Due to a variety of circumstances, my wife and I decided to invest in solar panels for our home. I had always wondered if solar power would make sense in the Seattle area, given the dark and dreary winters. One day my wife saw that our city was holding a solarization campaign to try to get households to sign up for solar power packages. At the presentation, they made a compelling argument, and after doing a little financial analysis, we decided to have the solar panels installed.
Annual Status Updates
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| Note from the picture above that the house does have tree issues. That was the main concern I had. However, during the summer months the percent of shading drops off dramatically. Our installer, NW Electric and Solar, came out and did a site analysis, and quoted an expected first year output for my system at 3886 kilowatts. This takes into account the % of time the panels are shaded by trees (about 10-20% of the time). Given this production estimate, with some other assumptions, NW Electric and Solar estimated the payback period at 6 years. |
Current kilowatt production statistics: |
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System Specifications16 Itek IT270 panels rated at 270 watts 8 Blue Frog APS500 micro-converters Installation Date: January 2015 Installer: NW Electric & Solar |
Solar Panel Price History:
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2016 Sainty Solar 255 Watt 24 Volt Monocrystalline Photovoltaic Solar Panel Price per kilowatt
as of 4/15/16: $1.22 |
2017
Sainty Solar 255 Watt 24 Volt Monocrystalline Photovoltaic Solar Panel Price per kilowatt
as of 1/2/17: $1.00 |
2018 Price per kilowatt as of 1/6/18: $1.08 |
2019
Price per kilowatt as of 1/2/19: $0.80
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| 2020 Renology 2 piece 270 Watt panel Price per watt as of 1/2/20: $0.77 |
1/2/21 – Renology 2 piece 320 Watt panels – $1.03 watt |
