this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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Solar power and storage prices have dropped almost 90%::undefined

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (12 children)

how much solar generation capacity and battery storage are u seeking ? where i live, a 2kw solar installation without battery (grid-tied system ?) costs about 3k$. system pays itself in 4 years and rest of existence is powered by free energy. want batteries ? a 1kwh costs about 300$. where i live 4kwh/day is more than enough, sometimes 10kwh/day in extreme heat/cold. but i guess american needs could differ (30kwh/day maybe?). to recharge 30kwh batteries, u would need extra solar capacity (maybe 7kwc ?), and that would run at 9k$, add 30kwh batteries ? another 9k$.. idk what the 50k CAD are for

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

We ran for almost 16 months on 4kwh of storage and 4 350w panels. We don't use it for heat since we live in a forest and burn our own wood in a woodstove, but for everything else we needed it was grand. Total cost was about $4500CAD

Having said that - When the power company offered to extend the grid out here, we took them up on it. So now the 4kwh is more than enough to run the garage and a few outbuildings, while the main tinyhouse is tied to the grid.

Conversely - Our neighbour who has big 2800sqft house spent about 25k to be able to run as if they are in the city.

Not saying any of this to bolster any argument. I just like talking about it :p

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I just like talking about it :p

totally understandable. i am aware that prices aren't the same everywhere, thats why i decided to share prices of solar of where i am living. sharing quotes could help one another save on costs, and ur number of 4k CAD is really quite reasonable for 1.4Kw system and a 4Kwh battery (which is really a good bang for the buck, since batteries are the expensive part most of the time) but the user of the comment above me was quoted 40k CAD which is really absurd, but they didnt disclose the specifications of their system yet, so not much to judge. But solar has been really cheap for a while now. 25k CAD for a 260m² house ? maybe their house required too much climate control or they are charging an Ev, u could help assess how much solar they r installing on the roof: 5m² would correspond to 1kw of solar, if they r not installing alot of panels and yet have spent alot of money the rest of it probably went for batteries, among many possibilities..

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am not judging the neighbour at all. He is a great guy with a ton of smarts. My 'house' is 420sqft, and his is over 2800. And he doesn't enjoy the roughing it parts of life as much as I do. I work in tech so to me things like bringing water up from the creek, or cutting my own firewood, are like therapy. But when he comes out here, he wants all the comforts of his city house. And he deserves that.

And as a bonus - I get to see him test different configs and products before I even have to think about them :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

yea i agree. each has their way of unwinding from work.

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