Description:

Ours is a typical grid-tie system in most regards. The only unusual aspect is the size (16.12 kW.) 52 Silfab SLA-M 310 Panels mounted on a pole barn roof roughly 40' X 22'. Two Solar Edge Inverters, and an optimizer on every panel.

Other Benefits:

We sized the system to cover the projected usage for our house plus a recently acquired (used, 2016) Kia Soul EV+ electric car, which is now used for a 60 mile daily commute. We were fortunate that our utility understood that production of 124% of our previous annual usage would still fall within their net metering guidelines since the car had been acquired recently enough to not show up on their usage stats.

Maintenance Requirements:

We don't expect any maintenance requirements or repair costs during the first 15 years, as the installer warrants their work for that period, and the components are all warranted for either 25 or 30 years.

My Motivation:

After idling for far too long on the climate change issue, we decided it was time to take personal action, and were pleasantly surprised to learn that we'd save significant money in the process. This is just a drop in the bucket globally, but I hope everyone who reads this becomes another drop. We can't wait on politicians to solve this. Time to do it without them, and do it quickly.

Advice:

Using Energy Sage as a starting point was my best move. We had one quote, but needed to get several others to make sure we were getting a fair deal on a very big investment. Energy Sage got me in touch with 4 more companies very quickly. So far, their emails have not reached an annoying level, so well worth it.

Experience with Installer:

I can't say enough good things about our installers. One of the owners was our sales guy for the site visit, so he was incredibly well-informed. The other owner led the crew that did the installation. They were friendly, respectful, kept their word, worked quickly, and left the job site without a trace that they'd been there.

Open House Info:

We're willing to show off our system to folks from our community by appointment only. Don't just show up unannounced, because the dogs are large and numerous. Email nick@fankhausers.com

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