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Joined 1 month ago
Cake day: August 30th, 2025
  • Thorry@feddit.orgtoSolarpunk@slrpnk.net•Do you think rooftop solar will get cheaper after the tax break is gone?
    7·
    29 days ago

    Looked up the invoice for you (rounded the numbers for simplicity):

    Panels (8x) including micro inverters, all of the mounting hardware, cables etc. - $2500 Hardware for upgrading the electrical panel - $400 Labour, various items, delivery costs - $600

    IIRC it was 3 dudes for about half a day. Two dudes for the panels and an electrician that checked what the panel dudes did on the roof and upgraded my electrical panel.

    I felt like it was a pretty good deal. Panels could have been cheaper, but I wanted the full black ones. And a single inverter would have been cheaper than micro inverters, but the panels are partly shaded a lot of the time due to a tree. Calculations I did showed the extra price of the micro inverters would be worth it to get the most out of the panels.

  • Thorry@feddit.orgtoGreen Energy@slrpnk.net•30-year-old solar panels still going strong
    4·
    29 days ago

    Well yes and no. It’s a giant piece of silicon, but it’s also exposed to high energy rays all the time. Panels can suffer from water ingress and then crack when it freezes. They are exposed to all sorts of animals, both big and small that can cause damage. Have their top surfaces get more opaque due to normal erosion. Experience huge swings in temperature every day. Those things can either outright break the panel, or slowly make it less efficient. UV rays alone cause a degradation of around 1% every year. However modern more efficient compact panels suffer more from this than the older kind. So old panels might still be going strong, but give a modern panel the same amount of ageing and it might do a lot worse.