Solar power systems for the home

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

A 25 panel system for $82,000?

That seems really steep.

And for the grid credits, do they give that to you and handle the microgen? Because over the last 4 days I've already made ~$36 in export credit on my new array alone, not counting my old array that is also producing excess power.

Edit: Googling NorthernPWR led me to the Solar Alberta Facebook group, they come up quite a bit there and not in a good way...
Yeah, I'm reading more about them. Run, run away from them. Used to operate as Fluent and stiffed lots of folks and contractors.

Maybe I should have googled them before meeting with them. Oh well, live and learn. The guy's text number doesn't even work. I tried to send him the government order.

That is why you check with CP first, I guess.

[Slanter]

Originally Posted by Titan2

Thanks. I hate that. The guy seemed really good. I guess that is the whole plan.

Does anyone have suggestions on who I should get quotes from? I am all jazzed about this now!

My system was installed by SkyFire. They get a strong recommendation from me.

[Bigtime]

For both of our arrays we went with Eco-Smart Energy Solutions, a smaller more mom & pop style setup. You definitely won't get the door to door hard sell with them. Being smaller they may be booking out quite far though.

https://www.eco-ses.com/

[Suave]

I used SolarYYC for my setup. No issues and quotes were on the lower end.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Suave

I used SolarYYC for my setup. No issues and quotes were on the lower end.

I believe one of our posters works there, too. Rasta maybe?

[the-rasta-masta]

Northern Power was previously known as Fluent. Absolute nightmare for many people who got absolutely defrauded. They were blacklisted from the government interest free loan program and the went under, leaving a ton of clients with deposits lost. Black mark on my industry. Rebranded recently as Northern Power.

Looks like they are up to the same tricks. That price may be a record for highest $/watt I’ve ever seen.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

Northern Power was previously known as Fluent. Absolute nightmare for many people who got absolutely defrauded. They were blacklisted from the government interest free loan program and the went under, leaving a ton of clients with deposits lost. Black mark on my industry. Rebranded recently as Northern Power.

Looks like they are up to the same tricks. That price may be a record for highest $/watt I’ve ever seen.

I paid $26,000 for a 24 panel 10.8kW system with some electrical work done here in BC where costs are higher. That's an insane quote

[Sylvanfan]

I got a quote for a 16.2kW system with 36 panels that would run me just over 49k. Claims it would be a 92% energy offset and generate 18280kwh per year. In the past 12 months my recorded consumption is 19,850+/-.

One thing about this proposal is it's claiming Canada Greener homes grant giving a 10 year loan at 0% up to 40k...in my quote when I compare the total amount quoted and divide it by 120...the estimated payment is higher...if I add an extra $500 to it, than it's pretty much bang on. It can't be interest on the extra 9k and change.

I only plan to say in my place for another 7-8 years, and at some point I'll smarten up and stop having 5 fish tanks, 2 freezers, and extra fridge and dishwasher to get my usage down.

For those of you in Alberta who have made the switch, how much has it impacted your bills? I'm looking at my Bil from April to May for example, used 1700kwH. The total bill that month was $339.40 with 129.03 of it being the actual cost of the electricity. There's an administration charge of $8.37 that's 27 cents a day (now jacked to 32 as of July 1). Theres a distribution charge of $87.20 and a Transmission charge of $74.75 which works out to 5.1 cents and 4.4 cents per kwH respectively. Than you pay the different riders which resulted in a 40 cent credit that month, plus the local access fee of $24.29 which I think is based on number of days in the billing cycle.

So if you are selling back into the Grid, does that cancel out the Transmission and Distribution charges? In essence do you pay for your net usage on those or do you still pay based on your total use, and try to get your money back by selling your power back to the Grid at a higher price during the better production months?

Between the Riders, admin fee, and daily access fee it's safe to ballpark those fees as around $40 per month. So I'm trying to figure out how much else I'd pay per month if I did go solar. I'm skeptical having a solar system willl add much to the value of the house, and as I noted earlier, I'll be out of the place before the loan would come due. I think I'd be lucky to get the 15 grand still owing on the loan...much less than if I have the current shower fad of the day in my Master Bathroom...

I might look for a couple other quotes to see what they might be. I am in St.Albert, not Calgary. If I was planning to be here for 12 years...even at this price, then I think it would be worth my while as so long as the system didn't completely crater. Other factor is that despite the fact that this house is 7 years old and has 25 year shingles...stuff these days is such trash that I expect be year 13 I'll need a new roof because these shatty RKO shingles won't be worth shat...and I'll no claim for warranty.

[Sylvanfan]

Other question...how much does this impact home insurance premiums? Even if this quote is double what it should be....I would still want some coverage on a $25000 item that's part of my house.

[Bigtime]

Why is it only sized to offset 92% instead of cover your yearly usage fully? Maxes out the coverage on your roof?

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Why is it only sized to offset 92% instead of cover your yearly usage fully? Maxes out the coverage on your roof?

Covers the two South and one West facing planes. Could maybe add a couple more if you get creative with the mounts.

[Brupal]

I had Zeno install a decent sized system and am very happy with the results.

[#-3]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

I got a quote for a 16.2kW system with 36 panels that would run me just over 49k. Claims it would be a 92% energy offset and generate 18280kwh per year. In the past 12 months my recorded consumption is 19,850+/-.

When was that?

My quote back in March was, 29 panels, 13.05KW for $30,000, targeting 13,000 KWH/yr. Wondering if the Tariffs are pushing things up a bit.

I put a lot of EV miles on, so it's below my usage, but all of the roof space I had facing in good directions

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

So if you are selling back into the Grid, does that cancel out the Transmission and Distribution charges? In essence do you pay for your net usage on those or do you still pay based on your total use, and try to get your money back by selling your power back to the Grid at a higher price during the better production months?

I haven't been in Alberta since 2023, so take this with a grain of salt.

You cannot fully offset your T&D charges. Nor should a customer with rooftop solar be able to offset those charges. That customer is still using those systems to sell power back to the grid. There are people who would argue they should pay more, due to the impacts they cause to the power grid, but that is a separate conversation. Further, the solar production doesn't match up with the load profile. Peak solar generation does not match up with peak demand. Those electrons are worth less to the grid that one might expect.

If one has the financial wherewithal to offset their consumption, I fully encourage them to do so. If one is doing it to push those T&D costs into others, you are doing it for the wrong reason IMHO.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by #-3

When was that?

My quote back in March was, 29 panels, 13.05KW for $30,000, targeting 13,000 KWH/yr. Wondering if the Tariffs are pushing things up a bit.

I put a lot of EV miles on, so it's below my usage, but all of the roof space I had facing in good directions

This was just yesterday. I was thinking 40k would be ballpark given my usage. The sales guy claimed Tarriffs had not been a huge factor yet.

[#-3]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

This was just yesterday. I was thinking 40k would be ballpark given my usage. The sales guy claimed Tarriffs had not been a huge factor yet.

Well for what it's worth that is ~ 30% higher than the price Skyfire gave me in March, just fudging some rough numbers.

$49k / 16 = ~$3.0K/kw

$30k / 13 = ~$2.3K/kw

you system seems huge, I'm guessing you're the go to guy for some great hydroponic ####.

[Fuzz]

I'm not sure if it's just all your fish tanks and freezers, but you may want to grab a kill-o-watt meter and check the draw on everything in your house. You could have stuff you only use a few times a year drawing 50-100W. If you identify some big draws you don't need, you might be able to get away with a smaller system.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

For those of you in Alberta who have made the switch, how much has it impacted your bills? I'm looking at my Bil from April to May for example, used 1700kwH. The total bill that month was $339.40 with 129.03 of it being the actual cost of the electricity. There's an administration charge of $8.37 that's 27 cents a day (now jacked to 32 as of July 1). Theres a distribution charge of $87.20 and a Transmission charge of $74.75 which works out to 5.1 cents and 4.4 cents per kwH respectively. Than you pay the different riders which resulted in a 40 cent credit that month, plus the local access fee of $24.29 which I think is based on number of days in the billing cycle.

So if you are selling back into the Grid, does that cancel out the Transmission and Distribution charges? In essence do you pay for your net usage on those or do you still pay based on your total use, and try to get your money back by selling your power back to the Grid at a higher price during the better production months?

I've got a 12kW system.
Just got my Enmax bill, I'm at 8.79 cents I haven't switched to the higher rate for summer yet this is my first year:

May 23 to June 21 I used 450kWh for $40 in electricity
June 1 to July 7 I generated 1232kWh for $108 in credit

Administration, distribution, etc all added up to $81 so I paid $13 out of pocket still.

If it'd been on the 30 cent plan I'd have paid $135 for electricity but I'd have made $370.

However the administration and distribution fees scale up as well from what I've been told but I don't know to what degree, maybe someone can give the details on that?

But looking at that that's a lot more than I was thinking so it seems like it's totally worth while switching plans for the summer since the last bill I'd have stored up a bunch of credit for the winter.

[Benched]

Last time I checked, for Calgary, residential (commercial/business is different):

Distro charge = $0.765268/day + $0.015393/kWh
Transmission charge = $0.039578/kWh
Local Access Fee = $0.015507/kWh


They made Local Access easier to understand.
But all fees are based on utilization, so less utilization means even the fees go down.

Someone's comment earlier about the distribution charge, the bulk is a /day rate - so changing your electrical rate won't move the needle on fees - but using less electricity affects all of the fees. TMK you do not pay per kWh SOLD to the grid.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

I got a quote for a 16.2kW system with 36 panels that would run me just over 49k. Claims it would be a 92% energy offset and generate 18280kwh per year. In the past 12 months my recorded consumption is 19,850+/-.



One thing about this proposal is it's claiming Canada Greener homes grant giving a 10 year loan at 0% up to 40k...in my quote when I compare the total amount quoted and divide it by 120...the estimated payment is higher...if I add an extra $500 to it, than it's pretty much bang on. It can't be interest on the extra 9k and change.



I only plan to say in my place for another 7-8 years, and at some point I'll smarten up and stop having 5 fish tanks, 2 freezers, and extra fridge and dishwasher to get my usage down.



For those of you in Alberta who have made the switch, how much has it impacted your bills? I'm looking at my Bil from April to May for example, used 1700kwH. The total bill that month was $339.40 with 129.03 of it being the actual cost of the electricity. There's an administration charge of $8.37 that's 27 cents a day (now jacked to 32 as of July 1). Theres a distribution charge of $87.20 and a Transmission charge of $74.75 which works out to 5.1 cents and 4.4 cents per kwH respectively. Than you pay the different riders which resulted in a 40 cent credit that month, plus the local access fee of $24.29 which I think is based on number of days in the billing cycle.



So if you are selling back into the Grid, does that cancel out the Transmission and Distribution charges? In essence do you pay for your net usage on those or do you still pay based on your total use, and try to get your money back by selling your power back to the Grid at a higher price during the better production months?



Between the Riders, admin fee, and daily access fee it's safe to ballpark those fees as around $40 per month. So I'm trying to figure out how much else I'd pay per month if I did go solar. I'm skeptical having a solar system willl add much to the value of the house, and as I noted earlier, I'll be out of the place before the loan would come due. I think I'd be lucky to get the 15 grand still owing on the loan...much less than if I have the current shower fad of the day in my Master Bathroom...



I might look for a couple other quotes to see what they might be. I am in St.Albert, not Calgary. If I was planning to be here for 12 years...even at this price, then I think it would be worth my while as so long as the system didn't completely crater. Other factor is that despite the fact that this house is 7 years old and has 25 year shingles...stuff these days is such trash that I expect be year 13 I'll need a new roof because these shatty RKO shingles won't be worth shat...and I'll no claim for warranty.

That seems insanely expensive