Mmm, that is quite dear, and electricity quite cheap compared to Australia, so that does make it a difficult equation. I’ve never understood why solar is more expensive in the US (before rebates), everything else is cheaper there.
@Ekelly234, you are based in Virginia right? Can you give some feedback on whether $22k is a ‘normal’ price for say an Enphase and LG Neon system? That’s really as premium as you can get, so it does bump the price up. Linda, Ed Kelly is an installer based in Edinburg, he’s been a contributor to the forum for a while. I’m not sure how far that is from you, but he might be able to offer a quote http://www.shenenergyservices.com. Although, I seem to recall that Ed does not work with micro inverters generally.
As for the payback, I think you would get at least 20kWh a day on ave, so lets use that assumption:
- 20kWh/day x $0.11 (electricity cost) x 365 days = $803 savings per year
- $14,297 upfront cost
- $14,297 / $803 = 17.8 yr payback.
Yep, it’s a pretty long time. That’s quite disappointing actually, no wonder there is a lot less residential solar in the US that Australia. I guess it’s up to you as to whether it’s worth it. I would do some shopping around to see if you can get a better price, I can’t understand why it would be so expensive, but that does seem consistent with other US quotes we’ve seen.
I should mention that Enphase isn’t your only option for panel level optimisation, you can get very good shade performance with SolarEdge or Tigo optimisers. You could also look at some of the other lower cost, but still quality panels on our Best Solar Panels list:
I think the Powerwall is a separate consideration to the solar. It’s not something you would do for financial reasons, or environmental reasons, it is simply if you would like some energy security if your power goes down. I personally wouldn’t consider it, but it depends on how important it is to keep to power on for you I guess.
Marty