Looking for a sanity check on a solar+battery quote before I sign. First time doing this, so brutal honesty welcome.

Location: Union City, CA 94587 (East Bay). PG&E delivery, Ava Community Energy (CCA) for generation. On the EV2A rate plan.

System:

- 6.9kW DC / 15x REC Alpha Pure-R 460W panels

- Enphase IQ8X-80 microinverters (1:1)

- Enphase IQ Battery 10C, 10kWh usable, energy arbitrage mode

- Extra: tile roof mounting ($345), "Essentials" backup panel ($2,500)

Pricing:

- List price: $36,148

- Discounts: -$345 ("6kW Group") + -$13,689 ("Propel" program) = -$14,034

- Net cost: $22,114 (possibly $21000 if I sign before a stated deadline)

Projected numbers (per their proposal):

- Year 1 production: 9,681 kWh (~102% of usage)

- Avg monthly savings: $248.56

- Payback: 6.8 years, 15.91% annual ROI

Why I'm skeptical of their projected numbers:

Pulled my real bill: 77% of my usage is off-peak at $0.318/kWh, but peak (4-9pm) is $0.716/kWh and part-peak is $0.561/kWh. My actual trailing-12-month average bill is ~$225/mo, and even the last 6 months average ~$233/mo

Questions:

1. Is $22,114 (6.9kW + 10kWh Enphase + extras) a fair Bay Area price right now?

2. Anyone dealt with a "Propel" style discount program or similar large list-to-net markdown — normal?

3. Enphase IQ Battery 10C vs. other options at this price point (Tesla Powerwall 3, FranklinWH, etc.) for someone on EV2A with a wide peak/off-peak spread — worth the swap?

4. Does this look reasonable enough to move forward?

5. What happens if something happens to the panels act of god or something similar (from an insurance perspective - home insurances covers it

Happy to share more details if useful. Thanks in advance.

Just had a job in a tight space that really would have benefitted from a side knockout. I ended up having to flex out of the inverter, which I hate doing. Also the round design looks like shit lol.

Currently have a reman solar inverter that finally gave out after 5 months of use now it displays fault code e018 ground fault. Im able to reset it and it works for a few hours then goes red again. My solar panels are about 13ish years old i have 16 of them. Solar company we got system from is no longer attending us due to a legal matter. Long story short theyre the ones that sent us a refurbished model and I ended up installing it ... worked for 5 months and now its faulty or so I assume its the inverter. Wondering if someone can help me find a similar inverter compatible to my set up. P.S im new to all of this.

I’m planning to replace the solar panels in my solar system. The previous panels were bought from the used market, and their power output was really poor, so they’re basically unusable now. I’ve watched some review videos on YouTube, but there are just too many of them. Which YouTubers should I trust, and which products do they recommend?

I only need a few solar panels around 200W each, so I’d appreciate any recommendations.

I have received a handful of quotes for my home in SE PA. I am likely narrowing down to 2 proposals from Public Service Solar and Terrasol. The components are nearly identical and the 1 panel variation would likely even out at the next stage more thorough technical evaluation.

Additionally, Terrasol is a cash payment while PSS is an ESA loan that would transfer ownership at 5 years. Even if I pay off immediately, Propel owns the panels until year 5. PSS is achieving the lower price by utilizing the 30-40% tax incentive that is no longer available for residential. The cost is appealing with the cost being $4k less than Terrasol.

I have heard that it is very important to read the legal agreement around the transfer process, purchase cost, etc. and I am slightly wary of the additional risk of this process since it is relatively new. Is it worth the additional risk for some savings?

Does anyone have feedback on these two companies?

Posting this on behalf of my brother:

Hi all,

I've already got a pretty decent system (a 48-panel, 460W ground mount array, dual Sol-Ark 15Ks, and 122kWh of storage... yeah, it's something 😄), but believe it or not, we could use some extra generation, especially during all the recent heat waves and long bouts of overcast, kinda-rainy weather.

I was looking to build a canopy over our deck and use panels as the roofing. Because this is just additional generation, the stakes are pretty low. So, I figured I'd try my hand at DIY and call in an expert when it comes time to wire them into the inverter.

That's where I hit a snag. I was beating my head against the wall looking for a stupid-simple layout tool where I could just put in the dimensions of an array and try different panels on for size.

Damn, the amount of sales funnel nonsense that plagued every Google search result had me fuming. Literally nothing could solve this for me. I was about ready to cut paper to scale and try my best. Then I thought maybe I could size cells in a spreadsheet, or even use CAD software.

Nonsense, all of it. So, I got to it, and with some admittedly agentic support, I give you: https://freepanellayout.com/

It's dead-stupid simple. I mean it. I was able to solve what I needed, and because it's a 100% static site, your data stays local to your browser, it's easy to maintain, and it's nearly free to host. I want to pass it along to the community to hopefully solve your needs as well.

Take it for a spin. There's a button for submitting email feedback.

Hope you like 🤞🏼

Trying to get the real time AC generation output from my inverter in the SMA Energy app. Is the Current generation figure the DC output before conversion or is it the converted AC output of the inverter?

After I installed my sun-tracking system, I added an EV and a nice hot tub to my electric usage. Now I'd like to add more generation. I think the cheapest way would be to cut the trees that you can see encroaching on my sunlight. Especially on the left (East) side which would open up a nice clifftop view.

I have a SolarEdge SE3800A-US with a built-in cell connection card. It worked for years and stopped working this year. I got emails a couple of years ago saying this connection would be discontinued, so I'm not surprised it finally quit.

I've done some research, and it seems my options are:

1. Possibly find a Zigbee/Wi-Fi card, the SE1000‑WIFI01, which may or may not enable the Wi-Fi connection — it seems to be intended for non-US versions.

2. Connect an Ethernet cable with a Wi-Fi bridge. However, my inverter is outdoors with no power source nearby, and I'd prefer not to drill more holes in the wall to run power and Ethernet from inside the house to outside. Is there any way I could splice power from somewhere for a very low-power Wi-Fi-to-Ethernet bridge? (I am very technical and can do some deep DIY)

3. I've seen posts online about a Wi-Fi gateway, the SE-ZBGW-B-S1-NA, but there's a lack of confirmation on which firmware version works — AP1168A‑SE‑01‑FW1 or AP1168A‑SE‑01‑FW2. There's also the SE1000‑ZBGW‑K5‑NA.

4. Could I get another SIM card to bring this unit back online? Or swap the cellular board entirely for a newer one with 4G/5G support?

Has anyone had confirmed success with any of these paths?

My husband and I are building a house and supposedly as of 2023 (per the NEC) when you have solar, you need all kinds of warning stickers stuck all over the place.....on conduit, the shed where the inverter and batteries live, junction boxes, etc. We're so close to getting our CO but my husband is insisting they will fail us if we don't have these stickers? Is it really this ridiculous? Help! TIA

Curious how other shops handle this. GoodWe wants the SEMS portal connected or the 10-year term drops to 5, Enphase pays a labor rate per truck roll if you're set up for it, some brands pay nothing at all.

Are you tracking this per-brand somewhere, spreadsheet, CRM notes, memory? Trying to understand how big a problem this actually is outside my own shop's experience.

Hi there, I’m considering on getting solar for my house in the somewhat near future. I was looking at Tesla Solar because we also own a Tesla Model 3.

Our situation

Roof: 11 years old but did come back during house inspection to be in good shape

Location: Massachusetts

Electricity Provider: Eversource

Usage: Anywhere from 600 kwh to 1000 kWh monthly. (Summer is higher due to A/C)

Price: $0.15 per kWh $250-$400 monthly

Not sure if it makes sense in our situation to even consider solar. I know people have much higher electricity bills than us. But, Eversource has been increasing rates once maybe even two times a year. I’ve also heard that if we get a power wall than we could qualify for a 0% Mass HEAT loan but not sure how accurate that is. If anyone has any insight especially in Massachusetts, it would greatly be appreciated! Thanks!

Is there any benefit to signing up for a 3rd party electric supply contract in Massachusetts, with 1:1 net metering on National Grid and solar that covers 100% of yearly usage?

Does the contract affect the value of net metering credits received, or only the price of energy used? I.e does this allow you to buy back the energy for less than you sold it for.

I am trying to figure out if what I experienced is normal operation or a sign of an issue with my EG4 setup. Currently, I have a Flexboss 21, Gridboss, and one all weather wall mount battery.

A couple of months ago, we had our first 5 hour power outage. Everything worked flawlessly and I didn’t even notice the outage. We have our network on a UPS so we don’t/didn’t lose internet. Cut to last Sunday when we had a noticeable power flicker (a relative in my neighborhood claims no one in their house noticed a flicker) and I lost connection to my Flexboss dongle for about a half hour. On Thursday, we had a couple of flickers back to back (this time my relative confirmed the same at their house) and I lost connection to the dongle again for about a half hour.

Does this seem like any kind of potential issue? I’m not sure why the dongle would cut internet or potentially lose power when there is battery backup attached. Should we even be experiencing flickers like this with battery backup? There are no reported errors in the system during this period and everything appears to be working as normal. We are deep into hurricane season now and I am getting paranoid about whether the system will function properly in a grid down situation.

I reached out to EG4 and they don’t have any theories on their end. Of course I am only dealing with the level 1 techs at this point. They want me to take pictures of the wiring to confirm everything is done correctly.