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User Info Reality vis-a-vis Energy And The Economy; entered at 2022-01-04 23:00:08
Ee4fire
Posts: 1538
Registered: 2011-03-24 Washington, DC
@Packetcap

Quote:
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.


You left out when the parts and wires on the roof fail, there is nothing to turn off the power. When the inverters and wires start shorting you CANNOT turn off the energy coming from the solar panel. There are no switches, fuses, or circuit breakers on any of panels or equipment on the roof. The wiring is fused coming out of the collector boxes down to the solar electrical panel and disconnect at the electric service, but that is it.

You also left out rodents. Squirrels, racoons, and mice love chewing on the series wiring for these installations. If the wiring isn't protected (and most aren't) the rodents will chew away.

You can have 10 or 20kW of unstoppable electrical power on your roof and no way to control when the system fails and sets your roof on fire. Ask Dietz & Watson about their plant in NJ with the entire roof covered in solar panels. The solar panel actually hindered the fire department's suppression efforts.

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/6-alarm-....

Ask the owner of this building:

https://www.dailydispatch.com/StateNews/....

I investigated dozens of commercial and residential solar panel fires. As this equipment ages I will get busier. The electrical activity stops when the roof collapses or the solar panels have been consumed. Of course, the more panels and roof that burn the less electricity there is to ignite combustible materials and shock the fire fighters. Does anyone go up and clean the leaves, nesting debris, and other materials that collect under the panels? In the wintertime the panels are a nice warm shelter for birds and rodents. Just my observations.

The best part about solar is unless you have the batteries and a transfer switch, you can't use the solar panels as backup power during a power outage. Most people do not want to spend the more than $10,000 for the batteries and inverters.

2022-01-04 23:00:08