Been researching it for a year.

im looking at between 5 and 6 kw. thats probably as big as i can go w/o cutting down trees which i wont do

i figure the panels im looking at will offset somewhere between 35-45%

Most systems are scalable, but an oversized inverter in the beginning can save costs later, and conductors and other components need to be sized to the larger potential system, should you decide to add modules.

What do you want to know specifically?

If residential, be sure to get competitive bids, two or three.

For a big commercial project, I sent an RFP to 18 vendors, heard back from five.

After negotiations Solar City got the job.

Then, $5/watt was a good deal, now it's kind of high.

Be sure to be familiar with your local incentive programs, be careful about warranties, inverters don't last forever.

Good luck!

Many of the vendors were small and local.

I wanted the project to include online data-monitoring.

I also insisted on prevailing wage pay for laborers (union scale).

Completed our 1st year and are extremely pleased. We live in Texas and got a deal from Oncor that paid for about half the cost plus a tax deduction. It's about 672 sq. ft. 32 panels and produces 16,000 kilowatt hours per year. Air Wind and Solar installed it and handled all the negotiations with Oncor.

and have been thinking about installing solar panels.
With out seeming nosy, can you give me a ball park figure on the panels and
installation? I know it depends on the house, but I am curious.

Since we didn't have a south facing roof and had to much shade in our yard, they had to build a roof of solar panels over our boat dock which raised the cost. The house is all electric and the main house is about 3,000 sq.ft., the panels have reduced our bills about 1/2. Electric heat is a killer, so the savings in winter are considerable.

How did you get a 50% savings on the panels/installation?
Aprox how how much is Tax deduction ( I know that I should look this stuff up
but I'm glad to talk talk to someone first hand.)

Have you figured out in what time frame the costs of energy savings will
more or less pay for the initial expenditure?

...but declined due to cost/benefit.

For the 3.24 KW system:
$14,588 total Price installed
-$3,240 State cash incentive

Which required a $11,348 cash outlay

from which I could realize (as per the quote) $7,213 in tax deferments (over 5 years)

Net cost (after 5 years)
$4,135

Too much initial outlay for me for only a 3.24 KW system.

I don't use much electricity to begin with (last month's bill was for 389 kwh and $63) so it would take awhile to pay off the system.

Plus, it was my understanding that any excess that your solar system produces is only credited at the cost of the electricity alone and not the cost ($0.06967/kwh) + delivery ($0.04269/kwh), as what you pay in the bill.

So, for now I am investing in LED lights and energy efficient appliances.

For the future, my conceptual plan to build my own system mounted on poles and hire an electrician to tie it in later.

Hope this helps

solar and wind.

What hurts a nation trying to trim its carbon foot print is the increases in energy used, as well as the harm if the energy is fossil fuel based.

And remember - for $ 3 you can replace the most energy using machine in your household with wind/solar. The device is called a clothesline.

No place to put it and be efficient. Also, in northern Illinois, the efficiency already drops 40% when the sun angle gets toward the dark season.

So, in the winter, they'd be practically useless. Would that it were otherwise.

Not having gotten the estimates yet I don't know the actual cost but the ballpark guess is 12-15k for a 5kw system. I don't get any utility rebates but would get a federal tax deduction of 30%. That would bring the cost down to 8500-12k. If I assume 10k cost my payback time would be 11-12 years and that's without electricity price hikes

what Kw system would you need to realize a savings of 30%?
You didn't know there was going to be math involved did you? lol

here the link (its for austin but you can have it give numbers for other cities)
http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/calculators/pvwatts/version1/US/Texas/Austin.html

and have reported that their summer AC bill has been cut nearly in half.

This coming electric bill may be a credit, instead of a 'you owe us' bill on our net-metered system. Solar works, even here in Seattle!

We will also get a check at the end of the year for overall production (capped at $5000); last year we got about $1100, for 3 months of production (the system was installed 3 months before they did the annual meter reading for production incentive payments). This year we'll be getting the full year's production incentive.

Check with your local utilities - we got in under a program called SolarizeWA that saved us a bunch on hardware and contractors. They go out and organize group-buys in neighborhoods, and you get a good break on the bulk price of panels and inverters, then they had 2 contractors pre-screened to do exactly the same work for the same price. It was a part of the NW SEED program - you may have something similar in your area.

Good luck! We're loving it! We also have a 40-tube solar water heating system. All of the solar we have will manage to pay for itself in about 6 years!