A Few Questions About Price Shopping...

Shop around some more, but before you do, educate yourself about PV, how it works and what's available. BTW, NEVER reveal or share price with vendors and NEVER fall for the price matching game - you'll never get a lower price. Besides vendors know where they need to be. You'll only pay more.
Chances are at this point in time, whether you know it or not or maybe refuse to believe it, your solar ignorance is your worst enemy that vendors use to B.S. you. Download and read "Solar Power Your Home for Dummies", a free PDF download. Then, come back here and get answers to questions your self education creates.
$ 3.00/STC W is possible around here (I'm in zip 92026) but you can pay that and still screw yourself if you don't have the knowledge to see through the vendor's B.S. Happens all the time - usually to people who think they know something as a lot of my neighbors stand in blissful but ignorant testament to.

Tips ?
Never lease or PPA and stay away from Tesla and the other big national outfits. Local established vendors are better quality. If you're after only low buck - your choice - but know you'll be boning yourself. Negotiate tough but fair, remember that everything is negotiable and look for most bang for your buck using your gained knowledge. Shopping low price is no more than the errand of a fool.
If you plan on a roof mount, get your roof inspected and serviced. PV can last a long time. Give your roof the best probability of lasting as long, or chase leaks under an array. Your choice.

Read the PDF of the book, be deliberate, don't be rushed and ask questions here. Don't get any more prices until you know how to spot the B.S.

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

Thank you. Good advice.

I haven't shared prices. But, I have been candid with vendors that I don't know the product. Probably doesn't help.

I looked for the PDF you mentioned. I see places where you can buy it. But, don't see it free. Do you have a link?

I don't want "low buck". I just don't want to over-pay.

Roof is brand new as I did a complete remodel of the home a short time ago. So, that is good.

A few clicks and I found several. Click around to: survivalmomkey.com. Takes ~ 10 sec. or less. Or the hard copy is avail. at Amazon/bookstores for a nominal $25 or so.

Found it at the survivalmonkey site. Thank you.

When I am calculating the cost per W, do I use the "System Size" output? Or, the annual output. The vendors seem to provide two different output numbers.

Be careful of what vendors tell you. You don't know enough yet to if what they are telling you is any good or even correct and useful.

Use the STC system size. Thus: If a system is, say, 5 STC kW and the total price from the vendor is, say, $15,000, the installed price per STC W is $15,000/5,000 STC W = $3.00/installed STC W. Any federal tax credits reduce that $ rate, but most everyone uses the pre tax credit price per installed STC kW to keep us all on the same page.

The book will make a lot of that type stuff a lot clearer.

More FWIW, for your location, as referenced in my immediately prior thread, a shade free 5 STC kW reasonably south facing array in N. county San Diego ought to produce ~ 1,700 kWh/yr per installed STC kW. So, 5 installed STC kW * 1,700 kWh/yr. per installed STC kW = 8,500 kWh/yr.

Note the difference between kW (= power = the time rate of doing work) and kWh (= energy produced per hour).

Along with the book, get a working knowledge of something called PVWatts on the net. It's a user friendly PV modeling scheme from NREL. Read all the help screens a couple of times and make a few runs. After you do folks here can fill in a few blanks with some tips on use and interpretation of the output in answer to any questions you may raise as a result of your self-education.

Thank you. Very helpful info.

The vendors definitely don't seem to want to talk about the $/Installed rate. They all want to focus on that "how much you save!" page.

You're most welcome.

Yea, I know. I've talked with most of the current and out of business vendors in N. county and some elsewhere as well.

Their business is putting PV on your property, not saving you money over the long term.

PV is an investment.
You pay more upfront to generate electricity with the goal of offsetting a portion of future electric bills and so saving money in the future.
However, like any investment, the probability of doing so successfully is never guaranteed.

If, after careful analysis, you believe the probability of annual, or better yet lifecycle, savings from the PV investment are less than what you believe you could make by putting the funds in some other form(s) of investment (real estate, conservative bond mutual funds/ETF's, whatever), then the other method(s) are better places for your investment dollars.

Now, if you want to save the planet, keep up with the Jones, get sucked in by the media hype or that of vendors or other priorities, the financial aspect of the decision needs to be part of a balancing of priorities.

FWIW, after having been involved in about 150+ installs in my HOA as the guy who reviews and recommends such installations to my HOA board since ~ 2006, I have yet to find any one of those folks - my neighbors - who cared about anything more than how much their self inflicted high electric bills could be reduced by throwing the most expensive method (that being PV) at their perceived problem, usually in near or past panic mode BTW.

It's more complicated than that, but not much.

See time value of money and comparison of alternatives analysis for details.

I appreciate the candor.

I have zero interest in keeping up with the Jones'. They are terrible cooks anyway. I do care about the planet. But, I have serious doubts about the current "analysis" and the proposed "solutions."

I'm definitely in the camp with your neighbors, wanting to reduce the cost of my bill. Regardless of my opinion about solar's affect on the planet, I can't deny that they've driven the price of electric way up. I completely get your point about it being an investment. That's what I'm looking at, regardless of the short-term focused song-and-dance I keep hearing. But, even then, it does seem like solar pencils out as a net cost-saving over time.

It's just looking like the companies are all aware of this 3.0 change and are marking things up a bit more than before because of the rush...

Understood.

Follow the money and between what you get here, the book and PVWatts use your ongoing education to sort out the B.S. Be deliberate and timely, and don't be rushed.

I found a vendor that is highly rated that gave an estimate that matches the regional average from the same site.

The equipment they offer:
19x Panasonic EVPV410H
19x Enphase IQ8PLUS-72-2-US (240V)Inverter(s)

Is that decent equipment?

They did have a few quirks. Their layout put the panels on the front of the house. But, there is space in the back with no shade and its south-facing which is supposed to be the best... And they added a sub-panel when the other vendors said the current panel has room.

Have you had a serious discussion with that vendor about their reasons for an install on the front of the house? If so, are you satisfied with their reasoning? Ditto for the sub-panel

Another question, perhaps you've answered it in previous posts, is how much production do you need? Will the proposed system provide you with the production, on a yearly basis, that you need?

One last thought, do you need micro-inverters? With a shade-free south facing roof you probably don't. A cheaper string inverter setup may be best but it might be more difficult to find a vendor who agrees.

Thank you. I did ask if they could be installed on the south-facing side via email. Will see what the answer is. The consult was short and initiated by phone. So, it kind of feels like they just put the panels onto the clearest looking area of the roof for the sake of sending the proposal quickly. That issue came up with one other vendor insisting that the front of the house was the best side for energy creation. But, they later walked that back when I pointed out that every other vendor said the south-facing section in the back was best. My theory is that the best spot isnt as desirable for them because they have to navigate around a few vents, etc. there. But, its doable.

The sub-panel part does worry me a bit. They wrote something about me hiring my own electrician to make room in my panel if I wanted to avoid that. I guess maybe it requires electricians with different licenses to touch that? It worries me that they might not have someone licensed for that already?

The size of the system is a bit smaller than what others have proposed after seeing our bill. So, I think it is a bit small and would ask them to increase the size a bit. But, I've been comparing price based on $ per W. So, I'm assuming it will scale and still be the best price.

How much of a difference in price would the string inverters create? Even with the micro-inverters they are much more competitive on price than the other bids. So, maybe not worth pushing unless its a big price difference.

Unfortunately I'm not n touch with current prices nor with current offering from SD county installers. I'll leave the research with you.

You are at a tough time in the market since there is the future prospect that NEM 3.0 may be less favorable. and that may mean that many solar installers are getting higher prices, simply because demand is high to get systems installed before NEM 3.0 becomes effective next year, The only help I can offer is keep trying.