Solar

If I really sat down to think about it, my solar quest started based on a combination of multiple factors. I have spent more time than you should researching this, and after all of that research, the only way I could really decide if this was “worth it” was to actually do it. There were just too many variables and I could not land on a single reason that screamed “yes! do it”. All of my research pointed to “yeah, it will probably be worth it”. So with that 70-80% hand wavy “probably”, I dove in. There were many reasons why I wanted to go solar, but my top reasons are as follows:

Wanting to be off grid and self sufficient – Our house is in a neighborhood with about 15 houses that is surrounded by farmland and we loose power all the time. Th e issue with m neighborhood is that since we are off the beaten path, response times for power restoration can sometimes be long. Also, just incase the apocalypse happens.

A deep hatred of our local utility company (BGE) – Ever since I have lived in Maryland the cost of electricity has been rising. Now, I know this is not uniquely a Maryland thing and there are many factors that are just because the are. But I have always feel like utility companies become more monopolistic as time goes on. Also, US energy policy and infrastructure just isn’t where it needs to be to be cost effective.

Environmental renewable energy reasons – Solar energy is a leading renewable, green technology that converts sunlight into electricity (via photovoltaics) or heat (via thermal systems), producing no greenhouse gases during operation. As a rapidly growing, cost-effective, and sustainable energy source, it helps reduce reliance on fossil fuels. I fully acknowledge that I have a battery for backup power and I know that’s not the most environmentally friendly thing in terms of how recycling goes. However, I am hopeful that as a society we look to expand our capacity to deal with this challenge and support the critical research needed.

My desire to save (and make) money – The promise of cheaper energy has always intrigued me. If I can pay less for something, I generally will. But in terms of investing in something that not only saves me money, but has the potential to actually make me money – sign me up.

This is a long and ever evolving post. So I decided to break it up into sections.

Pre-Solar Assessment

Based on all the research I’ve done, there are a few main questions you need to answer to answer before you can decide if solar is right for you. I based my decision to go solar using the following set of questions.

Is my house (or property) solar friendly?

This question basically is trying to determine if you have enough roof space for the amount of panels you might need, or do you have an area on your property that you could put a ground based solar array on – and does that area get enough sun.

For me, I opted to put my solar panels on my roof. Part of that decision came from the fact that I have a ranch style house that gets constant sun the entire day on some part of the roof. I also have a new roof (less than 5 years old) so the risk of having to pull the panels off to replace the roof is slim. I did however ask my homeowners insurance if they would cover removing and replacing the solar panels if a covered event (like hail) damaged the roof and it had to be replaced. They said yes, but I would check with your insurance carrier first if that is important to you. For what its worth, google said it costs an average of $2k-6K to remove and replace the panels if you have to have your roof redone.

My house is a 3 bedroom ranch style house and has 1700 sqr feet on the main level and an unfinished basement. It was built in the mid 1970s. We purchased the house in 2023 and have been working to increase energy efficiency anywhere we can. My front door faces North, and I am surrounded by trees. The good news for me though was that even though I was surrounded by trees, my roof got sun all day. Looking at the picture below, you can see how my roof’s orientation is and the direction the sun travels throughout the day.

What are my current electrical demands?

This is a hard question for most people to answer, especially if they have not been monitoring their electrical needs. If you don’t monitor your usage, the first place you should look is your utility bill. Most bills don’t show your day to day usage as granularly as you would like, it does allow you to average what your monthly and daily usage could be. We only have electricity at the moment, our heating is oil, so my bill only shows electrical usage. I will also say that I do have pretty solid insulation, all energy star appliances, every light in the house is an led light, and I am a stickler for making sure shades are open/closed when appropriate to maximize my energy efficiency – so my bill may not be reflective of yours. Full disclosure on this bill, we bought our house in May of 2023 and it was sitting for a while so there was limited electrical usage before we moved in at the end of May 2023. but the below is what I used to average what my needs would be.

Based on the bill above, you can see how I estimated my solar electrical generation needs. You can do this in one of two ways. You can either – Average out each month – which in my case was 754 kWh per month (or an average of 25 kWh / day when you assume 30 days in a moth). Or – you can take your highest month and assume that’s the most you would need to generate in a month – which in my case it would be 952 kWh per month (or 31 kWh / day when you assume 30 days in a month).

When I did this, I went with the second method of taking the highest month and averaging per day. I talked to 5 different solar companies and they all had their own special way of coming up with the math, but it all came down to averaging and estimating. You will want to also add a little overhead/extra when coming up with this estimate to cover days when you either increase your demands (laundry or have guests) or the sun isn’t out so your panels are producing less per panel. When solar companies show you potential electrical production they will show it to you on 100%, 110% or 120% of your electric needs. So with that said, when I was talking to different solar companies, I estimated that my daily solar electric production needed to be 35 kWh (31 kWh + 10% for spikes – rounded up – or 110% of my electrical needs).

Miscellaneous Requirements and Considerations

Like I mentioned before, my requirements may not be like yours, but its good to see what others are doing. In my case, since we lose power a lot, I had to make sure that whatever battery system I chose could handle the items I wanted to power if/when we lose power. Standard items like the refrigerator, lights and the stove were on the list, but there were some considerations I wasn’t expecting that really narrowed the field when looking for a battery backup solution. In particular, we have a well. A well uses what is called starting power when it starts – and this is considerably more than what is needed to keep it on. Air conditioners and some large heat pumps are the same boat. In my case, the well was my priority and high starting power was necessary. A lot of companies make batteries that can do this, but they usually require more than one battery. Unfortunately, based on the cost of multiple batteries I was in a jam and opted to wait until Tesla released their Powerwall 3. The installer I chose (Lumina Solar) didn’t have the Powerwall 3 available for customers until September of 2024. So I waited for that.

Note ** If you do not have a battery backup solution, you cannot use your solar system during a power outage as you cant just power your house on solar, it has to be stored, converted, then used. Some people believe that if the grid goes down and they have solar they are good – this is not the case. You need a battery.

Financials

Ahh, the preverbal – how much will this cost me? Most people like to view cost as how much per month they will have to spend. Personally, I look at cost as total cost of ownership and how long until the solar system begins paying for itself.

My base system cost

26 Panels, 1 Tesla Power Wall 3