re: Solar Panels, how'd they work with Ida?

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Billjamin you are just the man I need to talk to. Been looking at a sunrun system + 2 LG battery backup as an alternative to a whole home NG generac backup. It's a 60 year old home so the 25 year lease commitment is scary. My main concern is if the system can truly sustain days or weeks running the whole house off grid, plus charging the batteries to get me through the night during hurricane season. The sun run rep says the panels + battery will supply ~76% of my homes energy needs but he hasn't been able to tell me if that 24% that I still need from the grid is every night or during certain times of the year. I have a 5 ton AC that I'm told soaks up 8500 watts to run.

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I'm actually quite familiar with that SolarEdge StorEdge inverter setup coupled with the LG Chem DC batteries. Its a sweet setup, my SIL (no pics) has the same one through a competing finance company. I'll break this down a couple ways:

Equipment
Its good shite. I have AC coupled PW2s, but the DC coupled LG setup is more efficient. Tesla has better control and apps. They're both awesome and you can't go wrong. SE is a great company and so is LG.
Production
76% offset seems low for a storage system. Ask if that's limited by your AHJ/utility or just the available roof space and irradiance. If the latter, see if you can go to higher wattage modules. It can work but you will need to be careful when your in off grid mode.
Lease agreement
Check the warranty on the battery degradation. Also, on the production guarantee and degradation schedule on the solar. New modules shouldn't degrade more than .3% annually after year 1. Battery warranty needs to be 10 years minimum, 15 preferred if available.
Understand that if you sell the house it will be a pain in the arse because the new owner needs to agree to take on the lease and they must qualify. With that being said, I've never heard of a solar company preventing the sale of a house but theoretically it could happen. I have asked SunRun specifically if they ever have during a technical diligence and they said no.

If I missed something feel free to ask.

ETA Consider pricing it against the generac solar and storage option from a competing finance company.

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Does this mean they are resistant to 140mph winds ripping them off

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There is racking and modules rated to 200MPH. Most are 140-150.

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are they also resistant to 140mph projectiles being driven by the 140mph wind

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This is an average unit. There are specialty unit with higher ratings like above.

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who would install all of this without a utility disconnect switch? isnt that illegal?

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There no way it would ever be allowed to interconnect. Every AHJ requires an AC disconnect and you can't get authorization to interconnect/permission to operate without a passed inspection.
Regardless, even with that the system will still not function even when isolated from a failed grid unless you supply the inverter with a signal to mimic the grid or have storage.

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My neighbor had them, probably a third of them are now laying in his yard.

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That must have been a really shitty installation. That's above average for hurricane damage to solar arrays.

ETA post some pics, I'm interested to see the failure.

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Big downside is that the battery is not big enough to power AC.

Running AC as much as needed in the south from battery alone would require more capacity than reasonable for most residential use IMO.

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You need to go to 2 at least just to handle the compressor surge and maybe a third deepening on size.

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What about the portable solar generators? Are any of them worth a damn? Looking at running a small window unit, a fridge, and charging the phones.

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I don't' see how that would work. I've put together little solar kits like that before but with real modules. 4x100W modules? IDK how their math is working for that to get to 2800W continuous.
ETA looks like that's what the inverter is rated for, not what it can produce.

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My neighbor had them, probably a third of them are now laying in his yard.

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Can't blame an awful install on the panels. If they were properly installed the roof would have to come off.

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Not to be argumentative, but you live in Houston and I assume the avg price for panels for the avg home is around 25K. I don’t see any upside at the present time for solar. Please enlighten me as I like the solar concept, I just don’t see the ROI benefit.

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I’m failing to see the rationale in this argument at all.

The RECs on a $30,000 system puts you at financing 23,000. You can get a 8kW system (maybe 10kW) for that if you know how to negotiate. At a 25-30 year life cycle, you’re saving a good bit. Standard warranty is 10 years and you can 3rd party warranty anything beyond. An 8 kW with minimal shading will produce 11,000 kWh a year.

Average home in Houston probably uses 16,000 a year.

You’re paying the financial installment for your panels plus the retail amount for the extra 5,000 you pull from your utility. Let’s say this utility is charging $.13 for residential kWh.

Your annual retail cost without solar is about $2100, and will go up 1-2% every single year.

Financing on the system cost should run you under 5% if you’re not homeless. Your financing cost will be $90-100 (likely less). You’re still pulling 5000 hours off the grid but your demand charged go down so your rate on that 5000 is likely $.115.

Average monthly bill without solar= $174

Average monthly bill with solar= $54 plus $80-100 financing the system. Balanced to a $144 total.

The real value is that your $144 remains steady as long as your usage doesn’t change. That $174 amount without solar is the lowest you’re ever going to pay. At the end of 30 years, you’ll be paying $220 a month for the same amount of utility electricity but probably $160 for your solar + utility.

Although there will be degradation, a quality system will last 30+ but that’s kinda like expecting a Toyota to go 500,000 miles. It’ll do it, but won’t run like the day you pulled it off the lot.

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Yep, my energy cost is anywhere from $0.25-0.41/kWh, but SoCal Edison only buys it back for $.019/kWh. It's 100% worth it out here though. August was hotter than hell and I only used 22kWh from the grid, the rest was solar. Outside of a few states, I don't see how it is worth it for the upfront cost.

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That is impressive.