How big is your system?

[oakwcj]

We have a 5kW/hr system. 24 Sanyo HIT panels and a SunnyBoy inverter. We just passed our 2nd year anniversary with solar. Output covers all our home electricity and all our Leaf usage (11,000 miles/yr) and we now get a credit of a couple of hundred dollars for over production. We don't have A/C in the house but don't need it since we are on the coast and we upgraded all lights and just about anything that uses electricity over the last 5 five years as things have worn out. If I had to do it over again I'd do 30 or 32 panels to have enough for two electric cars.

-john

The Sanyo panels are really the best panels to get especially in the hotter areas of the country. We did some testing and found that as the weather gets hotter the Sanyo ones would produce 15-20 watts more power than all the other brands of the same wattage rating did.

Then, why does SolarCity use Yingli panels, at least in the Bay Area?

[fromport]

3475 Watt DC, panels laying flat, so only 3.3 kWh/kW on a day like today. Will get better as summer approaches. 3500 sq ft home, 2 persons. Electric bill of about $35 (tier one) including driving +- 500 miles per month in the leaf.

[KLQL8N]

We purchased an 8.1 Kw system in July of 2010. We had to purchase a new roof due to hail damage, so we purchased energy star shingles and received that rebate from the Feds too. The insurance for the hail damage was helpful in offsetting the cost of the system. The solar company also cut down two palms that were shading the roof and offered an interest free loan for the first year until the Federal Credit cleared.

Our average bill before Solar was $325.00. Now our average over the last 2 years is $102.00. In December APS paid me my credits for 2011 for OnPeak kWh. The amount was $88.00 for 1339 kWh. I figure that $.06/kWh. Due to the plan I am on, I am not able to use my OnPeak production to offset OffPeak consumption. So....I am charging my LEAF OnPeak during the winter. I will switch in June.

My panels are south facing with one string at a 20 degree angle and the other string is at 10 degree. The flatter panels definitely are getting dirtier sooner. I hose them off whenever they look dirty, usually early morning. I see an increase in power production after cleaning...not sure if it is significant. July 2012 will be our 2nd anniversary with the panels. I haven't noticed any deposits on the panels.

We also use solar power to heat the water for the home and the hot tub!

I really enjoy driving, at least somewhat, a solar-powered Leaf!!
I previously drove a Silverado that drank about $250.00/month. I am up to 7500 solar-powered miles on my LEAF and KLQL8N my savings!!

[batzman]

I have a 9.45 kW PV (SunPower Panels and 2 SunPower inverters) system that typically overproduces for our needs. I've owned it since 2010 and I am glad I purchased it when I did. I was able to have our energy company pay for a fair share and the tax credit helped too.

Now with the Leaf and a more snowy winter here in CO, we tend to brake even on the production / usage and sometimes dip into our bank of 3 months saved. It is truly nice to be living from the Sun and not paying someone else for their energy. My roof line was ideal for the type of system and I don't have anything impeding on my solar production (trees, etc.).

[FourMagicAcres]

6.75kW solar PV array composed of 30 SunPower 225 [all black, on the barn, producing 8000kWh annually] with a SMA SunnyBoy 6000 and 2 SunEarth flat plate solar thermal modules supporting an 80 gallon exchanage tank. We were at net zero electric energy consumption until the Leaf arrived.

Will install more solar PV in 2013 to make up the difference (especially as we anticipate upgrading our gen 2 Prius with Plug In Supply's 10kW [plug in] kit). We're currently fighting over the location. She wants about a dozen modules on a pole mount with a Zomeworks single axis tracker. He wants to cover the home's second floor roof. One way or the other, we will have more solar PV somewhere and get back to net zero!

We also have 2 electric lawn tractors, one [self] converted John Deere 165 Hydro and one [self] refurbished GE ElecTrak.

[jspearman]

We just finished installing our system here in Phoenix. We have 66 Sunpower 230 E18's and two Sunpower inverters (I think they are rebranded Sunnyboy). We are building in some extra room on our system for a plug-in hybrid to supplement the Leaf for longer trips. We have a blue SL Leaf that we've been charging on a standard outlet until we could get a new 200 amp service panel installed. The house was built in the early seventies and the old panel was a little sketchy.

We chose Sunpower because they (according to them) don't use toxic metals in their panels and can therefore be recycled at the end of their life. Also, we needed fewer panels because of their higher efficiency numbers. If you live in Phoenix I would be happy to chat about my experience and let you look at our setup, and if you come after our 220 charger is installed I'll give you some free sun-powered electrons.

[mrradon]

I installed my own 10.125KW system 45 225W REC Solar REC225PE-US panels with Enphase mirco inverters. 7 panels face south, 26 face West, 12 face East.
The system officially went on-line 11-2-2010. The first year I made 8,842KWhrs. I also have a EcoDog energy monitoring system installed, I used about 3,300KWhrs so I have a lot of excess energy I can use to charge my Leaf.

Total install cost (I did it all myself) was about $38K.

Here is a thread on my build: http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/showthr ... 1KW-System" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is the public link to the Enphase web site:
https://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/pub ... s/4D3y8464" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Leaf delivery is due end of June, looking forward to a 100% SOLAR driving solution.

[ghabel]

As of Friday 6/1/12 we are up and running with a lease of 30 SunPower E20 9.8kw DC.
Very cool watching the grid meter spinning backwards! This should take care of 90% of our electric bill.
We live in MA. SRECs and net metering should solely payback the lease in 5 years or less.

[devprius]

Our 4.94 kW DC / 4.31 kW AC Sungevity system was officially turned on last week. It took 6 weeks for PG&E to come out swap the meter and bless the system.

System details:

26 Suntech STP190S-24/Adb+ 190 watt panels
1 Power One PVI-5000-OUTD-US inverter
1 Locus LGate 101 solar monitor

Sungevity predicts that it will produce 6178 kWh the first year, and guarantees that it will produce at least 5869 kWh. PVWatts is a little more optimistic and predicts that it will produce 7091 kWh the first year. Either number will be fine with me. This should eliminate 60% of our electric usage and hopefully completely eliminate Tiers 4 & 5, and put a huge dent in our Tier 3 usage.

[Rauv]

I have (18) 315 watt sunpower panels, 6000 watt inverter and used to be on TOU rates, but in minnesota xcel energy penalizes you for being on on TOU rates if you sell back to , which of course I do, so I came off TOU and am now on net metered flat rate. With all electric appliances including water heater, a ground source heat pump, very cold winters and now the Leaf, we still only average about $30 per month year round for electricity.