Starting now, EV Rider is powered by sunshine.
In this week’s video you’re going to get a first hand look at a solar installation on the rooftop of the home office where EV Rider is produced.
Synergy Solar, here in Jacksonville, FL, recently installed an 8.4 kW system with a 7.6 kW Tesla inverter, which according to Snyergy’s calculations, should meet roughly 88% of my family’s energy needs. That estimate is based on past energy consumption bills.
I don’t want to do any green washing. So if you’re thinking about solar, there’s a lot to consider before knowing whether it makes economic sense for your particular situation.
For example, if you’re going to be taking out a loan, which many do, you’ve got to figure that in because that’s going to make the pay off considerably longer.
Another big consideration is the age of your roof and how many more years you expect it to last.
Remember to ask the solar company what their best guess is for what it would cost to take down those panels and don’t forget to figure inflation into the estimate since labor rates will likely have risen by the time the panels need to come down and be reinstalled.
Another big question you’re going to have is, “how big a system should I get?” In my case, I decided on an 8.4 kW-size system. I decided on that particular size because Synergy forecast that sizing to result in the quickest payoff as compared to other configurations.
I personally didn’t opt for grid-tied battery storage system because my area doesn’t see many power outages and batteries can easily add more than $5,000 to the cost of even a fairly small system.
Whether battery storage is the best way to go for you depends on your budget, where you live, and what your goals for solar are.
My solar system is primarily powered while the sun is in the eastern sky, which isn’t ideal. In a perfect world, you want to have your panels installed facing the southern sky, but the way my home was constructed that wasn’t an option.
Here in Jacksonville we tend to have a lot of afternoon rain in the summer, which made the eastern sky preferable to the western sky since our mornings tend to be clearer on average than our afternoons.
We’ll come back to some more of the economics of solar in a moment, but first, let’s get a sense of what’s involved to get going.
The details will vary between communities but generally speaking, your solar contractor will need to engineer your plan and submit it to your city’s or county’s permitting department.
Depending on where you live you may also need to have your homeowner’s association approve your installation plan.
Once you’ve got the approvals, the installation for a relatively simple system like mine can be done in less than a day.
Abnel Hernandez and the Synergy team moved quickly. “Today we’re doing a residential job, doing a 20 panel installation. 4 on the top [row], six in the middle, and then ten over there,” Abnel said as he pointed to the roof locations of the panels.
Having someone that can navigate small attic crawl spaces is often a key component of solar installations, which is one of Abnel’s specialties, since he’s a relatively short guy.
“Because of my stature, I’m really in demand. I’m the guy that goes into the attic and does the conduit runs from the [solar] array up into the meter,” he said.
Abnel has gained enough experience along his journey to see first-hand that solar has a strong growth path.
“I started in the solar industry over in Colorado and on the West Coast,” he said. “Put it this way, most of the jobs I was doing towards the end of my stay in Colorado were for homes that were being pre-built with solar in them.”
Abnel has become a big believer in sun-generated energy. “I do think that solar is the future, although Florida hasn’t quite caught up with it yet, but you’ll see a lot of it in the West and really outside of the United States. I’ve seen stuff and I’ve read stuff like India, China has a good amount of solar panels.”
China is the world’s largest solar producer. It had a solar cpacity of 710 GW as of June 2024, according to Ornate Solar.
I certainly agree with Abnel’s assessment, especially for people who work from home and have electric vehicles. Our family is now charging two of our EVs during the day to maximize our return on investment.
Because I produce EV Rider from home I can also take advantage of sunny hours for things like running the appliances and of course, my home office.
One of the questions that I can’t give you a definitive answer for is almost always the first one asked, which is: “how long is it going to take to get my money back, as far as getting into the black”
The payback time is all over the map but as a starting point figure on a bare minimum of at least seven years, and likely more for many people. I’ll share my personal costs in a moment.
Another thing to be aware of when sizing your system, you’ll rarely – if ever – see 100% of the panels’ listed power-generating capacity due to all kinds of factors ranging from roof placement, clouds, temperature and more.
For example, because it’s winter at the time of this recording and I’ve only had the panels a few weeks, the highest peak I’ve seen so far is 6.5kW.
Synergy’s Sonny Flores explains as the panels gather power, the system’s inverter turns it into usable energy. “This is the outside look of the Tesla inverter, with the white glass top, which is pretty slick,” he said.
In my case I’ll occasionally have excess power. “If you’re making excess solar you can always send back to the grid. It all depends on whether it’s a sunny day, cloudy day card. It all works hand in hand,” Flores concluded.
That’s where net metering comes in. Many utilities will reimburse you for solar sent back to the grid. Reimbursement rates vary so depending on where you live it may more make financial sense to avoid sending power back to the grid.
Some utilities reimburse you at the retail price (what you pay), while others, like my utility, only reimburse you for the wholesale cost. You’ll want to be sure you fully understand your utility’s solar policy since it will play a big role in determining whether solar makes economic sense for you.
Once the system is installed the next step will be inspections. In my case, the city inspected the work, followed by my utility.
Next, my utility installed a solar meter and the system was switched on. It’s been working flawlessly ever since. I’m using my Tesla app and my utility’s app to track how much powering I’m generating.
For my 8.4 kW system, Synergy predicts I’ll generate roughly 11,000 kWh of electricity a year. My best production day so far in February as been 37.2 kWh. To put that in perspective, that’s enough to fully charge our Mini Cooper SE EV, with power left over.
Daily production averages will increase as the days start getting longer again.
The value of that power is going to depend on where you live. Your home may generate more or less power with the same-sized system, depending on a variety of factors.
Here in Jacksonville, based on today’s rates, Synergy’s production estimate works out to a bit over $1,200 a year. I’ll also get a 30% tax credit worth $6,511 on my taxes. My total cost was $21,705.
I expect to get a faster payback than those numbers indicate due to inflation raising the price of grid power over the years and owning EVs.
That’s because in most places home electricity is cheaper than gas and EV motors are more efficient than gasoline engines.
Based on my utility’s electric rate at the time of this recording, it costs me $10.01 to fill up my Mustang Mach-E at home, thereby multiplying the value of solar as compared to paying for gas.
For a more direct omparison, here are the estimated fueling costs for a gas-powered and EV-powered 2024 MINI Cooper, according to the EPA.
For EV Rider viewers that live in Northeast Florida, I can personally recommend Synergy Solar. They did a thorough job and after spending time with their crew, I came away impressed.
Synergy Solar sponsored this EV Rider advertorial. If you found this post or video useful, please consider sharing it with a friend.