Do you have solar panels on your residence? They are pretty common around here and required on all new builds.
We don’t have solar yet but plan to get it when we remodel/ replace the roof.
solar is easy in CA ( there are options where you don’t own the panels, so no cost involved, and still reap net metering benefits) but we want something with battery storage so we get the benefit of the panels when the grid goes down. it’ll be a pricier option.
Post by Velar Fricative on Jun 21, 2021 11:39:45 GMT -5
No. A few years back we were told solar panels weren't possible on our roof (it's a rowhouse and I think the guy said something about the slope not being sufficient). Now, the technology may have changed to the point where maybe it's possible and our roof is due for replacement in a couple of years, so we do want to explore again.
No, when we replaced the roof a few years ago they were prohibitively expensive and we were told due to shade we wouldn’t get much yield. We do purchase our energy from a solar farm that just went live located about an hour away from us. I expect eventually the technology will improve to where we can add them for a reasonable price.
We're grid tied with no battery storage, with plans to add battery storage within the next 5-10 years. I'm hoping that the battery systems get better/less expensive with the delay.
A comment like this in the Texas thread puzzled me. I’m guessing it’s a state by state thing. Here, you can’t leave Costco or Home Depot without passing someone promoting the no cost grid tied systems. You don’t own the panels on your roof but get a little of the net metering benefits. I’m guessing that’s not an option everywhere
No, but we are interested in the future. We're in SoCal so it would be easy to do here and a lot of our neighbors have them. We'd like to own the panels which is expensive and it just doesn't make financial sense right now. We wouldn't break even for ~8-10 years and then our panels might need upgrading. I'm hoping that prices will come down and battery technology will get better/cheaper so it makes sense in the future. Or global warming will require us to run the a/c for the more than just at night two months out of the year and solar will become the better financial choice.
Post by penguingrrl on Jun 21, 2021 11:53:51 GMT -5
No, they’re prohibitively expensive here, and we have a few big trees over our house, so the yield would be low because our house spends a lot of time in shade.
A comment like this in the Texas thread puzzled me. I’m guessing it’s a state by state thing. Here, you can’t leave Costco or Home Depot without passing someone promoting the no cost grid tied systems. You don’t own the panels on your roof but get a little of the net metering benefits. I’m guessing that’s not an option everywhere
It was several years ago, maybe 5 maybe 7, I can’t remember exactly, so things probably have changed a lot. But we are in the Midwest where it is cloudy often and winter is a million months long, so I’m sure it’s not quite as easy as in a state with lots of sunshine. That being said there are solar farms popping up here.
A comment like this in the Texas thread puzzled me. I’m guessing it’s a state by state thing. Here, you can’t leave Costco or Home Depot without passing someone promoting the no cost grid tied systems. You don’t own the panels on your roof but get a little of the net metering benefits. I’m guessing that’s not an option everywhere
We've had both a lease option, and now we outright bought the panels. I'm not aware of just giving the panels roof space, here.
We got ours last August. We're in VA so it's not as much incentive. We're still connected to the grid and have to pay the connection fees. It hasn't been a full year. But most months we produce most of our power even though we estimated that it should produce about 2/3rds of our power. It's been overproducing which is great. We cut down one small tree in the front yard in January and that has made a big difference!
We only have them on one side of the roof because the company that said that is where you get the most bang for your buck. The front of our house is very sunny so we were ideal candidates for them. The first company that approached us wanted to put them on both sides of the roof and it was double the price of the second company, but would not produce double the energy.
We paid for them in full and they should be paid back in around 10 years. I'm happy we have them I wish we would have gotten them a year earlier when the rebate was even higher!
I think we paid about $16K for them after the tax rebate back (26%) for those interested in numbers.
We're grid tied with no battery storage, with plans to add battery storage within the next 5-10 years. I'm hoping that the battery systems get better/less expensive with the delay.
we were planning to go that route until the fire prevention power outages of 2019. Now battery storage (for our house at the base of a super flammable hill) feels worth the cost even if it pushes up the remodel construction loan.
No, they’re prohibitively expensive here, and we have a few big trees over our house, so the yield would be low because our house spends a lot of time in shade.
Let's talk prohibitively expensive, what's that number?
A comment like this in the Texas thread puzzled me. I’m guessing it’s a state by state thing. Here, you can’t leave Costco or Home Depot without passing someone promoting the no cost grid tied systems. You don’t own the panels on your roof but get a little of the net metering benefits. I’m guessing that’s not an option everywhere
Yes, this is true. A friend of mine, an electrician, went solar and was actually able to make a profit by selling the electricity back to the city. This was in Hawaii. Many military contracted homes there were also solar. Remember that troll that bitched about that? I grew up watching beatlejuice, so I will not say the name.
A comment like this in the Texas thread puzzled me. I’m guessing it’s a state by state thing. Here, you can’t leave Costco or Home Depot without passing someone promoting the no cost grid tied systems. You don’t own the panels on your roof but get a little of the net metering benefits. I’m guessing that’s not an option everywhere
Our neighbors rent their panels and still pay $150 per month which isn't too much less than what we pay with no panels. I also worry about selling the house and whether a future buyer wants to take on that lease.
We're grid tied with no battery storage, with plans to add battery storage within the next 5-10 years. I'm hoping that the battery systems get better/less expensive with the delay.
we were planning to go that route until the fire prevention power outages of 2019. Now battery storage (for our house at the base of a super flammable hill) feels worth the cost even if it pushes up the remodel construction loan.
I have a friend in CA who just did that. She went with a Tesla power wall. For them, it was worth the extra $$ (I want to say $5k?) to do it, and when you're remodeling it's smart just to add that cost to the loan.
We went with a loan through our Utility dept. The interest and payment options were hard to beat, even going through our credit union.
Post by StrawberryBlondie on Jun 21, 2021 11:58:34 GMT -5
No. We looked into it when we replaced our roof about 10 years ago and they were prohibitively expensive. Now that their cost has gone down and our incomes have gone up, it's coming back on our radar, but we have a few other projects that would need to take priority.
No, they’re prohibitively expensive here, and we have a few big trees over our house, so the yield would be low because our house spends a lot of time in shade.
Let's talk prohibitively expensive, what's that number?
It was in the $30K range. In the long run it would have evened out, but we didn’t have the capital to make the investment.
No, they’re prohibitively expensive here, and we have a few big trees over our house, so the yield would be low because our house spends a lot of time in shade.
Let's talk prohibitively expensive, what's that number?
I should add that it meant doing something major to our roof (don’t remember what) because its a 1926 house.
I should add that it meant doing something major to our roof (don’t remember what) because its a 1926 house.
It probably needed structural bracing. We had to do that to ours too (1961 ranch).
That makes a lot of sense. I think we would have looked harder at it if we didn’t have shade on our roof most of the time. We have four huge very old (100+ year old) trees surrounding our house so the roof is rarely in the sun.
Post by plutosmoon on Jun 21, 2021 12:06:10 GMT -5
I'm currently a renter, so it's no for now for me. My last house had an amazingly good location for solar panels, but I couldn't afford to buy them and when I looked into a lease they wanted almost $200/month, and I couldn't sell back my excess electricity. It also required a new roof and I wasn't getting a clear answer regarding how much they provided for that. Maybe there are better options now, I plan to look into it again if I'm ever able to repurchase my own home.
Post by icedcoffee on Jun 21, 2021 12:07:13 GMT -5
No, until a couple years ago we had a 30+year old roof so it didn't make sense. We replaced it and now it might make sense, but it hasn't been much of a priority mostly because we have gas heat and honestly our electric bills aren't crazy. We may eventually do it. I just feel like the technology keeps getting better so not sure if we should do it now.
I wonder if this is like the modern day satellite dish where they used to be HUGE and now they're tiny and we'll start to see solar panels the size of an ipad or something and people will all laugh about the old school solar panels that took up the whole roof. LOL
We looked into it a few years ago, and would love to do it soon. At the time, we felt like the technology would be improving fairly soon making the cost go down and efficiency go up. We don’t have a south-facing slope and live in Iowa. Even the solar company was like, “Eh…you might want to wait a few years.”
We plan to look into it more aggressively in 2022. We had several major home expenses come up and pushed it out a bit. It’s getting much more popular here, so there are more options and more information/experience available.
I guess it’s not the worst problem to have, but we have too many nearby trees to be good candidates for solar. Maybe as costs come down (or electric prices go up) it would at some point be feasible? I don’t know if economic cost is a good stand-in the environmental benefits. Especially since we don’t use coal plants locally.
When the solar leasing companies are out in the neighborhood I’ve had several conversations that go like this. “Well, you’d be surprised how often we can find a spot that works. Which house is yours?” ::points to house:: “Oh.” ::backs away slowly::