Since I installed my grid-tied rooftop PV system in April, three of my neighbors have done the same

I'm proud to be an "early adopter". My system was the first on the block that I live on.

I just found out that my tax accountant, who lives over the fence from me, is getting a system installed at this moment. His roof is at the top center of this image. I drove by his house on my way back to work from lunch this afternoon, and saw three men placing panels. One of them is the sales manager for the prime contractor I hired.



Two other homes including one next door to my accountant have completed projects in place.

Vindication by emulation is good. It's even better when your tax guy tells you that he and his neighbor next door both consider me to be an educated, intelligent person with some engineering knowledge!

We all figure that SDG&E is likely to raise rates for residential power for a few obvious reasons:

- They'll need to make up for the "unexpected" expenses they incur when their Sunrise Powerlink project predictably goes into cost overruns, and

- As our local water utility did recently, they'll complain that revenue has fallen BECAUSE OF THEIR CUSTOMERS' SUCCESSFUL CONSERVATION EFFORTS. So, they'll ask for and receive a rate increase.

- Increased operating costs at the San Onofre nuclear plant.

:toast:

the severity of the thunderstorms seems to be increasing every year.

the severity of the thunderstorms seems to be increasing every year.

They're still extremely rare in San Diego. I've never had any lightning damage at my home, but a hit near my workplace took out a bunch of old Arcnet equipment back in 1994.

And as they are not installed too close to the edges (wind loads concentration) the standard is 90 mph winds. You can get them rated @ 120 mph for a little extra. Warranties on panels, racking and inverters range from 10 to 25 year. The balance of system (aka BOS or wiring, disconnects, and tap) are on the contractor.

That's not a very big system though. Probably no more than 1.3 kW. That'll take care of your AC and that's about it. Anything over $10k for that would be a rip.

I live in San Diego. ;-)

I am thinking about it. I live in NJ.

My electric bills were running about $65 - $85 per month for most months.

SDG&E rates are tiered and extremely progressive. Within "lifeline" (lowest tier) I pay a little over 7 cents per KWH. In Tier 4 it's about 23 cents - I've never hit that but have come close.

I figured that with annual rate increases of about 7% that I'd hit break-even in about 8 years. That is looking to be about right so far.

That can't be more than 1.3 to 1.5 kW. That would make the system like about $15 dollars a watt (pre-rebate)!

The avarage in PA/NJ, heck, the North East is more like $8 / watt on a roof.

My inverter is rated at 2.5, so I could add another four panels to the seven I have now.

That would make the system like about $15 dollars a watt (pre-rebate)!

Closer to $10-$11 when you consider that $3K was for my service upgrade. Old 100-amp panel just didn't have enough room in it, so I had it upgraded to 200 amps.

what an F5 tornado would do to that. Any tornado really.

I'm guessing the winds would easily tear it from the roof and it would become debris. And any damage to the roof left behind might allow greater than expected damage to the remainder of the house since there would likely be an opening left for the winds to enter and cause havoc.

I live in tornado alley and know people impacted by both the Joplin tornado and the F5 that decimated the Oklahoma City area a few years earlier.

My point is that tornadic winds - even from a small F0 tornado - would likely rip those solar panels from the roof. The remaining dmaage to the roof would then leave the house more vulnerable to catastrophic damage.

We do occasionally get an F1 hit, basically waterspouts that wander ashore. Damage is always minor - Outhouses blown over, maybe a billboard torn down. I can't recall anyone ever being injured by one here.

I live in tornado alley and know people impacted by both the Joplin tornado and the F5 that decimated the Oklahoma City area a few years earlier.

My point is that tornadic winds - even from a small F0 tornado - would likely rip those solar panels from the roof. The remaining dmaage to the roof would then leave the house more vulnerable to catastrophic damage.

Garage doors are typically considered one of the most vulnerable areas of a home in a tornado. Why? Because they are most vulnerable to damage from debris and wind - and once they are breached the home is typically destroyed. An opening in the roof - even a smal one - poses similar danagers.

Because of their design these kinds of solar panels are not a good option in tornado alley.

We had a few back in the early spring that ripped up a couple almond trees in the north valley, and those were the biggest twisters in the state in memory.

I would think that the odds of having your house knocked off the foundation during an earthquake, swallowed in a mudslide, flooded out, or burned down in a forest fire would be literally thousands of times more likely here.

I lived on a Solar Powered House Boat in the Mississippi River in Minnesota for a couple of years.
We had a 750 watt array.
It was wonderful,
with the exception of nearly a ton of highly toxic and relatively short lived Lead Acid batteries along the keel.
It was also difficult and dangerous to clean the snow off the panels after a storm.
We had an old carpet rigged with a rope and pulley so that we could quickly cover them during Summer Thunderstorms in case of hail,
but that didn't work in the Minnesota Winter because it would freeze solid.
The only way to clean off the snow was to climb up on the icy roof of the boat with a broom after every snow fall,
and in Minnesota, that was fairly often.

I used to sit up in the wheelhouse at dawn,
drinking coffee with my feet up on the wheel,
looking out at the frozen river.
THEN, at sunrise,
without a sound to disturb the quiet,
the needles on the ammeters would move over to the PLUS position,
and I would smile.

In 2006, we moved to The Woods in Arkansas.
Our Rural Electric Co-Op has no provisions for Sell Back,
and we don't want to have a ton bunch of Lead/Acid batteries here,
so no Solar Panels. :(
We are concentrating on passive conservation methods,
and planning the Solar Hot Water system for next year.

Oh, and we installed a Solar Clothes Dryer:


Congratulations on your Solar Panels.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I did,
and I LOVED them.

The batteries coming out for hybrids are far superior then the deep cycle battery banks that are available for BBB solar. They charge and discharge more kW/hr, don't require rotation, and they will out last the cars they are in today.

You can bury 3 or 4 under your garage floor and be set for a long time, off grid with a 10kW system (45 to 50 panels).

Even here in Texas where there aren't any incentives (other than the federal tax credit), a few home builders are making subdivisions with LEED certification, a few with solar panels. The "lower your electric rate" isn't even true here in TX: here, the electric rate goes down the *more* power you use each month. Total reverse incentive.

http://firstaustinleedhome.com/
http://www.dallascityhall.com/pdf/pio/leedgreenbuildings.pdf

Congrats to the OP!