I'm contemplating a home solar system. Had a guy come and talk to me today. Seems to make sense, from his talk, but I'd like some feedback from people who have had them installed.
Got solar? How do you like it?
Got solar? How do you like it?
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Can you give us some idea of the parameters involved?
Makes sense if you care about environment. Financial sense? Not really. Payback is often 15-20 years and that does not take into account the fact that in 7 years you will buy one for 30% Less than today. Also does not take into account t what you could do with that money. If you lease, and then want to sell your home, you are responsible for the balloon balance remaining unless you are really a good sales person and get the buyers to take on the paper. Also, if you lease on a cost per kWh, you pay for 100% produced. And, should they produce less, they can come climb on YOUR roof whenever they want - because you rented it to them. Good luck.
A friend of mine has a 2 story house with a 3-car separate garage, long and low.
His typical electric bill for over $200 a month prior to install. 10 months after covering the garage with panels, on a 10-year buy plan, he has a credit of $750 with the electric company.
His monthly payments are around $240 a month.
So right now it is covering his original ~$200 bill, plus about $30 return, which just about covers the payment for the panels.
If you have the correct orientation (his garage slope faces south), it's definitely worth it. Plus tax rebates on the purchase of solar.
Thumbs up all around!
I live in Southern CA and we installed solar 3 years ago. I just wished we installed it way b4. Our monthly bill was $300-400 per month (higher during the summer). Now we are payment about less $1000 per year. We bought ours. Pay off of the system is 10-12 years for us. We feel less guilty when the AC is on during the hot summer months.
<snip>with a ground install I could purchase all the equipment at discount and do 90% myself</snip>
Absolutely - as I said, your situation (based on all you described here) is a rare one where I can totally see this working with very little downside and I would not even delay starting the project.Something else I'm looking into. I have a friend that worked for years installing these things... says he'd be willing to help... and I certainly don't mind a bit of sweat equity.
Cuts the price of an installed system by about half.
Yes. We pay about $10 per month (taxes...) and at the end of the year we pay the lump sum.So have you heard aboit that lump sump you pay at the month to Edison or whoever? Or am I just hearing thing
30Kw? Nice spread!
Will you be adding battery backup as either an actual back up, or the electric company gets to draw from it during peak electricity use during the day?
There are a lot of options nowadays on how things are built, or even financially structured, electricity usage wise. Battery backup makes a difference in SHTF or simple every day usage in a normal day.
I don't think we will ever give up nuclear or natural gas in the next 40 years.
Coal is as legacy as the shipyard railways I work on.
They still exist, so we continue to use them.
Lol, the future is floating drydocks.
Solar/wind now compete successfully with traditional fuels on price per Kw.
The problem is hour by hour reliability.
Sufficient Battery backup smooths that out completely.