Calculate for 3549 kWh per month

**J.P.M.** · 11-04-2021, 01:12 AM

1.) First, find out if your POCO does some form of net metering and figure out how you're billed for what you use.
2.) If saving money (or maximizing savings on electric bills via PV) is one of the goals of the exercise, do not size a system for the largest usage time/season.
3.) Buy and read a copy of "Solar Power Your Home for Dummies". At bookstores/Amazon. Sounds like you need an education.
4.) Read it, particularly the chapter about reducing your use. No PV is as cost effective as not having to pay for usage you could avoid with some common sense.
5.) Come back here and fill in knowledge gaps your self education creates.
6.) Don't spend dime one until you've done the above.

Welcome to the forum of few(er) illusions.

**Mike90250** · 11-04-2021, 01:21 AM

First : The watts you don't buy, are the cheapest. Where can you conserve and save power ?

Then
What sort of solar plans does your utility offer the consumer. Net Billing, TOU discounts, Tiered rates ??
How long will it take to recoup the expense of solar. Will you be on the property in 5-9 years
Simple Grid Intertie, or add batteries, generator......

Then with your location and zip code, you can work out with PV Watts, how much solar you need to install. Winter months are usually less harvest then summers.

PVWatts Calculator

https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/

Estimates the energy production and cost of energy of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential PV installations

**peakbagger** · 11-04-2021, 07:33 AM

Either search the web for an older version or buy new version of Solar Power Your Home for Dummies. Best investment you can make at this point. Unless your utility rates have special incentives for batteries do not worry about them at this point. Batteries add a lot of cost and not much benefit if you have reliable power.

**KM Richards** · 11-04-2021, 10:06 AM

I run a business and have little time for reading books which is why I thought they had talk boards on the subject of solar power where others share their opinions based on their knowledge and experience. (I spent 17 years in automotive repair and this is how must auto related talkboards work )

The info in the duimmies book ought to be available online for newbies, right? For starters I was hoping to hear what those with experience would do if they were going to solar power my house.

You know, examples of what controllers you think are best, what panels you think are best, what batteries and battery types you think are best

I'm not just thinking of saving money, but thinking of being able to run the whole house in the event the electric grid crashes or becomes so expensive / un-relable that switching to solar becomes a must.

**J.P.M.** · 11-04-2021, 11:13 AM

Originally posted by KM Richards

I run a business and have little time for reading books which is why I thought they had talk boards on the subject of solar power where others share their opinions based on their knowledge and experience. (I spent 17 years in automotive repair and this is how must auto related talkboards work )

The info in the duimmies book ought to be available online for newbies, right? For starters I was hoping to hear what those with experience would do if they were going to solar power my house.

You know, examples of what controllers you think are best, what panels you think are best, what batteries and battery types you think are best

I'm not just thinking of saving money, but thinking of being able to run the whole house in the event the electric grid crashes or becomes so expensive / un-relable that switching to solar becomes a must.

1.) Those who have responded so far have equally busy lives to yours and are quite knowledgeable about things you need to know. If you were (or still are) hoping to find what to do, you got some good clues from 3 pretty experienced and well educated folks.
2.) As Peakbagger writes, the dummies book is on line if you take the time to snoop around a bit.
3.) Your solar inexperience is revealed by your comments. The dummies book is the fastest way to bring you up to speed - faster than a lot of spoon feeding. Read the book and ask questions here to fill in knowledge gaps. Your questions will also have more meat on them.
4.) Some time/effort on your part will pay off.

Take what you want of the above. Scrap the rest.

**KM Richards** · 11-04-2021, 12:31 PM

Your solar inexperience is revealed by your comments

I never claimed to have known anything at all about solar which is why I'm here asking questions.

I was trying to gain knowledge, without being put down for not having previous experience with solar

We all have to start somewhere and we are all ignorant in some areas of life so I would never hold that against someone

Some time/effort on your part will pay off.

Yes, I'm aware of that and it can be done without buying the dummies book as I'm already finding a wealth of information about solar online so there's no real need to buy the book when it's contents is already available online right now for free

**RichardCullip** · 11-04-2021, 01:01 PM

Originally posted by KM Richards

I looked on my electric company's website when paying my bill where it show my usage and the highest usage was 3549 kWh for August. All other months took less.

So how do I go about seeing what equipment I would need to produce 3549 kWh per month along with batteries to save juice?

Not sure where you live but down in San Diego county, where I live, it would take about a 20kW dc system, according to quick estimate using PVWatts.com, to produce that much electricity in the best month. That's a big system. I can't answer any questions about using batteries except to say, if your electric company offers any kind of net metering their grid is a much cheaper source than any battery system you could install.

**robbyg** · 11-04-2021, 03:09 PM

Originally posted by KM Richards

I looked on my electric company's website when paying my bill where it show my usage and the highest usage was 3549 kWh for August. All other months took less.

So how do I go about seeing what equipment I would need to produce 3549 kWh per month along with batteries to save juice?

I suggest you either dedicate a lot of time to learning this stuff or hire a professional.
You using about 2-3 times as much power as the typical house hold. The PV system will be massive and the battery bank will also be massive.
You can look on YouTube for info on lots of professional installs and very few of them are at the size of the system your looking at.

The very first thing you need to do is to find out what you are paying per KWh. Solar does not even make sense if your KWh billing is very low.

**KM Richards** · 11-04-2021, 03:16 PM

OK, thanks guys. I'm already looking at a scaled down version to just be able to run our water well pump and have AC / Heat in my garage

Solar does not even make sense if your KWh billing is very low.

It would if the public electric grid became inoperable for some reason and there was no electricity at all.... with the way things are going, this should probably be considered by all

**J.P.M.** · 11-04-2021, 03:26 PM

Originally posted by KM Richards

I never claimed to have known anything at all about solar which is why I'm here asking questions.

I was trying to gain knowledge, without being put down for not having previous experience with solar

We all have to start somewhere and we are all ignorant in some areas of life so I would never hold that against someone

Yes, I'm aware of that and it can be done without buying the dummies book as I'm already finding a wealth of information about solar online so there's no real need to buy the book when it's contents is already available online right now for free

The book is the fastest and best way to learn some of what you seek.

It's also free online if you can live with a slightly dated 1st ed.

I'd respectfully suggest the $25 or so for an updated hardcopy is probably a good investment.

You can also peruse this forum and pick up stuff that way.

The book or other independent sources will give you the basics that you'll need to make sense of the rest of what you'll get here and elsewhere.

Some background work on your part is necessary to help make info you get from others less of a chore for them. We won't need to explain things you can learn on your own. We too are busy people

Folks here are more than willing to help, but we're are not your minions or hired help.

**KM Richards** · 11-04-2021, 03:45 PM

we're are not your minions or hired help.

Sorry to have offended you... it may be best if you could not participate in the threads where I'm asking questions.

Thanks!

**SunEagle** · 11-04-2021, 04:25 PM

Originally posted by KM Richards

OK, thanks guys. I'm already looking at a scaled down version to just be able to run our water well pump and have AC / Heat in my garage

It would if the public electric grid became inoperable for some reason and there was no electricity at all.... with the way things are going, this should probably be considered by all

If you are looking to keep power on when the grid goes down then the cheapest and easiest way is to get a whole house emergency generator along with a grid tie solar pv system.

While the grid tie system may pay for itself depending on the cost of installation a battery back up will probably never pay for itself.

Please don't be lead into the BS that a lot of solar installation companies are saying about a battery system because they won't provide much in power and still come at a great cost compared to a generator of some kind. Unless you live somewhere the power is always out then even an emergency power supply is hard to justify. Oh and by the way you sill need some type of generator to keep the battery system happy because solar may not be there to recharge them.

Finally any load (like heating or air conditioning) are big draws and will quickly drain the battery system. If you must use a battery then the loads attached to the system should be small and only critical.

**KM Richards** · 11-04-2021, 05:00 PM

I've considered generators (gotten a couple of providers to come out and do estimates) and they would work great unless there comes a time when you cannot get propane or diesel

I see lots of folks that are off grid using batteries to store the juice collected by their solar system

Maybe they are only using their batteries for smaller appliances and aren't using AC, but none the less there are folks doing this totally off the grid

Batteries can't be totally useless since some folks are totally off grid using them.

**SunEagle** · 11-04-2021, 07:03 PM

Originally posted by KM Richards

I've considered generators (gotten a couple of providers to come out and do estimates) and they would work great unless there comes a time when you cannot get propane or diesel

I see lots of folks that are off grid using batteries to store the juice collected by their solar system

Maybe they are only using their batteries for smaller appliances and aren't using AC, but none the less there are folks doing this totally off the grid

Batteries can't be totally useless since some folks are totally off grid using them.

Some people have a new hobby because they have to watch their battery system every day while off grid. But if you plan on building a system that includes batteries you still will need some type of generator which I believe all off grid people have.

So you have to decide which is more important or cost effective. A battery system that will fail even if you watch it closely or a generator that has duel fuel capabilities and can be powered during long term sunless skies.

Calculate for 3549 kWh per month

Calculate for 3549 kWh per month

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