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 Reality vis-a-vis Energy And The Economy
Packetcap 2k posts, incept 2021-07-23
2022-01-04 12:15:57

@Bluto it is even worse than what you described for residential solar maintenance...

First, the parts in these systems are not reliable. There are multiple single points of failure, in particular, the inverters can fail after a few years. That's a few thousand $ to replace.

Second, the battery units in solar systems have a lifespan, most are warranted for ten years. To get to 10 years on a daily recharging/discharging cycle, the batteries are capped to 80% of capacity charge rates, and turn off when they reach 20% of capacity. On a 10kW battery that gives you 6kW of usable capacity. The first battery in my system failed after three months and it took six months to get a replacement installed (LG battery). BTW the LG product is crap.

Third, the average residential customer is reliant on their solar contractor to do the system maintenance. Lead times for new parts measure in months and it can take days to get someone out to look at a problem. If you intend to have a residential system for "off grid" living good luck with that. You need a backup generator.

Last, the impact of cloudy or rainy days cannot be stated enough. My experience shows that a rainy day can take a system that produces 35kW a day down to 1kW during a big storm, though usually the number is around 5kW. What are you going to run when you produce 5kW? not much! Likewise, smoke from wildfires can also have a big impact.

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