How to reduce my installation price for home solar and pick the right panel?

Regarding which panels to pick based on size... Let your installer make a quote. The exact number and configuration of solar panels has to match the brand:model of GT inverters they are planning on using for the job. In the end, basing your choice on lowest overall cost is perfectly acceptable.

Regarding which brand... As far as I know (I am not in the solar business), Canadian Solar and Solar World are just fine. I don't know Axitec--But Germany is known for making good products too.

In terms of the 25 year warranty for solar panels... Panels are close to $1 per Watt today--Vs the $10 per watt 10-15 years ago. And I am not sure that anyone can guarantee that any particular solar company will be around in 25 years. So, to a degree, you may be "self insuring" against future panel failures. As you are trying to do--Picking a good/solid product today--And hopefully you will not need to find out how good their warranty service will be in a decade or two.

One thing to watch out for--Power companies and regulatory agencies are starting to change the whole balance regarding how GT Solar power is billed.

10-15 years ago, the various state and federal governments where willing to directly (state/fed gov paid) and indirectly (utility customers) subsidize the the GT Solar industry and early adopters. Today, things are changing quickly and can make GT Solar less "interesting" for the average homeowner. In California, they have changed the minimum charge from $5 per month to $10. And change my power plan to have high time of use charges well past sunset. My "10 year grandfathered" rate plan is no longer available to me. While I am still saving some money--These changes will probably continue and change the whole solar power market dramatically.

Nevada's Solar Bait-and-Switch

In late December, the state’s Public Utilities Commission, which regulates Nevada’s energy market, announced a rate change drastic enough to kill Nevada’s booming rooftop solar market and drive providers out of the state. Effective Jan. 1, the new tariffs will gradually increase until they triple monthly fees that solar users pay to use the electric grid and cut by three-quarters users’ reimbursements for feeding electricity into it.

More startlingly, the commission made its decision retroactive. That means that the 17,000 Nevada residents who were lured into solar purchases by state-mandated one-time rebates of up to $23,000 suddenly discovered that they were victims of a bait-and-switch. They made the deals assuming that, allowing for inflation, their rates would stay constant over their contracts’ 20- to 30-year lifetimes; instead, they face the prospect of paying much more for electricity than if they had never made the change, even though they’re generating almost all their electricity themselves.

Solar electric power is not an "investment". Conservation and saving/investing your money is. If you still have money "left over" to install GT Solar on your home--You probably will be reasonably happy as long as Texas (?) gives you a good net metered billing plan.

Just be careful.

-Bill

There is a 30% federal tax credit (you have to pay federal taxes to use the credit--Say you get $20,000 credit and pay $10,000 a year in federal income taxes, then it takes 2 years to get the credit back--As long as the program remains in place & you "pay enough" in fed tax--less sure in the future).

What is happening is this... In the olden days I paid ~$4.20 minimum charge for electric billing a ~1 kWatt*Hour per day. I "bought" energy at ~$0.09 per kWH evenings/mornings/weekends/off peak and "sold" energy back at $0.27 per kWH summer peak days. At the end of 1 year, I either owed the utility money or the account was Zeroed.

Where many Utilities are heading is $10-$50 per month minimum charge, and paying the customer ~$0.027 per kWH for anything that is "fed back" to the utility.

From the utility's point of view--Roughly 1/2 of an electric bill is paying for power distribution (poles, transformers, wiring to my home). From the "generator's" point of view, again, roughly 1/2 of their costs are for generation equipment and the other 1/2 is for fuel. So--In the end, about 3/4 of my non-solar power bill was to ensure that there was wiring and generation capacity for me to have enough power to feed my electric loads (nights, stormy weather, etc.). And me selling power back at "retail rates" was me, not paying, for infrastructure costs. And it was other non-solar customers were tagged with paying for those costs.

In the end, we are on the tail end of the "green energy kick"--And now the costs are coming that need to be paid. You have to look at your power company's present solar rate structure and what may be coming down the road with the state PUC.

For me, they said they would give me preferential rates (for solar) for 10 years--After that, I would be changed to other plans which probably were not so great for me (but, I understand the business costs that do justify the changes). And they are are doing that to me now.

If you have not done as much conservation as possible (insulation, windows, energy star appliances, looked at your HVAC costs, etc.) yet--Now is a good time to do that. Do not install GT Solar by itself to save you money. While GT Solar can save money in many cases--Reducing your power usage is usually a better "investment".

-Bill