Anyone DIY solar panels?

[Tips^Up]

Door-to-door salesman came by with a custom pitch for rooftop solar panels. I've thought about it in the past, have heard the tech has improved, and heard the federal tax incentive is getting cut in half after this year, so I entertained the pitch. $28k install, $14k after federal tax credit, $500 credit from Walking Mountains (local non-profit), and Holy Cross Electric rebates (in Colorado mountains). They pull permits, install panels and inverter, Holy Cross does net metering. The guy's company, Beauitfi (?), finances 20 yrs at 2.99%, 18 months interest only. Lowers our bill $4? 10-year breakeven or something?

It was all a bit fast sales rush pressure, but I've thought about solar and figure it could be good to do it this year. Anyone get solar panels installed? Have they been a good decision? Anyone install them yourself?! Like its gotta be easy enough to research current best panel values, buy direct, put them on my perfectly unobstructed south facing roof, and send the application to Holy Cross, right? I've got more ambition than skill for home projects, but this doesn't seem like it'd be too bad for DIY, and it'd be a lot cheaper with no sales games.

[liv2ski]

If you are in decent shape and have two buddies to help you, do it yourself and save an arm and half a leg compared to what you were quoted. Visit this site: http://www.freecleansolar.com I went with the below Panasonic kit. Electrician charged about $1k to hook it up. All in was about $9,500 with a 30% credit (goes down to 25% next year) reducing our cost to about $6,500.

[Vt-Freeheel]

Seriously, all of the finance sellers, biggest around here is Suncommon, are the Tin Men of the 21st century.
$42k and these bennies to sell you on SunCommon, they have a fleet of Prius cars rolling around pushing tin.
Perks:
Company car
FULLY PAID medical and dental premiums for you AND your family [approx $1646 month for BCBS Standard Silver] + dental
3 weeks’ PTO for 1st year and 4 weeks for year 2+
401k with company match up to 4% or tuition reimbursement match up to 3%
And much more!



Do it yourself!

[m2711c]

Hmmmm........sounds sweet.










so, do i have to sell my whole soul for this deal or just a fraction there of?

[skivan]

Check our renvu. Was the best prices I could find. Do some research. Even libraries still have books that are amazingly helpful. I did a 4.6kw array, grid tied, for about 4.5k post tax incentives. Will go in the black in a few years even at .08/kw hr. Most rewarding diy project I’ve done.

[neufox47]

Just had a 10kw system installed. Had it done on a platform about 250’ from the house. No way I was diy’ing that. Took two pros with a backhoe 5 days. Parts look like about 1/2 the cost. Price was 3.30 a watt. Payback here in Cali$ornia is about 6 years considering the credit.

[Tips^Up]

Books? In a library?! Here I was, living in the future, and now you recommend I learn something!

Guess I got some learning to do. Sounds like its not too difficult.

[liv2ski]

Sounds like its not too difficult.

It isn't. Look around the site I posted. They have You Tube videos that walk you through a normal install. Be sure your roof has 20+ years left on it before you go installing panels on it.

[XXX-er]

It isn't. Look around the site I posted. They have You Tube videos that walk you through a normal install. Be sure your roof has 20+ years left on it before you go installing panels on it.

Yeah i have always wondered about that ^^ i have always lived in a wet climate so putting a bunch of holes in a roof to mount a solar array doesn't thrill me

putting the installation on the ground if there is room makes more sense to me, easier to get at for maintenance or replacement or remove snow or whatever

I stayed at a hostel in Queen Charlotte city that was completely off the grid, buddy was a techy who had done service work on remote solar powered radio/weather station instals and he said the designers often didn't take into account the reduced daylight in winter UP NARTH so they underdesigned the amount of panels/batteries needed, come winter the instalation failed because the system as designed for summer overdrew the batteries and killed them in winter which required new batteries and an expensive chopper ride