INSTALLING A SOLAR CAPABILITY On THE FARM. The thinking behind it and the journey to install it.

[The Old Ram-Australia]

In the early 2000’s I had looked at installing solar, but the savings on power bills was less than the income that the capital generated. We were building a new home and so we went for a total electric setup with an off-peak hot water system with external temp control.

Earlier this year I re-visited the cost breakdown as interest returns had dropped so low and power prices had sharply increased. So we sort advice from a chap who had been installing solar set-up for over 20 years in the district. He came out to the farm and looked at the site and explained the options for us based on what we required from the system. At first he suggested that we install gas (bottles) for hot water and our stove and go totally off-grid, but this was not what I felt we needed, apart from the added cost of gas appliances and installation and the ongoing cost of the gas, we decided to keep our grid connection and have the hot water (off-peak) and the kitchen stove and hot plates still on grid supply (we have in the kitchen a wood fired stove and heater which we use constantly in the winter).

Everything else was wired so we can run solar or grid including our air con which we can run “free” in the summer. The system is a 3000w panel system charging a 24 volt gel batteries with a capacity of 1130amp capped at 50% drawdown (expected battery life is 15/18 years),as the new type batteries come down in price we may add to this capacity. The house is fed by a 3000w inverter and an 80 amp control system.

So far, so good we run all our appliances as if we were all grid and even in winter days there is sufficient charge to re- fill the batteries after the overnight use and run the house during daylight hours. The reason we did not sell back to the grid was because the price paid was insufficient to cover the power company charges.
Have any of you gone off-grid? If so ,what was your experience?....T.O.R.

 

[babsbag]

We didn't go off grid but chose to sell back to the utility company. The costs of the battery setup was just not worth it for us. We are on a time of use meter so I can generate power during the day and sell it at high rates and then plan all my heavy power use during the off peak hours and consume power at a cheaper rate. It works pretty well. We are hopefully adding more panels too for the dairy I am building.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day and thank you BB for your reply.In our case the power people pay 7c kwh and sell it back to us at 28c kwh.The savings from the battery pack are approx twice the loss of interest on the capital.We were lucky in that we had the capital available to purchase,but I would not borrow to purchase unless their was a tax offset from a profitable venture elsewhere.T.O.R.

 

[Bossroo]

In my case based on current prices and our use rate of power: Last year our utility company had a huge push to go solar. I had 2 of their recomended solar companies come out and give us a bid. If I purchased ONLY the solar panels and batteries and installed it myself, I could possibly break even in 6 1/2 years. HOWEVER, to get any rebates and any power buy back from the power company, I would have to have to buy the equipment and installation of the equipment from one of the "approved" companies to sell back the generated power to the utility. When I add the COST of labor and interest on borrowed money for the installation and add in the loss of capacity of the solar panels to generate power over time. My break even point would be 14 years. We opted to invest our saved money in a fund that guarentees a minimum of 7% or more based on earned porfits return annually which translates to our cost of power to zero this year. Profitable return elsewhere ! Edited to add: The solar companies also tauted the fact that the solar equipment would increase the value of our property by at least the cost of the equipment if not twice as much. But in reality, I asked 4 different Real Estate Companies if that would be the case... 2 said no, 1 said maybe, one said possibly by 10% of the cost of the panels.

 

[babsbag]

We financed our panels through FHA and they will be paid off in a refi of the entire home here shortly. We got a 7000.00 tax rebate which helped. The way we looked at it was that the price of buying electricity was never going to get cheaper so even if we had to make payments on the panels we were still money ahead in the long run. I never did an ROI to see the actual break even date.

 

[Silky ma]

Babsbag

Very interesting. We hope to install solar at a later date. Hubby would love to do it himself the companies we contacted a few years back were too costly.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day, its really interesting to hear of your experiences up there,it seems there is real push from some of the states.Like BB we assumed that power was never going get cheaper and down here the state govt which owns the poles and wires is about to sell them to a private company,so supply charges will also increase into the future...T.O.R.

 

[Bossroo]

Power prices , more likely than not, will rise in the future. However, the generation capability of the panels and storage capability of the batteries will decrease over time and will have to be replaced. What will it cost in labor and equipment to replace them at some point ? Since there is a BIG push to increase the minimum wage to $15.00 / hour, which means that ALL wages will increase if the rest of the polulation can buy goodies at a higher price due to labor costs that they are used to have for their lifstyle. Then consider the cost of replacing your roof when it needs to be replaced and take down the solar equipment and then reinstalling the solar over the new roof. For me, at this point in time, solar just doesn't pencil out. It just may in the future if and when prices plummet !