I know very little about in-depth electrical work so I would definitely need professional electrician assistance, but I am looking for a sort of “how to disconnect from the power company” and go full solar? I understand that it’s becoming much less expensive to purchase and maintain, and I would like to free myself from $300/month electrical payments on my residence.
If it helps, I live in the mideast USA.
Any help is really appreciated! :)
Are you talking about disconnecting power entirely, or just generating as much as possible yourself?
Because the first, depending on local laws, is going to be something you can’t necessarily do and keep your occupancy permit and be allowed to stay living in the house.
The other is going to be a matter of figuring out your maximum power requirements and sizing a solar and battery system big enough to fill your needs.
Just as a thing to consider: you’re talking tens and tens of thousands of hardware if your power bill is $300 a month, and the ROI on this is going to be 10 or 20 years, so if you’re not living there that long, it’s maybe not worth doing.
Do the math on how much power you use at peak draw, how much power you use in a month, and how big of a system you’d need to generate enough power, and how many batteries you’d need to store your non-solar needs (days with lower production, no production, overnight, etc.).
(Edit) Meant to give example numbers for what I did in 2022. I ended up spending about $11,000 on the solar panels themselves, and the batteries would have been ~$23,000, for a monthly peak usage of about 1500kwh.
I did not spend $23,000 on batteries, because that would have been (and the math has tracked afterwards) more than a decade payback time, which was longer than the manufacturer specs indicated that I could expect the batteries to last.
I’m sure prices have decreased some in the last 2 years, but solar panels aren’t too badly priced, but the rest of the storage stuff around it was just a bit too expensive to make any real sense unless I was somewhere doing the no-grid life, which isn’t the case here.
Extremely helpful, thank you so much! It seems what I might be looking for is more along the lines of using the panels as a compliment to lower my bill overall, at least, from what I understand.
Also, you should consider new windows and insulation/re-insulation of your house first.
I spent ~$6k on new windows and full encapsulation with spray foam (small house, so ymmv) and had my power bill/gas bill drop by nearly 60%.
MUCH better ROI than the solar is ever going to be and it’s also included in the energy efficiency tax credits as long as you ensure the R values are sufficient, and you do it professionally.
Extremely smart idea that I will be doing. Thank you!
Eli5: Call company that installs solar panels. Give them a bunch of money (thousands to tens of thousands depending). Wait 20 years to get that money back on the lower energy bill. Replace the whole system because it is obsolete. Rince repeat.
For real totally disconnecting from the power grid is a bad idea. That means you need a lot more equipment and battery storage. This increases the investment significantly, without much upside. It also prevents you from selling the power you generate but don’t need back to the power company (but depending on where you live this might not be a thing due to overproduction).
Also depending on you latitude and local climate it may be nearly impossible to go fully off grid without a huge system. Where I live we have about 6 weeks of very little to no sun (low sun combined with a lot of clouds and snow). That means all the power you need during that time needs to be collected previously and stored. This during a time it’s cold af so the power usage is high (using heat pumps for warming the house, which is very efficient). This means a lot of batteries and a lot of solar panels, just to get through these 6 weeks. It could easily triple the costs or more, even if you have the room for it to begin with.
I would analyse the power usage and see where you can save money on. 300 per month seems very high. Where I live energy is much more expensive than in the US and my bill is closer to 100 per month.
Just call a company, have some panels installed for say 2500-5000 bucks depending on how much room you have on the roof and if you need upgrades to your power system. This will save you at least 50 per month on the bill. But be aware the ROI will be on the order of 10-15 years at least and more if you are unlucky. Saving energy is free and means money in your pocket right away.
I live on a cruising sailboat and have bought gear from Sun Electronics in Miami Lakes, Fl a few times.
They’ll sell you A panel or pallet after pallet of every conceivable type and manufacturer and power rating. There is no sales tax in Florida on anything having to do with solar power, so that could also save you some money.
Here they have several examples of complete systems to give you an idea / crash course of what’s involved.
These are examples, and as you start to learn more about the different components and choices (lead acid vs LifePo4 batteries, or home built or store bought, EV powerwall, etc etc) you’ll see your prices change.
I’m not affiliated, just a happy customer.
Every situation is so different that you really need professional advice.
You might want to first identify your main power consumption and at what time this occurs. 300$ seems very high in general, but if that is for example mostly AC usage during the day, you might be able to not have to buy as large of a battery since peak consumption coincidences with peak production.
https://youtube.com/@willprowse?si=o0TYIKyCBSyYf7ys
I recommend doing a deep dive into Will Prowse on YT and also his DIY solar forum. I’ve learned a lot from him!
That’s a great help, thank you!!
Have a good squizz here - australian site, but the solar 101 is universal
The dude has a massive hardon for solar and dedicated to education
This is awesome, thank you so much!
Illinois uses net metering so there’s no good reason to disconnect here. We pay $11/mo to be a customer. As long as our net usage is 0 or less year to date, that’s it. Look into the metering rules in your state first
