7.2KW (Self Installed) Rooftop Solar Installation, Documented

[Revolutionary]

Hello all;
 Later this summer, we installed 100 thin film panels on the roof of my home. I did the installation almost all by myself, and used a lot of off the shelf components to make it work, and well. It makes power in clouds & before the sun comes over my roof, not full power, but anywhere form 10% or rated power to abut 40%, depending on day & cloud cover.
 We documented some of it, and I wrote an article on it for others to read. We spent $11,000 on this, total, and I had quotes to do it for close to $100,000.
It was a lot of work, but we have used very little grid power since August 1, 2011.
The link to the article is here:
<link removed>
Hope it helps-
Chris

you need to have 50 posts to post links here usually specially links to your site were your selling something.

[kenl]

 Nice project Chris, and real nice area. I'm surprised at the cost the commercial installers wanted for doing the install, $1.00-$2.00 per watt is pretty much the typical range on labor. Were the prices they quoted a complete system including batteries?

Kenny

[DamonHD]

Hi!

I have a mere 5.2kWp of PV on my roof, though a rather smaller roof than yours.

Here the midwinter output is something like 1--2kWh/day, midsummer being more like 20--30kWh/d.

Well done on getting it done, and so nearly off the grid!

Remember that conservation is cheaper by the kWh saved, so we managed to cut our electricity use about 6x in this house (while adding two children!) and thus we generate twice what we consume.  (Our heating is natural gas, but will be electric heat pump one day...)

Rgds

Damon

[Revolutionary]

Ken-
No; I already had batteries, and inverter. The prices I got were for installation of the panels & charge controllers. It was a little crazy, honestly.

Damon-
5.2KW is a lot of power!
I also think that it's AWESOME to make your own power.

The month after we did this, Avista sent us an email saying that they saw "an anomoly" on our bill, as useage had dropped to ZERO!!!!
We emailed them back, and said, yes, we have installed solar panels & a wind generator, that nothing was wrong, and they didn't need to send anyone out.
We got a phone call from them; to wit:
"We think it's great that you installed panels, but we need to send someone out to make sure everything is OK"... code for"we need to make sure yu didn't cut into power before our meter".

They send this guy out, he gets here, looks at all the panels, & mill, and says- "they didn't tell me you had a bunch of solar panels". 
We talked for about two hours, after he left, he asked me if I could come over to his house & give him some "pointers" on how to do it himself. Said he hates paying the power company.....so I did.
Pretty cool, all the way around.
Chris

[Revolutionary]

I have met with & spokane to a lot of people from this forum on our solar install, and learned a bunch more from them as well as helped a few. THANK YOU to all.

My name is Chris Walsh, I am a Real Estate Broker in North Idaho. I can't place a link here, but if you PM me or do a google search you will find the link to the information I posted.
Chris