Solar as a business expense?

[thjohnson58]

First I am new and do not mean to derail your post but I am not allowed to start a thread. I have a pretty extensive background in electronics and have a few questions. I live in an area of Florida where we have no other means of energy other than the grid. I have a real concern as I have some very expensive electronic toys. I can't in reading various spec sheets on inverters determine what type of sine wave they produce? My house is fairly small so I could produce enough on the average day UNTIL my ac startup and I also have a tankless hot water heater 60A. Is there some form of protection for spikes during a period of "switchover" to the grid. What happens every evening? Sure I can ups some stuff but hardly cost effective for everything. I had to install a slow start on one of my amps to keep from blowing a 20a breaker!

[ButchDeal]

First I am new and do not mean to derail your post but I am not allowed to start a thread. I have a pretty extensive background in electronics and have a few questions. I live in an area of Florida where we have no other means of energy other than the grid. I have a real concern as I have some very expensive electronic toys. I can't in reading various spec sheets on inverters determine what type of sine wave they produce? My house is fairly small so I could produce enough on the average day UNTIL my ac startup and I also have a tankless hot water heater 60A. Is there some form of protection for spikes during a period of "switchover" to the grid. What happens every evening? Sure I can ups some stuff but hardly cost effective for everything. I had to install a slow start on one of my amps to keep from blowing a 20a breaker!

bimodal inverters act like high end UPS systems with a solar feed.
There should be rarely "switchover" events and they would for most equipment be unnoticed by computers just like with a UPS. The switchover should only happen if there is a grid outage.

Outback power and Schneider make good bimodal systems that can feed the grid power to reduce your bill as well as give reliable power in the case of an outage.
There is likely no need to put your 60A hot water heater on the battery "emergency" panel as you can probably live without hot water when the grid is out.

[thjohnson58]

Thanks for your prompt response. I will look further into those systems

[Mike90250]

..... I can't in reading various spec sheets on inverters determine what type of sine wave they produce?......
.... I also have a tankless hot water heater 60A. ......

Inverter output sine waves are rated in % THD (total harmonic distortion) Anything under 10% is going to be a pretty decent sine wave. Power Company (PoCo) sine wave is usually about the same, because of your neighbors arc welder, someone else's vacuum cleaner......

You will NOT want to run your electric water heater from your backup power supply. Or your electric stove, or any heaters

[JerryE]

Switching back to the original topic: I did talk the family friend who is a CPA, and got some feedback. Sharing here for reference only, as many others have said contact a tax professional for advice instead of the internet. As has been mentioned before, it would be possible to depreciate the PV system as a business expense, as a % of what space is used for business (which in my case is not much). For us it would be tricky/potentially problematic as well because there are things mostly used for business, but not solely....sticky situation. The other problem is that should we ever sell the house with the PV system, we'd have to claim capital gains later on from the sale. Overall it seems like we would get much less out of it that route as opposed to just taking the tax credit. As it stands today, I am planning to claim the net amount (minus rebates) on my 2018 taxes for the tax credit.

Again, this is particular to my situation and not advise on how to handle your tax situation, consult a professional.

[Mike90250]

Taking the "normal" deduction is "business as usual" and it's not likely to raise an eyebrow. But trying a business write-off, means you have years of accounting, more stuff to track, and a audit attracting outlier.