Does anybody have any practical experience? Should I just start shopping for quotes and seeing what comes back?
I almost hate to admit it but those f'n yellow "for dummies" books are almost always where I start on any given subject. They're structured nicely to give you the lingo, teach you enough to avoid obvious perils and then let you loose. goobster sold solar for a while. He'd probably be able to get you started. Report back for science.
I was all hyped up on becoming a solar installer. There's a great school here in the PNW that trains most(?) solar installers in the area. (It's on Camano Island, IIRC?) Anyway, then I got bursitis in my knee and had to get that taken care of, and it pretty much eliminated me climbing around on roofs... and so I started my own marketing consultancy, and ... 10 years later I noticed I wasn't in the solar industry any more. I think the residential solar market is at the "rich toys" stage right now. There's a couple of factors you need to think about: 1. You have to either sell the excess power you are generating back to your local utility, or else you need a way to store it. 2. Utilities are WAY more stingy with what they will buy from the consumer, and while you might reduce your electric bill to nothing, you aren't gonna get paid from them anymore. 3. The only real way to store electricity effectively is the Tesla Power Wall. And to run your house for any extended period of time, you are going to need several of these in series. (Last I checked. But that fucker Musk iterates and improves at a blinding rate, so the thing might run your entire block for a week and distribute free cappuccinos now, for all I know.) 4. No matter how you work the math, you're gonna have a 15 year return on investment. So add up the next 15 years of your electrical bills, and that's the number you have to pay TODAY to eliminate your electric bills for about 3x longer than the average American stays in their home... So, in 5,475 days, you will finally have "free" power. And your system will be about 5 years out of date and inefficient at that point. Now let's get back to Mr. Musk. Who has designed, built, and installed solar roof tiles. Individual tiles that look like shingles, and replaces your ENTIRE roof with power generating glass tiles. Now you not only get solar, you also get a new roof! Three years ago, my wife and I tried to do this when we replaced our roof, but it wasn't ready in the PNW. In the end, home solar doesn't really make sense for most homes in most locations. We put a traditional roof on our house, and switch from oil heat to a heat pump system (that is AMAZING!), and keeping the house at a balmy 72 degrees year round (with both heating and cooling) has cut our electrical bill by about 75% over the ELECTRICAL expense of running our OIL furnace! It's mind-blowing. And in the PNW, the majority of our power is hydro-electric, so we can feel good about switching to electric from oil, whereas in other areas, you'd be getting power from coal-fired plants. If you are in Seattle, Seattle City Light has an extensive solar incentive program: https://energysolutions.seattle.gov/renewable-energy/customer-solar/solar-energy-faqs/ That's a great place to start.
And that doesn't include the 5-10 hours of electrical installer time at $150/hr, plus materials. And the permitting and inspection fees, before and after. Solar is (still) a rich man's toy, due to subsidies on oil, and tariffs on solar materials. There have been a couple of REALLY interesting developments recently, with solar capture efficiency, alternate materials (transparency!), and heat-to-electricity conversion rates. If the fucking government wasn't run by moronic boomers who are beholden to their coal/oil energy baron purse strings, the next 5 years would see an EXPLOSION in solar tech... and the US resuming their leadership role in science, that we abandoned so long ago...
No specific vendor, no. I bought two generic ones off Amazon to use for the trickle chargers on the batteries of my RV and motorcycle. That's probably where you should start... cheap and easy: This is the one I got: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MYVUSRH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00
If you're looking into lowering your bill and going green, ground source-heat pumps (GSHP) are worth a look. They can lower utility bills from 25% to 70% with an ROI ~5-10 years. Dept. of Energy has a load of info on the topic. But the general hub for experts is here: https://www.geoexchange.org/forum/ Regardless of GSHP, it's worth giving the 'Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency' to see what sort of incentives your state (and the Fed) gives for going green. https://www.dsireusa.org/
I have been super curious about a GSHP system for as long as I've known they exist. Unfortunately I have concerns that I don't have the space to fit the units. I have a glorified crawlspace that somehow holds the furnace, water heater and softener. All the GSHP units I have seen were pretty tall for my vertically challenged space.
It’s not uncommon for them to replace both. Topically, the company I got familiar with while learning about GSHP installation is called Waterfurnace. Here’s one of their units that is featured for heating, cooling, and water heating. Though it shouldn’t be hard to find units that provide the same function. Most all installations I helped with provided both functions. As a bonus, units inherently provide humidity control, too. It’s a nice selling point for wineries. P.S. Series 5 is one of the small(er) units.
Seconded! I’m actually doing a project right now where we’re building a GSHP tool for NY State’s energy department which will allow anyone to get a better sense of the ROI of their building. We have a ton of experience with GSHP and aquifer storage in the Netherlands and this is part of our effort to export that knowledge to the US.
Totally interested in how the project turns out. A rep. from NY State Energy Research & Development Authority was always at the GSHP talks I attended in my internship up there. NY seems to be the big proving grounds for the tech here in the U.S.
If you’re in the mitten state, I think you’re still in the bottom few states for solar potential (hanging out with Oregon and Washington). I mean - it is what it is. The bummer is, you’ve got to hang more panels to get the same juice as some of your sunnier sister states. Don’t let that deter you, but buckle up for the additional cost. I don’t know man... I have it (bought a house that had it already) and I’m not sure I’m sold. It’s not the best... and not the worst. I live in a state with cheap electricity, so I’m not convinced I’m saving anything but some greenhouse emissions - and that’s ok by me.
For that matter, Google will happily give you your solar potential. They think I'll get 1027 peak hours per year - or 2.8 per day, well under the 4hr minimum recommended for feasibility. They don't even know about the three massive firs that keep the place semi-livable in the summer. Solar would be st00pid for me. My grandfather put in "solar" hot water heating down in New Mexico back in the OPEC crisis. I think he used 'em for a year. We've come a long way since and we've still got a long way to go.