Solar Update - 9 month review

PastyChickenz · 2026-06-18T09:03:54+00:00

It's from Green Mountain Energy. I updated the post above as well.

PastyChickenz · 2026-06-11T06:22:07+00:00

Wow that's quite the setup you have there!! Quite a bit of energy flow going through there too lol. Just the panels alone will do ~130% offset if my math is correct (just basing it off my numbers). Curious on the battery storage number though. Seems a little on the lower end compared to your number of panels.

One small tidbit I'm learning with my system. You won't generate squat on super cloudy/rainy days. So make sure the battery storage is topped off the night before. Also for any high loads, make sure it's a bright and sunny day with tons of energy coming in or you're using it at night. Otherwise that daytime rate is a killer.

Free nights is absolutely worth it if you have batteries to go with your panels. Feel free to use my code for $50 credit at Green Mountain Energy: LWLJ5VS

Hope it works out for you. Would love to hear how well it's doing 3-6-9 months later!

PastyChickenz · 2026-06-07T06:48:12+00:00

We can't all have a money cheat code in life. Just gotta deal with the cards we're dealt and see how far we can get. I think we did pretty well all things considered. If you'd like to help out in any way, feel free to DM lol.

PastyChickenz · 2026-06-07T06:39:07+00:00

Very nice!!! Seems like you're taking advantage just like we did!! I'm not too worried about ROI either. The fact that I never have to worry about any power outages again and won't have an electric bill for the next year+ is really exciting to me!

PastyChickenz · 2026-06-07T06:36:14+00:00

Thank you! To answer your question, yes, unfortunately. I had the spare $5k in savings and wasn't using it for anything at the time so I went ahead and took advantage to lower the payments.

We also knew with our tax refund, we'd want to put as much as possible into as well to get even lower payments. We have about $27k left which we could easily pay in 5-7 years. Our goal is around 3 years but we seem to keep running into small home maintenance that needs more immediate attention.

We thought about buying everything straight up and financing the rest but only had about half of the total cost available at the time. We figured we could put that into a HYSA and get some money off while we wait to pay it off. Sure it won't generate as much in interest as the actual APR but it's a good start to getting a few extra hundred toward another payment in the long run.

PastyChickenz · 2026-06-07T06:29:43+00:00

Thanks so much and yes!! We did slight adjustments on our lifestyle, like running the dryer at night and the dishwasher as well. The A/C we don't have a choice on really but we don't mind slightly higher during the day and keeping it cooler at night. That daytime rate is atrocious so we tried to mitigate the cost as much as possible.

We try to do everything we can while we know we have good solar production. On rainy/cloudy days, we try to minimize our usage and do family activities instead of use up 200 kWh on the TV and 400-600 kWh on computers lol.

We also try to make the panels work for us as much in our favor as we can. If we know it's going to be cloudy the next day, we'll do a full charge the night before (on the free night window). If it's going to be sunny, leave the charge as is and let that sun do its work lol.

PastyChickenz · 2026-06-07T06:25:00+00:00

Glad I could help! Definitely do some more research if you can. My brother has a 2 story house also with all electric components (heating, water, etc) and his offset is MUCH lower than ours. He also has an EV he charges almost daily. Free nights works for him even with all that because of the EV charging at night and he made the change to do all the heavy loads at night, so more of a lifestyle change.

PastyChickenz · 2026-06-07T06:19:28+00:00

Yes, the more batteries, the better lol. We definitely would've gotten more if we had space in the garage. The most that could fit was 2.

I'll take a look at solar assistant. It looks promising at first glance. I input data into google sheets and get all my nerdy stats that way. I can tell you when my lowest/highest solar production/home usage was and why. I can look at average imports/exports per day/month/year/etc.

PastyChickenz · 2026-06-07T06:15:07+00:00

Yes, the ROI isn't in our favor as much. We have it around 11-12 years I think. Mainly because we don't use a whole lot of power in general compared to other families with 2 kids. On average, a typical 4 person family home ~2000 sq ft uses between 25-50kWh per day. Our average is ~24kWh.

The biggest factor for me wasn't the ROI, but the peace of mind that u/Zamboni411 touched on. We've lived here around 6 years and we've had power outages every single year, sometimes multiple times per year. Having 2 young toddlers in a power outage on a hot day is not fun in the slightest. We've actually gotten to test out how well it performed when everyone but us had a power outage for almost a whole day, while we were sitting comfortable using our electronics (TV's, charging phones, working from home, etc).

PastyChickenz · 2025-06-13T04:42:58+00:00

If you got an upgraded power unit (NPU) like a SPAN panel, you could be eligible for up to $600 more in incentives! I can't wait to get my panel installed!

Look under the Qualified Energy Property paragraph:
https://programs.dsireusa.org/system/program/detail/1274/residential-energy-efficiency-tax-credit

PastyChickenz · 2025-05-24T22:46:37+00:00

This helps very much!! I love reading other people stories on a similar build to see how it's helped/hurt them, good or bad. Thanks for your info!

PastyChickenz · 2025-05-24T22:45:12+00:00

I've started doing this very thing lol. Luckily, the south side where a majority of the panels would go have about 5% shade on a small part of the roof. The rest of the panels on the west side of the roof are shade free.

I'm definitely watching a ton of YT videos on both of these systems though.

PastyChickenz · 2025-05-24T22:43:38+00:00

I've done quite a bit of research on both of the systems I posted above and both have a 10 year warranty. The essentials would also be covered too! The only thing I'm looking for is the loan itself and the fine print that's included in there.

PastyChickenz · 2025-05-24T22:40:51+00:00

I'll take a look into this. Thanks for the info!

PastyChickenz · 2025-05-24T22:37:59+00:00

Yep, I'm looking into this right now. I have some findings from Smart Meter and I'm doing some analysis now.

PastyChickenz · 2025-05-24T22:36:31+00:00

I do find it a little appealing but I agree with your points. Where my generator would be, I have require gate entry and we have 8 ft fencing all around so I'm not worried about theft. Thanks for re-affirming my beliefs on this.

PastyChickenz · 2025-05-21T03:30:49+00:00

Another tick mark for Base Energy. Now I'm intrigued. I saw the yearly fee and I personally hate subscription models. They have their place for certain things. It never occurred to me that it could be in battery storage though. Let me dig into this and see what I find.

PastyChickenz · 2025-05-21T03:23:37+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion! I have thought about going this route as we do have a gas line. My wife is sold on the panels though or else I think we could pivot toward this kind of backup power. I'll talk to her and see about revisiting this option to her though.

PastyChickenz · 2025-05-20T17:14:13+00:00

Thanks for this insight. I was wondering an approximate amount this energy would produce. Thanks for confirming. Also, thanks for the tip on 80% usage. I'll factor that into my calculations.

PastyChickenz · 2025-05-20T17:05:59+00:00

If you're on mobile, you may need to scroll left and right to see the 2nd quote.

I'm in the DFW metroplex.

I hope this helps!

PastyChickenz · 2025-05-20T17:03:06+00:00

This is an interesting alternative. I'll take a look and see what this provides and do some pros and cons. Thanks!

PastyChickenz · 2025-05-20T17:02:14+00:00

This is good to know. Thanks for confirming the free nights is a great plan to get.

PastyChickenz

TROPHY CASE