My 7.68kW solar array has now been active for 6 months and has produced just over 5800 kWh of electricity. Of that, I currently have just under 1500 kWh "banked" for future consumption. It did take a month for CMP to enable net metering on my account which is why I only have 5 minimum bills. The total cost before tax credit was just over $20,000.

No complaints.

Versant minimum is $8.xx (going on 14 months with my array, no complaints)

Damn, I'm getting robbed! Does that also include the first 50 kWh?

How much of a credit are you going to get?

So what is your ROI?

My minimum for Versant is $6 and change but it doesn't include any power supply. We've had the system for a few years so maybe we are grandfathered into a lower minimum charge.

Who did your install?

I just looked at my bill and it just says “distribution minimum charge”. For some reason last month’s bill was even less than usual- there was a minimum distribution charge for 7.48 and a minimum charge for “stranded costs” of -0.84 so my total bill was $6.64. It’s been over $8 every other month though.

You get a 1:1 kWh credit

Ah. CMP lists that and also includes the first 50 kWh in the $13.73. If you factor the ~$5-6 dollar difference against the standard supply charge a kWh, CMP may actually be a better deal.

The projected ROI was 8-9 years, but that was assuming a 26% tax credit and also doesn't include the 50% supply increase going into effect next year. Those two things should make it closer to 6-7 years.

Maine Solar Solutions

What was your upfront cost

It's in my first comment. Just over $20,000 before 30% federal tax credit. It will be ~$14,000 after.

Mine is on the books for next fall!

Did you finance that at all or did you just pay out of pocket

This is the way. I did Maine Solar also, but tacked on two batteries to insulate somewhat from power outages and give a little boost to net metering as well.

At this point I've financed about 70% of it through a HELOC, but that will drop to 40% with the tax credit. The interest rate at the time was 3.25% so it made sense. The rates are over 7% now so I wouldn't recommend it unless you're simply looking to stabilize your utility bill over a w 20+ year period.

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The technology is not quite ready. I’m waiting for the install to be significantly cheaper. Many reports are saying that will happen by 2027.

So 5800$? So you are still out 14k. At 150$ a month electric bill you are saving it will take about 8 years for you to break even on the cost. That's not too bad if you have the up front capital. Now do they (cmp) cut you checks still every month if you produce more than you use?

Nice. I'd love batteries but am too cheap to pull the trigger at the moment. I might have a different opinion if we experience an extended power outage.

Whay do you pay monthly compared to what your electric bill was

The tax credit will bring the total cost down to ~$14,000. The payback period was projected to be 8-9 years when the tax credit was 26% and before the 50% supply side hike that was recently announced. The payback period should now be under 7 years.

I'm of the opinion that it would never get there without the current subsidies that drive market adoption. It made sense for us now due to us having a near perfect location with no shade.

That's awesome. We might add a heat pump or two once the IRA credits come into play. I'm eyeballing the Daikin Atmosphera model because it's the first US model that uses R-32 instead of R-410A. Only single zone at the moment, however.

https://daikincomfort.com/products/heating-cooling/single-zone/heatpumps/daikin-atmosphera

I was averaging around $134. With the increase that is coming next year, that same average would be $167.

Not bad. So are the panels not producing enough for you to be off the grid all together? Why are you still paying cmp every month when you are producing your own power? Sorry for the ignorance but the last time I was around solar was a buddies house and cmp was cutting him checks for like 50$ a month

Your generated power goes back into the CMP grid (except for what you are using at that immediate point in time) and CMP delivers it back to you. So you pay for the connection costs (mine is about $14/mo). CMP does not cut checks, you only get a kWh credit that expires 12 months from when it was generated. So you end up producing more in summer due to longer days and higher more direct sun, and then rely more on your credits during the winter months.

Now, you can also get battery storage for your produced energy, but you'll still produce more than the battery can store and you'll still have to pay CMP for the line connection.

Side note - 7-8 years break even, as well as a house value bump is a great investment.

Nice! When I build my dream house, I'm installing solar.

Exactly. The net metering is what makes this economically viable.

CMP is your "battery" until you can buy your own batteries and go off grid.

Too bad the government doesn’t force utilities to pay for product it gets to sell to its customers.

Nice!

I'm going to use about 50 kWh of banked generation for November. My first time dipping into the pot. On a sunny day I can still generate 20 kWh and we're three weeks from the solstice! I never thought I would produce so much this time of year.

Did you also file for the Renewable Energy Property Tax Credit with your town?

https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/solar_exempt_app.pdf

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What forms do you need to fill out. I filled out the 313 (?) And I'm just waiting to hear back from them. Is there anything else I need to do? Usually I guess the installing company takes care of this but I did it myself.

Nice. I will probably dip in on my next bill as well. I've had 11 days in November above 27 kWh with the most recent being this past Saturday. It the clouds stay away today, I should come close to or break it today as well. I'm on track to produce just over 600 kWh for November, but I suspect December will dip to 500 kWh or slightly below. Snow cover is the wild card going forward.

Sure did! Maine Solar Solutions let me know about that.

Interconnection Agreement, PUC Chapter 324, and Net Energy Billing Agreement. The installer walked me through all of it.

I dare you to try to search or log out of that page.

Good on you OP

Hah, their website is pretty awful. Certain clicks prevent you from being able to get back to your "Account" homepage.

Time in the market beats timing the market

Yep, mine went active in August. I've also been getting $13 CMP bills and have 2mw banked. Right now using electric space heaters to augment+offset the oil furnace for free.

That's awesome. We would have had over 2MWh if I had correctly interpreted CMPs Energy Meter. It was showing we only used about 600 kWh in both July in August when we had ACs running 24/7 and the pool pump running constantly. It didn't occur to me that CMP wasn't metering the generated power that I was consuming which meant I consumed much more than 600 kWh those months. We put the pool pump on a timer and scheduled the ACs after that :)

Wow, I won't come close to 400 kWh. I'm impressed with how well your panels do with the flat angle. I guess Maine is just South enough to produce electricity year-round. I would think homes near the equator would only need 1/3 of the panels we need and be quite affordable.

With regard to the angle, I am seeing peak production of just over 5 kW these days. Back in the summer, I could hit a peak of 6.8 kW.

Thank you

My parents in CT on the other hand regularly get back $100-$200 on each electric bill with Eversource, none of this silly minimum bill stuff. They cut them a check once a year

$13.73 gang! That's been our bill for a while now, too. We had close to 1mW/h banked on our end, and we've started dipping into that now that cold weather is here and we've turned on our heat pump. I also tend to calculate the amount of money saved in oil as part of the payback period as well. Since getting our heat pump and a hybrid water heater, we fill our tank maybe once or twice a year, if that. Significant savings in oil, for sure.

Heh, if Maine did that I suspect people would put as many panels as they could fit on their roofs just to cash in. I know I would. There's unfortunately no incentive at the moment to oversize in Maine.

November has been pretty terrible for me.

Produced 400kWh, consumed 1mWh (I do most of my heating with heat pumps)

I ran a deficit of 100kWh in October,

On track to offset around 88% of my electricity for the year. Need to thin out a few more trees and/or I think I can squeeze another row of panels using a horizontal (landscape) orientation at the top of my roof where they won’t have any issues with shading.

I run a surplus May-September. April is usually break even, and October can be break even depending on weather. November - March I run a pretty big deficit due to the heat pumps.

Nice. We are on propane here which has had a more stable price, albeit historically has been more expensive per million BTUs than heating oil. Now, it's about 12.5% cheaper.

Our house is in the middle of an elevated field and the closest trees are about 125 feet north of us. We also live in Durham, so the minimum lot size is 90,000 sq ft which keeps the closest neighbors pretty far away. The only thing that shades our panels are clouds.

Tree line is only about 15-20 feet from the side of my house with panels. We selectively thinned some of them last fall, which helped, but we still get a lot of shading on the bottom half of the array in the fall and winter.

Roughly how much rooftop sq footage does your setup use?

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About 400 sq ft.

Fantastic!!!

So that means you'll recover your costs in less than 7 years? Will you generate enough in longer days to fuel an EV? That would be my ideal... No gas or heating costs!

Yeah I know they don't cut checks anymore. That was 20 years ago. And thanks for the explanation. Makes sense

This is the thinking of every rooftop solar person in New England I've ever talked to*: I'd love batteries but geeeez, the cost!

*including me

With the assumption that utility costs will increase an average of 2% a year going forward, yes. I won't know what our excess will be, if any, until we get through a full 12 month cycle. If we do have excess, it's effectively gifted to CMP so I'll need to find a way to use it. I think a heat pump and/or heat pump water heater would be our first purchase but both of those add another initial cost to the equation.

I haven't looked into what's coming in federal grants and rebates from recent green-friendly legislation, but your timing is excellent.

There's a gamification benefit after a while - you start cheering on each month to try and beat the same month in previous years.

Frequently checking the SolarEdge app on my phone ("woo-hoo - 5 KW right now!") is much less stress-inducing that killing time on social media.

Hah, you're not wrong there.

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I’ve thought this for many years before the cmp hate train came to town.

Of course they don’t want it, they have to pay full price for it. They don’t get a deal or a reduced rate. They have to pay fair market value for something and a monopolistic corporation doesn’t make money doing so.

And why aren’t these solar arrays factored into their power calculations? The meter will be able to tell them on average the amount of power produced by every array.

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It also makes you sympathetic to that Simpsons meme: Old Man Yells at Cloud

"Dammit cloud, you lowered my output!!"

What was the total after the tax credit?

~$14,000

Definitely thinking about installing next year. Do they come out and give you an estimate? Also, can they test where you want to place the panels to see if it’ll be the best spot for them?

27.4 SEER hot damn!

Yes, they come out, get on the roof, and then draw up a proposal.

I wonder if power distribution costs are factored in and amortized, then taken out of the check? Distribution charges are actually fairly important to charge everyone using power from the grid, because not doing so would put that cost onto people who don’t have access to solar, which includes almost everyone who struggles to pay their bills.

I'm sure that Eversource is taking their slice of the pie, but I've never actually looked at their itemized bill.

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If I had an array that produces more power than in need I would consider a contract with the power company to keep my array up and running 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Wow you use so much less power than I do :p

I installed a similarly sized system that I finally got Auburn's paperwork though on in like March. June was the only month I managed to bank though. (Don't have a bill in front of me for precise numbers.)

Grats on the solar, I love my system, and I love the battery backup attached to it.

Six months of happy ownership and I still check SolarEdge every night!

My neighbors and myself were installed months earlier than scheduled because we let them know anytime works!

I work for the company they get their panels/racking from. They are probably my favorite installer we work with too. I highly recommend them also

Yeah, I did the same...but they said its not ideal because I start paying the loan when they start working....so if the system isnt on right away, Im double tapping electric and loan for a bit. Not sure where I will be financially at that point.

awesome! I was quoted 29500 for 10kw worth of panel, but a 7.6 inverter.

It only took 2 days to install and the new meters start tracking your production immediately(although you won't see it on your bill until CMP flips the switch - about 2 weeks for me). I'm probably not understanding your point.

I just expect any 2 day project to take 2 weeks....

My husband watches this alaska show Called edge of alaska or something like that. The people that live in the city all use solar panels.

How much are your payments to the solar company a month if you don’t mind me asking? And did you do solar panels, or solar shingle roof?

That’s a pretty solid price for an array. What brand panels did they quote you?

That include everything? Switches and wiring etc etc?

All in.

I didn't finance it with the solar company but a portion of the install is currently on a HELOC which has a 3.25% fixed rate. Once the tax credit comes in I will have about $7800 of it financed. There are 16 480W panels for a total of 7.68kWh.

What’s the expected lifespan of the system?

Thanks! Good deal

Thank you. It's on my wishlist but I haven't looked into it in 10 years.

My 13k generator only cost about 5k. Cheaper than batteries but it also has drawbacks.

There's a 25 year production warranty of 86%. Basically, a 2% drop during the first year and a 0.5% drop each subsequent year. I expect the system to last as long as the roof which was about 1.5 years old when the panels were installed. The shingles are 30 year warranty.

That’s not too shabby. Do you own the system outright?

How much was your monthly bill previously? Until the cost of panels comes below $10k it doesn’t seem worth it

Who did your system? I’m getting quotes ranging from $3.50 - $6 / watt installed, which seems high to me.

Yes.

Average monthly bill would have been around $167/mo with recent rate increases that weren't in place during system design.

Maine Solar Solutions. Anything over $3/watt pre-credit is a ripoff. Don't be afraid to negotiate.

If I get 7 KWH today, this will be my best November ever! (but it's cloudy/rainy, so I'll probably fall short)

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I didn't think you could do net metering and batteries AND keep power during an outage. I was told if the power goes out I would have to take the outage, unless I was completely off-grid.

I hear that’s the way to go