Quote:
Originally Posted by Daox
Very cool! I'm glad to hear its all paying off for you.
|
Thanks there are so many variables when you are adding things to save power and adding solar to cover your usage. If I was someone looking at doing a similar thing as we did and you are not in a rush to make so many changes.
It would be good to add all the energy saving things first then look at what your usage is. Then you will have a great idea on how much solar you need to get. A energy monitor like the TED 5000 is so useful. It is not perfect but it still is very helpful.
In the beginning we thought we would just add some solar then keep adding some more each year until we were where we wanted to be. The power company charges $100 application fee each time you make a change. You have to pull permits each time you make a change.
Solar panel shipping is very expensive it is also much more expensive if you don’t buy full pallets.
Sales are always full pallets let’s face it DIY you need to keep the cost down to get the fastest payback with the best hardware.
We also started out just wanting to cover the power needs for the Volt. That quickly turned into wanting to be Net Zero! This site really helped me wanting to save more power and with help of some of the members here I was able to install my Mini Splits and get me well on the road to Net Zero.
It was a lot of hard work to get here all DIY route but it is worth it and so nice to see the results paying off.
Now if I could finish my taxes and get some of the money I paid in back that would be great. Having your own business with some side business is very time consuming getting all the info together.