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The quote that forced me to go rogue.

O

Osmethne

Solar Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 18, 2023
Messages
139
Location
Salt Lake City
The place, Northern Utah.
The production target, 28kwh per year(don't judge, I feel you judging me).

The quote:
$22384 for labor
$7000 for racking (Iron ridge racking for this number of cells seems to cost $3200)
$1900 for plans and inspections etc
$5500 wires breakers etc.
$4650 for solar optimzers ($2666 online, maybe cheaper if I looked past the first result in Google)
$1200 200a outdoor disconnect
$1400 200a transfer switch(I'm not convinced this is necessary given the inverters specced in this quote)
$28000 62 QCell 400 watt panels( $16740 from Voltaico)
$700 for battery wires(WTF?)
$2800 main service panel upgrade
$0 4 hum less 5kwh batteries(really? 20kwh of free batteries? )
$14000 4 hum less inverters(This seem to be lvx6048wp clones, currently 4 of these should cost about $6000)

$89984 gross system cost
$62988 after federal tax credit

Payback period: About 21 years(rough guess) .

This quote seems unreasonable, borderline offensive. I can only assume that this installer has a secret agenda of inspiring potential customers to install their own systems. If so then mission accomplished.

I feel that the solar installation industry has become corrupted and a reckoning is coming.

Thank you for hearing me vent.
 
Osmethne said:
The place, Northern Utah.
The production target, 28kwh per year(don't judge, I feel you judging me).

...

Thank you for hearing me vent.
Click to expand...
Not judging, but something about having a quote of 62 -400w panels that in theory could give you upwards of 124,000wh a day (that is 124kWH/day) makes me wonder exactly what's up?
 
Assuming you mean 28MWh per year, yeah it is a lot of profit for the installer at $5.60/W. They are double-dipping on the labor IMO; they have enough markup on the hardware to cover the installation. That gets it down to a borderline $4.25/W and they are still making great gross margin.

Going with a SolArk 15k or EG4 18kPV should save you at least $10k over what they are quoting as a professional install ($3.60/W).

Or, do it yourself for ~$2/W with similar specs.
 
With $0 for batteries, pretty much makes that cost breakdown meaningless. $3.62 per watt is high, not the worst I've seen, but your system does induced batteries and a main panel replacement.

$89,984 / ( 62 * 400) = $3.62/watt
 
Wow, at that price point they wanted to use low cost inverters?
Since you are in Utah I would suggest the contractor makes some time on Sunday to attend church and take a refresher course on the 10 commandments, particularly the one about not stealing.

They probably did you a favor anyway. DIY will save you many $$$.
 
Osmethne said:
The place, Northern Utah.
The production target, 28kwh per year(don't judge, I feel you judging me).

The quote:
$22384 for labor
$7000 for racking (Iron ridge racking for this number of cells seems to cost $3200)
$1900 for plans and inspections etc
$5500 wires breakers etc.
$4650 for solar optimzers ($2666 online, maybe cheaper if I looked past the first result in Google)
$1200 200a outdoor disconnect
$1400 200a transfer switch(I'm not convinced this is necessary given the inverters specced in this quote)
$28000 62 QCell 400 watt panels( $16740 from Voltaico)
$700 for battery wires(WTF?)
$2800 main service panel upgrade
$0 4 hum less 5kwh batteries(really? 20kwh of free batteries? )
$14000 4 hum less inverters(This seem to be lvx6048wp clones, currently 4 of these should cost about $6000)

$89984 gross system cost
$62988 after federal tax credit

Payback period: About 21 years(rough guess) .

This quote seems unreasonable, borderline offensive. I can only assume that this installer has a secret agenda of inspiring potential customers to install their own systems. If so then mission accomplished.

I feel that the solar installation industry has become corrupted and a reckoning is coming.

Thank you for hearing me vent
Click to expand...
Yea this quote is a bit ridiculous.

If you are able you can do this significantly cheaper yourself.

If not you can still find a cheaper installer.
 
#40Fan said:
I won't be judgy, but what are you going to do after day two when you met your 28kwh mark? :cool:
Click to expand...

We have this game we like to play in our house. We hook up 12 gauge romex to the mains and sneak up on each other and shock each other. We pretend that we're the emporer from Star wars while we're doing it.

It's a lot of fun but it does consume quite a bit of electricity.

But yeah, I think I meant mwh. I think the estimator also factored in some shading since we have a lot of mature trees.
 
Osmethne said:
We have this game we like to play in our house. We hook up 12 gauge romex to the mains and sneak up on each other and shock each other. We pretend that we're the emporer from Star wars while we're doing it.

It's a lot of fun but it does consume quite a bit of electricity.

But yeah, I think I meant mwh. I think the estimator also factored in some shading since we have a lot of mature trees.
Click to expand...
12 wire is overkill. 14 would allow you sneak around corners easier.
 
Nah 6awg would be better because even if you miss them with both wires you can still poke a significant hole in them with one wire ?
 
Me being in this forum is a product of the same situation here in Italy. I wanted to hire a company to make my project. Some of them would not even do it, others asked for an arm and a leg for it. Doing it myself i made it exactly as i wanted and for less than half of the price they asked. They are definitely corrupt because when all the tax credits came in, they just ramped up the prices to take advantage of it.
 
Over a dollar per watt for the panels? That’s a hard no for me.
I’d just buy 2 pallets of the Canadian solar 400w mono all black panels from SS for a total cost of 10k vs your quote of 28k for just panels
 
Tulex said:
This is a quote from someone who doesn't want the job, but if they got it, it will be worth their while.
Click to expand...
I have given quotes like this before on sound systems installs … .as I didn’t like dealing with the person…but it was enough money I could get past the dislike… so I did it , but I still didn’t like him……..jus sayin.
 
Osmethne said:
This quote seems unreasonable, borderline offensive. I can only assume that this installer has a secret agenda of inspiring potential customers to install their own systems. If so then mission accomplished.
Click to expand...
This is either the "go away" quote as I used to call it. Something like "I don't like you, the job, or something"
Or it's possible that's market rate up there.

Welcome to the club, I started the same way. Didn't want to pay $30k for my system and have a 20 year payback.
 
OffGridForGood said:
Caught the bug now!
WARNING!: DIY SOLAR is a highly contagious, addiction with NO KNOWN CURE, recommended treatments: constant solar monitoring and tinkering, annual expansion to the DIY solar system, and daily attendance with the DIY Solar Forum support group.
Click to expand...
??
 
I own a mini storage and wanted to expand for over 2 years but could not get a cement contractor lined up. What I have found is contractors have so much work, they just start throwing out outrageous prices and the response from the prospect is "When can you start?"

This creates a loop of ever increasing price increases.
 
Zwy said:
I own a mini storage and wanted to expand for over 2 years but could not get a cement contractor lined up. What I have found is contractors have so much work, they just start throwing out outrageous prices and the response from the prospect is "When can you start?"

This creates a loop of ever increasing price increases.
Click to expand...

I feel like that's the case with a lot of trades. I get the impression that for whatever reason we had a massive amount of people becoming tradesmen of one sort or another and then everyone stopped going into that line of work and now all those tradesmen are retiring.

Similar to your concrete situation I had to get my air conditioner replaced a few years ago. I had quotes around $20k for a 5 ton system!

I ended buying a Mr Cool 5 ton system and installing it myself. $4k for the unit and maybe another $1k in parts and tools.
 
Osmethne said:
$7000 for racking (Iron ridge racking for this number of cells seems to cost $3200)
Click to expand...
That $3200 is the cost of the stuff supplied by Ironridge.. You still have to source a crapton of 2 or 3" pipe and another crapton of concrete for footings or ground ancers. So yea 3" galv tubeing is likely to run the same cost as the materials for the racking from Ironridge.

Also seems like the labor quote for $22k at $100 an hr... is 223 hrs.... so 4 guy crew, 56hrs or a week to install? seems a bit high but not out of left field crazy
 
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