I plan to add solar grid tie-in system to the house. I have some basic info and understanding on how it works, but no idea about individual component brands and manufactures. Anyone know what to get and what to avoid?

 

No clue. But I did see a news story the other day of a local couple who invested only $8000 into solar/green equipment and is now living completely "off the grid" with all your normal amentities. Pretty cool.

 

In NJ, you can get a big discount (rebate) on the systems now.

 

We've been contemplating looking into this... but not sure if we want to go forward since we know that the chances of us being here more then 10-12 years are small. We figure we have one more move in us... and we may just wait until then....

 

i'm not sure how far redding is from marin county, but we are working with these guys for our building: http://www.solarcraft.com/ . They seem like a good outfit so far.

 

We have a few decent outfits in Redding, the one we are working with installs @60 systems a year, and all panels and inverters have good warranties. We are looking at Sharp panel with Sunyboy inverter, the other option is Sunpower SPR-200 panel with Sunpower inverter, they are all black panels, better looking and better rated, but Sunpower is a pretty new company, who knows how well they will work over time. 3 kw system runs @ 20 grand here.

 

Yeah but it would take me over 13 years to break even before considering time value of money.

 

the average utility bill in this country is $250/mo. so you'd recoup your investment in a little less than 3 years, were you to fall into the average utility bill category.

i imagine you're not, being in california and not relying on heat. however, it can't be cheap to cool the place... and you have one of the highest electrical costs in the country.

 

My house is older and doesn't have AC. I'm only 5 miles from the beach and get cool breezes most of the summer. I do have ceiling fans but they don't draw much power. Heat, hot water, and cooking are natural gas. My electric bills average $40-50/mo.

 

lucky man

 

my electric bills run $500 a month,

 

Do you run 500w halogens in every room or something? Seriously, that's 10x what I spend and I know its not hot there 12 months of the year.

 

Indoor grows can be very expensive.

 

my house has 4000 square feet and a lot of windows, plus all the computers are running and my wife likes it quite warm so we have all of these electric heaters since gas is expensive.