, and trying to decide where to go from there. My "prime" direction now is that the main array will be a 12X3 (36 panels) BlueSun 460W system, so 16.2kW. May have a supplemental system, may have one panel grid tied, the other not.

I can only benchmark my current house, which will be about 20% smaller, but less well built with less efficient appliances. Also has gas. New house will not have gas, will us geothermal heat pumps, will have more efficient appliances, but will also have more windows. Going to protect for adding a lap pool (which will be about twice as large as a typical residential pool due to the length). Drive a Tesla about 100 miles per day, which is about 30kw-hr per day just by itself. My current average is 2250kW-hr per month. Add another 1000 (estimate) from gas appliances that will go electric.

In my case, I'm assuming I will max out the main array. My constraint for that system is that I'm trying to build an awning that is about the same length as one side of the house so it looks somewhat tied to it (won't quite be, terrain will dictate a drop with a small retaining wall), which is 42', which I'll use to keep my enclosed trailer and truck.

Can also have a supplemental array, Can put one 10X3 on one side of the boathouse, which faces ESE, and another of the same size that faces WNW, but that WNW facing side would be diminishing returns. I may keep it off the grid into the second panel and run non-critical systems (all my shop tools, the EV charger, the pool pump) off of it.

But again, wondering how you came up with your sizing requirements.

 

[NevadAdobe]

There will be no batteries and it will be grid tied to NV energy. The reason I want to put 20kw is to meet or exceed my power consumption. It is a 6500sqft home with 1200sqft garage which will be climate controlled. I figure my average cost of electricity be $350 per month therefore I want a system that is big enough to offset the consumption.

Ah - another Nevadan! My wife and I are up in Reno preparing to go off grid north of Sparks (Calle de Plata mountain top). Hope you were able to get your system up and operating! We will be starting small - only power the RV on a SW4048 system installed in a 40' Sea Container. We are waiting for the weather to clear. Way to muddy to get to the top just yet.