Now that I am on a PC, this will be easier to type. There's a lot to consider.
Our first system was thanks to a door-to-door salesmen. We were already considering it, but had looked at a lease. Once the salesmen came by, we did a lot more homework. Ended up going with a ownership option, with some financing. The lease option sounded good, but once I started asking about "after the lease" no company had an answer. Do they take them? Do we keep them? Restoring the roof structure? etc. So we went out and got a couple of quotes, and looked for a knowledgeable salesmen... I figured if the sales guy knew something, then the company would too. We lived in Utah, and had a south facing roof. Went with 100% coverage of our electric bill. At the time, individual monitoring was not a big thing yet so we ended up with a SMA Sunnyboy inverter with 2 strings (9 and 10 panels). We used Q-Cell panels with Iron ridge racking (the only issue we ever had with racking was one of the plastic end caps kept falling out...company covered under warranty). Our utility did net metering (meter spins backwards during the day, forwards at night and you basically have a kWh bank). Our monthly bill ended up being less then our monthly electric bill (we did still have to pay the utility connection fee every month which was $11 or so. And as far as cost, with inflation everything goes up... we figured we may end up paying electric at some point in the future but a) it would be less with the solar offset and b) our loan payment was set and could be prepaid vs increasing electric costs. This system went over a new roof, and normally shingled roofs have a 30 year lifespan. The solar panels have a longer lifespan, but they do degrade. In this case there was a 20 year warranty, with 25 year degradation warranty of 15% max in 25 years.
The DC wiring was on the roof and went into a Solardeck 0799-5G wiring bracket. From there it went into the attic and into the garage. Inverter was in the garage, and an AC line ran from the garage to the meter panel where it back fed the grid through a standard circuit breaker. The inverter itself had anti-islanding, so lineman wouldn't get shocked, but there was no rapid shutdown back then (ie fire melts DC wiring while sun is out causing major issues). We did end up selling the house, and as part of the sale we had a solar clause.. a) price goes up by what we have left on the system of the house and we pay it off or b) they assume the loan. The new owners choose the lump sum option, and have loved it.
Our second system was a ground mount in upstate NY about a year ago. We have 9 acres, so I wanted something I could easily clean the snow off of, and work in if need be. I also have an 1886 victorian farm house so I didn't want to put it on the house. I thought about doing it myself, however, once you factor in machine rental, permits, etc. the savings would be minimal and the time and frustration of trying to find some of these items would be not worth it. It was a bigger project that we bid out to multiple companies, with prices ranging a span of almost $30k from cheapest to most expensive. What we found was that every electrician "could install solar." But what we really found was that not everyone of them was really well versed and had the fancy extras like monitoring (our neighbor down the road used a local electrician and is regretting it. The system works, but he's got no warranty or panel monitoring. All he has to go off of is his actual electric bill.) I did put out a very specific list of demands though as part of the install. Generator ready, about 500 ft away from the house, buried utilities, extra conduit in ground for expansion, exterior pass-through panel, 200A panel upgrade inside, and monitoring. Oh and an additional electrical panel at the solar. Price wise we ended up $3 dollars under what our average monthly electric bill was.
We did look into battery backup, but found they cost about $10k each, and last about 10 years. We would need 2, so even a decent generator, fuel, and paying for electric via net metering wouldn't cost us as much as the battery backup, but its ready if the price of batteries ever does drop. The company we chose is the 2nd biggest in NY, and mainly does solar farms. They own all the equipment needed, so they were one of the cheapest options but with the most experience. It took about 4 one day visits for survey, piling placement, racking setup, and then a week of work for the actual install. It was a Solar edge inverter with optimizers on each panel (prevents the issues associated with panel being wired in series). It was 3 parallel circuits. (Enphase microinverters were more per panel). The panels were Q-Cell industrial versions this time around. We also looked into tracking ground mounts but the price of an additional couple panels on stationary mounts was cheaper then tracking for the same output. The inverter was mounted outside with the panels. Also, there is a 60A exterior breaker panel out there now for additional power. The panels have rapid shutdown at the panel now, so in the event of loss of electric they only put out a single 1W signal vs full power like older panels.
At the house, we buried the utilities from the pole and then out to the panels. There is a monitoring system that monitors our electric consumption in the house and production (white box on right). The 60A panel at the solar just has its own shutoff wired directly into the meter (between panel and white box). We have a generator outlet that when switched on, is completely isolated from the solar (and utilities). The only thing is right now we have grass under them (trees are gone). I do want to put down weed barrier and do stone just so i dont have to trim around it.
Monitoring - We have some snow out there right now.
Final System (Trees are now gone)
