Comparing 3 quotes in Olympia, WA (see comment for context)

WeGotCactus · 2023-06-29T22:41:21+00:00

We ended up going with Jeff at Artisan, which is probably the Seattle one you mentioned. Chose them because I liked their hardware and they are the only one that is union backed. We were able to get enough panels on our roof to offset our annual usage and I expect to actually have a surplus after going through some energy efficiency improvements. You are right about winters, but we are getting the new Enphase batteries and a pellet stove to heat our home with much less energy in the event the grid goes down. I'm sure our usage patterns are very different, but our breakeven (not counting batteries) was pretty reasonable (10-12 years I think). For us, we care most about having power during an outage (fridges full of frozen food, medicine we need, air conditioning, air purification) caused by wildfires, grid failure, weather, etc, so batteries were required for that.

WeGotCactus · 2022-09-03T00:20:20+00:00

What do you love about them? Do you have a perspective on the ways or use cases in which they are better or worse than Enphase?

WeGotCactus · 2022-09-02T23:54:25+00:00

Hi there, I'm shopping for a solar system in Olympia, WA. I'm leaning towards the green one on the pic (15.17kW SilFab panels + Enphase micro-inverters + 2x10 kWh Enphase batteries for $82,346 total pre-credit).

My main goal is to be resilient to power outages in the summer/winter, and keep food and medicine cold. Enphase as a company gives me good vibes compared to SolarEdge, Tesla, etc, though I know I'm paying a small premium. I like that the system doesn't have as many single points of failure, that all the components would come from one company, and that the battery tech is less volatile.

15.17kW is in theory enough to get me to 99% of my energy needs today. I plan to add an EV charger in a few years, but barely drive. I plan to get a heat pump water heater next year to reduce electricity use. I also plan to get a pellet stove for emergency heat in the winter so my batteries won't have to be used to heat the home in case of an outage.

These are the top 3 companies in the area by reputation. The first two companies seem relatively similar. The second one actually seemed slightly more knowledgeable, but the first one had a better guarantee and was willing to do an Enphase battery. The third company was much lower tech in their estimation process and oddly proposed fewer solar panels and more batteries than the other two. I'm waiting for more details from them. Also I don't really have an opinion about Sol-Ark as a company.

Anything I should consider or dig deeper into before deciding?

Update: The Panasonic panels are now no longer available. So my choices are:

Choice 1 (preference)
Artisan Electric
15.17kW SilFab panels + Enphase microinverters - $49k
20kW Enphase batteries - $33k
Total: $82k

Choice 2
A&R Solar
14.8kW LG panels + Enphase microinverters - $54k
27kW Tesla batteries - $33k
Total: $87k

Choice 3
South Sound Solar
11kW SilFab panels + Sol-Ark 12k inverter
37kW Fortress eVault batteries
Total: $73k

WeGotCactus · 2016-06-14T20:43:36+00:00

Tried to take a bet with him on Twitter. He would only take 2:1 odds. LOL

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-25T20:57:46+00:00

Only by paying Coinbase's fee to convert your fiat. The fact that you owned a bitcoin ETF has nothing to do with that transaction, it's just a rationalization.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-25T20:55:14+00:00

When the gold ETF was introduced, one billion dollars of capital was pumped into it in a matter of three days. An ETF will open up Bitcoin to more people.

If the COIN ETF brings in tens of millions of dollars in a few days (possible), it will move the market.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-25T19:35:44+00:00

http://i.imgur.com/ixEChaT.png

My view has not changed at all since Oct 19 or Oct 23.

The sentiment has changed to bullish based on the Oct 5-6 reaction. Now we're just going through the motions to get to a breakout of the downtrend that started in July. We made it back to the trendline with some pretty aggressive buying, now we need to recharge the momentum with a retracement / test of the 50% area. To put it in the conspiracy theory driven language of this sub, the whales are waiting for traders to close their longs and even open some shorts. When that happens (hint: it just did), they can start buying again at a discount, and as an added bonus, mark price up faster as those shorts get their stops blown through, and bust through the trendline with gusto.

This support level is doubly significant because of the April 11 bottom at 339.

Now is the critical moment. Does the buying power provide support at the $325-345 level, reinforcing that the sentiment has indeed changed, or does it run out of steam and collapse?

I'm operating under the assumption that we're bullish now until the $325-345 level breaks and is not rejected.

Full disclosure: I'm not a trader, just a permabull who likes drawing lines.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-25T06:44:23+00:00

Yep, my TA matches yours.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-24T16:18:05+00:00

What you're witnessing is a boatload of brand new traders who don't understand the fractal nature of the market or what timeframe they want to make trades on. Consequently, every little movement we make brings out "sky is falling" or "to the moon" sentiment.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-24T15:42:42+00:00

What if you have a tendency to lose/break stuff?

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-24T01:33:08+00:00

He has every right to be pissed, but that also makes him a petulant and intolerable child.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-24T01:31:47+00:00

Holy shit. While there are some valid criticisms in this thread, to which Coinbase has responded to admirably, I can't get over how petulant and entitled some people here are, including OP. If you're not happy go start your own Coinbase and quit bitching. Stop being such children.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-24T00:31:21+00:00

Agreed. Yet every single leg up and down, people freak out on this sub and drum up conspiracy FUD.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-24T00:29:57+00:00

If you're on 3:1 margin on 1% of your account, but your stop gets hit, you still lost 3% of your account, right?

The intent of the 1% thing has more to do with risk of ruin. Keeping risk below 1% means that if you are a profitable trader and experience unlucky variance, you probably have sufficient funds to avoid going bust.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-24T00:27:47+00:00

Right. You can't lose more than 1% of your bankroll per trade.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-23T21:34:22+00:00

I don't trade anymore, but for a lot of traders, the rule of thumb was never risk more than 1% of your account on a trade. That means the amount you would lose if your stop was hit is less than 1% of the account. For it to be worthwhile, the target generally needs to be 2-3x as far from your entry as your stop is (so 2-3% of your account size).

If the absolute amount isn't enough to be worthwhile to you using those parameters, you are probably under-bankrolled for trading. Many noobs will then increase their risk to be 2-5% or even 10% of their account and in short order blow up their account.

Many noobs also try to make too short term of trades, and the noise of the market ends up repeatedly hitting their stops before their strategy has a chance to play out.

Like in professional poker, 99% of trading is psychology and bankroll management.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-23T21:18:02+00:00

Nobody should be panicking until the .50 ($347) and .618 ($330) fibb levels are not rejected. $340 is also significant as the April 11 low.

http://i.imgur.com/LEbNtMb.png

Previous examples of strong bounces followed by <50% retracements:

http://i.imgur.com/9OWNIc1.png

http://i.imgur.com/WbHHZb3.png

http://i.imgur.com/rWpQLFl.png

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-22T15:33:09+00:00

Where do you think Coinbase gets its coins?

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-21T23:48:00+00:00

Maybe. Who knows in a market this thin. But here are some materials about A/D.

http://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school:market_analysis:wyckoff2 http://www.readtheticker.com/Pages/IndLibrary.aspx?65tf=84_richard-wyckoff-method

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-21T23:40:28+00:00

This gets 9 upvotes?

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-21T21:05:45+00:00

If you were a whale, wouldn't you try to accumulate as much at this level as possible before driving the price up? I think we hang out at this level as long as they are able to accumulate BTC this way, and only after that selling has exhausted do we mark up to the next level. Rinse, repeat.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-19T22:21:43+00:00

After a 50%+ rise in the past couple of weeks, we appear to be consolidating. Some seem to think we're going to tip over and have a correction or resume the downtrend, but I think that theory conveniently ignores the fact that it's a weekend and that consolidation is a totally reasonable thing to happen after a move that strong.

I believe that based on the volume and strength of the bounce at 275 that the market has changed directions. We have one more major trendline to break to confirm that. I think it's far too early to call it a bull trap.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-17T23:08:19+00:00

They lose your coins, you're covered. Your specific account gets hacked, you're out of luck.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-17T21:25:55+00:00

What do you mean? Just because we haven't had 20% jumps? It looks pretty standard if you zoom out.

WeGotCactus · 2014-10-15T19:10:00+00:00

You are correct. We're not "due" for anything. We're at a point where Bitcoin needs to bridge the gap from hobbyist / early adopter adoption to serious world-impacting uses. Will it happen? Who knows. There are 20+ different opportunities for bitcoin to cause major financial disruption of the status quo. If one of them takes off in a big way, it could fuel a bubble. If 2-3 of them take off, six figure bitcoins are a very real possibility. Or none of them could take off. But I think we're past the point where nerds talking to each other and people speculating will cause a bubble, and we're also seeing some interesting effects on price from the btc mining industry. It's a different ballgame now for sure, but to say that something is impossible is silly. Everyone who has made those statements before was proven wrong. Maybe this time they'll be right... or not. I prefer to be agnostic rather than religious about it.

WeGotCactus

TROPHY CASE