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Solar / Solar in Arizona
« Last post by Yianie123. on April 10, 2024, 10:29:52 AM »Hello Everyone, I live in Surprise AZ (God's Waiting Room for Old People) and am taking the plunge into solar. I am doing it in stages, part by a contractor and the rest by me. So, my question is that in the summer my AC bill is roughly $400 a month and it keeps getting higher here. And the city water is near 80F in the summer, 70 in the winter time (I will tell you why later). In the winter, I have natural gas that feeds my Hot Water Heater, Furnace, and Dryer. We have sun every day, so that is not a problem here. In the winter months, my gas bill is beginning to hurt. The space I have for the solar is 28ft wide x 11ft deep of flat overhang. And the electric utility company is just brutal with the documents that are required to interconnect, that's the reason for the Contractor to help me with this. Here are what I see as my options, but your help will be greatly appreciated. Options: 1. If I use every inch of over hang I can install 5.6KW of panels and try to get a minimal credit in the winter time for excess power feeding the grid, which I hate. 2. Install 4.8KW of solar and use 2 -400 panels to feed an heating element I can install in the drain port of the hot water heater. 3. Install the full 5.6KW solar panels and use a plug in heating element only in the winter time. 4. Remove 2 panels and install a pipe in solar water heater, but there is now piping, pump, controls, and digging into the ground to bury the piping which will be a real headack since the ground here is as hard a concrete and the overhang is at lease 30 ft away. So, any ideas on what to do will be greatly appreciated.