Shae Solar

05/08/2024

Two weeks ago I did a large solar install for a customer in West Texas. I own Shae Solar and we are a niche solar install company. I started my company with one purpose, use the best product I can find and drive cost low. Focus on quality installs that will lead to problem-free solar installs for many years for my customers.
The majority of my customers are wanting a turnkey solution, although a small percentage will do something to help offset the costs, which we love. So that means they generally don't want to be tweaking their system every so often. They want it installed and that's about it.
This install used two Sol Ark 15k inverters, 72 Trina bifacial panels, configured 12 per string, 36 per 15k. We also used 20 RuiXU 48v100ah batteries set up in two 10 slot racks. Finally, a mandatory item for those that are grid connected, a fused disconnect and a double throw transfer switch.
Regarding the Ruixu Battery part, they went fine. We wired and cabled them per the instructions and it went well. We had the entire system down, and then flipped the battery breakers on, taking about 4-5 seconds per battery, then 'woke' up each battery by depressing the reset button for about 4-5 seconds. This is typical of LIFEPO4 batteries in general.
We then turn on the PV disconnect on both inverters, set the Fused Disconnect to on, and the double throw transfer switch to Solar/w Grid. Then turned on the battery breaker on both inverters. As a note, you never turn on or off the battery breaker if current is flowing to or from the batteries.
All 20 batteries came online and after testing voltage, we then went to the Sol Ark 15ks (set up in parallel), and pressed the power button. Went to the Master inverter and configured the battery settings like max charge/discharge and amount of storage, and so on. This is well documented in the Sol Ark manual. As an aside, RUiXU hasn't paid for Sol Ark to perform testing for closed loop communication so Sol Ark says its not supported. However it works fine.
The main thing you want to do is to ensure all dip switches are set correctly. The one battery should have one of the dip switches set differently, see the install notes. And this is the one that should have the CAT6 cable connected to the Master inverter.
We then turn on the Load Breaker on both inverters. All breakers in the House main panel we flipped to off. As an aside, before we turned a breaker(s) on anywhere, battery, inverter, house panel, we always measure voltage at that step to ensure there weren't any issues.
After confirming no issues, we then turned on a few breakers in the house main panel and verified everything is working as expected. We continued turning breakers on and all is good. We then drove amps up by turning on the dryer, both AC units, oven and so on. We let that run for a little while and were seeing about 18kw of usage. We then turned all that off and the customer set up his his to run normally.
As of this article the customer has been running his house 100% off solar during the day and we enabled Time of Use (TOU). Where at 5pm (due to Winter) the inverters will pull from the battery stack. We set the inverters to not use Grid to charge the batteries. So around 7am CDT, the batteries begin charging and are finished around 12pm. So far the customer is depleting the batteries down to around 74%, each night. There is zero electricity being pulled from the Grid. The customer and I are working on a Net Metering/Interconnection with their utility and expect to have that set up within three or four weeks. The customer will then be able to dump all his excess production to the Grid, which will be awesome.
So long story short, I have been an advocate for SOK batteries for years as they are time tested and proven. I like that they are field serviceable and you don't have to send the heavy battery back. However I don't like the SOK battery rack (no wheels, no bus bars, no enclosed rack) so we used the EG4 rack. And I would need to remove the battery shelves and re-drill for the shelves since the SOK battery is a little larger.
When I saw the Ruixu Battery and how nice they looked and the battery rack, and then the price, I talked with my customer to give them a try and so far its been great. He has a great looking system and saved a fair amount of money.
The one issue we ran into, and its easily corrected, is the bus bar has screws in them where you would connect the battery cables to. However those screws are so tight, we snapped one of the heads off the screw. And two others we left alone. So they need to work on that. Otherwise, its a great rack!!!

01/07/2024

We just got our December electric bill. I started our solar journey over two years ago. For all of 2023, I installed solar for residential and commercial customers (even 3 phase). I can clearly say a few things.
1) it is worth it if you have a legit company do the work and not overcharge. Generally your cost should be about 32-35k without battery storage and about 37-40k with battery storage. The vast majority of my residential customers are right around 38k. A ground mount is about 6k more. This is using tier 1 solar panels/US based inverters (TX actually) and the best batteries. And then of course TX licensed and insured master electricians.
2) looking back at 2023, just over 30% of my time was spent fixing other solar companies crappy installs. There is some out there that have had fire related/electrical issues. It’s nuts.
3) the solar company should be there at least two hours on that first visit, and none of that time is spent talking price. Customers need to be aware of why this or why that.

I’d love to help. Whether you get solar from me or just want to bounce questions off me, I’m good with either. I started my company to help others so they don’t have the same issues as the guy across the street from me, a disabled Vietnam Vet, that got stuck with a 130k system on a lease he can’t get out of.

Below is my past 24 month rolling bill where you can see the actual results.

If we can help let me know.

Shae Solar is a 2023 modern solar company that leverages the absolute latest technology to provide customers with the best equipment, bar none. To save customers money and increase the amount of solar production is where we excel. Shae Solar is a niche solar installer. We focus on installs that

09/28/2023

Starting a large install. 120 of the Canadian Solar cs6w-540w bifacial commerical rated panels. 65kw system.

06/26/2023

Sol Ark dropped the MSRP on the 15k. It’s now $6999, down from $8250. Our price is even cheaper but we can’t post it online. Let us know if you want one or more.

06/10/2023

Just got home from our latest job and it’s all done. A vertical ground mount install with a Sol-Ark 15k inverter, 33 Canadian Solar 450w bifacial panels and SOK 5kw batteries. Customer was thrilled when they saw the real numbers for their place when it went 100% live today.

Most ground mounts are Sinclair or iron ridge aluminum. Some will use fence posts or even wood. But this won’t be going anywhere. Very shiny versus red iron. Also the red iron is stronger, and about 50% less money. Not my largest install but it’s my fav so far.

05/30/2023

Wise County Co-Op eliminated Net Metering for new customers on March 29, 2023 and after 5 years Net Metering is completely gone in there district.

For example lets say you used 3000kwh from the grid and then pushed back 4000kwh. You would think they got 1000kwh for free. But under the new place with Wise Electric the 3000kwh was billed at 13 cents per kwh. They only give you whole sale rate for everything you pay back now at 5.5 cents.

New Plan with Wise County:
3000 x .13 = $390.00 Usage
4000 x .055 = $220.00 Solar Credit
Bill before fees would be $170.00
Your bill will include the standard fees and taxes but shown without for easy math. Rates will vary slightly but shows the differences between the two.

Old plan with net metering with Wise County:
4000 - 3000 = Negative 1000
Bill would only be the meter fees nothing else. Wise Electric would have a net 1000kwh for free.

So you can see compared to each other Net Metering is better but still has some room for improvement.
The argument the power company makes is that the customers are riding off of other customers when pre planning on weather and averaging our over production that would prevent that argument from coming to light. Systems that over produce do during peaks times thus shaving the higher rate they pay during the day vs at night when the rates drop on the power companies side.
We pay a fixed rate while the power company pays for bulk and then time of day rate within 15 min windows within a 24 hour time period.

05/04/2023

Ok after talking with a Wise Electric at length and working the calculator, their new rate plan for solar is something you want to stay away from unless your producing about 2.5 times more electricity than your using.

The reason being is that with the new plan they will pay you wholesale price for whatever you sell to them and then charge you the regular consumer rate for what you use. Then subtract the two and that’s you bill. With the numbers we went thru using several of my customers, it’s about 2.5 times what is needed to break even. So stay with net metering. You will be better off financially.

Your grandfathered in for five years so that’s good. ;)

04/15/2023

For those with solar just a heads up. Wise Electric sent out letters with a form to complete if you want to switch from net metering to a cash back method. I discussed this with them last year but things have changed. If you switch to this new plan from Net Metering, it will cost you.

For new installs happening now and moving forward this is the only plan. Net Metering is NOT available. For those that have existing installs, your grandfathered in for five years after which you will be forced to move to this new plan.

The reason the new plan is not nearly as good as if you send the company x amount of KW/h, you get back the credit worth of the energy at retail price, which is what you pay. Under the new plan, you will be getting paid wholesale pricing, which is about 5 cents.

Realistically, with the number I crunched with a few of my existing customers along with myself, you will need to produce 2.5x more energy than you use. Otherwise it will cost you, meaning you wont make as much. Feel free to reach out to Wise Electric, Russell Cross is their main residential solar guy.

Just got our bill for April and our bill was the base $30 minimum charge. Im guesstimating we will have this until September. Solar can save you money if you dont over pay. And stay away from leases. Do a loan thru your bank or credit union.

As a note, I know I dont install on houses unless it has metal roofs, but im good with selling you what’s needed. The markup is insane, especially when you consider the panels, inverters, batteries and so on all have a better rating that what most companies are using.

Send a message to learn more

04/13/2023

This week was good. I’ve been waiting, along with all my customers, on Wise Electric as they sent out letters to all this week. They will be allowing solar customers to enable credit back so there is going to be additional savings.

There is a short form you need to complete and return to them.

03/01/2023

Just finished up this install. Home owner is very happy. We added the two on the right. Cleaned up a lot of mistakes and added a cutoff featuring four 60amp fuses, one per inverter and also a two pole two lug transfer switch switch. This allows for complete solar bypass or solar with grid connectivity. They are selling back about 45kw after powering their house. Will be back in the future to add about 40 more panels to his shop down the road.

02/23/2023

Did a lot of wiring. Will be back to wrap most of this up.