I of course would recommend installing the solar first, but am also a strong supporter of the air sourced heat pumps. Heat pumps are roughly 2.5 times more efficient than the electric baseboards in heating ...plus you'll be able to gain the benefits gain
super efficient air conditioning and air filtration. I'd recommend however leaving your existing all electric HVAC in place as is and only considering the extra step of installing a mini-split after seeing how much power you can gain by installing a solar array. Call or email me directly if you want an analysis of your home's site regarding a solar installation. To get a rough preliminary idea of the cost and production possibilities go
here There is an additional State rebate of up to $1000 available right now but it may expire soon. I felt it better to not show it in the excels so as to not create false expectations, but if you move soon it will cut your net cost down by quite a bit.
Roof mounting is usually the most cost effective way to go but ground mounting has distinct performance advantages, especially in winter. As an example in November we installed a perfectly oriented 21 module roof mount in Alton. During January it produced a total of 395 kWh with a peak days production of 30.5 kWh. Not bad for one of the poorest months for solar production, and an especially cloudy one at that.
In December we installed a 32 module bi-facial ground mount in Meredith. Ground mounts are always installed to the perfect solar orientation (194' south, 8/12 pitch). Bi-facial arrays have the distinct advantage of being able to receive energy from both the front and back of the modules and perform extremely well once there is snow on the ground. In January this array produced a total of 767 kWh and had a peak days production of 52 kWh.
Both arrays had a front face rating of 300 watts per panel. If you take the peak production and divide it out by the number of modules, the roof mount produced 238 watts per panel on the strongest day, January 21st. On that same day the bi-facial array produced 287 watts per panel, a 49 watt per panel advantage. Evidence of how well bi-facials work in New England at a time when we can use the backside power boost the most.
I'm not sure yet how much backside power gains there will be during the warmer months when there is much less reflective vegetation beneath the array, but would expect some. By then though the amount of irradiation will be high and the front will be producing its 300 watt front face rating and the days will be much longer. Even though the advantage of snow will be lost I would not be at all surprised to see June's production on both arrays double that of January ...and then some!
Peter