this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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how much solar generation capacity and battery storage are u seeking ? where i live, a 2kw solar installation without battery (grid-tied system ?) costs about 3k$. system pays itself in 4 years and rest of existence is powered by free energy. want batteries ? a 1kwh costs about 300$. where i live 4kwh/day is more than enough, sometimes 10kwh/day in extreme heat/cold. but i guess american needs could differ (30kwh/day maybe?). to recharge 30kwh batteries, u would need extra solar capacity (maybe 7kwc ?), and that would run at 9k$, add 30kwh batteries ? another 9k$.. idk what the 50k CAD are for
We ran for almost 16 months on 4kwh of storage and 4 350w panels. We don't use it for heat since we live in a forest and burn our own wood in a woodstove, but for everything else we needed it was grand. Total cost was about $4500CAD
Having said that - When the power company offered to extend the grid out here, we took them up on it. So now the 4kwh is more than enough to run the garage and a few outbuildings, while the main tinyhouse is tied to the grid.
Conversely - Our neighbour who has big 2800sqft house spent about 25k to be able to run as if they are in the city.
Not saying any of this to bolster any argument. I just like talking about it :p
totally understandable. i am aware that prices aren't the same everywhere, thats why i decided to share prices of solar of where i am living. sharing quotes could help one another save on costs, and ur number of 4k CAD is really quite reasonable for 1.4Kw system and a 4Kwh battery (which is really a good bang for the buck, since batteries are the expensive part most of the time) but the user of the comment above me was quoted 40k CAD which is really absurd, but they didnt disclose the specifications of their system yet, so not much to judge. But solar has been really cheap for a while now. 25k CAD for a 260m² house ? maybe their house required too much climate control or they are charging an Ev, u could help assess how much solar they r installing on the roof: 5m² would correspond to 1kw of solar, if they r not installing alot of panels and yet have spent alot of money the rest of it probably went for batteries, among many possibilities..
I am not judging the neighbour at all. He is a great guy with a ton of smarts. My 'house' is 420sqft, and his is over 2800. And he doesn't enjoy the roughing it parts of life as much as I do. I work in tech so to me things like bringing water up from the creek, or cutting my own firewood, are like therapy. But when he comes out here, he wants all the comforts of his city house. And he deserves that.
And as a bonus - I get to see him test different configs and products before I even have to think about them :)
yea i agree. each has their way of unwinding from work.
Who did you contact for your solar install, or did you do it yourself?
I did it myself. But I cheated... The main storage unit is a bluetti unit. That runs about 80% of our needs. The other 20% comes from a DIY solution. I built in a couple of Rubbermaid tubs with six volt golf cart, batteries in series and an inverter.
15.75kW and an inverter, installation in there too. 41k - 5k gov rebate. Too rich for my blood.
16kw/0.4=38 * 100$= 3800$(usd). 1700$ for a 16kw Growatt inverter. Extra 5k$ for breakers and copper lines etc (total=10500$). Still, idk what the rest of 20k usd are for (40k cad= 30k usd). Yea, seems kinda too much. Is solar having a lobby now ?
It was July last year so maybe the prices were just that much more insane then
probably
Zero battery. Who did you contact? I only contacted one company. This was also about a year and a half ago
i dont live in Canada, but that quote was from a third party solar installation company, that gets a license from the utility company to install a two-way electricity meter to tie the solar system to the grid. and yea those prices have been the same for a year now, if not dropped. a 2kw inverter is about 300$, 400w panel is about 100$*5=500$. meter=60$. the rest (3k$-860$=2140$) are costs of copper wire,breakers, labour and margin. maybe cost of labour in Canada is high, hence the high quote. better install it urself: check Will Prowse on youtube, assembling a solar system is like a lego game