Solar - Who's got it?

the countries with public utilities have grids that are decades ahead of ours
I lived in Nigeria 2006-2012. Their electric grid is run by the government. It was called the Nigerian Electric Power Authority, NEPA, or as locals called it No Electric Power Again, or Never Expect Power Again. It was built by the Brits decades ago. It fell apart over the years due to government waste and corruption. Billions poured into that system and siphoned off by officials.

I lived on Ikoyi Island and both apartments that I lived in had two large diesel generators with huge diesel storage tanks. We would go weeks without grid power, just running a generator. They would switch gens everyday at noon. When we were occasionally blessed with grid power, the voltage would fluctuate so badly that electronics would become unstable and sometimes would blow out light bulbs. I would never choose to have a state run power grid.

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I lived in Nigeria 2006-2012. Their electric grid is run by the government. It was called the Nigerian Electric Power Authority, NEPA, or as locals called it No Electric Power Again, or Never Expect Power Again. It was built by the Brits decades ago. It fell apart over the years due to government waste and corruption. Billions poured into that system and siphoned off by officials.

I lived on Ikoyi Island and both apartments that I lived in had two large diesel generators with huge diesel storage tanks. We would go weeks without grid power, just running a generator. They would switch gens everyday at noon. When we were occasionally blessed with grid power, the voltage would fluctuate so badly that electronics would become unstable and sometimes would blow out light bulbs. I would never choose to have a state run power grid.

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living in countries where every major things run by government is a disaster. In Pakistan people get 2 hour of electricity and Afghanistan 4 hours average daily. That should sum up government.
 
I'll have to dig out some articles and see if I can convince you guys, doesn't sound likely though :rofl: Personally I think we a a LITTLE better than Afghanistan or Nigeria etc

Got the call that the utility is coming Monday to assist with disconnecting and reconnecting, so on Monday I'll have all my new electrical. Then once that's done they will schedule the solar

Still looking into battery options to see if any would work. Problem is, its a lot of money, sure would be cool though
 
I'll have to dig out some articles and see if I can convince you guys, doesn't sound likely though :rofl: Personally I think we a a LITTLE better than Afghanistan or Nigeria etc

Got the call that the utility is coming Monday to assist with disconnecting and reconnecting, so on Monday I'll have all my new electrical. Then once that's done they will schedule the solar

Still looking into battery options to see if any would work. Problem is, its a lot of money, sure would be cool though


This might be worth a look for you. I'm not sure if they are available yet. I have an inquiry in as I'd like to use one on my system.
Power to the PV People: How Evergrid keeps home solar up when the grid goes down | Solar Builder
and
 
It looks like they would need a larger model, Max PV size is 12kW, I'm getting 16kW of PV, interesting device though for sure, I'll have to read into that more

For now the generator will always kick on anyway. Apparently Enhpase are bringing a battery product that can tie in with a generator, but details are nowhere yet
 
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I got a 7.8kw system installed in Feb '2020; total cost was just shy of $24k but after rebates and state credits, it cost me $6,400. I'm in Chicago, not the sunniest place but have seen big savings.
 

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Looks like they did a pretty good job installing that, you need more!
 
Looks like they did a pretty good job installing that, you need more!
That was the max I qualified for when they calculated the 110% of the previous year. As I don't qualify more more rebates, maybe when prices drop.

I have seen some crappy installs where they ran the conduit between the panels exposed; even though mine are on the second floor roof, I made sure that everything was hidden.
 
First day of electrical is done, they are coming back tomorrow to finish up, but now my mess of crap is all gone. I'll need to do some patching, painting and brickwork

Before

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After (Look in the distance and you can see the corner of the house, cable went across the driveway)

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200a subpanel on the house

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Here is a link to the specific panels I am getting