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Comment by spywaregorilla | Hacker News Reader

11k for my house in MA net of a few thousand in subsidies last year.

I don't think I really believe your quote of 40k. Does that even break even on energy bill savings?

It's very real. I was recently quoted 30k-43k for 7kw of panels, 13.5kwh of battery, along with reworking some electrical panels. The one coming in at the top of the range were baking in a ton of profit and willing to negotiate down once shown the other quotes. In the end i completely passed, it just doesn't make sense to pay 30k to avoid 3k a year in electric bills.

Well, a battery is going to boost it substantially

with how pricing works here battery is basicaly a necessity. They will pay 3-8c /kwh during the day for extra production, and charge 50-65c/kwh when you don't have enough production. Well, maybe necessity is a bit strong. That's only a $5-$8/day swing on a 13kwh battery. But it adds up.

5kwh battery module for 1.2k in the EU. 13.5kw should be under 5k. Any system north of 15k is price gouging, unless the system is huge.

Where do you get batteries that cheap? I’ve been following the market here in the Netherlands and it is about €1000/kWh, going down a bit for batteries approaching 10kWh. Although, I haven’t checked for the last 6 months.

This is a local supplier of Dyness batteries, 15kwh for under 4.5k

https://midlandbatteries.com/products/dyness-15kwh-dl5-0c-ba...

I paid $50k for 24kWh nameplate capacity with no battery, fully installed and integrated, a year ago at 2% interest (the only reason it made sense to even do the deal). My electric bill went from an average of $350/mo to $16/mo (the minimum to stay connected), while the loan payment is ~$300. My cost for the materials alone would have been ~$30-35k (I needed higher power individual panels to get the capacity I needed, and went with a micro inverter setup for higher reliability). Equipment rental would have been another $3k because I had to dig a trench out to my detached garage to fit the entire system, and I don't own a 30 ft ladder to reach my roof. Electrical work has to be signed off on by a licensed electrician. Engineering schematics of the electrical system have to be created. Permits with the city have to be filed. Another $1-2k. For another $10k: I got to keep the week of vacation I would have needed to burn, someone else is responsible for fixing defects in the system, and I didn't have to spend the mental bandwidth on all the ins and outs of the whole shebang. The installers finished the system in a day, and had it turned on generating power after all the bureaucracy hurdles were cleared a few weeks in.

When I can afford it, the next project is add enough battery capacity to effectively go off grid.

I'm in the Seattle metro area and 25K to 40K is very common. They tell you all kinds of subsidies and payback periods but the out of pocket or loan is always in that range. And payback periods are terrible here given the weather.

My parents spent $18K on rooftop solar in the Boise metro area. One Tesla powerwall battery and install on top of that will be another $15K.

And the Powerwall is also a ripoff vs many other options. 5kw battery module can be for for 1.2k, so 3 modules give 15kwh for under 5k

depends on the market. The 5kw options i was quoted were Enphase 5p batteries, average price from multiple installers was $5k per battery installed.

Compared to this, 15kwh for under 5k https://midlandbatteries.com/products/dyness-15kwh-dl5-0c-ba...

Needs an inverter though, but if you have solar you already should be ok

Just look at the r/solar for similar quotes.

Here’s a $51k quote for 12kW with 5kW battery: https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/s/Fema45FkDx

That's obscene. Less than 10k of materials (and they can probably source it cheaper than a regular joe like me), 5k labour. 35k profit is a bit much....

Exactly, it makes no financial sense, you'd never get payback on it at that price. The company offering it had payment plans and all, with 0% interest, to make it more attractive, but that's just part of the grift.

Do you mind saying what company and which end of MA?

I did a system earlier this year with My Generation Energy, coincidentally while I was interviewing for the CPO role at Aurora Solar (where I am now).

Highly recommend MGE if you’re in the Cape Cod area. Not sure how far off Cape they’ll go if not.

Looks like they're based in Hyannis, but the website says they cover Greater Boston, so I'll give them a call.

Thank you for responding!!!

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