Whole House Battery Solutions: New NYS Guidelines
Thanks for the input, and thanks for moving the conversation back to batteries.
We’ve had the whole solar installation discussion here many times going back a dozen years (sometime about 7 or 8 years ago the format of this board changed and many posts related to solar were lost). The topic always devolves into 1) how long one amortizes hardware costs 2) whether one thinks subsidies and no cost loans are a good idea 3) The hidden or “opportunity costs” associated with such large investment.
I don’t want to have that discussion again on this thread, but hey it’s not my board.
Back to he battery thing…
I have a friend who, about 15 years ago, had a 5 guest-house resort down in Mahahual Mexico. It was (but sadly no longer is) in the middle of nowhere, right on a beautiful beach.
He ran the whole “resort” off of power generated from solar but stored in batteries.
He took me up to the “attic” of the main house, and he about 100 or 150, 40amp car batteries up there storing energy and running all 5 buildings — perhaps 50-75kWh.
Thats what Im moving towards here in Brooklyn but with more efficient batteries.
jjq
in General Discussion 4 years and 4 months ago
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Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago
As someone who did a solar installation last year (via BSW, which is the only company I’d recommend after much research) I feel compelled to jump in and emphasize that this isn’t so simple as “helping ConEd out”. If you’re curious about solar, some considerations to sway you:
*1*. You’re making a capital investment into your home that comes with a ROI at sale. You won’t see that as a part of analyses but townhouses in Brooklyn with solar installations sell for a premium. I have no doubt if you tack $15-20K onto a sales price of a house with solar, people will pay it in NYC because you’re not selling a solar system, you’re selling a turnkey experience to being socially responsible. You’re selling them a reason to brag to friends.
*2*. There’s an actual ROI in energy savings. It will eventually pay for itself, regardless of your energy usage. If your electricity usage is low you can get a smaller system or swap out any aging gas appliances to make money back faster.
*3*. You’re helping make an environmental difference. Let’s all keep this in mind. The climate crisis is g oing to affect all of our lives in meaningful ways and I, for one, want to be one of the people who’s doing something about it.
Federal, state, and property tax incentives eliminated the majority of the costs. Oh, and I got a 0% APR (yes, zero) loan from NYSERDA to fund it. While that was a temporary and I would have done this regardless, it’s worth saying just to show that the effort is there.
To keep this more on-thread, word is that the NYC battery pilots are experiencing some snags but they’re hoping to have things ironed out later this year.