House Solar

Who has installed solar on there house? I am waiting on the closing of my new house and am interested in saving any money I can once I move in.

The house is a raised 2 story, with constant sun all day. The roof pitches face east and west, lightly sloped shingle roof. House is 1350 sq feet all on 1 floor, so a decent size roof.

What is required to go in the house and how much room does it take? What kind of savings do you ACTUALLY see vs what companies advertise? How much was you upfront costs?

Thanks for any invite.

 

Does it take 20 years to recoup costs or has that changed? Kalifornia is passing a law that new construction requires solar be used. Wonder how that works with homes where they are shaded all day?
Duane

 

The local news said something about a very large expense involved in removing the panels if reroofing is required. I guess it makes sense to ensure the roof will last before installing panels.

 

I'm sure they would still require it in the shade. Either that, or require you to cut down all trees.

California is super green after all....

 

I have noticed a few people with a couple panels on the roofs along with plumbing pipes, assume they have some sort of auxiliary hot water tanks.

 

My friend has a solar heating setup for his pool on the shed roof.

 

I had solar installed a year ago so I have gone through the full cycle. The incentive was put out by the state to have more houses on solar. I do have net metering which is in my favor once it is all paid off. My monthly bill for a 2800sq ft colonial was averaged at $150 over the course of a year. 2 AC units and forced hot air heating with oil for some background. My highest electric bill has been $42 which was this past July with the AC running at no cooler than 76 (im cheap and its only me and my kids).
Average bill has been $10-15 for the other months.
Now I do have a 15y loan on the panels I can pay off at any point with no penalty and also got the government rebate on my taxes last year which reduced the overall loan monthly payment.
My roof faces south so it gets sun all day and no tree issues in the winter when the sun is lower. The solar company gets a cut of what I generate but I also receive a monthly amount of money for the power I do generate so there have been months this summer I made a few nickles.
What I learned from the installer is the amount of panels is spec'd to the average electric usage the previous year as you are not allowed to make more than you can use on average. He did say for anyone looking at solar, to jack your electric use the year prior, pay the high bills but then you system will be more than you actually need and it works in the owners favor.
I have had no issues with the system except for some communication between the monitoring box and their app to see solar production. The winter with a snowfall is a bit wild when it breaks free and it sounds like a train on the roof.

 

What kind of payment do you have for the solar panels for the 15 years?

 

not to disclose the full financial but its about what my average monthly was prior to solar

 

So it would take roughly 32.5 years to pay for itself?

 

I wasn't trying to pry into your finances, just trying to see if you were money to the good, breaking even, or costing you.

 

this summer i made a little with the sunny days, mostly June, July and August. I have also turned the AC to be warmer as no one is home most of the day and at night the kids like it warmer. With ceiling fans in each room its not an issue either.
According to the quote and paperwork, it will take about 5 years to start "making" money when it turns in my favor. the sooner I pay off the loan the sooner the money goes into my pocket.

 

It sounds like your happy, but if you were to go back and decide to do it again would you? Anything that really surprised you as nt what you wer told/expected?

 

When you say the pitches face east/west, you mean the ridge line run north/south right? That wont be as ideal. But your location probably doesn't get too much snow, so that should help you in the winter.

I usually work with much larger scale installations, but I do know that many inverter manufactures make residential sized, outdoor rated units so most if not all of the equipment and wiring can be done on the outside of your house. And yeah like the other guys said, make sure your roof will last as long as you expect the solar to last

If you PM me your address I could run a few quick models at work for you next week sometime. Give you an idea of what energy production you could be expecting

 

I would do it again if the correct incentive was attached. I had quotes from 3 companies over 4 years when it came into RI and each one would reduce my cost per KW/h by about a cent (give or take) so it really didn't do anything for me.
This latest round of requirements by the state and the solar company actually put money back into my pocket with net metering. I have 2 meters on the house now, one for what I draw from the grid and the other what I generate which goes back to the grid. I will never be off the grid but in time I will be having the power company "store my power" for use in the off season. or so I have been told.

There was some unsolicited email I received saying I had to have insurance on the system so I contacted the installers and they said it was bogus. Just watch out for anything that seems off.

 

Seriously considered it for a while but decided against it at this point for several reasons. First I'll say that it would be easier for me than most to go solar for a few reasons. Number 1 being that I live out in the sticks and have a good deal of idle acreage that I could put up a solar farm without having to mount it to my roof. Number 2 is that we rarely get any snow at all so production would be better year round. Now all that said here is why I decided that now is not the time for us to go solar. First off after researching cost to do it and doing the math it would take about 20 years before it was paid for and I could start making money back. OK, not bad but then I found that the panels would need replacing either by that time or sooner and that their efficiency drops over time as the coating on the panels wears from weather and wind blown particles. So, I'm not gaining any financial advantage. But then the big thing that made up my mind. A local entity had just finished putting up a huge solar farm and was preparing to flip the switch to start making power and BAM a tornado came through and destroyed it all. We're talking millions of dollars in panels that all had to be replaced. OK, just insure it right? Well, you don't wanna know what the insurance company wants to charge for that! Bottom line, way too much risk with no real payoff in the future so we decided to bide our time till the technology improves and prices come down. Sort of like folks that went out and bought a VCR when the tech first came out. Spent thousands of 1980's dollars for a VERY basic VCR and up to fifty bucks a piece for blank tapes. Within five years you could buy more advanced VCRs for the price of the original blank tapes.

 

I also have the acreage to put in ground panels but no one would it it since the roof is cheaper and that is their business. Just this week I received a letter asking if I wanted to be part of some solar farm sharing group to reduce my electric bill. Ummmm, i already went solar people. There is also a new farm that went up a few 100 yard from my house. I'll invest in extension cords before another solar producing company.

 

We have it and love it. If you don't have net-metering it would be difficult to recoup the cost, but the costs for solar are so much lower than 10 or 20 years ago that we are going to put some more up soon. It keeps our electricity bill pretty low.
The shingles under our panels are 20 years old but they are protected from sun, rain, and wind and they look brand new. The section of our roof that doesn't have panels has been replaced twice because of wind damage, but the solar panels seem to really protect the roof. It also makes it a lot cooler upstairs than it used to be.
I have friends that are getting their roofs replaced and solar installed at the same time. One company doing both and the roof price is rolled into the price of the total job, which is eligible for subsidies.

 

I guess what I was trying to figure out was how many years before you break even? I will pull numbers out of thin air as an example, say the total cost of the panels, installation, and interest on the loan equals $20,000, your electric bill is roughly $1000 less per year so it would take 20 years to break even.