I am wanting to dive into the solar power world.  After doing my fair share of research on YouTube I feel confident that solar is a great way to go for helping to lower our energy bill and emergency uses.  The area I live in is the least populated area of our electrical service.  That means when the power goes out bigly, like it did with Ian, we are in the very last 200 homes to get turned on.  2 weeks was quite a long stretch to live on generators.  I say that because we were lucky that the gas station 4 miles away had power and fuel available.  I did have 25 gallons of non-ethanol for the generator.  However, in a really bad situation where gas is unobtainable, I would have been screwed after a few days.  

I am not sure if it is a project that I want to take on myself, or if it is better to contract it.  Can anyone here recommend a trustworthy Solar contractor in the Tampa area?  I know I am asking a lot.  But I cannot seem to find someone that is more than an LLC with a website just launched last week.    177 reviews with an average score of 2.6 out of 5 with a BBB rating of A+ .

I would feel more confident hiring a pool contractor at this point.

@BenChoad unfortunately I don't have any good recommendations, but your perception is correct--The solar world is full of companies whose business model depends on ripping people off. Usually it involves long-term financing that is much less of a deal than the sales guy would have you think (they won't tell you that a big chunk of your "purchase price" is actually buying down your interest rate, for example).  I did training with a few companies trying to get into solar sales but by the time I got all my questions answered it was obvious I didn't want to have anything to do with it.

If you want a turnkey solution, I believe the best prices available are from Tesla if they are doing installations in your area. Just go to their website and you can check the pricing, there are no salespeople to talk to.

However, if you have the space for it you should definitely investigate the DIY route.  Ground mount is pretty simple, there are companies who will sell you a kit with everything you need. You will definitely have to do some homework to figure out permitting and interfacing with your power provider, at some point you will probably have to get an electrical contractor involved to get connected to the grid, but a lot of the work and installation can be done with simple tools and you will save a bunch of money compared to paying a contractor to do a roof installation.

Unfortunately, if your primary concern is emergency power you probably will conclude that it isn't worth it. Most systems are sold based on the goal of minimizing the monthly power bill--system size is calculated to provide net annual production equal to your net annual consumption.  So the sales pitch is that you will have a net neutral impact on your monthly bill until the system is paid off, then you have major savings on your utility bills for the life of the system.

Once the power goes out, you will not have access to any energy your system is supplying unless you have a battery system. But batteries are expensive, and they don't have the life span of the panels. So you could pay tens of thousands of dollars for a solar system with batteries, and 10 years later when you finally have a major storm come through and your power is out for 2 weeks, your batteries will be at the end of their rated life already!

The better the battery technology gets, the better your options will be. But for hurricane preparation there is still no substitute for a generator and fuel storage.  

That being said, there are plenty of companies that will sell you a system with batteries for $30,000 or more if you want to make the payments. My friend just spent $60,000 on his system with batteries, but he figures it will at least pay for itself over the lifespan so that's good enough for him.

My advice is to separate the two (solar and emergency power) unless you are fine with making it a luxury purchase. If the big one ever comes through you will love having a big solar system with big batteries. But otherwise, have a generator big enough to provide 220 volts, install a cheap manual transfer switch at your meter, manage your loads with your breaker panel, and store 12  5 gallon cans of gas that you rotate through your car one a month.  That way you will always have 60 gallons of good gas on hand no matter what happens, and you won't have to fight everybody else at the gas station when a storm is 5 days out.  Back that up with a siphon system to empty your vehicle tanks if needed and you will be fine.

Thank you for the reply.  
I do have the room, tools, and possibly the intelligence to complete a DIY ground install.  A ground install or possibly a new car port with panels for a roof.  That is the direction I wish to go.  The battery issue is the only issue.  I know that I would need them to store the energy for nighttime.  However, in the daytime it seems plenty of people are powering their items directly.
That being said I am just tired of the genies.  I am tired of the fuel routines.  I live in BFE, and we are the last ones to get any attention from TECO in our area.  When Ian came through a tree fell on a power line on our dirt road.  Once we had run through our gas reserves it was either live in the dark or hope to God that line is not hot when we cut the tree.  We cut the tree.  10 days later we had power.  

@BenChoad I know the feeling, I'm fortunate that I had relatives within a few hours with space for us, but Irma knocked out our power and I think we were down to the last 200 addresses before we got it back!

I think the ideal solar panel set up is multipurpose. I don't like the idea of all the roof penetrations, though the best possible setup I know of is metal roofing with no penetration mounting, they have clamps that grab the ribs of the roofing.

But otherwise, a system that provides shade for vehicles or other activities that is independent of the system that keeps water out of your house seems like a great idea!

How much extra you have to spend on batteries depends on what you want the batteries to do. For example, if you just want to access your energy production while the sun is out, you could probably do that with a small battery system, just enough that the code will allow you to keep your power on while the grid is down. During the day with the sun out you might be getting enough electricity you could even power a small air conditioner.

The problem is what you want to do at night. If all you need to do is keep your fridge cold and keep a fan blowing on you while you sleep, then again a small relatively affordable battery system might be sufficient. It's relatively easy to run the calculations. But as soon as you add even running a small air conditioner all night, your battery needs go up significantly and that's where you end up spending a lot of money.

Again, go to Tesla's site and you can probably find the best price for panels plus as many batteries as you think you need. But the good news is that other companies have been pursued a battery market as well, so once you get an idea of the size you need it should be pretty easy to shop around for other options. Last I heard the Enphase micro-inverters were considered the best way to do it, and they also have their own battery system to pair with it.

Here's a random example I got from Google:

https://www.gogreensolar.com/products/4-kw-solar-10-kwh-ensemble-backup-power-kit

That's not a lot of panels, but a decent amount of battery for a low-demand use case. When you decide to get serious, I'm sure you can find a site where you can build your own system exactly how you want it.

It's been mentioned the batteries are the trouble point with solar. A Tesla powerwall is $10,000 in the box. You may hate gennys but if you are gonna DIY a solar system you could be well served by a smaller propane standby generator tied into your house. I've got a 11kw does everything I need runs everything critical, well fridge freezers and powers 1 AC unit. The gas runs an on demand hot water heater too. Change the oil and filters. Propane never goes bad sits in the tank waiting. It's ridiculous how much I love this thing. Run times depend on tank size. I'm 20 days pretty much anything goes to 60 days of relative comfort running the generator in cycles before I need gas. Most gas companies are set up and plan to be dropping fuel 3 days after an event. Of course you have to have the trees out of the way.

Good point, propane removes some of the downsides of generators. Fuel doesn't go bad, and if you never run gas through it you shouldn't have to worry about clogging.

I'm an aircraft mechanic and have a tip for those of you that have gasoline generators.  You can run them on 100LL (Low Lead) avgas (aviation gas) that you can keep in long-term storage in 5-gallon military jerry cans or whatever you have for fuel storage.  I keep multiple 5-gallon stainless steel jerry cans full of avgas at my house just for emergency use in my gasoline generator.  The great thing about avgas is it is very stable for long-term storage and doesn't go bad and gum up the fuel system like crappy car gas does.  Look how long airplanes sit in storage outside with fuel in the tanks.  As long as you make sure water/dirt/debris doesn't get into your fuel supply, you're good to go.  I keep my avgas stored in stainless steel jerry cans because I had a past problem with rust on the inside of regular steel jerry cans contaminating the gas.  Plastic (polyethylene) gas cans should be okay, as long as you don't keep them stored out in the open sunlight where they'll degrade and get brittle/split/crack from the sun's heat and UV rays.  I also run all my lawn equipment on avgas and I can leave the gas in the fuel tanks over the winter months without having to use any fuel stabilizers like STABIL, and all my lawn equipment starts up on the first or second pull at the beginning of the next summer mowing season without any problems at all.  Avgas costs about a dollar or two more per gallon than car gas, depending on where you live and where you buy it from.  You'll have to shop around for the lowest price.  If you have a friend that's a pilot and/or airplane owner, he might be able to fill your gas cans at the gas pumps at the local airfield where he flys in/out of.  Or you can sometimes find a local fuel/oil dealer or distributor that stocks avgas at their location in 55 gallon drums for dispensing in smaller quantities to retail customers.  Hope this helps with your long-term fuel storage needs.

Best Regards,
Vic

@m2hbvic How would you compare that to ethanol-free gas available at some stations?

@CMiller
Avgas is far more long-term stable than any automotive fuel, ethanol or not.

I've had avgas stored for 2 years with no noticeable degradation and have used avgas in the Bahamas Out Islands in my old plane that had been stored for who knows how long.

Good to know, thanks!

Affordable Solar Roof and Air .  My experience is they are a very professional company.

I just had a 14.4KW system installed on my house.  I worked with Equity Solar.  I was aware of the financing schemes promising to offset your power bill with the cost of solar panels.  In this case I was contacted by Duke Energy and asked to schedule an "energy audit".  I was skeptical but I was curious about a few things so I moved forward with it.  This program that Duke is offering is they upgraded a few things in my house at no cost to me.  They installed the system and I am essentially paying for a service contract or lease of sorts.  There's no loan and they never even ran my credit.  The energy auditor focused in on a couple things right away.  I have two AC systems; one is very old.  My electric water heater, the single speed pool pump, and the old insulation in my attic.  They offered to improve all these high usage items so they could better predict my monthly usage.  They're using "Inflation Reduction Act" funds to pay for these upgrades.  I can only imagine that any little bit of reduced load on the grid may help so that's how they're choosing to spend this money.  

It's a 25-yr contract and is fully transferrable.  I ran the numbers - it could potentially save me $100k over the next 25 yrs.

In the end, I got a nuisance tree removed, a new AC system, a new hybrid water heater, a new variable speed pool pump, an additional layer of insulation in my house, and two wi-fi thermostats at NO COST.  If the panels get damaged, Duke replaces them.  The only downside I've come up with so far is that if I need to replace the roof, I'll need to pay to have the panels removed and replaced.  I may still have a bit of a power bill a few months out of the year because it's based on my average usage.  I'm waiting now for Duke to switch me over as it was just installed.  I'm optimistic and it's been pretty painless so far.  I'm up in Longwood, FL but I'm sure they'd service Tampa too.

@Erik72 sounds like you did pretty well with that deal. Did they offer you the option of adding batteries for outages?

which unit do you have im looking for one for the new house....  i am having a 500 gal LP tank installed so

I did a Generac 11KW with an automatic transfer switch. It's small for a whole house but can do everything you really need. (No dryer No range/stove)
Davis Gas out of Gainesville did the gas work I dug the trenches and final wiring on the generator. I did an addition for an Inlaw suite several years ago and the addition uses the transfer panel as its sub panel so my electricians wired everything into the transfer panel and I pulled some circuits into the rest of the house. I had no real cost to wire it up since it was basically new construction.

Buddy got some estimates on a 26kw Generac and 2 contractors put the total including gas work at about 17k. That kinda makes solar more attractive.

No.  It never came up.  I have a feeling what's going to happen is the excess energy produced is going back into the system and will offset my higher-than-normal usage.

@Erik72 yeah that's how It works, any excess you don't use goes back to the grid and you get a credit on your bill, the exchange is one to one, so it works out pretty well for you.

The problem is that if the grid goes down you could be producing a bunch of electricity when the sun is out but you can't access it unless you have a battery system with a transfer switch. It would be interesting to see if they will let you add that if you pay for it, the cost would mainly depend on how big a battery capacity you want to pay for.

One possibility of cutting your costs is to have a hybrid setup where you combine a small battery with a generator. I know that the Tesla system will let you use your solar power and charge your batteries during the day, then at night you run off battery until it's depleted, then the system will automatically start a generator to run the rest of the night until the sun comes back out. Unfortunately it won't let you use the generator to charge the batteries back up, but maybe eventually they will add that as a feature.

One way or another, keeping the power on around the clock when the grid goes down is expensive. For those of us in the US who just want to prepare for major outages it's probably not worth spending a lot of money for something that may not happen for years. For people in the islands and places with unstable grids that go down every day the economics are very different. When I was talking to solar companies they told me that most of Tesla's battery systems were going to the Caribbean islands.

I had my 4-kWh system installed by Guardian Solar. They were recommended by Energy Sage website which I used when I decided to go Solar. System cost last October (Installed early Dec. went live mid Feb.) was 25k for 10 panels, 13.6 kWh backup battery, installation with a 25-year roof penetration guarantee. Installation was completed in 3 days. All permits were paid by contractor and city inspections set up by contractor, so I had nothing to do except write the check. All components were top shelf items. I did a lot of research before signing the contract. Look up components for yourself. I opted to purchase outright instead of a loan.

Qty 10 - 400 watt Q-cell modules w/25yr mfg. warranty
Qty 10 Enphase IQ8+ micro-inverters w/25yr mfg. warranty
Qty 1 FranklinWH 13.6 kWh Battery w/ associated equipment w/12yr mfg. warranty. (Installed Outside but could be placed Inside)
All necessary electrical components for operation. Has the ability to connect generator to charge battery. can be remotely monitored, and if necessary, will make the necessary change to system to be sure battery is fully charged in case of any expected outage. This means that it can be switched from sending excess power to grid, instead will send to battery to be sure it is topped off.
25-Year Workmanship Warranty

GuardianSolar
4366 Louis Ave #106
Holiday, FL 34691
State License # CVC56709


I should mention that my electric bill has been around $30 a month (the actual minimum FLP charges to be connected to the grid) with A/C set to 80 degrees, no hot water, various security lights going on and off. This represents the cost of us not in the house while we are up north. System has been producing more power than home needs so it is banked for when we will need it. I will be heading down early September so will get a better idea of actual costs which in all honesty should not be much higher. It did take FLP a long time to get us setup for net metering (3 months - needed a special electric meter).