The Inland Empire show-off tips&tricks thread.

I would recommend 2n17x as it is a little bit more fun (a little more hard too). The main Pilot Rock trail can get pretty crowded over the weekends with side by sides and dirtbikes and such too just a heads up

 

I have a appointment with a solar rep, really considering doing it with the tax credits available. I really want to add a tesla power bank for this reason.

You have solar ?

 

Negative. All my research have let me to not do it. At one point one guy I knew told me it's not worth it. Unless you buy a new house with the panels already installed. Renewable energy is more expensive, plus they pay you shit for the electricity you produce and it's basically a 20 Year loan. After which you'll still pay money.

Let me know the insight of the deal they're selling you though.

I do want to buy a generator. I only need my fridges running to live. Beer has to be kept cold no matter what.

 

I just want to be comfortable in the summer, and the pool pump addition I'm afraid of seeing 400$ plus on electricity in the summer. But we will see what they can do.

I bought a Westinghouse 2200 generator. Great investment, I can use it at home or it's portable to take camping and it's quietish

 

Yeah the guy said unless I was paying $300+ in average per month I could save money with solar.

 

Don't do a PPA (power purchase agreement) or a lease. They look very attractive up front, but they are nightmares. No one should ever contractually agree to purchase power from one entity for 25 years. You'd never sign a 25 year contract with your current energy provider. The salesmen make it look really good, but the more I looked into it, it was a bad idea. Then I talked to a buddy of mine who is a realtor, and he said to absolutely not do one. You lose ALL leverage when selling your property, and then you have to purchase out the full cost of the lease or the PPA, which is not the value of the system, but rather the value that the company was going to make off of you during the life of your 25 year contract. So you end up paying like $62,000 for a solar system that is worth $28k at most.

After doing tons of research, I learned that you need to buy your system outright. The loans are super low interest, and if you go with a small/local company, you'll save a boat load of money vs. going with the big national companies that spend millions of dollars a year on advertising and marketing. We ended up hiring a local (lives in Murrieta) contractor named Jeff, who's company is called Triple Line Solar. We went with an 8.13kW system (25 panels) with microinverters and in-wall wiring (no ugly conduit on the outside of the home), and it was only $20,719. After the federal tax credit, the total price of the system was $15,332. That was over $12,000 less expensive than the next lowest bid we received, and his equipment and installation were far superior.

We ended up using his financing company, which added a small cost on top of everything. The finance company charges their own fees, and the solar contractor passes those on to the customer, since he barely has any profit margin built into his prices. There were a few different financing options. We went with a 12 year loan at 2.74% interest (financed through Los Angeles Credit Union), which added about $3500 on top of the price of the system. So our monthly payment is $168, which is about $30 less than we were paying for our electric bill when averaged across an entire year.

The system is projected to generate 110% of our historical annual consumption, and when you factor that against Edison's net metering rates/process, it is projected to offset 103% of our historical annual bill (which means we can use a little more electricity and be just fine). Plus, in 12 years, we own the system outright and will never see another electric bill again (except for their $10/month account charge). It was one of the best things we've ever done for our home!

 

Damn, sign me in!!
What's the warranty on the panels?
Did you have to upgrade your breaker panel?
What happens if you go over your historical consumption?

 

The microinverters have a 25 year warranty. The panels have a 25 year warranty that guarantees 90% of their original output at 10 years, and 80% of their original output at 25 years. The contractor's labor is warrantied for 10 years (roof leaks, parts coming loose, etc.).

Going over our historical consumption isn't a big deal - you just have to pay for the extra power that you used. Companies use your historical data to determine what size system you need to install. All power companies switched to a new "net metering 2.0" system a few years ago, which means they'll never give you money back. They just roll over any credits you generate, so you basically just build up a store credit with Edison (or whoever your power company is). For this reason, it doesn't make sense to build your system larger than what you plan to use. That's why we went with one that was projected to offset just barely over our "usual" usage. That gives us some buffer room if we use a little more, and it'll also slowly generate a good sized credit in the event that we use a whole bunch of power one month or one summer. If we ever end up in a situation where our "usual" consumption increases (like if we install a pool or purchase an electric car), I'll call the contractor back out and have him install more panels to offset the additional usage. Because the infrastructure is already in place, it's significantly less expensive to add more panels in the future.

We did not have to replace our main electrical panel, but the system that we installed is almost the max allowed for our existing panel. If we add any more than a couple additional panels, then the box will need to be swapped out to one with a larger main breaker. There are some minor modifications that need to be made to your existing box (breaker installed for the solar panel), and a new/separate panel that gets installed for the solar. But that was all included in the contractor's price. The dedicated solar electrical panel even has built-in wi-fi, and it sends daily reports to my phone about our usage and the system's generation and current status. This helps us spot if we ever have a bad panel or microinverter.

It's really a badass high tech thing. Again, zero regrets!

 

Wow way to break it down!

My worry was owning the panels and if anything where to break it would be out of my pocket to fix.
My understanding is leasing it's Maintenance free, but like you put it bad idea.

You get a referral bonus? I want to get at least 3 options before I make a decision

 

Nope, no referral bonus. I just really like the guy who did my install. He's a solid dude, and I refer everyone to him that I can. Feel free to drop my name to him (Joe Fanaselle), but it's absolutely not necessary. I do encourage you to get a few quotes before moving forward with anyone. That's what we did, too.

I personally know a couple of people who have also had great experiences with New Day Solar, and Baker Electric. Like I said before, I just recommend staying away from the big overpriced national companies. They are a revolving door for installers, they spend insane amounts of money on sales and advertising (which all gets passed on to you, the customer), and they have a hard sales pitch that is never fun to deal with. If you think of it in truck terms... those nationwide companies are like four wheel parts, where the smaller local companies are like your local off road shops.

 

Way to put it in perspective!

 

Looking good. What size/brand tires are you running? Stock suspension?

 

Traded the tacoma..

 

Damn bro, those night shifts paying off.

 

It's a cover up...

If you need anything let me know lol
J/k

 

Thanks! The tires are 33s (285/75/R16 Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs). For lift: In the front, I'm running OEM Fox 2.5" coilovers from a TRD Pro, with a Westcott Designs spring perch lift. It sits about 2.5" taller than stock (one inch from the Pro coilovers and about 1.5" from the westcott kit). In the rear, I'm running a Headstrong 3 leaf AAL with their extra 1/2" shim, which is giving me about 2" of lift.

 

Gotta keep the engine clean for some reason.

 

What you use?
I mean other than magic.

 

Gunk heavy duty degreaser and/or simple green, water and gunk shine.

 

Keeping busy guys. (Each one of those pickets is worth almost 3gal of gas) that's how pathetic nowadays is.