The panels were the least expensive part tbh. My area is sunny much of the year but we have had several power outages in winter and what I was originally seeking was redundancy, so I overspec’d the battery (the largest cost.) I also got a larger inverter than I strictly needed. So, if my goal was purely economic I could have reduced the spend by more than half. But for transparency 16kw of solar panels + 20kw inverter + 60kwh of batteries+ labor ran about €30k. This buys me assurance of being able to withstand significant outages to the grid any time of year. Since early June when the installation completed we’ve been totally off-grid. Ironically it has made me way more stingy with limiting my energy waste having a more detailed awareness of the impact various activities and appliances use. Ive got things automated so that it charges the car only during peaks when we have abundant excess production.
My advice would be to find a way to track your power usage. If you can monitor and graph it then you’ll notice things like running the dishwasher takes close to 1kw. The more you know about your use the better you can determine how much solar you need to offset it, and also (the expensive part)'how much battery storage matters for you (for example overnight load.)
The panels were the least expensive part tbh. My area is sunny much of the year but we have had several power outages in winter and what I was originally seeking was redundancy, so I overspec’d the battery (the largest cost.) I also got a larger inverter than I strictly needed. So, if my goal was purely economic I could have reduced the spend by more than half. But for transparency 16kw of solar panels + 20kw inverter + 60kwh of batteries+ labor ran about €30k. This buys me assurance of being able to withstand significant outages to the grid any time of year. Since early June when the installation completed we’ve been totally off-grid. Ironically it has made me way more stingy with limiting my energy waste having a more detailed awareness of the impact various activities and appliances use. Ive got things automated so that it charges the car only during peaks when we have abundant excess production.
My advice would be to find a way to track your power usage. If you can monitor and graph it then you’ll notice things like running the dishwasher takes close to 1kw. The more you know about your use the better you can determine how much solar you need to offset it, and also (the expensive part)'how much battery storage matters for you (for example overnight load.)