I think we're going solar

I don't have a specific fee labeled on my bill for just having the house tied to the grid. All charges on my bill are rate multiplied by the kWh usage from the meter. Supply, Conservation Charge, Transmission, Distribution, Green Power surcharge, and tax. I have never had a month that we did not use any electricity (or minus use by net metering), so I don't know if they would bill me some basic charge or not. I think if I have no electric use at all for a billing period, I would just receive a $0 bill, but I think such basic connection fees if existed, are very fair. After all, maintenance of the grid is very hard and expensive. Unless I am 100% off-grid, I am glad to pay my share of the cost.

 

The article indicates that 20% of customers there have solar. That is vastly higher than here, and reaching a point where battery storage, at home or elsewhere, becomes necessary for grid stability and management. The rate structures should reflect that.

That was implemented here long ago. My utility currently charges just over $75/year as a connection-account fee, separate from energy use, and this is going to rise over time.

Some other places just charge this as a minimum, crediting it against energy use.

A sibling who bought a couple small farms adjoining dad's place, pays a regular connection charge for the electric service to both. The house on one burned long ago, the other still has an abandoned farmhouse. But both still have electric service for seasonal water pumping for the livestock pastured there. They have zero usage most of the year, but still must pay a connection charge each month, keeping the lines up.

 

I did not realize you were a bot

 

So micro-inverters? Brother-in-law just got a couple with micro-inverters. I may add some on the parts that get shadow. Right now I have two panels in the 'shadowy' part of the roof on a regular almost 20yr old 300W inverter (Maybe 15, the manufacturer replaced them after a few years due to a possible risk).

Parents-in-lw have a Solar Edge with optimizers. Have had an optimizer fail within 2 years or so. Neighbors have the same system but always have trouble with it...

I have a second-hand 15 year old 5.5kW inverter (that has error-lights burning on the front since I got it 10 years ago) works great!

Glossary:
Micro-inverters have one or two panels attached and are mounted close to the panels The output is 120VAC (or 230V~in Europe) and directly grid-tied.
Pros: partial shadow from e.g. a tree will only affect one inverter, cons: they sit outside (heat cold moisture) and are more costly than a single big inverter.

Optimizers: one or two panels on one optimizer. This manages this one (or two) panel and gets the most out of it. All optimizers talk to the inverter sitting inside and through comminucation they can all deliver their maximum power. One with shadow will report a decrease in powercapability and the rest will adapt. The output of all optimizers is 350VDC in Europe and this saves a step that is normally done in the inverter, so efficiency is on par with other systems. The inverter is grid-tied. Pro: shadow isn't a problem, Con: more electronics and even communication over the powerwires, so more components that can fail.

(Good oldfashioned) Inverters get the DC inputvoltage directly from the solarpanels. This can sometimes be 45-135VDC (my 300W inverter) or 150-450VDC (my 5.5kW inverter) or sometimes even up to 800VDC input. This is again converted to the AC grid-voltage and is then grid-tied.
Pro's fairly simple both in working and when mounted inside, no temperature or moisture danger. Con: when ONE panel out of a string of 10 has some shadow, the other 9 have to follow the one with the shadow in current.

In numbers: 10 solarpanels of 100W each, so 1000W total power. One in the shadow limited to only 50W output.
Micro-inverter for each panel: output 50W + (9x100W) = 950W
Optimizer for each panel": output 50W + (9x100W) = 950W
Inverter: output 50W (+9x50W) = 500W.

Seems like a no brainer NOT to go for a regular inverter, but what if you virtually never have a shadow? Why pay twice as much for your grid-tied invertersetup?

 

Anyone have any Pennsylvania advice or experience to relate?

I have homebuilt small self-contained offgrid solar power systems before, but now I am interested in something bigger than I can build myself, so it's time to step back and invite pros.

The basic proposition: I'd love to put in solar on my too-large lawn. After the energy benefits, it is less to mow, and possibly a useful sight/sound block vs. highway noise out front.

 

My system is only 1.5kW. The inverter had its 10th birthday - and died a week later. Replaced it with a new, but "old-stock" 3kW which works better than the old one ever did.

 

Jerry's microinverters (I looked them up earlier), like mine and most others in the U.S., output to 240V. These particular units are also rated for 208V, and I suspect many competing products do the same.

Using 240V, instead of 120V, reduces line losses and allows more power on a circuit branch.

My installation has significant tree shading issues, some right now, but lots more during the six months of lowest sun angle.

 

Thanks for the response anyway. We spent a lot of 2019 shoring up our finances. 2020 threw us all that curve. Now I want to get back on track.

We used to have a bunch of those solarcity agents trying to lease gear, they were clogging up the entryways to the home improvement warehouses.

Biggest thing holding me up now is finding information. Lots of resources on the internet dedicated to taking all of my info and selling it as a lead, but I don't feel like playing that game.

 

Mine I bought with a "Life Expectancy of 20 years" and warranty of 5 years. Panels were 20yrs, 10 yrs warranty. The Inverter made 10 years - just. The chap doing the replacement said that 10 years life isn't unusual. But the new one is running a lot cooler - probably because it is higher capacity. I'm on a super-special buy-back rate till 2028 - so plan on keeping it going as it is till then.

 

Sorry about the 120VAC 240VAC error. I thought normal voltage was 120VAC in the US and not even all houses have 240VAC, only if you have large appliances.

Just had a discussion about power on a Dutch forum: we have either 230VAC 35A or 3x230VAC 25A home connections. The latter being a 3 phase system (three separately fused 230VAC lines with 120degree phase difference).

Is it correct that 240VAC in the US is simply two 120VAC lines but 180degrees phase difference?

Some chargers (Tesla?) can do 230VAC 30A. But this is no use for us, as we cannot use it: 230VAC is fused with 35A as a main fuse, but it is mandatory to use smaller fuses before hooking ANYTHING up to it, so highest is 25A (my current solar inverter, normal houses never use anything above 16A).

(We can get 3x230V 50A and then use said 30A charger, but the fixed costs for that are like 1800$ a year instead of 300$ for a 1x35A or 3x25A connection)

 

Most US houses are 240 VAC single phase, with 120 volt breakers both ways from neutral. Double pole breakers are 240 volts and are for large appliances. (Clothes Dryer, Oven. Water heater, Central HVAC, etc) I live in the deep South and some older homes are wired for 3 phase as the HVAC used to need that kind of power. Most commercial power is 3 phase.

Yes, residential is almost all single phase 240 VAC with 120 VAC emulated by only using one hot wire and neutral.

A large house may be 200 Amps, smaller is 100 Amps.

While I only have one 240 VAC breaker in the House (Electric Oven, Natural Gas HVAC, Dryer, and Water heater, my Garage has 8 240 VAC outlets, two of which are 50 Amp 3 phase. (Some previous owner repaired vending machines and needed a welder) I feel bad not owning a plug in car, so none of my 240 VAC in the garage is in current use.

NEMA is the organization that standardizes plugs and receptacles, pretty much the largest is 50 Amps. I frequently recommend a NEMA 14-50 receptacle as they are commonly found in RV Parks. One company in town manufactures ovens, they have 12 14-50 outlets in their show room.
Viking Range - Wikipedia
What Plugs are Available on EV Charging Stations?

 

24kW or even 48kW. Wow... (ours is 8kW (single phase) or 17kW (3phase)) But I guess having natural gas supplied to your house isn't the norm.
While our neighbors in Germany are promoting it, we (Netherlands) are trying to get rid of natural gas*. Which 95% of the houses use for cooking and heating. Our grid has to be beefed up significantly before we can go all electric. Normal connection is 6mm^2 per phase (somewhere between AWG 9 and 10) into residential houses, so anything beyond (230Vx35Ax3phase=)24kW needs digging out the old cables and upgrading, not to mention upgrading the HV-lines and pretty much all substations.

Sorry, digressing... Carry on.

* Germany has a lot of brown-coal (lignite?) plants for electricity generation so promoting natural gas reduces their CO2 and greenhouse emissions greatly whereas the Netherlands had a huge reserve of natural gas (which we squandered, but that's a different discussion) but we're seeing earthquakes where this was pulled out of the ground, so we are trying to stop pumping it and don't want to be dependant on the alternative, Russian gas, while our 'friend' Putin (or likeminded successors) is/are in power and can shut us off whenever something is not to his liking.

 

Some cities and towns in the US have natural gas piped to the house. Heating can be natural gas, fuel oil, propane gas, or electric. Electric heat is usually either baseboard resistive heating or more efficient heat pumps. Some of us in rural areas can still supplement heating with a wood burning stove.