Solar/power outage rant

[garhkal]

Back late last year, i got pressured by both AEP and some other groups, to get solar..  Now i admit, in the time since i have had the solar working, my bill has been almost 85$ cheeper each of the past 4 months, but STILL part of the appeal of going solar, was if the power dropped out from the main provider, i could potentially still get power VIA the panels.  BUT since the panels are 'inline', with the mains, if the mains is out, i get NO BENEFIT from my solar..
I feel gimped.


Just a general rant!

[Daryk]

So, you're panels are trying to power the grid??

[elf25s]

So, you're panels are trying to power the grid??

yes they do
ideally you should get paid for it but in reality you get a discount on what you get from power company
also if you are going to get solar panels get them from contractor that deals with power company directly. if you dont you may actually end up paying more and installer getting the money directly from power company instead of you ...this almost happened to my old man about 10 years back...looked through contract and my old man would had been paying about +12% on his bill and contractor would had been getting about 85% of profit every month and after 15 years he would be responsible for removal of dead and useless panels to tune of almost 10k and full re installation of replacement panels with no discount to about at todays prices 40k

tbh it is not scam per se but do the math and it is useful as a booster and not fully dependable during power outage...can you guess why?

 well you need power storage and pretty much no town or city will give you permission for one and if you DO get permit it will be about 3/4 cost of panels or even more and will if you get one at about 72 to 100 hours of emergency power and to make it reliable a 200 watt generator at least

keep in mind most storage is batteries so they are considered toxic or dangerous especially lithium ones that can explode and cause fire which most fire companies are not set up to put out

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

With any type of home power generation, you need a switch to cut off connection to the main grid. Doesn’t matter if it’s solar, gas, or natural gas.

[garhkal]

yes they do
ideally you should get paid for it but in reality you get a discount on what you get from power company

So far what i've generated, has saved me roughly 85-90$ a month on my bill..  Almost as much as i pay each month for the solar panels.

well you need power storage and pretty much no town or city will give you permission for one and if you DO get permit it will be about 3/4 cost of panels or even more and will if you get one at about 72 to 100 hours of emergency power and to make it reliable a 200 watt generator at least

Speaking with several other neighbors who also got solar, they also noted, they were not allowed to get 'battery back ups'..   I remember in my days in the navy, when we set up big battery back ups's near comm shacks etc, they had to be a certain distance away from any sort of living abode, so i wonder if that has something to do it.

keep in mind most storage is batteries so they are considered toxic or dangerous especially lithium ones that can explode and cause fire which most fire companies are not set up to put out

Yea, i've seen some of the vids of folks who DID have those (off the grid livers), who keep lots of spare dirt near the thing, so if it DOES go up, they can stick the dirt on it, to put it out...

With any type of home power generation, you need a switch to cut off connection to the main grid. Doesn’t matter if it’s solar, gas, or natural gas.

Maybe i need to get with my solar guys, and see if it can be converted to HAVE that sort of switch..

[Daryk]

Last I checked, the Power Wall type backups are safe for residential use now...

[elf25s]

i am keeping an eye on "sand" type batteries that had been worked on. look it up on crappyhappytube
the length of storage is almost a week and only issue seems to make them smaller. instead of a 20ft storage container. oth you can shape them in any way. not an issue if you live in country but in city mass is an issue besides the size. also its next to impossible to make them explode or catch on fire.

i am not against the panels but there are alot of shady installers that in the end they get the money and you dont.basically you just lease the space for the panels and power company pays in discount which costs them nothing and installer if you did not get good look through and revision of contract gets the money.

i wanted to have a installer business about 15 years back t seems like a good investment but earnings turned to be very thin...and a lot of installers unless they have a back up from power company and state are so thin that you are usually 1 or 2 installations away from going out of business

btw if you want to look into it hit one of the franchise shows...they are usually in bigger cities with convention center...go look around take the lit/fliers do research and then talk to the rep...most will lie but a lot will give you info that is not available on the internet and a lot of information from real life that normally is not published...if possible contact a person who had their business for at least 3 to 4 years talk to them and make list of questions you want to know....a lot of owners will give directions on avoiding the pitfalls and issues you may have...

btw i recommend hybrid systems wind and solar...there are lot of interesting wind turbine designs that a lot of times dont need to be mounted on 40 foot tall pole look them up also on happycrapytube...a lot are experimental but potential is there  and as with anythiing each one has pluses minuses and maintance issues
also hydro electric stuff is also there if you have a small stream or running water and a lot can be no bigger than 3 ft tall or less
saw one system some one made it was a small water turbine about 18 inches in size which powered a heating element that turned water into steam and generator was steam powered...no storage but power was 24/7 powering a 2k sqf wood cabin at about 400watts...only issue i saw was wear and tear maintance time