Solar power systems for the home

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Ahuch

It's really stupid for solar installations especially, but in general for the program it's because of previous programs where grants were abused or utilized poorly.

Kind of one of those "good ideas, poorly executed" type of things. Paying for a follow-up blower door test after getting solar panels put on my roof, really inefficient use of capital. Lol.

Counter point - because they made me do a blower door test I did a bunch of air sealing and basement insulation work.

Corrected for weather, I burned about 20% less natural gas than the year before. I had no idea how high the ROI was on that type of work for an old house.

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

This is one of the reasons the company I work for pays for the energy assessments for our customers, along with using the 15% loan advance as the deposit. It's possible to make sure there's no up front cash payment for a client to move forward with Solar as long as you structure payment terms alongside the loan program policies, and having incentives like the Energy Assessments being covered. I think most of the more established Solar companies do the same. Word of advice to anybody looking at Solar, don't get any assessments before you've gathered quotes as at least in our case that cost would be covered by us, but if you've already started the assessments on you're own your costs are definitely going to be higher.

But you're right, if Solar is the only thing you're looking at doing, it's frustrating to have to complete an energy assessment. The energy advisor simply has a checkbox that says does the home have Solar, and if it doesn't, its going to be listed as a qualified retrofit on the Energuide Report for Greener Homes Loan eligibility.

One other note (as I quote myself here), in early 2025 NRCan introduced new legislation for the loan that customers using the loan program have to pay for their own energy assessments, so it's no longer something that can be paid for by Solar installers. Homeowners need to deal with this on their own now.

[gasman]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

It might be a bit early but I submitted my request to switch over to the high price electricity rate. This past week I've been producing 26kwh per day and forecast looks stable for the next little while. Based on my stats, last year I was an exporter starting in mid March.

It also looks like I might have made it through the entire winter without paying for power. My last bill was up to Jan 20 and I had $255 in credit left. Feb was cold though and I did have my garage heater on a lot which is electric so I should be around $250 or $300 for the next bill.

It does feel a little early. Last year I switched March 10th and we got hit with a foot of snow which caused me 10 days of 30cents/kwh which erased the benefits of switching by a wide margin.

Helpful tip - if you are with Foothills Energy Coop, they allow you to back date your switch date as long as the billing period hasn't passed. For instance my current period ends March 11. But if I wait it out. I can see how March 11-30 plays and pick the date that works best for me. Takes the risk out of switching too early.

1 week of snow cover can wipe out 2 weeks of sun this early in the season.

[Calgary14]

Sucks they don't get reimbursed for the energy assessment now as mine was around $500 IIRC but I got most of that back

[Bill Bumface]

I rolled the dice a couple days ago. Maybe not smart in the snowiest month of the year, but it's my first year with the system so I got excited lol.

[photon]

Found out that half my panels aren't working at all. They're looking into it but that sucks.

[AC]

Originally Posted by photon

Found out that half my panels aren't working at all. They're looking into it but that sucks.

Who are you with?

I had something similar happen and when I reached out to SolarYYC because I spotted the malfunction I was surprised to learn their monitoring service would not have detected the issue had I not caught it. Had to do a system reboot which was easy enough.

[photon]

Kuby installed it. They actually emailed me when they were doing some routine checks, I usually see how much it's generating each day but I hadn't looked at the individual panel part of the site but when I looked I could see it right away too.

Looks like they need to come onsite to reset a breaker (I guess something on the roof, otherwise I could reset the main breaker in the house though maybe they want to see something). I'm on the maintenance schedule now in any case.

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by AC

Who are you with?

I had something similar happen and when I reached out to SolarYYC because I spotted the malfunction I was surprised to learn their monitoring service would not have detected the issue had I not caught it. Had to do a system reboot which was easy enough.

Was this an ECU reset? In that case your panels were still producing throughout that time but the monitoring wasn't picking up the signal.

[AC]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

Was this an ECU reset? In that case your panels were still producing throughout that time but the monitoring wasn't picking up the signal.

I'm not sure. The data showed 0 for 5 days straight before I noticed and reset the system myself.

Was told "In terms of being alerted - there is no function for that, unfortunately. But what happened here is pretty rare."

Has only happened the one time thankfully, but now I try and check in on the monitoring more frequently.

[Twitchy15]

after my energy audit and some changes went from 5.65 ACH to 4.09 ACH

1964 bungalow got new windows and doors, we did not switch 5 small windows. We have two new vinyl in basement with one being crap does not seal but when we bought thought nice newer windows and left 2x more in basement that are original in older part of basement and left one bathroom window in ensuite as it opens into garage.. weird setup.

but thought that was a pretty good improvement, we since had got a gas insert for our wood burning fireplace so hopefully has helped even further. Now we need to fix insulation in our vaulted ceiling living room.

[photon]

Got my bill and I generated 512kWh from March 10 to April 7 which is about what I used, I guess now would be a good time to switch the rate? Or a few weeks ago I guess but wasn't sure.

[Suave]

I switched at the start of March but my production was just barely ahead of consumption. Each system will be different, I just go do some meter readings and compare against my production before switching to make sure I am consistently ahead.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by photon

Got my bill and I generated 512kWh from March 10 to April 7 which is about what I used, I guess now would be a good time to switch the rate? Or a few weeks ago I guess but wasn't sure.

Who are you with that they are billing you so quickly? Mine is a month behind. I received my statement yesterday but it was for Feb 19 to March 18. During that time frame I came out on the plus side of things with a net export of 94kwh.

[photon]

I'm with Enmax, my bill was for Feb 21 to Mar 21 but my Microgeneration credit was from Mar 10 to Apr 7.

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by photon

Got my bill and I generated 512kWh from March 10 to April 7 which is about what I used, I guess now would be a good time to switch the rate? Or a few weeks ago I guess but wasn't sure.

Easiest way to check (without having a consumption monitor) is to go check your meter and take down the numbers, and then check again each day and note the difference. The meter screen will switch back and forth showing cumulative numbers for what was imported vs what was exported. Jot down the numbers and then if you check the next day, compare the difference between the import and export numbers and make the switch when you see the difference of export number being larger than the import number.

You can also do this in weekly periods if you don't want to check every day, and then make the switch the first week you see the excess on the export side.

[Bigtime]

After 18 months of having the heat pump and other new electrical components operating in the house, our new solar array is fully installed and operational. An additional 24 panels, and our original array of 10 panels supplemented by 2 more new ones and moved to our north exposure roofline.

Interesting to see how that north exposure gets power much earlier in the day and later with the higher sun.

Finally looking forward to exporting again, switched to the micro-gen rate as of today.

[Titan2]

Thanks for all the info. I went back a couple of pages, but I think the information started to get dated. Would appreciate anyone's thoughts. I met with NorthernPWR today.

Are they reputable? The guy seemed super professional and was able to answer my questions for the most part.

The info he provided:

Annual usage: 13,000 kwh/yr
25 panels
Offset 122%
$82,000
Includes Duct repair and two new Nest thermostats.
Attic insulation would be $4000 extra. Not sure if needed but will check later. Is this a ballpark price for new attic insulation?
The loan has a 20-year amortization at 0% interest for 5 years, followed by prime rate. Open loan and can pay it off at any time.
Carbon Credit of $3700 for 10 years, which is $31 per month.
Grid Credits are approximately $71 per month.
Assuming a 20% efficiency gain so gas cost goes down as well.
25-year warranty on panels, inverter and workmanship.

Long story short, it looks like I can replace my electricity bill with solar panels and once they are paid off have a monthly income instead of outflow.

Any comments on the above? Is this a good company? Are these numbers in line with what you would expect?

thanks.

[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.

[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.

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!