Thinking of going with this solar installer/proposal. Please comment/critique/discuss

[Al Sherman]

Energy Audit Complete

Spent 4 hours following the energy auditor around yesterday. The bottom line is: Our house sucks. Or blows. Or both. He couldn't even get to half of the negative pressure that he wanted with his door blower.

The good news is the Geothermal is working perfectly. In fact he said we're lucky to have it. He said the reason that it can't keep up is cumulatively it's as if we're trying to heat the house with two doors wide open. He gave us many suggestions for improvements which we will implement. these are minor compared to the big ones which would involve larger than reasonable expense and ripping up walls and ceilings.

One possible issue that we CAN resolve is the Geothermal furnaces may be undersized due to the original installer not knowing how leaky the house is. They're due to be replaced and we're going to have the "expert" size the new units with the leakiness in mind.

One huge takeaway for me is: If you're building a new house. Even if you have the best builder in the world. Involve the energy efficiency experts from the PoCo in the construction. REALLY, involve them and do what they say, and how they say. If you're gonna live in the house for a while it makes a huge difference.

 

[nwdiver]

Al,

How old is your house?

 

[Zaxxon]

One huge takeaway for me is: If you're building a new house. Even if you have the best builder in the world. Involve the energy efficiency experts from the PoCo in the construction. REALLY, involve them and do what they say, and how they say. If you're gonna live in the house for a while it makes a huge difference.

Absolutely.

Sorry to hear that your overall situation doesn't appear to be easily fixable. At least you're aware of the causes and have some improvements to tap.

 

[Al Sherman]

Al,

How old is your house?

The original cabin is about 30. The addition (most of the house) is about 20. Our auditor said that the construction looked like it was done well by experienced builders. He just said that at the time, even the best builders were not at all versed on building a tight house and insulating correctly. He also said that insulation quality and installation techniques have improved tons over the last 20 years.
Whether you care about the environment, or the money, or both; after what I've seen I would simply not build a house without the energy efficiency expert being involved in the construction from the beginning. If the contractor can't handle it, get another contractor. You simply cannot imagine how big it is. The longer you live there, the bigger it is. Things which the average home buyer/builder simply wont imagine or know about.

 

[VolkerP]

Al,

Kudos for following thru on the energy audit. Many a people don't want to face the reality that their home sucks (in a thermal way), and go the additional step and have it audited.

 

[Al Sherman]

Al,

Kudos for following thru on the energy audit. Many a people don't want to face the reality that their home sucks (in a thermal way), and go the additional step and have it audited.

Thanks. It was just more great advice from the folks here at TMC. I learned an incredible amount. I just wish I was smarter at the time of construction. It's killing me to think of how much energy we'll waste over the years especially as we grow older and want to be warmer in the cold months. Frankly, I never dreamed it would be as bad as it is. I simply can't imagine how much energy is wasted in homes that are inefficient nation and worldwide. We really need to show people the numbers (just as with PV Solar) BEFORE they build their house.

 

[Owner]

Thanks for sharing your story and being honest too.

I too built my house - finished less than 10 years ago. Would be really hard to 'fix' after the fact. I doubt there is much that could have been done differently. One great trick that really worked is taking advantage of the angle of the sun both for winter heating and summer cooling. Each climate is very different and your in the midwest and I'm in California.

Can you 'close off' part of the house part of the year? Are you really using all that square footage all year long?

Thanks. It was just more great advice from the folks here at TMC. I learned an incredible amount. I just wish I was smarter at the time of construction. It's killing me to think of how much energy we'll waste over the years especially as we grow older and want to be warmer in the cold months. Frankly, I never dreamed it would be as bad as it is. I simply can't imagine how much energy is wasted in homes that are inefficient nation and worldwide. We really need to show people the numbers (just as with PV Solar) BEFORE they build their house.

 

[Zaxxon]

Al, and mods--I'm going through the solar proposal process now, as well. I would love to borrow the TMC brain trust and was getting ready to post a couple of proposals in here, when it occurred to me that this might be impolite. Would you prefer I co-opt this thread or start a separate?

 

[Owner]

I know some people are "anti-new thread" for the lack of better terminology. I myself prefer a few more threads than the super long ones. I think your situation is likely to be different than Al's. Just my thoughts.

Al, and mods--I'm going through the solar proposal process now, as well. I would love to borrow the TMC brain trust and was getting ready to post a couple of proposals in here, when it occurred to me that this might be impolite. Would you prefer I co-opt this thread or start a separate?

 

[Xenoilphobe]

I'm in a 5000 SFT home with a 50,000 gallon pool and our summer peak is 100 KW per day. (Two 13 SEER HVAC and two pool pumps). I offset about 70 KW per day with 40 solar panels. My attic is insulated with open cell foam in a conditioned area of the house. House is 22 years old with original windows. It will go up this year with the addition of the tesla, bit I plan to add 20 more Panels to go to net zero or close to net zero. Added over 100 LED lights to offset the ligjting load, this also lowered the Cooling load in the summer. In the winter I heat with a high efficiency wood stove and my electric usage drops to about 25KW per day.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

This seems high. I paid $300 per panel 250 watt panel ( included with the micro inverters). 40 x $300 = $ 12,000. The racks were about 5k and the electic install was 5k. I did the labor on the racks and panels. So my total cost was about 22K. Before tax incentives which where about $8k. I still meet about 20 panels so add another $12k (panels and racking) To get to a 16KW system. 4k of this will be reduced by tax incentives.

So total system cost is approximately $34k for a 16KW system. (Before tax incentives). With incentives system drops to $22K. Payback period for me is approximately 6 years (even faster when you factor the 20k I drive a year in the tesla)

it it was absolutely a no brainer in my case.

Make sure you calculate the cost per kilowatt for every quote you get. I got a similar quote from sun power that was close to $80k for a 20kw system. That's when I decided to do it my self.

Check out the AUO AC Unison PM250MA0 250-watt AC solar panel. Had a significant price drop this year.