My solar panels are installed!

Exterous · Mar 30, 2025

The installers wrapped up the install just a couple of days ago. I don't have the interconnect approval from the electrical utility yet but the panels are working. It's a 6.4kw system with 10kw of batteries which appears to enough to last through the night if there's enough sun to charge the batteries to 100% during the day (Though probably not enough to cover overnight use during Nov-Feb months).

Green: Battery discharge/charge rate
Blue: Solar generation
Orange: Electrical consumption
Gray: Imported from electrical utility

You can tell when it got real cloudy just before noon when my solar production tanked. It was a lighter use day because were were at a friends house for most of the day

Indus · Mar 30, 2025

Nice! Got 2 questions for you.

1. How much did it cost and how many square feet of panels?

2. Which way do the panels face? (which direction?)

Red Squirrel · Mar 30, 2025

Nice. I need to get my roof redone this year, and I'm thinking I might work with the roofers to install solar mounts so that I can add panels later on. With the shingles off it will be easier to find where the rafters are so the lag bolts can hit them. Although I may as well just focus on my off grid land and install more solar there instead. I do plan to add a 1.4kw array either way though behind the shed. It's where I will store my fire wood so it will double as rain cover for the wood. Wanted to do that last year but ran out of time before winter came.

BoomerD · Mar 30, 2025

Red Squirrel said:
Nice. I need to get my roof redone this year, and I'm thinking I might work with the roofers to install solar mounts so that I can add panels later on. With the shingles off it will be easier to find where the rafters are so the lag bolts can hit them. Although I may as well just focus on my off grid land and install more solar there instead. I do plan to add a 1.4kw array either way though behind the shed. It's where I will store my fire wood so it will double as rain cover for the wood. Wanted to do that last year but ran out of time before winter came.

With as many stories as you tell about theft in your area, aren’t you concerned about your solar panels (and every thing else) getting stolen from your office grid land? Hell, I see stories about entire cabins getting stolen from remote properties.

Hans Gruber · Mar 30, 2025

BoomerD said:
With as many stories as you tell about theft in your area, aren’t you concerned about your solar panels (and every thing else) getting stolen from your office grid land? Hell, I see stories about entire cabins getting stolen from remote properties.

He has wolves, mountain lions, bears and deer guarding his off grid property. When those fail the raptors watch over his property from the air.

Red Squirrel · Mar 30, 2025

BoomerD said:
With as many stories as you tell about theft in your area, aren’t you concerned about your solar panels (and every thing else) getting stolen from your office grid land? Hell, I see stories about entire cabins getting stolen from remote properties.

I do worry about it, but really not much I can do since our hands are tied as far as self defense and property defense goes. Once I get to a point where I have more stuff there I will have cameras and just take the law into my own hands if I catch anyone. I'm thinking some sort of gas discharge system within the cabin. I think I'm far enough out that I should be safe though. I have seen people on my trail cam and the respect the sign and turn around. The type of people going out there are typically campers and hunters who are decent human beings. The crackheads and other undesirables don't tend to venture that far into the bush.

I'm more worried about my house being broken into every time I have to leave it to go to work. I plan to setup cameras here too this summer actually. Been meaning to do that for a very long time but as crime continues to go up I need to expedite that and just get it done. The downside is even if I do catch someone not really much I can do but it at least offers piece of mind. I could set up some sort of loud siren I can activate remotely if I do see someone trying to break in.

Red Squirrel · Mar 30, 2025

Hans Gruber said:
He has wolves, mountain lions, bears and deer guarding his off grid property. When those fail the raptors watch over his property from the air.

I need to learn how to train attack geese. Canada Geese specifically, AKA cobra chickens.

sdifox · Mar 30, 2025

I have already air lifted Red Squirrel's off grid property to Markham

Exterous · Mar 31, 2025

Indus said:
Nice! Got 2 questions for you.

1. How much did it cost and how many square feet of panels?

2. Which way do the panels face? (which direction?)

I'm not sure on total sq ft but its 15 silfab 430s. Cost was $36,500 before the tax credit. It's a little high compared to sunnier states but pretty good for Michigan

They face directly south

Exterous · Mar 31, 2025

We had some storms yesterday that threatened power outages and I kinda hoped for one. Just so I could try everything out during a real power outage

Chaotic42 · Mar 31, 2025

No one man should have all that power

KLin · Mar 31, 2025

Exterous · Apr 1, 2025

Chaotic42 said:
No one man should have all that power

When I get an EV it might not be enough on cloudier days. But, on the topic of EVs, I'm hoping the dual EV charger/Vehicle to Load hookups get approved by my utility because that would be an easy way to add 80kwh to my batteries overnight from the EV that I could then charge back up during a sunny day

dullard · Apr 1, 2025

Nice! I have a very similarly sized set of solar panels (6.85 kW) facing directly south in the midwest, 12 kWhr of battery backup, and an EV on its way. Ask if you have any questions.

Here was my solar generation in 2024. January was terrible due to ice buildup for 12 days. But this January I produced nearly triple the amount shown on this graph.

IronWing · Apr 1, 2025

KLin said:

Does He-man ever use the sword as a sword? I don’t recall him ever splitting anyone noggin to nuts with it.

dullard · Apr 1, 2025

Red Squirrel said:
I do worry about it, but really not much I can do since our hands are tied as far as self defense and property defense goes. Once I get to a point where I have more stuff there I will have cameras and just take the law into my own hands if I catch anyone. I'm thinking some sort of gas discharge system within the cabin. I think I'm far enough out that I should be safe though. I have seen people on my trail cam and the respect the sign and turn around. The type of people going out there are typically campers and hunters who are decent human beings. The crackheads and other undesirables don't tend to venture that far into the bush.

I'm more worried about my house being broken into every time I have to leave it to go to work. I plan to setup cameras here too this summer actually. Been meaning to do that for a very long time but as crime continues to go up I need to expedite that and just get it done. The downside is even if I do catch someone not really much I can do but it at least offers piece of mind. I could set up some sort of loud siren I can activate remotely if I do see someone trying to break in.

Looks like your house made it into my Far Side calendar today.

KLin · Apr 1, 2025

IronWing said:
Does He-man ever use the sword as a sword? I don’t recall him ever splitting anyone noggin to nuts with it.

Just as soon as the copyright ends just like it did for popeye and winnie the pooh I'm sure someone will make a He-Man horror movie.

Exterous · Apr 14, 2025

We already had our first power outage. The weather was fine and the system is so new that when I got the alert from my system that I was "off grid" I was wondering if it wasn't working right. Went to DTE's website and they said there were no power outage issues which made me worry more about the brand new installation. Started checking all the components and finally got a notice from my ISP that my internet "may be affected by a power outage". So I never really noticed the power loss. I mean that's exactly how its supposed to work I just wasn't expecting to use it that way so quickly.

I spent the power outage doing laundry and streaming shows on my TV + receiver and surround sound system. When I went for a walk later I went in and out of my working garage door while I saw neighbors pull up to their houses and have to go through the front door with a key. Power was out for almost 4 hours during the day. And, since it was sunny, I was generating more than enough power to cover my usage so my batteries were still at 100% when the power came back on. It was kinda awesome.

skyking · Apr 14, 2025

Love it! I have my panels up but still building the system. I have the inverter and am ordering the battery shortly.

Stopsignhank · Apr 14, 2025

Exterous said:
We already had our first power outage. The weather was fine and the system is so new that when I got the alert from my system that I was "off grid" I was wondering if it wasn't working right. Went to DTE's website and they said there were no power outage issues which made me worry more about the brand new installation. Started checking all the components and finally got a notice from my ISP that my internet "may be affected by a power outage". So I never really noticed the power loss. I mean that's exactly how its supposed to work I just wasn't expecting to use it that way so quickly.

I spent the power outage doing laundry and streaming shows on my TV + receiver and surround sound system. When I went for a walk later I went in and out of my working garage door while I saw neighbors pull up to their houses and have to go through the front door with a key. Power was out for almost 4 hours during the day. And, since it was sunny, I was generating more than enough power to cover my usage so my batteries were still at 100% when the power came back on. It was kinda awesome.

Wait until your first outage at night when all your neighbors houses are dark and you have lights.

lxskllr · Apr 14, 2025

Stopsignhank said:
Wait until your first outage at night when all your neighbors houses are dark and you have lights.

and no noisy generator. Even the quiet ones aren't all that quiet. Always a drone going in the background.

Brovane · Apr 14, 2025

Stopsignhank said:
Wait until your first outage at night when all your neighbors houses are dark and you have lights.

I have had that a couple times where I live in San Diego County. Have Solar+Storage system. We have a Public Safety Power Shut-offs because of high-winds and start hearing the generators crank-up. The noise starts to really get irritating after 2+ days of constant drone of the generator. Luckily I cannot hear it inside our house but as soon as I step outside start hearing the drone of generators again.

Exterous said:
We already had our first power outage. The weather was fine and the system is so new that when I got the alert from my system that I was "off grid" I was wondering if it wasn't working right. Went to DTE's website and they said there were no power outage issues which made me worry more about the brand new installation. Started checking all the components and finally got a notice from my ISP that my internet "may be affected by a power outage". So I never really noticed the power loss. I mean that's exactly how its supposed to work I just wasn't expecting to use it that way so quickly.

I spent the power outage doing laundry and streaming shows on my TV + receiver and surround sound system. When I went for a walk later I went in and out of my working garage door while I saw neighbors pull up to their houses and have to go through the front door with a key. Power was out for almost 4 hours during the day. And, since it was sunny, I was generating more than enough power to cover my usage so my batteries were still at 100% when the power came back on. It was kinda awesome.

I had my system installed where I live currently and within a week we had a unplanned outage that listed 18-hours. Started around 9pm at night and the only reason I knew was because my phone alerted me. Went outside my house to check on things and I could see my neighbors stumbling around in the dark because they couldn't get there gate open. Basically is a large UPS for your whole house.

Stopsignhank · Apr 14, 2025

Ehhh, I am one of those turds with a generator. I was just commenting how interesting it is to have your lights on when others do not. We get the PSPSs also. When we do it is hot and dry and we run the AC so the batteries did not work for us.

Also Power outages and autism do not mix. Our son would drive us crazy when the power was out asking us when the power would come back on. Even running off the generator kind of freaks him out.

We do have solar and now that we are going to buy an EV I was thinking about seeing if we could add more panels. I think our roof is pretty full though.

Brovane · Apr 14, 2025

Stopsignhank said:
Ehhh, I am one of those turds with a generator. I was just commenting how interesting it is to have your lights on when others do not. We get the PSPSs also. When we do it is hot and dry and we run the AC so the batteries did not work for us.

Also Power outages and autism do not mix. Our son would drive us crazy when the power was out asking us when the power would come back on. Even running off the generator kind of freaks him out.

We do have solar and now that we are going to buy an EV I was thinking about seeing if we could add more panels. I think our roof is pretty full though.

My daughter has autism. Here biggest concern when we have power outages is we lose Internet access because the local node for our service provider doesn't have generator, just battery backup. One thing to consider is with the right Inverter you should be able to hook-up a generator to the inverter to charge the batteries. This is kind of the best of both worlds, generator to charge the batteries if they get low but then you can turn off the generator once the batteries are charged. I have a dual fuel generator for exactly this reason but haven't done the wiring to the inverters, kind of low on the priority. My eventual plan is to have it available if needed and then run it on propane since I am on propane at my house and I have a 500 gallon tank in my yard instead of storing gasoline. The setup I have now, can deliver 100A of power at 240V so I could run my Heat-Pump's with no grid power. Not sure how much load your batteries can support. My old house with Tesla Powerwalls I had to install soft-start on my 5-ton AC unit or the in-rush of power would overload what the Powerwalls could deliver. However once started it would run. The soft-start fixed that problem and could then start the AC unit on just the 2xPowerwalls.

skyking · Apr 14, 2025

Rocky the Jack Russell did not like power outages. He would bark in happiness when it came back on.

My solar panels are installed!

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