Comment on European-style plug-in solar could quickly cut soaring utility bills in Massachusetts
paulcdb@lemmy.world 1 day agoI really question the ROI on this sort of thing
Depends if you do it right.
In the UK, you can buy 2 ~400w for about 140, then £100 for the micro inverter. I have 4 295w panels mounted on a flat, raised frame on the side of a shed and they cut my bill from £150 down to around £70 last month. So yes, they can pay for themselves pretty quickly.
And once they’re paid for, it’s all free electric! And we’re now seeing batteries with plugin style so you can store the electric to run white goods, saving even more, etc.
Also, unless you get a solar tracker, “optimally aligned” isn’t really possible. The sun moves inclination every day depending on where you live. Here in summer you’d want a more horizontal position, in winter a more vertical position which is why solar fencing is actually becoming a thing because they generate more in winter.
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 22 hours ago
I’m thinking of the balcony solar, which seems to mostly be a couple small 200w kit panels vertically mounted. Even with south facing i don’t think it would run a refrigerator.
What kind of refrigerator are you running? Around 100 Watt should be enough to run a decently sized refrigerator. Solar panels are somewhat forgiving when it comes to the proper angles, 100 Watt peak should be easily achievable with an 800 Watt setup, even if they are very badly angled. Sure, not 24/7, and maybe not all year round, but that’s not the goal.
Also, since you focused on ROI, that’s the nice thing about small installations - basically all the energy generated is directly used by you, meaning it directly replaces energy you would have had to buy otherwise. This is the more expensive kind of energy, and you “make” more money with that as if you sold the electricity. The ROI of solar power (for everyday people) goes down the bigger the system gets, as you won’t be able to use all the peak power when it is generated.
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 10 hours ago
For context, I’ve got experience with midsized solar and currently have a balcony-esque 500w array mounted for the correct angle for my latitude. My panels are free but the battery and inverter were about $600. I save 10-15 cents a day in summer. That’s a ridiculously long payback and it doesn’t give me enough for a backup. If I had 2-3kw solar it would be different, spreading the inverter cost more thinly.
It depends what your consumption is I suppose. If I am able to generate 20% of my consumption that’s a help, maybe I’m wrong, I feel the 500kw balcony vertical install won’t cover 20% of a household.