AZ BS Thread 4²0

What's up everyone, checking in from Tempe

 

A man came to my door working for Sun energy solutions, offering to lease solar panels.

Does anyone have leased panels? Is there a better way to go?

 

I have leased solar panels, from Solar City. I love them. Yes, they save us about a $100 a month (Electric plus lease).

I went leased because I didn't want the financial responsibility of them. If a panel gets damaged in a storm, they fix it. If my roof gets damaged from the panels, they fix it. If the inverter goes out, they fix it. In 20 years, if I want to renew, they I can make them install the latest, more efficient panels. Also, if there is an issue and the systems doesn't produce the minimum amount (damaged panel, broken inverter, etc) then solar city pays me directly until they fix the issue.

I can pay off the lease when ever I want, saving the interest associated with it. I am on a progressive payment plan, it starts super low and goes up slowly. I did the math and if I pay off the lease at the 15 year mark, I save almost all the interest, plus at that point, the lease payoff with be very little. If I sell the house, I can transfer the lease, or work the payoff into the sell.

I didn't get the state and federal tax credit by going with a lease, but I do get the power credit from SRP for anything I put into the grid.

If I can add batteries soon, then my power bill will go down even further.

 

Im not so sure about leased panels, you already dont own the power you put into the grid with them.

Id look into see if there are state programs or credits from APS or SRP.

 

When I was looking into it you have 2 options, lease it and the company installs it and gets to keep the tax rebate, so you see none of that and now have a 20-30 year lease paying said money, saving money, and maybe being ahead 20-50 a month? If you buy out right your just paying a ton up front, long term it'll pay for itself and make you some money, but you will have maintenance to handle yourself and issues are all on you.

Another thing to look at if it's a lease you now have locked in your house sale to people who want to have to deal with the lease, at least with paying outright you got the tax rebate, and since it's paid off it's a bonus to a home buyer down the line.

 

A third option when you sell, is to pay a fee and have the panels moved to your new home. At least with Solar City.

 

Lol my energy bill last month was $72

That's leaving the AC at 78 all day and not doing a peak plan.

But on the downside I can only fit like 25 midget strippers in my apartment without it starting to get crowded.

 

Do you have a good recommendation of somewhere to buy?

 

https://www.google.com/get/sunroof#p=0


If youre thinking of solar, check this first

 

It's funny, because it all seems very surreal now. I went with the biological valve replacement, which is zero maintenance, so all I have to remind me of the whole thing on a day-to-day basis is the sternotomy scar, which isn't really all that prominent now. It's easy to take it all for granted.

But then I read about Bill Pullman, who went in and had almost the exact same surgery I did, at one of the best hospitals in the world, and then died of a stroke while he was recovering in ICU afterwards.

I have a friend back in California, one of his friends went in for heart valve repair, and he was telling me afterwards, "We were thinking, 'Oh, this is no big deal, it's kinda the same thing Mark just had.'" She coded out on the table, they had to bring her back twice. She spent time anoxic, spent three months in the hospital, now she's partially paralyzed on her left side.

One of my wife's friends from our homeschool group, her husband had a ruptured aortic aneurysm and actually survived. The odds against that are astronomical. But, again, spent time anoxic, massive brain injury, they had to life flight him from Verde to Flagstaff. He's been in therapy ever since, relearning how to walk, how to talk, how to eat.

When we were talking with the surgeon the night before my surgery, one of the things he said was, "Well, obviously God isn't done with you yet." (To which my wife replied, "I could have told you that." ) Every day is a gift. For some of us, doubly so.

 

Before you ask would you know a ball park price?

 

See if you can buy out the lease up front.

 

If I was a halfway decent prostitute, would I have blue balls? Think about it.

 

I paid off my lease up front. My electric bill is $19.99 a month. Its a 20 year lease weather I paid it up front or monthly they own and maintain the panels. I will recoup my money is n six years from the beginning of the lease. My monthly bill was $230 a month. Now I only pay $19.99. In the last three years I have only had three bills that where over $19.99 and they did not go over $70.

 

House or apartment?

We are renting an older manufactured home until we decide where to buy in Phoenix and the house is so poorly insulated we maintain it at 78-79 degrees and our APS bill is close to $300/mo. I gotta think any other construction has to be better than what we are in right now.

 

If you took it in the ass you would more deposits up in there

 

Our house is 77 when we are home, 74 at night and 80 when we are away. I pay $100 a money and $70 to solar. Before solar I was paying over $300 a month dying the summer. In the winter, my electric is usually $30, plus the $70 for solar. I figured out the math and we have saved about $2k a year

 

Sick, sick man! Which is why we get along so well.

 

^To add to that, I am a stay at home dad. SO during the summer we are always home... I hate the heat. So the house is 77 almost all the time. Plus we have a pool.

 

Any thoughts on construction types to look at in Arizona.

Houses built using ICF's (insulated concrete forms) seem pretty energy efficient and termite resistant.