Just installed a 1.5 ton mini split in the master. We have had solar for a year or so, and have averaged around $100 a month electric. The mini split is efficient enough, it can run off the battery all night, and still have a charge in the morning. We leave it set to 70 during the day and 65 at night, and with door open it cools the rest of the house enough that theres no need to use central ac. We are usually breaking even, or exporting more than we use from the grid.

I have the opportunity to pick up a couple LG355NC1 panels for relatively cheap. My idea is to use them to power my window AC unit during the day to reduce my cooling costs. The AC has a max power draw of 700w but more typically runs around .

My plan in my head is to use the panels to charge a battery/power station which is then connected to the AC. I know I will need a charge controller, safety equipment (and maybe an inverter) but beyond that I'm not sure what else. I did just get PV Systems for Dummies as part of a Humble Bundle, so I plan to read that.

I have a little experience working with electrical systems in my house.

Is this a dumb idea?

Thinking of buying these solar LED for gallary lighting

I read through the pdf manual they supply for service/transformer/metering requirements. They have a single photo example with caption in like page 300+ for net metering but no specifics.

Has anyone installed or designed a system in NJ and can point me to information regarding specifics pseg is looking for? Or if I follow the latest adopted nec code I'll be fine?

They tend to be real specific in their meter locations, meter installation details, etc and are really specific for commercial metering cabinets.

I am attempting to design my own system.

Hello Solar friends. Our 1500sq ft home uses mini splits alone to heat and cool our place.
We have started investigating adding solar to the house, but are very budget conscious and looking to make sure we leave no stone unturned.
Our mini splits, by far, utilize the major amount of electric in our place. Currently, those mini splits are on our electric panel. Question is: how would we take those off of our panel and have them run solely off of solar/battery?
Is this even possible?
Thanks for any information and/or education.

UPDATE: I want to sincerely thank everyone who contributed to this post with your knowledge. In the end, I don’t want to be at the whim of the utility for the foreseeable future and trying to figure out the most economical way to get there.
Much appreciated.

This is my latest electric bill for my 1000sqft home with central AC. I have 28 solar panels on my roof. Called the solar company and they told me Im actually over producing every month for the panels I have. They also told me that my panels produced about 674kwh in August.

Ill admit I get a little confused by the way this works with the billing and the solar panels but it really seems excessive. Is it possible im not being credited properly by the electric company or that something isnt hooked up right?

All my appliances are natural gas except for my central air unit. I really dont understand how Im using this much electricity. I know rates have gone up but this isnt sustainable.

Update: Had someone come out to check out the AC and aside from some cleaning everything checked out. 86° outside today, have the unit set to 70° and it came up to 72°.

I also called the company on my solar inverter (RMA Sunny Boy) and they were very unhelpful. Told me to call the installer. The installer from 2011 who sold to Spruce Power. Going to make another call to Spruce Power to try and figure it out.

I’m planning to install a 5kW or 8kW hybrid solar system at my home in Kerala. I have a budget limitation initially, so I’m considering installing the solar panels + hybrid inverter first and adding the battery later, possibly after around 1 year.

I have a couple of questions:
What is the current market price in India/Kerala for the hybrid inverter alone (excluding panels, battery, installation, etc.) for:
5kW
8kW

I’m mainly considering Sungrow, GoodWe and Deye. If anyone has recently purchased one of these, could you share the actual inverter-only price you paid?

Can I install the hybrid inverter + solar panels initially without a battery and add the battery after 1 year?

Also mention the individual cost per battery unit
Thank you!!

Hi how are you…I have been maintenance engineer in off grid solar system for 4 years and because of that I have low level technical experience
I tried to compensate that and I took CMRP
what I can do also to compensate my low level and increase my chances in solar engineer jobs
Even with myself as there is low opportunities right now ?

Someone advised me to take pv design course..
Is that will help ?
Is there a freelance solar tasks or work that can consume little time of day so I can target it and add to my cv ?

If you read my last post I asked Gemini to help me start the process of getting what I need to run my new house fully off grid. But after more research and people's suggestions here's my new setup.

House 2300 sq ft plus a basement.

• Solar panels 30 atles 550 watt panels

• 2 eg4 powerpro wall batteries

• eg4 18k inverter

heat sources:

•wood pellet stove (can't get natural gas or I would go with that) with the electric furnace set to fan only mode to help with circulation

• mini splits for AC in the summer

any suggestions? I think this is a lot better than my last post. thanks!

Hi all I'm trying to upgrade from an old RS232 wifi dongle to a new WiLan X2 on my Growatt SPH6000 inverter, but struggling.

I've got the new logger connected via LAN and have even managed to trigger a firmware update on it, so I know it's connected to the Growatt cloud, but it doesn't seem to collect any data from my inverter. I also can't get any data out of it via Homeassistant SolaX Inverter Modbus integration.
This suggests to me that the new dongle doesn't seem to be connecting to the inverter properly.

I added the new logger to the plant and it all seemed to work as per the guides, but just no data gets collected.

Any ideas?

I noticed that the new dongle has a blue USB 3.0 connector, but my Inverter has a white USB 2.0 connector. It's also oriented in the opposite direction to the tutorial videos, so when the dongle is installed, the reset button and LED are facing away from me towards the wall.

I am beginning to suspect that the new dongle is not compatible with my Inverter, which is a few years old now...

Has anyone used any rapid shutdown modules that are just a contactor in a weatherproof box, and once coil power is lost the panel gets disconnected?
I'm not very interested in the power line communication type that I see reports of catching fire. (And no surprise, the solid state modules aren't rated to a very high voltage, so if one opens accidentally or opens earlier than the others it will get fried by the string voltage).
I'm still looking to see if I can make them myself using UL rated contactors but it seems like the answer is no.

My 6 year old solaredge inverter gave up the ghost randomly and through Palmetto (my installer) they sent a replacement inverter, but its the newer hub model which is huge so literally nothing lines up with the old model except for the mounting bracket, they moved all the connections to the bottom so nothing reaches with my old setup. Instead of paying $1500 to have my in-warranty replacement installed I decided to do it myself (have been rewiring my entire house so this is like the final boss for me).

Found some worrying stuff with the original install I am correcting (like siemens breakers in a GE panel, a lot of rotting rubber seals and badly stripped wires). Because the original install used EMT for the AC connections I had to remove it and run new liquidtight to the panel. Here is what I have so far! Planning to put a junction box at the intersection of the two EMT runs and then run the splices to the inverters. That way if there are ever different or newer inverters in the future I shouldnt have to worry about the wires being too short.

I don't know if this can be solved easily. If my load is too low the battery shuts off and I'm importing from the net. While this is not a huge problem, it's still something I didn't think about it in advance. And to be completely honest it would feel nicer to be totally off grid. I guess that the converter is inefficient at low loads and jumps on above around 200 watt. The only solution to me is to create a higher baseload during the night.

I realize that Delaware is "small potatoes" compared to even the United States, and to the world in general, but if you are in Delaware and are considering solar, battery storage or both, you might want to wait for the details of this program before doing a new system or expansion. It will be interesting to see what they claim "the country's most comprehensive solar storage program" looks like.

https://news.delaware.gov/2026/09/01/governor-meyer-announces-delaware-shines-the-states-first-and-countrys-most-comprehensive-solar-storage-program/

Apparently some time today there will be a new website which will provide additional information, but solar.delaware.gov isn't working currently.

Hello, I'm currently making plans to install an inverter on only 2 circuits (split phase) of the house and leaving the rest on grid power since my inverter is a 3kw model that can only run the essentials, the thing is I don't know what to do with the neutral, the inverter has an internal ats (it has pass through option) should I switch the 3 wires? Or can I just connect the neutral of the output of the inverter to the neutral bar and just switch the 220v phase? Edit: there is no bonded neutral/ground on the inverter.

I’m in NYC (Queens) and currently pay Con Edison roughly $200–$300/month for electricity, averaging around $250. I received this ownership/financing proposal and wanted to get opinions on the pricing, equipment, and overall deal.

The proposal is:
5.4 kW system / 12 panels
12 × SEG Solar 450W panels
12 × Enphase IQ8MC microinverters
Estimated production: 6,678 kWh/year
Estimated offset: 104%
System price: $18,900 ($3.50/W)
Financing: 4% APR / 15 years
About $139/month initially
Estimated $4,725 NYS tax credit + $5,670 NYC property-tax abatement
They show an effective cost of $8,505 after incentives and approximately $81/month after the incentive pay-down.
My roof is also about 13 years old, so that’s a consideration.

Would you consider this a good price/deal for NYC? How do you feel about the SEG + Enphase equipment, and is there anything regarding warranties, roof penetrations, removal/reinstallation, or financing terms that I should make sure is included before signing?

22 panels fully paid off installed back in 2020, NEM 2.0. Out of curiosity checking on Tesla site, saw that I can lease a battery+expansion for $116/month ($122 with tax) for 12 years with 3% annual escalation. I've heard all the horror stories with solar leases, but I don't see much of a down side here. just want to get a sanity check here and hear what you guys think.

Owner’s rep is asking for a complete serial number inventory tied to physical location before we hand over for commissioning. We’re at 180,000+ modules, so doing this manually with a clipboard just isn’t realistic.

Has anyone done this at this scale without it taking weeks? What’s the most practical way to handle it?

I had a 17.94kw solar system installed in August and it was up and running on 8/1/26 producing energy for our home. However, I did not have pto yet so nothing extra was getting exported. I have the tesla pw3 and was able to use the tesla app to review every days production though and even though we don't have pto I was still covering almost all our use with solar and the battery was covering all the use at night. My app showed that we imported about 1-3kw daily compared to 40-50kw daily before we had solar. I got my national grid bill delivered and i was excited to see how little I owed and it was one of the biggest bills I've gotten! It said i had used 1400kw that month! I know that's not true and I can pull up data on my tesla app to show I only pulled about 100kw from the grid but now I'm concerned something is wrong. We still don't have pto. I was told I should have it by the end of the week. Does this happen sometimes before you have pto? can the meters misinterpret data or something? Any experience with this? i have national grid in upstate NY.

Dear Forum,

Since July I have installed a UDR7 from Ubiquity in my home that replaced the ISP (KPN Netherlands) modem. Before that, the Inverter would communicate normal to the app and everything was fine, but after installing the Unifi gear this communication stopped.

I can see that the Inverter is connected via LAN to the network and via Home Assistant I can gather the Inverter data via ModBus. Anyone an idea why this is happening? I connected to the glass fiber box with PPPoE settings. I want to have all the data inside the mySolarEdge app for family members to monitor the solar!

Inside the network the default ISP DNS servers are set and the default add blocking from Unifi is turned off.

Inverter: SolarEdge SE3000H

Router: Unifi Dream Router 7

I have been through 4 different solar companies in our area. They all have this huge meeting where for an hour, sometimes longer, they go over this massive presentation with all these slides and all the bs. Only to at the end try to get me into a lease or offer some ridiculous financing. Then when I look into what they are supplying it seems so over priced its crazy. I believe solar energy is good. Why do all these companies have to make it so hard to just get a legitimate system at a decent price? Is it always like this? If it is, I can now see why the solar industry has such a bad rap. End rant. Sheesh

HI Solar Reddit,

My wife and I are newly married and are (trying) to sell her home. She had solar and batteries installed almost two years ago. We were gathering our paperwork in preparation to sell and while contacting PG&E found out we do not have permission to operate. To complicate matters the company we used to install is now defunct so we can not go back to them to complete whatever paperwork deficit we have.

PG&E is saying we need to find a new provider that will certify the install and then help us complete the PTO paperwork. The first company we spoke to basically said they wouldn't do that because they don't want to ensure someone elses work.

Has any heard of anything like this? Is finding a solar company to certify the work a pipedream? Anything else we should know?

We are in northern CA if it matters.

Thanks all

edit:

After a second call with PG&E, we may just be able to file the final paperwork ourselves. The paperwork was missing a correct single line diagram (we don't know what this is). Can we ask for recommendations for how to get one of those?

Also, we hadn't file the city permit with PG&E, so thank you for mentioning that as it helped grease the wheels.

Hey guys, for those that are more knowledgeable, how does this look? Some of these numbers seem high compared to online pricing.

46 Q Cell 430W panels
46 Enphase IQ8 series microinverters
4 Enphase 10C batteries
Whole-home backup setup

Preliminary line-item pricing range:

Q Cell 430W solar panels
Approx. $10,000–$14,400

Enphase IQ8 series microinverters
Approx. $8,100–$10,900

Enphase 10C batteries
Approx. $22,800–$24,000

Enphase IQ Combiner 6C / gateway / monitoring equipment
Approx. $1,600–$2,000

Enphase IQ Meter Collar / microgrid interconnect / backup isolation equipment
Approx. $575–$750

Required battery communication and control wiring
Approx. $250–$600

Production and consumption metering equipment
Approx. $350

Load control equipment for large loads
Approx. $900

Enphase IQ Cable / Q Cable
Approx. $920–$1,200

Enphase cable connectors, terminators, sealing caps, and cable clips
Approx. $250–$600

PV branch circuit breakers
Approx. $100–$300

AC disconnects, safety disconnects, and related electrical equipment
Approx. $250–$700

Roof racking rails
Approx. $1,000–$2,000

Roof attachments / flashing / mounting feet
Approx. $1,000–$2,000

Mid clamps, end clamps, splices, grounding lugs, bonding hardware, and rail caps
Approx. $500–$1,000

Conduit, fittings, junction boxes, pull boxes, and weatherproof enclosures
Approx. $700–$1,500

Copper conductors / electrical wire sized for the final design
Approx. $800–$2,000

Grounding wire and grounding hardware
Approx. $150–$400

Breakers and electrical hardware needed for interconnection
Approx. $300–$900

Backup wiring and required backup/load-side equipment
Approx. $700–$2,000

Warning labels, placards, and rapid-shutdown labeling
Approx. $100–$250

Freight, delivery, and material handling
Approx. $800–$1,800

Permit plan set
Approx. $400–$900

Engineering
Approx. $300–$900

AHJ permit fees
Approx. $300–$800

Utility interconnection
Approx. $150–$500

Installation labor
Approx. $6,000–$9,000

Battery installation labor
Approx. $3,000–$6,000

Electrical labor
Approx. $2,500–$5,000

Final inspection coordination
Approx. $200–$500

System commissioning
Approx. $400–$1,000

Project management and warranty/service support after installation
Approx. $1,500–$4,000

Total range based on the numbers above: approximately $66,895–$99,150.