Check out Hoymiles for WORLD CLASS Solar Inverters! geni.us/Inverters

When you upgrade your HVAC system get every duct airflow tested! I see so many homes that are loosing close to 50% of the airflow to the crawlspace or attic. Getting the ductwork fixed or sealed is often the largest efficiency upgrade.

Since you are not on Nem 3 watch out for the utility company upgrading you to Nem 3 when you upgrade by over 10%. That's the rule here with PGE. You may want to use the new array for charging and daytime use only and not grid tie it.

Never heard of "Hoymiles" before and not a lot of info about the company, other than they are Chinese and went public a couple years ago. Appreciate you named this company as a sponsor. Looking it up it's not a cheaper product than Enphase though. That 4 into 1 unit seems like a great idea but it's almost $500! One new IQ7 is $85 and a long proven product/company. I'm not pushing Enphase but they'd be my choice today. I actually have a 9 year old Solaredge system which had the inverter replaced this year under warranty and one optimizer replaced a few years ago, also under warranty.

What amazes me is how fast the panels themselves are improving. Once battery technology becomes better and better, the whole system could take off. It'll be interesting to see where solar goes.

I love your channel. As far as a 25 year warranty or a lifetime warranty goes ,if the company is no longer around/out or business…no warranty.

If you’re looking to swap your central air I’d suggest Mitsubishi ducted inverter heat pumps. The inverter compressor soft start is much easier on those batteries along with the highest quality and reliability.

One con you didn't mention with microinverters is the Dc -> Ac ->Dc (battery) -> AC more ac/dc conversions and the losses there. String inverters don't have that.

I've installed many of both types of inverters. In microinverter systems there always seem to be a handful that fail very early. SMA string inverters have been super robust and reliable in my experience.

Quad-microinverters are usually a lose, not a win. They are not nearly as reliable as single-panel micro-inverters due to the heat dissipation problem. The bigger problem for you, however, is that custom cable. MC4 connectors are a major failure point for roof-top solar systems . Solar panel makers generally do a good job, but custom installer-crimped cables are usually really bad. When doing a custom MC4 cable, you always want to crimp AND solder. Yah yah, I know, MC4s are supposed to work just fine with only the crimp, but if you really want the cable to last you solder it too... and those crimp areas are really easy to solder. In anycase, the issue with installer-crimped cables is that when not done properly they can actually be a fire-hazard. You are lucky that wire pulled out completely. A partial pull-out could have resulted in a high-resistance connection and melting / burning / possibly even a fire. I would check under the panels with a thermal camera at all the installer-specific cabling connectors (during a sunny day) to make sure there aren't any hot spots. -Matt

Man i'm from the Netherlands and we (a family of 5) use 3500kw a year. The energy usage you have is crazy for us! Love your videos, keep em coming!

A year later, and even with a string inverter, the newer panels are better with shading, without having 27 points of failure under every panel. ...and the string inverter isn't under a panel up on the roof. Oh, and like in southern Nevada with Nevada Energy, you are not allowed a solar system that creates more than you can use. It must be to a max of 95% and cannot send any excess back to the grid. ...and if there is a brown-out / black-out and line power to the residence is lost, the solar system must also go offline. Just another reason on top of so many others to move to the Philippines! !!!-Mabuhay-!!! Life is good again!

I always find it curious when I tell people I have solar, their first question is "how much did it cost?" and second, "what's the payback period on that?" BUT if I were to add something like a new front door or new siding, nobody asks those questions. When I add a new door next year, I want someone to ask me "what's the payback period on that door?" I like to tell people that solar is THE ONLY thing you can add to your house that starts paying you back on day one! It goes in one ear and out the other.

To find which panel is not perform to its full potential, or not working at all. I would use a cardboard sheet cut to size of a panel. During peak light, cover one panel at a time and read your total output, the one that gives the least power drop is the problem one.

The turn off for your panels is quite troubling. Panels should work in those lighting conditions. But it also depends on the type of panels: some are better for indirect lighting. I live in the Netherlands, and we have enough clouds, and it still works. That's also the difference between microinverter and string: the minimal lighting conditions are better.

I have to say that I just love the information provided by so much of this kind of equipment and the software or apps designed to run with it all. My Victron charge controller can be bluetoothed to a phone and you can see the day by day power production, you can see total kwh from the first day of using the equipment to the current date of using the equipment, you can see current usage, current power generation. It's just kinda fun to nerd out seeing all this data haha. It's also helpful beyond just nerding out too though because you can become significantly more aware of your power needs.

If all your loosing in the winter is a hour that's not bad. The sun rides so low in the southern sky that the last hour is very poor in energy production. That being said . You always over size your panel array . If you have the money. But panels are so cheap now . Compared to 2000 they were 5 bucks a watt back then.

Hi Ricky, great walk through, but regarding String Inverters vs microinverters, the SLA of the total system must be a lot lower with Microinverters even if their average survival year is longer. I would say that if you have a ground mount or roof mount without any shadows I would use string inverters and if I wanted to use different directions on panels and also if the panels had some shadow parts I would go with Microinverters. What I've heard the last 6 years during my interest for Solar is that the Microinverter is a lot more likely to break than the panel itself.

Thank you for these vids Ricky. They were a huge help in preparing us for our solar system. Now that’s it’s up and running it’s so obvious we should have made this addition years ago. Enphase micro inverters with Canadian Solar panels.

Nice video. I have the blessing of a free energy at night program in Texas. I have 36 panels with a tesla battery. I am loving them. Before installing the panels, my electric bill in the summer was $750/mo. Now I pay around $60/ month. The panels cost $400/mo.

Nice video, but some details were lost in translation: - hoymiles default warranty is 144 months (12 years) worldwide with the exception being USA market where indeed is 300months (25 years) - terms and conditions apply (for all manufacturers). The small font print becomes interesting when things go south, so do not ignore those - above 10 years warranty is commmon for big manufacturers, and is not a Hoymiles benefit: SolarEdge up to 24 years, SMA 10+5 (after online registration), Enphase 25 years (can differ per device and/or date of purchase - micro inverters have indeed advantages but “they work less than a string inverter and thus lasts longer” is false. You are overselling in my opinion. Maybe the partnership with Hoymiles is blinding you? A 400W micro inverter with 400W panel will work the same as a 5K string inverter with 5KW of panels. Right? Other curiosities of mine: - How is the Hoymiles integration with other brands when adding batteries? - can the system be activated without internet access? (Think off-grid?) - can you access the stats without internet? (Aka. Local only?)

I have a full solar roof facing SSE and NNW, where I’ve had up to 35% peak over-production with micro inverters connecting to 6 cells with same facing. After rewirering 4 SSE and 2 NNW, the peak has been reduced, and my production on sunny days has increased with 15-20%. Another benefit to micro inverters. As always a great informative vlog. T’as from 🇩🇰

adding a heat pump is a great way to ditch NG, especially as you are in San Diego a warm climate. We have a heat pump, that replaced a corn burning furnace, and a mini split with 2 head units for the upstairs. It is great, but it is a energy consumer for sure. Yes it is more efficient at moving heat than old resistive heaters, but it is still a lot to account for and see what your battery can handle for starts and continuous loads. Thankfully we still have 1:1 net metering in Illinois so my 21kW system doesn't need a battery and we also charge our Ioniq 5 every other day.

For approx 40k USD in pakistan at the moment, you can get north of 100kW on-grid system

I'm genuinely curious as to why the monitoring software you are using didn't simply notify you of any underperforming panels. It seems like a simple and expected feature of any so-called monitoring software. I would expect some sort of push notification if any issues.

Great video, as always! I'm surprised you didn't have batteries in your system from the initial installation. I live in Michigan and have sixteen 330W panels on my roof (direct southern exposure with no shade) and one Tesla PowerWall 2 battery in the basement. This system provides me with about 80% of our electrical needs. We're retired and only use about 22 kWh a day, including charging our Prius Prime plug-in hybrid. Here are a few of the benefits of the battery: 1) can act as a whole house generator when the power goes out (as long as it's sunny the next day!); 2) if it got charged during the day it will provide electricity after the sun goes down; and 3) the Tesla app tracks an amazing amount of data that I can use to graph my production, usage and savings. Regarding point 2 - we were once off of the grid for 32 days!

Good video, as always, but I have to disagree with you on one point. String inverters are much more reliable than micro inverters. Especially in hot climates, the micro inverters get toasted. I've seen many failures of micro inverters, but I've never had a string inverter fail. Don't get me wrong, if shading is an issue, go Micro. But the idea string inverters are less reliable isn't true in my experience. I have two SMA in my garage and one is already about 13 years old. Also, if you go to install a battery system after the fact, strings will be easier.

Your advice might be good for US but in Europe we have much smaller houses and they're usually on two levels so there's far less roof space for panels. The advice I give over here is fit as many panels as you have the space for in one go. If you need to budget then get a cheaper inverter that can be easily upgraded later on. Most of us can't simply walk around on our huge roofs because we have proper tiles, so maintenance and fitting more panels later is expensive vs doing it right the first time.

I just want to aknowledge your work here, since i started watching you. You got really more professionnal looking, more professionnal editing, and almost always listening to advices that we, viewer, can provide to you. I am really happy to see you grow. If you ever hear about some solar alternative for people far more north than you, please review it :).

Wow, I thought paying ~20 cents per kwh here in Chicagoland was high, but I had no idea people were paying 42 cents per kwh! Solar really does make more sense at those rates. Thanks.

We were lucky enough to be under warranty for our microinverters, we had about 5 go out roughly 9 years into our install

16:18 One other factor to consider is that the average lifespan for solar panels is 25-30 years, so in general, it's still a better deal than conventional power networks.

Hey Ricky, love the show! I doubt you’ll get the same monthly average production over the next 4 winter months so your payoff calculation may be a bit generous. I’m also in SD and just finished my first year of solar. I greatly benefited from adding 2 powerwalls by only consuming super off peak electricity for my 2 EVs and charging them from the grid, then selling 80-90% of all solar to the grid. I’d love to hear how your battery setup is going and if it’s offsetting your daily Peak energy usage. Btw, homeowners in CA on NEM2.0 should be aware that if they expand their solar setup, they will be forced to the less favorable NEM3.0.

I was a coach for a "solarize" campaign in my town. Roughly 50% of the households went micro-inverter and the other 50% went string inverter with power optimizers. That was back in 2014. All the components came with 25 year warranties. Since the installs, we've had 4 micro-inverter failures and ZERO string inverter failures. The inverter is a vert delicate device. The typical IGBT that does the switching to create the AC out of the DC is the most likely to fail. Do you want that component in an exposed area on the roof where it bakes in the summer and freezes in the winter? Moisture, humidity, etc. OR, do you want that sensitive component in a nice stable basement? Then, when it comes to failures, the weather doesn't matter in changing out a string inverter and the worker is standing in the basement. Micro-inverters are under your panel. You might need to take off multiple panels to get at the one that failed. You are not changing it out in the rain, snow, wind, heat, etc. The other thing that power optimizers do is balance the voltage. By keeping the input voltage constant to the string inverter, it is MUCH more efficient. Mine is rated at better than 98% efficiency. Lastly, if you have a battery backup, you want to keep the power as DC to the battery. With micro-inverters, you go from DC (the panel) to AC (the micro-inverter) to DC (the battery charger) and then back to AC again (use from the battery) With a string inverter, you can send DC to both the battery charger and the inverter to do whatever is needed. And you only convert the DC to AC when it is needed. It is these conversions that have the most losses. DC to DC conversions (ie, voltage changes) are far more efficient. Installers like to push the micro-inverters because they are easier to install. This is why nearly all leased systems are of this style.

You gave me a chuckle with "[If you're under NEM3] you're going to be a little bit more screwed." Thanks for all the great advice and data.

If you add a heat pump water heater keep your old tank and use it as an additional reservoir by tying into the drain plug of it you can double your capacity

I have a 20 kw solar system I installed last year, and I used two 10 kw+ string inverters. One is a SolarEdge and required 25 power optimizers which can be expensive as he says in the video, I got mine off eBay for about $45 per (which is about 1/3 new price). The second inverter is part of the FORD Home integration system for my FORD lightning and what’s awesome about it, is that it’s a delta inverter and does not require power optimizers. I have 0 shade where my install is and so far, 7 months in, the 25 panels on the delta inverter have produced 97% as much electricity as the more expensive SolarEdge system. Plus I have a 131 kWh battery back up with my Ford Lightning which is about 10 tesla powerwalls plus I get to drive it around 😂. The truck provides enough power to run everything except my emergency heat, so it’s a no brainer for anyone installing a new solar system, wanting battery back up, and interested or able to purchase a ford lightning.

Hi Ricky, one way to economically make solar hot water using daytime solar is to run your existing electric HW cylinder via a step down transformer. We run at 240v in New Zealand so I use s step down transformer to power the HW cylinder at 120V. This results in the load dropping from 3KW to 0.75KW. The water heats more slowly but by using a timer switch to use daytime solar production I can easily keep up with my needs for hotwater. The low load means that even on cloudy days my modest 5KW PV system manages OK. I would assume that the same strategy could still work in the US. My system is also a little different in that I have a changeover switch to select either mains or completely off grid. By isolating the two systems I miss out on export tarrifs but avoid the regulations that apply to a grid connected system. Thanks for your great channel.

It blows my mind how much electricity Americans use. I’m in the UK, have a typical medium sized house and my annual usage is about 3.8K kWh. Granted, I don’t have an EV yet, that arrives in April, but even so I use so little in comparison. As for solar I have 7 panels, and that is as much as my roof could fit. They are saving me a fortune already, although this month it is the battery and a time of use tariff that is doing all the work.

I live in the Pacific Northwest and I don’t use any micro inverters, string inverters, and I get along fine! I figure any clouds that go over are going to move eventually, just like any plane or tree shadow. The only time it is a problem is in the winter when the sun is very low on the horizon. It’s easier just to get some more panels on the east side, as well as the west side, as my house is oriented towards the south. I figure it’s more cost-effective to orient my panels by raising some of them at an angle for the winter. Another way I try to save money, is to switch back to the grid at night in order to keep my batteries from being drained completely. That’s only during the winter months. Also, I’m off grid, but can still connect to the grid. I just didn’t want to go through the permits and the other BS to be grid tied. Although I have to switch back manually, I don’t care!🖖

Great presentation. Simple, to the point and educational. Congrats!!!

Excited to see the comparison of micro inverters…a bit worried that the calculation you used for yearly expectations did a straight line based on 8months of highest producing solar…and missing months might be actually less in solar production. Thanks for recommendation on supplier and showing the advantages they give.

Thanks Rickie; like usual great info and entertainment. After installing 3 solar panel systems on our home in Seattle, my son’s home in Encinitas (near San Diego), and our rental home in Encinitas ; I can say I’m generally happy. A couple of things I’d caution people about. On all 3 projects I wish that I’d put in bigger systems. Adding EV’s, changing a gas furnace to a heat pump, having tenants start working from home and doubling electricity usage are just a few of the reasons. We are adding panels at our Seattle home and this will require a new permit. So if you are on a favorable plan of net metering from original permit and the new plan will be less favorable (ie time of use factor) or doesn’t have net metering at all, you will lose a lot of the benefits that imho you are entitled to. Seattle is 16 year payback and San Diego 5 ish so overall very happy but agree with you that the utilities are going to squeeze us when they can.

3:30 - Great analogy. 👍

Not a bad video, thank you for sharing your experience

I live in Phoenix and my house is laid out West to East so I already have panels on the southern and western face. Last year I put panels on the northern side of my house and they output almost exactly the same as the southern side because the sun tracks directly overhead in the summer. It drops off like rock in Winter, but I hardly use any electricity in Winter time Maybe 10-15 kW per day which my 7kW system easily can handle... So my main point is for people in AZ or NV, CA you may want to use that real estate on the northern face. You won't have the same output during winter , but during the summer months when you are drawing 70kWH per day, it will help out a lot.

Very informative - as usual. Gracias. CA's energy costs are a purposeful governmental policy problem. We left the Bay Area 18 months ago. Bought a house in Northwest Nevada that is 60% larger, and we pay less than half the electric and gas total charges.

It’s interesting to see how close you can put your panels to the edges & apex of your roof. Here in windy Ireland & UK we have to keep a large gap around the edge of the roof to stop the wind from getting under the panels & tearing them off. It means you lose a lot of area unfortunately.

Hey Ricky, big fan of your solar content! While I'm following your lead on Hoymiles for my new house and spreading the word, I've hit a snag. Despite reaching out by phone and email four times, I haven't heard back from their Hoymiles service team. Where's that "top-notch support" you mentioned? Hope we can clear this up together!

In Australia we use Colourbond (i.e. high quality pre-coated corrugated iron). Its basically indestructible and good for maybe 200 years. Deeply don't understand USA preference for roof materials that need to be replaced inside a lifetime.

(Panel level monitoring is nice to have - there is a cost (optimiser vs microinverter), but it does reassure that all is working - or how shading affects output - I have 3 panels with significant morning shade.) Once one has a load of solar, energy usage tends to increase - to fit the "ability to spend for comfort". Available roof space limits many installations (gross cost impacts somewhat - if space remains.). Prior to solar we paid $1-1.5k per annum (not heavy power users) for retail electricity (0.26c/kWh AUD - no time of use "peak and shoulder surge") in an all electric house (for ever) - since solar we have only had net bills over the last year (5 years of no bills and increased summer AC usage)- recently bills vary from $25 to under $110 AUD / quarter (Arbitrage is a game I like playing)... (~8.7MWh per annum with a 6kw inverter and 6.6kW of panels) NB, IF they billed you for backfeed - that is surely a regulation failure (irrespective of agreement or not - unless it was itemised as a fine/penalty).

Information that is actually useful! Thank You!

I would do micro invertors if I were grid connected. I went with a string inverter because my setup is off grid. Thanks for the video and sharing your experience!

Nice video. You could also use separate charge controllers for each array and charging the battery bank in parallel instead of so many micro inverters, but your system works well, and that is what matters. Greetings from Jamaica.

One of the biggest wasters of power is commercial locations, like you see lights left on all night every night, even though there's no one there. Another one, not as big, is people leaving lights on when not necessary and running ACs all the way down to 68 degrees or lower. There is or was the issue of people leaving electronics and fans on when they are not there. I was roommates with 3 other ladies, and two of them tended to leave lights, TVs, and stereos on all the time, so I had to go around turning them off, as I was the second poorest of the bunch. I see you use a heck of a lot of power. I'm in India. We don't have solar for our apartment units, and I see myself using 400-1000 kWh. In the months of October and November, I used just over 400 kWh (200 per month), and it cost me $37 for TWO MONTHS of power. We are billed bi-monthly. You have something wrong over there! Solar usage is quite high here. I notice that people here tend not to use ACs or even fans unless it gets a bit warm for them. Inside apartment buildings, lights in the hallways go off automatically at sunrise. What are people going to do when SHTF over there? Not if, but when... Also, you are not beholden to monopolies. You are beholden to demons that (not who, but that) have hijacked the country and wrote laws that favor them, regardless of party affiliation.

great video, I am hoping to follow you on this journey soon. let me know when your in colorado bro

You should use your excess electric generated to heat your hot water tanks. They probably already have electric heating elements installed in them👍 I think the device you need is called a solar diverter..

Nice that you can get so close to roof edges and peaks with your panels. Our township claims "We're Solar Friendly" but requires minimum 3 ft open from edge of all panels to peak, roof edges, and valleys. For our roof, with several valleys, that rules out half of the roof space!

Thanks for your video. I just found your channel today. I've been thinking about getting solar on my Illinois home ever since I bought my house in 2022. My main issue though is that I'm not sure if it makes sense since my power is actually pretty cheap. (Last month I paid less than 10 cents per kWh including all taxes and fees) I'm already 100% electric and I think my best way to save money will actually be moving to a cold weather heat pump instead of getting solar. My current heating is electric resistive heating and my AC is like 25 years old. If I do end up getting solar eventually I will be sure to look at Hoymiles inverters. I've been doing a bit of research but hadn't heard of these yet.

Yes. Last year when natural gas prices were high. My gas bill was the big driver of my higher utility bills. It was going over $250 per month from Dec to Feb for my utility bill. This year natural gas is cheaper so now my total utility bills this year has been less than $110 per month since Nov. I've had solar panes since 2016 and it has been worth it. Electricity rates have gone up every year since.

Very well produced, thank you.

As an off grid person, I just want to point out that the micro inverters are for grid tied systems only. For an off grid system, I would recommend getting a high voltage DC battery anywhere from 48VDC and up. It will make it easier to buy more solar panels and less charge controllers. Outback 80 charge controllers are excellent but you will need 4x as many of these $800 controllers if you have a 12V battery bank vs a 48V battery bank. With 72V you only need 1/6 as many charge controllers as a 12V system.

Is there a way to determine how much good sunlight exposure and orientation your roof angle, etc, is going to maximize or minimize your solar roof investment? I know I have at least 15% less sun exposure on 80% of my roof from sunrise until 12noon in my case, and that's always given me pause in taking solar roof investment, but every once in a while I get curious on where the the technology is heading and I've heard there are some panels capable of working better with others in capturing sunlight even in cloudy and shady conditions,

Thanks for your video and input

Just for the record: in December we are not on daylight savings time we are on standard time.

I’m happy my electricity is only 10 cents per kWh north of Seattle because of all the hydropower. I just got a heat pump washer dryer combo, so I free up a 240v outlet and no longer need to vent to outside. The heat pump water heater is my next target. My primary driver of electric use is my resistive heaters and I plan to switch to mini split heat pumps in 2024. Right now my electric bill can be $200 per month in winter and $27 in summer. My car used to add $40 per month when I was driving a lot, but since I retired I don’t plug it in every day anymore. For the last 15 years I had a tree shading most of my roof, but it has been cut down now, so I can think about solar again. However it will probably wait until the roof gets replaced now

Incredible amount of great info ✊🏼👍🏼

Thank you so much for sharing very interesting.

When my solar system (Enphase with micro inverters) was approved by the utility, they had to come out and program my meter for two-way operation. This is why you got charged for your production before approval. The old existing meter could only measure current without regard to what direction it was going. it didn't know how to recognize bidirectional current.

You could make the initial investment, even less, by isolating just the main consumers(such as EV charging, and going for a lower cost system) and not connecting to grid. The drawback is you need to charge during day, or need a dedicated battery storage just for that. Also could involve some remote switchover equipment. Just some 💭❤️👍

We all underestimate our solar. I added from 38 370w panels to another 30 450 watt panels. Using IQ8+ microinverters. It got to near brake even on electric bill.

I never look at our solar between September to April lol good catch!

Very Informative Video. Thanks

Maybe don't take your solar output for April - November, and extrapolate that for December - March.

My son switched out his gas furnace for an air to air heat pump. The gas furnace provides the blower for the heat distribution. The heat exchanger takes the place of the A/C exchanger so the new heat pump provides both heating and cooling. At the same time he added a 14kw solar system. Before the heat pump, he was paying $700/month for gas alone. Now, the solar covers everything and his bill has dropped to zero. He basically has no electric bill anymore. They do charge a fee to be on the grid but he is producing more power than he needs so his bill nets out to the minimum. I have a small all electric home at 8,000 elevation in the Colorado mountains. I have a super insulated home so my heat demands are very low compared to a conventional home. I have a 6,800 watt solar system that with net metering, provides all the power I need for the entire year. I produce more than enough to offset my winter demands on the grid. To do it right, you need the entire package of low electric demand ( high efficiency appliances and superinsulation house ) and enough solar to generate power and a utility company that does straight net metering. You can get a payback in less than 10 years. My utility charges $0.13Kw/h and my payback is 9 years.

Talking to a guy that knows the stuff beforehand would have saved you from some of the headache. There are also half/half solutions like for example the one from SolarEdge: You combine the advantage of both ways: Optimizers coming w. 25 years of warranty on every or every 2nd panel but still one inverter (12 years warranty?) that makes sure the cost is not exploding. And the monitoring also allows you to see each panel or pair of panels and how they perform. And you really don't have a problem, you have plenty of free roof surface to put additional panels.

I live in Idaho. Cost per Kh varies up to $0.12 :) But because it's hot in the summer (about 95 F in July and Auig) we use AC a lot and heat a lot in winter ( in the 20's in Jan and Feb).

Curious if different brands of micros, or SolarEdge optimizers have different starting thresholds. My SolarEdge system of 10 years seams to require very little light to start up . Also SolarEdge has the highest operating efficiency of any brand on the market. As far as string inverters go SMA,and Fronius have excellent reliability to 25 years and have actual in field data to prove this, time will tell on the micro's and optimizers.

I have a small 1 panel solar, someone who lives within 100m of my house has installed a large solar system. My hobby is/was HF radio and since the start of December 2023 my radio turned to QRM ( manmade RFI) this is from 20Mhz up to 30Mhz and the noise is prodigious. I know this is the future, but something needs to be done about the noise they can generate.

I wouldn't not have a gas furnace if you live in San Diego, but it's hard to get rid of natural gas heating in Canada. Heat pump will not be very efficient in the coldest time of winter, and will be loud vibrating.

The further back in the design process you incorporate solar, the easier it is to optimise yield. If I needed a new roof I'd certainly look to redesigning the angles so that I could fit more panels to the sunny side.

6 cent cost the 1 kWh here in Iceland. We get our electrity from hydro power and geothermal. Very cheap. And we use geothermal hot water to warm our houses

You forget an important part of the micro vs. string inverter analogy if you have storage. With a string inverter, it is like having to exchange the dollars in the large armored truck for Euros at the bank, and paying the exchange fee. With micro inverters it is like having to exchange dollars for Euros with each bike courier, then exchanging Euros for dollars at a stop on the way to the bank and then exchanging dollars for Euros again at the bank and paying the exchange fee all three times. 😁

What should I do? Get solar now or wait for perovskite panels in about five years?

Is there any difference in snow melting between string inverters and micro-inverters ? Also, your panels are mounted flat to a low-slope roof. Did you explore using tilted racks to get a better angle ? What is your peak winter power production as a percentage of the panel rating ? Summer ? If your goal is to be 100% solar why didn't you go with an off-grid system with batteries from the beginning ? The Hoymiles 4-1 microinverters cost $4k for 16kw solar input, where EG4 string inverters cost $2.5k, so Hoymiles are still 60% more costly than string inverters. Do the Hoymiles micro-inverters do battery charging and generator backup like string inverters do ?

Would be good to take a look at your NEM contract with SDG&E. Up here in LA county with SCE, our NEM contract says you can only add 10% extra KW than what was originally approved. If you go over that added percentage, the utility can technically change you to NEM 3.0 and call it a new system.

I have solar in colorado. The utility will only let you have something like 120% of your avg. electric bill. Once you hit that you can't add more solar and go above it till you use more electricity. Hope to add battery storage as storage gets better and cheaper. Good thing is we have very reliable electric power.

So if I want to have a battery bank for when the power goes out or to be off grid I would want to stick with a large inverter and panels on a string?

I have a large hill immediately to my east, and a much taller house to my SW. Right now in December I'm only producing power from 8 AM to 3 PM. But I installed 30 kWh of storage, which at least gets me past midnight. I'm on NEM 3.0 though. I'm in the bay area, so a bit further west than you. Edit to add... PG&E doesn't bill for pre PTO exports.

You could consider solar hot water for all your hot water needs. Solar hot water systems work in the UK so San Diego would definitely work.

I believe With SDG &E if you're in tier 2, and you add over a KW of panels to your system, it'll kick you into tier 3.

The peak output from panels is a couple of hours +/- solar noon, so that hill doesn't really cost you much.

My understanding is my SolarEdge string inverter has 25 year warranty, works with shade (optimizers) so some of the cons have been fixed.

I had a planned electric power outage yesterday, it was a few hours. My whole house generator ran the whole time, burned propane the whole time. If I had even a moderate battery system the battery should have provided the majority of power we used and the generator would either not kicked in or just long enough to recharge the battery bank. We have had outages for a few days in the past, and we actually ran out of propane and had to call fast a refill. If I had battery the generator could shut off all night, a generator needs to run at a set rpm to create 60hz even if only a few LED's and a fan are sipping power all night.

We want to go off the grid. I am assuming that we will charge the batteries directly from the panels, and then invert it. Otherwise, we have to convert it from DC to AC then back to DC then back to AC, and there are losses with every step. Also, how long do you think it will be before you can get household lights, appliances, etc that run on DC?

I have had solar in San Diego for 20 years. My first system was a ground mount string inverter system (it burned down in the 2007 fires) . I highly discourage string inverter systems for 2 reasons. 1) Any shading on one panel is a big problem. 2) You never know if you have a bad panel or which panel is bad. You always want to go with as big of a system as you can. The fine print on the 30% tax credit I think is one time per home. So if you go snall and then want to add, your tax guy might say no to the 30% tax credit. I have 2 systems totalling 28.3 KW. My electric bill is zero. I hear what my neighbors pay during the summer each month and it shocks me. The new net metering rules are a complete rip off to the consumer. You need batteries to get the most from your solar. As far as I know, the tax rebate on the batteries can be claimed seperately from your solar so you could do solar at one time and then add batteries later and still get 30% of the batteries. I agree, with him on the panel really doesn't matter. I love Enphase inverters. But by far, the most important thing is getting an installer that is going to be in business in 5, 10, 15 and 20 years. A labor warranty to replace any faulty panels or inverters isn't worth anything if the company isn't around and a panel goes bad. The manufacturer will replace a panel but good luck getting a company to come in and replace one panel. I am like this guy, I was so upset by the gas company increasing rates by a ridiculous amount, I replaced my 22 year old HVAC system with heat pumps. I'm not going to allow them to bend me over like that again.

Have you looked into a wind-energy-source, that would cover electricity production during the evenings, nights and those cloudy SoCal days?

Question: For a off grid, home, 100% off grid, and is to be built in the near future, what kind of solar system would you recommend for that? My #1 priority is value for money. Hot water tank, stove, etc. all electric, no heating required due to location. For a family of 4, 4 bedroom house, currently gas vehicles with intent to upgrade in future to electric transportation. When building from scratch, 100% off grid, and 100% electric use of all appliances, obviously battery storage required. Are there complete systems, panels + inverters + all wiring + battery storage = 100% of everything needed to be operational?

Any opinions on companies that provide roofing and solar installs in a bundle package?

It's still early days in terms of discovering all the facets of these efforts to wrestle down our dependence on burning fossil fuels. But thanks to your efforts and those of so many others now, we are building a base of knowledge to continue improvements. Two things though: the ease and reliability of use for the average consumer will have to improve as much as every other aspect. See: recycling. And another thing: we keep confronting the same old battles with human nature. Here in Phoenix (moved here to retire in 2021) we have scammers who hoped to take over the current power providers in the state by selling solar panels to consumers, then having them pay these start-ups for power instead of the commercial state-wide producers. So the grifters are trying to get into the electric power business, since a lot of money flows through that. Yet, careful customers are learning that only a few individual households are actually getting a major share of power through solar anyway, after all the detail get sorted. Commercial providers, however, seem to be making some progress through economies of scale and sufficient sophistication and investment. These issues will continue to slow progress, so we really need competent leadership. And in American politics that is nowhere to be seen.