SunPower Residential Installation

Residential - September 2020

Clean solar layout looks great and offsets my entire EV electricity usage in addition to a portion of the home's electric needs.

Quick Facts

Average Annual Savings

$688

Energy Needs Met

25% to 49%

of electricity

Net Investment

$12,772

Return on Investment

5.4%

Property

Owner:: Rage Club
Type:: Residential
Address:: 1114 N Institute Pl, Peoria, IL 61606
Size:: 2,000 sq ft
Energy need met:: 25% to 49% of electricity

Technology

Type:: Solar PV
Installed:: September 2020
Size of System:: 6.64 kW
Monitor performance:: https://pvoutput.org/aggregate.jsp?id=99683&sid=87776&v=0&est=0&t=m
Purposes:: To generate electricity

Financial Details

Gross Cost of System:: $27,025
Value of Tax Credits:: $14,253
Net Cost of System:: $12,772
Annual Savings:: $688
Own or Lease:: Purchase with Loan
Additional Financial Notes:: I financed the Net Cost at a fixed rate APR of 3% for a loan cost of $1148.01, which brings my total out of pocket system cost to $13920.28.

Professionals & Suppliers

Products:: SunPower
Installers:: Legacy Solar (Bloomington, IL)

What You Need to Know

Description:

My system is comprised of 16 SunPower 415W SPR-A415-G-AC panels with SunPower SPWR-A4 Microinverters (based on the Enphase IQ 7AS). The full system has a 25 year warranty backed by SunPower. The panels are installed on a roof facing 88° (East) which is less optimal than a South facing roof but it is unshaded at least. The tilt on the roof is 45°. I had the roof replaced prior to installing solar and during that process I was able to relocate a plumbing stand pipe to a different location in order to have a cleaner solar panel layout.

Other Benefits:

More than 100% offset of the electricity used to charge my EV.

Maintenance Requirements:

One of my panels had a faulty Microinverter and wasn't producing power. It was eventually replaced at no cost by the installer and I was fairly compensated for lost energy production by SunPower. Other than this there has been no maintenance on my system after commissioning. The 45° roof tilt angle makes it so that snow slides off the panels relatively quickly in the winter.

Efficiency or Sustainability Improvements:

Energy efficiency improvements will be the next phase for the home including new windows and doors.

My Motivation:

1 - to offset the energy used to charge my EV with a clean power source; 2 - to benefit the environment; 3 to save a little money on electricity; 4 to gain first hand insight into the viability of solar PV as an energy source

Advice:

Solar PV is a long term investment. As such, it's important to choose quality equipment with a great warranty and a well established installer who gives you confidence they will be around to support/service your system should you need it. I would highly recommend that anyone considering solar get at least 3 quotes as you will learn different things from each and be better prepared to ask the right questions to guide you to the best choice for your situation. To start, it's a good idea to download your last 12 months of electric bills to understand your annual usage needs as well as the electric rate you pay in $/kWh plus any fixed monthly fees. It's a good idea to ask about the net metering policy offered by your utility so you can determine if you'll be able to sell back excess solar energy to the grid and at what rate.

Experience with Installer:

Overall the experience with the installer was pretty good. The actual installation process went more quickly than I'd initially anticipated. Due to the height of my roof a lift had to be used to install the panels and the weight of the lift wheels left some tracks in my rear yard. Initially the CTs were hooked up incorrectly for home consumption monitoring but this was quickly corrected after I pointed out the issue. Legacy Solar has been very responsive to questions during and after the installation. At the end of the day if I had to do this over again I would still use Legacy Solar primarily due to their affiliation with SunPower who offers the highest efficiency residential solar panels in the world with a great warranty. My biggest complaint about my system is that SunPower doesn't currently let customers view individual solar panel data despite the fact that their Microinverters technically offer this capability. I'm told that this feature may be added back to their monitoring app in the future and I really hope they do. Other than the lack of panel level monitoring the SunPower monitoring system has been very good and makes it easy to see how much solar energy is being produced and how much energy the home is consuming.

Additional Notes:

Over the past 1+ year of having my system installed and operational I've found that it's generally slightly underperforming compared to the installer's energy production estimate but based on my projections so far the system should still save me a little money on electricity even though the east facing panels are not oriented the optimal direction. I'm currently projecting a 25 year solar electric cost of ~$0.08/kWh compared to ~$0.10/kWh that I currently pay to my utility. While utility rates have been fairly stable over the past 3-5 years in my area they are likely to increase somewhat over time so it's nice to have protection from any future rate hikes.

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