So the solar saga Continues. (Please let me know if this bores you guys. Figured it's interesting and I'm doing a ton of leg work to find a good deal and a decent company, but if no one gives a rip ill stop talking about it
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Had company number 2 over last night. Set up is a bit different then the first guy, but he said they should be able to get 100% coverage with panels on the roof and not under the trees. I did like his panel system better as it's ran in parallel and not series. So if one panel goes out it doesn't affect the rest of the panels. (Didn't even think of this with the first company, which runs their panels in series, so if the last panel goes out the whole system is down till it gets fixed)
We did touch on the battery back up, (my wife really wants this. I could go either way) and basically said they rarely do them because of the upfront cost ($10k minimum) and the customer rarely benefits as the panels keep making power independent of the grid, and typically they have provisions for a generator to be ran in overnight or storm conditions where the panels don't make power. So he's doing his quote both ways, with a few different battery options. (Including the generac set up that I liked) company 1 does not offer their system without the battery back up.
This guy was very easy to talk to and knew his stuff and recognized I have been doing my homework. Unfortunately we had such a good discussion about what we wanted and expected that it got late and we had to tend the kids. Seems his design team was having some technical issues with vents that Google earth shows that are no longer there since the roof was done this spring and a proper ridge vent was installed. So he's stopping off this evening with the design proposal and quotes for battery back up with his system, the generac system and without.
One good thing is they guarantee that your current electric bill will be 100% offset by the solar system. Which is what I wanted. Ditch the electric bill and just make the $200.00 a month payment on the solar system.
I have several quotes from companies that use Google earth now to compare, along with the first guys quote. So far the first guy is a lot more expensive. But waiting to see what company #2 quote is, and have a final guy coming out next Thursday for a quote that's a local.