Experience with Solar Panels?

[OriginalUserName]

How well do they stand up to a hail storms? We seem to get a good one every 5 years or so in my area, and minor ones every year. Already had 2 minor ones this year. A few years ago had the worst I had seen. My siding looked like someone had taken a machine gun to it.

https://www.tesla.com/solarroof

I'm going to strongly consider this in a few years when I need a new roof.

 

[Mattrg02]

I work for a coop utility and I head up our Net Metering and Solar Consultation program as one of my responsibilities. I can tell you that our Members don’t see the benefits that they thought they would see. We give a 1-1 credit up to your usage each month. After that, you get essentially 3c/kWh.

It may be worthwhile for some, but not all. There are a lot of shady “business” out there so do your homework! Often enough, a Member just needs to replace their 30yr old AC to save big $$$. This is why we do free energy audits before we do a solar consultation. A $5k AC that is high efficiency will save you a lot more than a $30k solar array, most of the time.

I’d never ever get with a lease and pay interest on one of these. It’s already a game of inches, economically speaking, so any extra on top just doesn’t make sense. Forget the whole lien on your house thing...

Give it another 10 years and I suspect we will all have solar panels. 7 years ago solar was a ludicrous idea. Today, many people find a way to make it work.

Our electric coop is hoping to build 11MWAC of solar this year. We will then offer it straight to our Members for less than they can build it for. Local solar companies do NOT like that!

 

[OriginalUserName]

I work for a coop utility and I head up our Net Metering and Solar Consultation program as one of my responsibilities. I can tell you that our Members don’t see the benefits that they thought they would see. We give a 1-1 credit up to your usage each month. After that, you get essentially 3c/kWh.

It may be worthwhile for some, but not all. There are a lot of shady “business” out there so do your homework! Often enough, a Member just needs to replace their 30yr old AC to save big $$$. This is why we do free energy audits before we do a solar consultation. A $5k AC that is high efficiency will save you a lot more than a $30k solar array, most of the time.

I’d never ever get with a lease and pay interest on one of these. It’s already a game of inches, economically speaking, so any extra on top just doesn’t make sense. Forget the whole lien on your house thing...

Give it another 10 years and I suspect we will all have solar panels. 7 years ago solar was a ludicrous idea. Today, many people find a way to make it work.

Our electric coop is hoping to build 11MWAC of solar this year. We will then offer it straight to our Members for less than they can build it for. Local solar companies do NOT like that!

IMO, one of the key points of info is whether your local utility allows you to bank credits (letting your bill go negative basically). If not that really hurts the case.

 

[Mattrg02]

IMO, one of the key points of info is whether your local utility allows you to bank credits (letting your bill go negative basically). If not that really hurts the case.

We don’t. It wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the Members since we can buy our kWh from our energy supplier for less.

If we bought an unlimited number of kWh at 11c/kWh instead of 8 from our supplier, think we could keep our own lights on? :)

There is a lot of discussion about forcing utilities to do this. What people don’t understand is that we HAVE to bring in a set amount of money to cover our operations costs. We would just raise our facility charge to compensate. If that doesn’t work, utilities go bye bye along with the workers that keep the grid maintained.

Why am I telling everyone this? Be careful how you vote. There’s no free lunch.

 

[OriginalUserName]

We don’t. It wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the Members since we can buy our kWh from our energy supplier for less.

If we bought an unlimited number of kWh at 11c/kWh instead of 8 from our supplier, think we could keep our own lights on? :)

There is a lot of discussion about forcing utilities to do this. What people don’t understand is that we HAVE to bring in a set amount of money to cover our operations costs. We would just raise our facility charge to compensate. If that doesn’t work, utilities go bye bye along with the workers that keep the grid maintained.

Why am I telling everyone this? Be careful how you vote. There’s no free lunch.

Fair is all relative when it comes to a regulated monopoly. On one hand you want to increase solar production but on the other hand, people with solar are "taking advantage" of the system in a way. Sooner or later utilities will need to charge a fixed cost for access to the grid if you make your own power. That seems fair to me because you are relying on the grid as backup without contributing as much revenue as you would otherwise. On the other side of the fence, some utilities are actively fighting against home net metering.

I work in utility consulting myself. (mostly billing/metering software)

 

[Mattrg02]

Fair is all relative when it comes to a regulated monopoly. On one hand you want to increase solar production but on the other hand, people with solar are "taking advantage" of the system in a way. Sooner or later utilities will need to charge a fixed cost for access to the grid if you make your own power. That seems fair to me because you are relying on the grid as backup without contributing as much revenue as you would otherwise. On the other side of the fence, some utilities are actively fighting against home net metering.

I work in utility consulting myself. (mostly billing/metering software)

We do charge a minimum access fee, no matter if you have solar or not. So far, Net Metering is just a hobby really. There aren’t enough to affect our bottom line. If it truly took off, or laws were changed to be heavily in favor of the solar arrays, we would just raise rates to keep us operational. That and give less credit towards a new extension of service. Everything stays balanced. The only way to have your cake and eat it too is to disconnect from the grid and be completely on your own.

I’ve heard of utilities actively punishing people for having solar. To me, it’s just plain wrong to do that. I believe in a 1-1 offset of kWh usage. Fortunately, our Board does too. I don’t believe in getting more than you deserve. Only an idiot would buy and sell for the exact same price.

Imagine a LFS selling his fish for the same price he paid for it.

 

[Ctg0209]

The delivery charge will stay the same because you are still hooked up the your utility. Most people think because they have solar that they’re just running off the solar panels which is not the case. In reality you are using the the utilities power and being credited for the energy you produce at whatever rate you agreed upon. So the dilevery charge doesn’t change. However if you were to install the new Tesla Powerwall with it you could the use the panels as a backup generator. I believe they say you can run up to7 days off the new Powerwall also with ability to switch to the solar panels whenever you want.

 

[OriginalUserName]

I believe we will see a sp

We don’t. It wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the Members since we can buy our kWh from our energy supplier for less.

If we bought an unlimited number of kWh at 11c/kWh instead of 8 from our supplier, think we could keep our own lights on? :)

There is a lot of discussion about forcing utilities to do this. What people don’t understand is that we HAVE to bring in a set amount of money to cover our operations costs. We would just raise our facility charge to compensate. If that doesn’t work, utilities go bye bye along with the workers that keep the grid maintained.

Why am I telling everyone this? Be careful how you vote. There’s no free lunch.

I think it be pretty reasonable to buy back at a lower price than you buy on the market/generate.

 

[Blue Ring Octopus]

Some electric companies want to change the game with solar owners like what happened in Vegas and almost in Ca, they want to charge the solar people the highest tier possible once the son goes down, somewhere in the range of 50 cents a KWH, they claim that they are using customer subsidize rates and that is not fair for the masses. But the electric companies count the houses with solar as a percentage of what they are required to have. Ca is about 40% and they want to raise it to 100%, I guess no one can use A/C at night.

 

[Mattrg02]

Some electric companies want to change the game with solar owners like what happened in Vegas and almost in Ca, they want to charge the solar people the highest tier possible once the son goes down, somewhere in the range of 50 cents a KWH, they claim that they are using customer subsidize rates and that is not fair for the masses. But the electric companies count the houses with solar as a percentage of what they are required to have. Ca is about 40% and they want to raise it to 100%, I guess no one can use A/C at night.

Bet that isn’t going over well with people, huh? Only a matter of time before that gets changed.

Rather than fight, I felt we should join in. We can build for a lot less than locals can, so, undercut the locals and slow the roof top solar THAT way. Some people will do roof top solar no matter what, great! Most can’t afford the cost, or payments/terms, and are prime for community solar.

 

[jd371]

I have many friends that sell solar through different companies. They all have a little different structure in terms of cost. Who is the company you’re working with?

The company is Vivint Solar. We have the inspector coming out today to look at the panel and roof. Still shopping around and not committing to anything yet.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Vinvint is on this list:


BEST COMPANIES

Might wish to take a look at reviews.

 

[OriginalUserName]

Some electric companies want to change the game with solar owners like what happened in Vegas and almost in Ca, they want to charge the solar people the highest tier possible once the son goes down, somewhere in the range of 50 cents a KWH, they claim that they are using customer subsidize rates and that is not fair for the masses. But the electric companies count the houses with solar as a percentage of what they are required to have. Ca is about 40% and they want to raise it to 100%, I guess no one can use A/C at night.

That bit is a bit sketchy IMO. You shouldn't penalize solar owners while using them to reach emissions standards.

I did some more research on the Tesla solar roof options and it's looking pretty good for my new roof in a few years. Throw in a powerwall and I will never have to worry about power for my reef or dealing with a stupid generator. Heck, by then I should have my model 3 so I could run my tank off that. lol

 

[Mattrg02]

That bit is a bit sketchy IMO. You shouldn't penalize solar owners while using them to reach emissions standards.

I did some more research on the Tesla solar roof options and it's looking pretty good for my new roof in a few years. Throw in a powerwall and I will never have to worry about power for my reef or dealing with a stupid generator. Heck, by then I should have my model 3 so I could run my tank off that. lol

There are far cheaper options than solar if power backup is your thing ;-)

 

[OriginalUserName]

There are far cheaper options than solar if power backup is your thing ;-)

It would be a combo thing for me. I haven't really put pen to paper, but the powerwall is a really elegant solution.

 

[Opus]

Well, got an answer to my question. Hail storm last night and this is what a friends solar panels look like.

 

[OriginalUserName]

;)

 

[Opus]

News is already saying the hail storm damage could be close to $1 billion.

 

[chadly1990]

We do charge a minimum access fee, no matter if you have solar or not. So far, Net Metering is just a hobby really. There aren’t enough to affect our bottom line. If it truly took off, or laws were changed to be heavily in favor of the solar arrays, we would just raise rates to keep us operational. That and give less credit towards a new extension of service. Everything stays balanced. The only way to have your cake and eat it too is to disconnect from the grid and be completely on your own.

I’ve heard of utilities actively punishing people for having solar. To me, it’s just plain wrong to do that. I believe in a 1-1 offset of kWh usage. Fortunately, our Board does too. I don’t believe in getting more than you deserve. Only an idiot would buy and sell for the exact same price.

Imagine a LFS selling his fish for the same price he paid for it.

In California they will take your kids if you are not on the grid regardless of the setup you have

 

[Mattrg02]

In California they will take your kids if you are not on the grid regardless of the setup you have

When you add up the cost of a system, completely off grid, over the lifetime of the system, it just doesn’t make economic sense. We’ve had a few Members consider off grid life, but they all drop out when they do the math.

Energy is relatively cheap and isn’t rising like other things are. Adopting better habits and keeping appliances in good working condition goes a long way. Now, if you are paying $0.3/kWh then solar makes sense.

Take $5k of the $25k you’re going to spend on a 10kw system to update an appliance. Take the $20k remaining and invest in the stock market. Then, profit.