😂 Going off grid with government's help. Ok. Shit would be half price if government is out of it.

It's a pretty good experiment, although I'd have done it differently myself. More solar and insulation for instance. *Less expensive to maintain and install* components like geothermal. I'd have even considered ground based solar instead of putting it on the roof. I do understand your methodology and it did work out for you, assuming no unforeseen maintenance issues arise. I do expect for solar, batteries, and air to air systems to improve significantly in the next 10-20 years. And for the costs to come way down. You're definitely an early adopter in this stage. I hope you get your ROI sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the video and insights. The only refinement I would suggest for your ROI model is to include the opportunity loss in the money spent on the investments over the 30 year time span assuming you paid for these expenses upfront and in full. For example instead of investing the full ~$90k in solar, what if you have invested that ~$90k in the S&P index fund (you choose the return rate you are comfortable with) over the same period taking withdrawals to pay for energy costs at what ever frequency you want? I do believe you will achieve a positive return but it will be more accurate.

It’s worth it but… for example half of my my 8yr old solar panels (Canadian Solar) died and replacing them was a problem because they don’t manufacture that form factor (length x width) any more. I did find a different manufacturer that came close to fitting, and was able to install them myself. ALSO, all that high tech equipment (heat pumps, batteries, etc) will crap out at some point. Repair / replacing them will cost money as nothing today will last like your parent’s old telephone did.

Damn prices and solutions is nuts for European

😢The longest I have ever lived in one house is 10 years. It doesn’t make sense to spend $90,000 on Solar, which is about 35 years of gas and electricity. I doubt the person buying my house will not reimburse me for the cost.

Does the financial analysis including financing costs and the "discount" factor? For instance, if the up-front cost of the solar panels, geothermal heat pump, etc. is borrowed, you have to pay interest on the loan; even portions of the cost that you get back as tax credits is money that still has to be borrowed, and still accrues interest for a year until the tax return is processed. Alternatively, if you pay for everything up front out of savings, the interest cost gets replaced with foregone investment returns that could have been earned by sticking with a convention system and stuffing the money representing the cost difference into the stock market. Which, considering the historical 30-year return of the S&P 500, can be quite significant.

You briefly mentioned Tesla collecting 20% of a home buyers tax credit. Could you elaborate?

Here’s the one issue I see - no mention of interest on payments. The vast majority of people don’t have a spare $50-80k to pay for solar outright. This increases the cost dramatically

Both of these houses have cleared their trees from their plots. The irony

They're death traps.

I'm in the process of getting some installed.

So with zero service, no new batteries, nothing it would only take me 36 years to pay off the initial investment of $88,000. The math doesn't work but if you are doing an unlimited funds new build why not, the funds are unlimited.

The notion that solar is "so cheap" is an utter joke considering the amount of subsidy the industry is provided, the end user should be paying about 1/3 of what it still currently costs to install solar on a standard home. It's still incredibly cost-prohibitive to the average homeowner and the companies stuff their pockets with billions of taxpayer dollars.

What we REALLY need is a Solid State economy, instead of this rollercoster inflation-to-recession crap.

06:01 You lost me on the first mention of a MWh at 06:01. Would you mind running through those numbers one more time? 😅🤣😂

Over a 35 year time span, you are paying more than double than we do for just paying the electric company? Quick estimate shows you are paying about 250 a month for more than 30 years?? And that doesn't even touch the geo thermal. Absolutely a rip off. Figuring in your heat and water, we pay less than 30% of your bills. I know area matters. We are in Colorado with natural gas. Average rise in cost over the last 25 years has been about 3%. Your area costs for normal electric and gas must be insane. Those costs here I would have to be in the same house more than 100 years.

Curious if you tried to calculate this using price adjusted for projected inflation... would also help to show retirement income requirements to stave off increasing energy rates.

Prologium

What about those companies that advertise "free" solar panels, where they get the money from the power company when they generate more than you use? Is that a scam?

My main takeaway from this, omg some ya'lls electric bills are outragous! If i pay $2000/year that'd mean we had a hard winter and hard summer....

Lol ive been hearing so much about these heat pumps from Americans and ive been trying to figure out what the hell they are on about. Turns out they are just referring to what aussies consider normal air conditioning for a house, more precisely reverse cycle a/c which means they can heat as well. They are something thats been common in most homes since i was a kid and im 42!! Has Americans only just discovered air conditioning? What did they use before? Lol

We shouldn’t be reducing energy consumption as a goal. Just increasing efficiency.

Amazing what you wanted to pay for this PV. And WHY Enphase? In Europa you can have 16kWp for €1,00/kWp. Battery is 1/3 of your enphase price. Meaning that we can have this for about €22k instead of $88k

Make sure you buy several plinth filters, and when they are clogged, it needs to be washed and let air dry for 24 hours. I am a Miele technician that services there units in Indiana.

Seems like the forecasting of the panels, heatpump water heater and the Geo AC paying for themselves and being ahead in 20 yrs or so is nuts . The heat pump water heaters will be lucky to last 8-10 yrs, the panels will not last 12 yrs at full strength, and the Geo AC wont last 15 yrs if you are lucky. So you way over paid for the panels and the ROI on the well tap for GEO is crazy high. Thanks for the break down on the info

It's been in the back of my mind to do something like this for my next home. Good video. Thanks

Worst thing i did was getting solar, not worth the money now i am stuck with it

The installers ripped you as they worked out you are rich youtuber. I paid 11k gbp for 10kW of solar PV with 8kW luxpower inverter and maybe 3k for 5 X 48v75ah sodium batteries of own design from China. I think i am first in uk to have SiB at home.

I’m interested to how long and in what amount this battery tec will use to become awailable in comersial shipping. But how resesitant it is for eg thermal runaway Li-Po batteries have the fun disadvantage to be easy to get there and impossible to put out.

The cheapest & easiest way to save money on your utility bills is to reduce your consumption, the less you use the cheaper it is regardless of whether you're off grid or not.

You got ripped off so hard on these costs.

I would, but it won't.

It sounds like in most cases you need at least a 15 year horizon to feel worth it.

THANK YOU for this valuable follow-up and analysis. I did a DIY 25KW array (57 panels) in Virginia, before I sold the home for a profit. No batteries, grid-tied microinverter system. The property should be carbon negative beyond 2050. There's additional margin to power two electric cars. VA also banks surplus KWH in a yearly cycle. CONSIDER: SRECs (Solar Renewable Energy Certificates). You should be able to get cash for each MWH generated. Google it. My system was about $49K before the 30% federal tax credit. The system is carefully put together to last and has been zero maintenance. It looks amazing and is a point of pride, the accomplishment of one of my life's goals. Once perovskite panels are widespread, the costs should decrease dramatically. Solar will be the future of energy generation.

How are you going to beaat the influence of the petrochemical industry? Up there with the gun lobby, pharmaceutical, tobbacco, et al

How much seaweed is their?

You keep mixing up panel and cell. Please look up the definition of solar cell vs solar panel. It’s very simple.

88k for that system is ridiculous. We set up a 99kWp system with 85kWh battery for 120.000€ last year here in Germany.

Thank you for sharing the data. I'm curious about repair/replacement of different systems over the year.

Can I hire you as a consultant to help build my house? Construction will start in approximately four years.

In the meantime, could there be research and development toward safer refrigerants to replace the HFC ones? Not to compete, but to address the problems in the short term with solid state taking its place in the long term.

don't take financial advice from this fella. thats all i got to say lmao

and how would it compare to paying for itself vs replacing the batteries?

Induction stoves have inconsistent heat - too many spikes and dips...

Interesting. If you are not prepared to make a few sacrifices, solar PV and batteries will disappoint. I live with 20kWh batteries, and single 8kW inverter and 8 x 540W plus 4 x 355W PV. That allows me to live off the grid on a small holding, running the whole house and 2 x 1.2 kW pumps and an electric water heater in Summer and propane powered water heater in the Winter.

In a refrigerator you should profit of the mechanical work in opening and closing the doors so you recover a little bit of human energy 😉

Keep up the awesome work

I live in Southern California, so our 5 KW system has always more than covered out electricity use. It's zeroed out about $2000 worth of electric bills since we installed it. We very rarely have outages, so a grid-tied system with no batteries has worked fine for us. I designed it and installed it myself, with no installer or lease. My only outside labor cost was for a concrete pump operator, but he just ran the pump while I directed the hose filling the forms. We got rid of a leased propane tank and converted everything to electric. We do just heat or cool the rooms we are in, so cheap space heaters and window AC works fine. Considering the tax credit we got, my payback period will be less than 6 years. We even have enough surplus electric credit we can run AC for our dogs!

We are still waiting on the advent of quantum cooling.