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Going solar: considerations and numbers

repoman
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Solid write-up OP. I've had solar panels on my home in Henderson NV for about 5 years. 9.6kw system, produces about 17Mw/h annually. I pay $19/mo to stay connected to the grid, and paid cash for the system when it was installed. My break even point was about 4.5 years. Could not be happier with my setup. I keep my house ice cold all during our blazing hot summers, with no anxiety about getting hit with a $800 monthly electric bill. What I still find surprising is how many people I encounter that dismiss solar immediately and say it makes no sense, but even moreso, many who feel it is 100% a total scam 馃槙
Edited:
 
Archer
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repoman repoman
Solid write-up OP. I've had solar panels on my home in Henderson NV for about 5 years. 9.6kw system, produces about 17Mw/h annually. I pay $19/mo to stay connected to the grid, and paid cash for the system when it was installed. My break even point was about 4.5 years. Could not be happier with my setup. I keep my house ice cold all during our blazing hot summers, with no anxiety about getting hit with a $800 monthly electric bill. What I still find surprising is how many people I encounter that dismiss solar immediately and say it makes no sense, but even moreso, many who feel it is 100% a total scam 馃槙
$800 a month? Is that a real possible number? My electricity bill for a whole year is about $1200 US...
 
repoman
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Archer Archer
$800 a month? Is that a real possible number? My electricity bill for a whole year is about $1200 US...
Southern Nevada electricity is run by "NV Energy", which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway (aka Warren Buffet). He had a stranglehold on the market here and controlled the politicians so that residential solar wasn't viable (i.e. he prevented "net metering" from coming into the market for a decade). Although base electric prices weren't that unreasonable, at about $0.11 per Kw/h, they started relentlessly raising rates as soon as net metering was approved 6 years ago by the legislature, and residential solar started really becoming viable. They also started gouging customer during 'peak' usage hours. Last summer, everyone out here was screaming about their electric bills. Any house over 2500 sq ft typically has two air conditioning units, which run pretty much non-stop from June through mid-September. Most of my neighbors set their thermostat at 78 F during the summer to save a little on aircon costs. $400-$600 is common per month now, $800 not unheard of for houses over 3500 sq ft.
 
ghce
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repoman repoman
Southern Nevada electricity is run by "NV Energy", which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway (aka Warren Buffet). He had a stranglehold on the market here and controlled the politicians so that residential solar wasn't viable (i.e. he prevented "net metering" from coming into the market for a decade). Although base electric prices weren't that unreasonable, at about $0.11 per Kw/h, they started relentlessly raising rates as soon as net metering was approved 6 years ago by the legislature, and residential solar started really becoming viable. They also started gouging customer during 'peak' usage hours. Last summer, everyone out here was screaming about their electric bills. Any house over 2500 sq ft typically has two air conditioning units, which run pretty much non-stop from June through mid-September. Most of my neighbors set their thermostat at 78 F during the summer to save a little on aircon costs. $400-$600 is common per month now, $800 not unheard of for houses over 3500 sq ft.

Here in NZ I was paying more than $400.00 a month 20 years ago once I installed Central air conditioning.
 
Walrus
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https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/what-are-small-modular-reactors-smrs

A while back at an investment club I go to occasionally we were talking about smr鈥檚. There is a push now with the expected growth in energy need for AI. NASA also is studying them to power long flights. At first the club was chasing small stocks, looking for pumps and selling but rolls Royce is making them (hasn鈥檛 greatly impacted their bottom line yet) and other big boys are pumping money into smr鈥檚.

I don鈥檛 know if they will ever be practical for residential power but it鈥檚 been interesting finding out more about them.
 
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