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PaperclipPerfector  21hr ago (text post)   702 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 6, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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I am not in the USA. But I assume that the costs of panels is comparable. So 30kw of panels here are 5500 eur (I could probably shave 500 if I actually bother to search, this is just first google list price). Probably put additional thousand for inverter/wiring. For 10Kw the bom is probably 3k euro?

So the bom is quite modest. And I am sure in USA won't be much more expensive. So I am just wondering where the rest of the money goes.

Labor costs are much higher in the USA and permitting can get surprisingly high. And energy costs are generally lower, by a lot, plus Trumps tariffs raise panel prices etc.

You should be able to self install them. It is extremely simple.

It gets tricky if you want to grid tie. In many places, the electrical interconnect can only be done by licensed electricians and must be certified and approved by the utility. The electricians have no real incentive to make things easy on the DIYer, especially if they are signing off on code compliance, and the utility has no incentive to make things easy on customers trying to reduce their utility consumption.

In the US nearly all the incentives require professional third party installation, also I'm not sure how easy home insurance would be to get on a self installed rooftop solar.

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