ah it's year three of our solar
installation and back in December
we were only able to generate enough
electricity to charge my electric truck
up one time
we are now three years into this and I
was estimating that at year six we would
have everything paid off
halfway there and I guess it's time we
do some math
what does that sound oh
looks like it's the number one rated
portable speaker from dxo Mark called
the soundcore x600 my channel sponsor I
wish you guys could hear this thing in
person it's the perfect example of big
things coming in small packages
soundcore is using a custom
self-developed spatial audio algorithm
and an upward firing driver to make
sounds and music appear as if it's
coming from anywhere or everywhere in a
room spatial audio is like taking 360
degree or surround sound to the next
level there are three amplifiers two
tweeters two woofers and of course the
full driver up top and the whole thing
is X7 water resistant thankfully if
you're in the market for a certified
high-res speaker under 200 bucks with a
seamless metal design I'll leave a link
for the soundcore x600 down in the video
description now where were we
oh yes talking about how my solar panels
are not performing well this year let's
get started
[Music]
so let's time travel back three years
ago when I installed this eight kilowatt
system on my house we have 26 solar
panels generating DC electricity here on
the roof these are all plugged into AC
micro inverters that make the
electricity usable for my appliances all
of the sunlight juice has piped down
into the electrical panel where my
appliances and electronics get first
dibs and any excess electricity is set
off to the grid for my neighbors to use
it sounds weird at first letting my
electricity that I generated flow out to
the grid but my service provider keeps
track of it and lets me have it back at
night you know when the sun's not out
plus this eight kilowatt system isn't
enough for all of my use so it's rare
when the electricity does flow out
anyway in the last three years I've had
zero maintenance and I've maybe washed
the panels two or three times after big
dust storms normally I just let the rain
take care of things by itself now the
recap is out of the way let's do some
math about three years ago I paid 8 230
34 dollars for this setup that it's
after the state and federal tax
incentives side note lucky for you guys
the tax incentives now from the federal
government are higher than when I bought
mine three years ago and I think that's
awesome look at them doing something
right it looks like the first year we
had the panels we generated 13 140
kilowatt hours of energy and saved about
1 314 it looks like the second year we
generate about twelve thousand six
hundred and thirty nine kilowatt hours
of energy and saved about 1 338 and year
three this is where things started to
tank last December we only made
180 kilowatt hours of energy from the
sun which is only enough electricity to
power my truck one time pretty terrible
month for energy generation but I don't
think that it's a problem with the solar
panels this year in Utah winter was
absolutely crazy with the most snowfall
we've had in about a hundred years and
as you can see from the graph my solar
generation it doesn't generate a whole
lot when they're covered especially when
the snow is on top of the panels for you
know most of the month even though we
had a record-breaking brutal
snow-covered winter we also had a
record-breaking heat wave of a summer
with the month of May giving me about 10
rivians worth of electricity instead of
just one the weather sure is going crazy
I wish there was some kind of like
scientist or something who could tell us
what's going on all in all factoring in
both the record-breaking winter and the
record-breaking summer we ended up
generating about 11
415 kilowatt hours of energy which is
about
1216 dollars of savings on my electrical
bill bringing our total savings over the
course of three years to
3869 dollars keeping us on Pace to
paying itself off in six and a half
years even though we had a rough winter
it's nice to see that we're still
trending to pay it off even though the
overall downward trend of production is
rather concerning the price of
electricity is going up just a tiny bit
though so there's lots of different
variables and factors at play and of
course with the lifespan of the panels
being around 30 years before they hit 80
percent I'll end up saving probably
around thirty five thousand dollars by
the time I'm 70. just little rectangular
employees back there on my roof making
me money when the sun comes out it's a
good investment kind of goes to show
that solar panels aren't all sunshine
and Roses but you know weather's weather
and weather happens I'm a huge fan of
solar panels not just because they
offset carbon emissions but because they
also keep Utah air cleaner and of course
they put money back into my pocket so
it's still a win on multiple levels even
with the crazy winter if you want to
install your own solar and maybe have a
DIY kit like the one I use I'll leave a
link down the video description plus two
hundred and fifty dollars off it comes
with a detailed plan set kind of a
booklet of instructions specifically for
your house however if you don't want to
install solar panels yourself I broke my
wrist once falling off a ladder I
totally understand why someone would not
want to I'll leave a link for Tesla
solar down there as well when I was
researching Tesla solar was pretty
fairly priced although it's been a while
so feel free to shop around with all the
government incentives and how much money
it actually saves you there's a lot of
people installing solar lately hit that
subscribe button because rain or shine
I'll be back here again next year and
thanks a ton for watching I'll see you
around