He better hope he likes it with 2700 sq feet.

1) What is your name?
2) What is your favorite color.
3) May I see the portfolio of your work, please?

if you REALLY want to be thorough, here's a great list

https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/co...iew-questions/

Congrats man. I did a similar thing in buying a house that was way too big for me, but it was with the intention of renting out part of it on Airbnb. You might consider a similar arrangement at some point - definitely helps with paying the bills.

I am considering either this or doing a roommate or two. But over the short term just going to enjoy it. Going rate in the area for a room with the owner there seems to be ~$40 a night. Not a particularly touristy destination except for a few weeks of the year. How many nights per month do you reckon I could expect to get booked and is it close to no cost to host them?

Also, I want to move to the mountains in like 5 years, so I will turn this into a rental that point.

Here's my 2 solar options:

Company 1:
System size: 16,200 kW
Estimated Production: 21,893 kW
54 300 watt Axitec panels
System Gross Price: $39,690
Incentives:
Delaware tax credit: $3,000
SREC Buy: $3,640
Federal Tax Credit: $11,907
Net System Cost: $21,143


Company 2:
2 options:
System 1:
System size: 16,065 kW
Estimated Production: 22,869 kW
51 315 watt Canadian Solar CS6K-315MS panels
System Gross Price: $44,742
Incentives:
Delaware tax credit: $3,000
SREC Buy: $9,639
Federal Tax Credit: $13,422
Net System Cost: $18,681

System 2 (don't have full specs yet, but would cover 100%+ of usage)
System size: ?
Estimated Production: ?
Same panels AFAIK
System Gross Price: $51,760
Incentives:
Delaware tax credit: $3,000
SREC Buy: $11,151
Federal Tax Credit: $15,528
Net System Cost: $22,081


--

After typing this all out, can't see any reason to go with Company 1 -- Company 2 values the SREC credits waaay more and it basically swings the deal in their favor. Just have to get the specs on the second system to see if going larger is worth it.

My heater is really old, was told it needed to be replaced within 3 years of move-in, as it was 15 years old when i bought the place.

21 years later, I am still thinking about getting it replaced, but i dont run out of hot water, and its always plenty hot.

One day it will get replaced, not today.

Today I needed to have a leaky coil replaced on a 6 yo central a.c.

1600$ on a 8k unit.

Yes, I got Rheem(ed)

Got the System 2 full specs:

System size: 18.59 kW
Estimated Production: 25,288 kW
59 315 watt Canadian Solar CS6K-315MS panels
System Gross Price: $50,311
Incentives:
Delaware tax credit: $3,000
SREC Buy: $11,151
Federal Tax Credit: $15,093
Net System Cost: $21,067

General Contractor is the USA#1 term for builder.

Yeah, my story is similar. 20 yrs old, told it needed replacement "soon" 9 yrs ago. Still works fine. I'm definitely not in a hurry. Just thinking about it.

I guess it depends on where you're at specifically as to what the demand could be. Are you close to any hospitals or clinics? Renting to traveling nurses is a bit more lucrative than a long term rental and they are very low maintenance tenants.

If the water heater is someplace where you see it often it is no big deal. Or if it is in a pan and the pan drains to outside. At some point it is going to spring a leak. If it is in a basement with a concrete floor and floor drain nearby that is no problem. But often it is near carpet or hardwoods and will cause quite a mess.

In condos they replace more frequently because of the potential of damaging units on multiple floors. In a house you can let it go a lot longer.

Billdacat,

I don't know why the 2nd bid estimates higher production with a slightly smaller system. There could be reasons because the configuration of the panels is different or there could be some difference because of different inverters, but more likely they just use different tools for estimating production. So, for the purposes of comparing bids it's probably best to just look at the KW rating.

I may have asked you this before, but those are very large systems and most electrical panels can not handle that without alteration. Are any of the bids including a service change, derating the main breaker or a line-side tap? You already have a 400A service?

Wouldn't that be the difference between the 300 and 315 watt panels between the two companies?

I'll ask the guy about the line side tap.

They haven't posted the pdf bill yet with net credit details, but 2nd bill amount posted...

$39 this month

Current panel is 200A to boot.

54 x 300watts is 16200 watts (not KW) or 16.2 kw

51 x 315watts is 16065 watts or 16.065 kw

I don't know what the "Estimated Production" number is. Probably it is meant to be kwh/year (not KW). Company 2 is estimating a higher production for a smaller system size. I would guess that has more to do with their tools for estimating production than real production and that to compare apples to apples you should just look at the system size.

The line-side tap is not a big deal. I just want you to make sure they know what they doing about it if the service can't handle the solar and that they don't give you a $4000 change order to upgrade the service.

Gotcha - thanks. It seems like the SREC offset differences between the two companies really swings things in favor of Company 2 regardless. Pretty sure I'm going to go with the large 59 panel system at this point.

Confirmed a line-side tap is included. Inverters would be 2 SMA Sunny Boys, 1 7.7, 1 10.0.

BilldaCat,

I think the only SMA 10.0 inverter is the Tripower and it's 3-phase. Not very likely your house has 3-phase.

https://www.sma.de/en/products/solar...er-80-100.html

Maybe there's something I haven't heard of and not on their website.

Wonder if he plans on using some other 10.0 inverter in that case. Hmm.

Fronius makes a 10.0 single phase inverter

https://www.fronius.com/en/photovolt...10-0-1-208-240

I'll be sure to ask next time I talk to him -- pretty sure I'll be going with him and the large array setup. Checked on reddit r/solar and opinions varied -- some said it was a good price, others said it was high, but in a small beach town here, I don't have the luxury of a ton of installers. Pretty sure this is as cheap as I'm going to get, unless there's some room to haggle.

The panels look decent compared to others (not top of the line, but not crap), and it seems that both SMA and Fronius inverters (if that is indeed what the 10.0 one would be) are good reliable inverters.

What they are offering for the SRECs, to me, basically makes up for the high price and then some -- especially considering that if I wanted to sell them myself, the window for this year already closed, so I'd have to wait another year .. and the market for these can fluctuate pretty wildly. I'd be happy to lock it in for 11k and not have to think about it.

BilldaCat,

All your prices were very good.

Fronius is fine. I've installed a ton. They have had some issues and needed replacement, but the warranty covered everything and they are quite easy to replace. I've only ever replaced one or two SMA inverters. They are probably the most reliable. They have had some issues with monitoring, but everyone has issues with monitoring. But Fronius is definitely one of the main name brand quality inverters.

I don't know about the SREC thing. They don't have them here. I'm concerned that you're getting what you think here though. Are these companies guaranteeing you this amount of money from the SREC or is this their estimation of what the utility is going to give you?

https://news.energysage.com/srecs-overview-states/

This says a SREC is $400/SREC in Deleware. If they are $400 per SREC, then that's what you get regardless of what the salesperson says you are going to get. So, who cuts the SREC check to you? The company selling the solar? The Utility? The State?

Here's the Delaware SREC info from the state directly: https://www.srecdelaware.com/

So, I have 2 options for my SRECs: I can sell them to the state directly in a 20 year contract, in a blind reverse auction. Say I want $80 each for my SRECs -- I can bid that, the state runs the auction, closes the bids at the end, and buys from the 'bottom up' .. so if people bid $60, $65, etc -- those bids get taken first. If they still need more, they keep buying. If they fill up their quota before they hit my bid, mine don't get bought. Try again next year. From what I understand, when you sell to the state, you get the price they accept the bid for for 10 years, and then a fixed price for the last 10, around $22-$25 per SREC. My installer said a bid of $75 has a decent chance of getting accepted, $90 is pushing it.

The SREC bidding period for this year just closed. So I'd be waiting a year regardless to sell mine if I wanted to try through them. If I sell to the state, then they pay out on a yearly basis (I believe maybe even quarterly payments, but I'm not sure -- it's not the full sum up front).

The solar installers act as a middleman -- they offer to buy my SRECs, obviously for under FMV so they can make a profit, and take on the risk of SREC yearly fluctuations, them bidding too high themselves, and so forth. I would have 25 SRECs from what my installer told me, so they'd be offering me about $55/SREC (on a yearly basis) if they are giving me $11k for them. The solar company guarantees that price. Both of the installers I've talked to directly give you that price, and directly deduct it from the gross cost of the system.

Having the cash up front to offset the system cost is obviously a nice benefit, and not having to worry about what the value of an SREC might be next year at this time. Could be higher, could be lower. I'd rather the middleman take that risk, and have the bird in hand, so to speak.