Are you now purchasing item you "wanted" as a hedge against inflation?

Man I heard from friends at work who live in IL that it sucked but I didn’t realize it sucked so badly.

 

My brother took his old bike and made it electric,
he did is for his wife as well,.
and now he is doing it for me.

 

Ordered up some class 1 Steel plate, and a bunch of recycled aluminum bar stock to have extruded! Can't say what it's all for, but it's gonna be awesome!

 

@Thunder5Ranch

Have a look at this : MidNite Solar Inc. Renewable Energy System Electrical Components and E-Panels

Made in WA USA and BC Kanada !
Sloth

 

Should off gotten a saw mill with the price of wood as high as a Giraffes butt

 

Ahhh.... new info here. We didn’t get you were going completely off grid and totally pulling the plug on the utility. Now things make more sense to me.

 

Your local solar guys are not versed in the US tax code apparently.

From the DOE website:
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2020/01/f70/Guide to Federal Tax Credit for Residential Solar PV.pdf
If I am not connected to the electric grid?

Yes. A solar PV system does not necessarily have to be connected to the electric grid for you to claim the residential federal solar tax credit, as long as it is generating electricity for use at your residence.

Form 5695 is filled to get the Federal tax credit. Neither it, nor the instructions on how to fill it out, mention anything about grid or non grid tie.
Form: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5695.pdf
Instructions: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-5695

The only requirements are that it be at your home, (and a 2nd home as well, like a vacation home) be put into service the year you are applying for the credit and so on. My tax guy is an enrolled agent (only a very small % of tax guys are), and has a master's degree in taxation (yeah.....that's an actual thing.....ahahhaaa), and has filled the form for me numerous times.....as well as himself, as I put an off grid system on a cabin on a mountain for him.

A mistake I made in my post above is the amount, due to a rider tacked on another bill signed by Trump last year, the amount of the credit remains at 26% for 2021 instead of dropping to 22% as it was scheduled to do. Next year, 2022, it does drop to 22%, and it is gone entirely in 2023 as the law is written now.

As for it being "welfare", I personally choose to look at ANYTHING that will reduce my federal income tax bill NOT as welfare, but at putting a better lock on my chicken house to keep the fox out. It is MY MONEY to start with, and to anything you can do to lessen federal theft of it so they can send it to some foreign nation or inner city welfare queen is OK by me. You want to put in $10,000 bucks (or maybe a whole lot more if you truly plan to go off grid in a big way) worth of solar and not retain $2600 of what you would have paid in federal income tax, that's your choice.

 

I used my first Stimulus check to buy a lifetime supply of Tattler reusable canning jar lids. Pretty happy now.

 

You are talking about tax write offs, which I have no problem with. I am talking about the federal block grants that filter down through the States and then down to the electric companies and coops. And the Feed-In Tariff scheme, the SARS grants, The Rural Development Grants, the NCRS grants (Though not certain if NCRS is still doling out cash for solar). Another problem and benefit I run into is separating personal home, Farm and The Thunder 5 Ranch Inc. (Corporation) was not hard with the Corp having its own 600AMP Service, the farm running on the 400AMP service and the personal on the 200amp. When everything on the corp meter is running at full capacity it is not uncommon for that $2600 tax credit you speak of to be less than the monthly electric bill Throw in a averaged $325 monthly for the farm and $150-$200 per month for personal and all together our electric bills tally up to $42,764 for 2020 and going to be more in 2021 with all the proposed rate and service increases. Where the benefit comes in is I can make it tax exempt for ag use, can write the whole system off in a lump or over time.... just like buying a new truck or tractor and offset the Corporate taxes Quite a bit over the next several years........ And at the same time lose a $42,000 per expense all the way around, without using any of the solar cough *Incentives* that my situation eliminates me from using to start with. And then there is the matter of Why in the hell should you pay taxes to pay for my stuff? As far as Grid Tied why in the hell should I generate electric and pump into into the coops line for below wholesale price so they can sell it at retail to the next house down the line at premium retail?

The system we are plotting out is 160KW solar and 30KW wind so not a small system by any stretch. The batteries will about make you stroke out at the price per battery. Basically going to replace the 600amp, 400amp and 200amp electric services with a
Generator back up I am leaning toward a CAT C4.4 Diesel job. Want to keep the entire system under $225,000 in panels, batteries and parts. It ain't rocket science to put it all together and build the frames and mounts for the panels. And use a light meter to figure out the optimal angle. Seems to me where folks get killed on solar cost is the install that from what I have seen cost as much or more than all of the components.

 

Please include pictures when you can TR5
Sloth

 

Makes no sense to me to put a solar system in and still remain dependent of the grid. I can see grid tie if you don't have the space for a big system or just can't afford to spend the money on a full offgrid set up. The only thing I qualify for are the tax credits which according to my accountant will be $58,500 of the systems cost and then writing the cost of the system off as a business and farm expense with depreciation. All of the other incentives involve MUST BE GRID TIED and MUST BE INSTALLED BY A CERTIFIED INSTALLER. LOL it gets stupid enough using one system for 1 parent corporation 3 Subsidiaries A farm LLC. and my Personal residence and I am not even going to try and understand the voodoo rituals my Accountant will perform to put that all in order.

 

No pictures for a while, I have not even started pounding the RailRoad ties in for the mounting frames yet. Going to spend the next year collecting all the parts and pieces and hopefully having all collected by this time next year. This year is more base farm infrastructure like turning the dirt roads into good rock base and road pack roads, a couple of new wells that are deeper and bigger diameter sleeves, getting the dam for the lake built and building the 2 block houses and 3 pole buildings....... And maybe pouring the concrete and putting up a new 5,000bu feed/grain bin........ don't really want to buy a new hammer mill and maintain it but it would save me a trip every month to the elevator to withdraw from the grain bank but having them grind and mix the feed and run it out in 2000# bulk bags is nice and easy. Mrs T5R tells me that the dam and the endless tandems bringing base rock and road pack in have already blown my 2021 budget that she would allow me The new buildings and wells she will allow because she wants them Oddly enough my motivation for the offgrid solar system is the Electric Coop is building a big solar farm and did a very large base service fee hike to pay for what the State and Federal grants did not cover. Anyway I can't just buy everything for the solar/wind/generator system all at once. When I do big projects I borrow the money from my retirement stashes and don't borrow more until I have paid myself back. Typically what I borrow for generates revenue and that pays the load back. LOL a Lake, rocks, wells and buildings are not going to generate much revenue........ And will do the opposite actually and increase my property taxes by about $3000 per year Sadly IL is coming down to people that can afford to live here and people on the Government Teat that are leeches hanging off the buttocks of those who can afford to live here and pay the taxes and every podunk towns pay to play schemes and corruption fees.

 

I built my solar one component at a time that way I spread the load out over several years.
it started out as a USP, before I knew they existed, only mine did not switch out, it was full time on the grid charging a battery and an inverter running the computer and monitor.
After we moved to the desert then I put the solar panels to work and got used batteries from the trade-ins at the boat shop. It seems some boaters like to start off with a new battery at the beginning of the season. Worked out well for me.
When I moved to where I am now, I bought a wind mill and it makes a small contribution as well.
Over time I will be installing more panels and another wind mill and more batteries.