We just moved (this weekend). One think we were hoping for was some place we could do solar. We have a lot of south facing roof, and only one tree that I already want to take out. I’m pretty sure we will. At least I’ll start making calls to talk to people. My understanding is this is the last year for tax rebates in MD, so I need to get on it. But, we won’t have the cash (or even credit) for it until the other house sells, likely September. Ahhhh
We don’t, mostly because our city utilities are publicly owned and the rates are very reasonable. Solar isn’t uncommon, though.
The surrounding cities all have PGE, which is incredibly expensive, and solar is VERY common. I think all new builds in Ca have to have solar panels now, or maybe just my area?
The county has a low cost finance option that adds the repayment to your property taxes, which a lot of people do. You can also lease them, and the lease payment is expected to be much lower than the amount you save in electricity costs. The only negative with that option is that your house is often locked in to a 10+ year lease and if you sell, the new buyer is obligated to that. It’s not an issue in the real estate market now, but has been a major deterrent in the past.
Post by amberlyrose on Jun 21, 2021 15:58:01 GMT -5
We have them on our house in Denver and produce enough to cover our electricity, including charging the cars. My H is looking into battery storage options within the next two years along with insulating the roof/attic because it is close to needing replacement anyway. When we first had them installed, they did not completely cover our electricity with the AC unit, but when that died, we installed an evap cooler and haven't paid for electric since
We did get some gutter damage right underneath the area where the panels are during that big storm this spring. 2ft of snow just slid right off and accumulated at the roof line.
I want them, but MH hates the idea of having that much stuff attached to our roof (he already felt this way and then our neighbor briefly had the leased sort and had major install issues that led to his roof leaking and broke his contract and threated to sue and blah blah blah....it was a mess, but it reinforced MH's preconceived issues with it) and the south side of our house is tree-shaded anyway.
But if anybody has any thoughts on that aspect I'll happily store them away for the day the big cherry and sycamore trees out back die and leave half the house sunny again. Any roof issues? Leaking? How much of a hassle is it to take them down and put them back up if you have an unrelated roofing issue?
But if anybody has any thoughts on that aspect I'll happily store them away for the day the big cherry and sycamore trees out back die and leave half the house sunny again. Any roof issues? Leaking? How much of a hassle is it to take them down and put them back up if you have an unrelated roofing issue?
We've only had the current system for a week, so I'll speak to the system we had on our old house - No roof issues. No leaking. We had them removed to repair the roof and it was painless. Just called the company and they removed it and then reinstalled. Unsure how that is going to work with our new system since we own this one, but the company has promised the same thing (easy removal and reinstall should there be a need). Of course, that's only good so long as the company is around.
Phoenix, AZ here. We don’t have them but want to start getting quotes, I just have no idea where to start in finding a reputable company as they all seem shady to me.
I do like the look for the Tesla panels (not roof).
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.
This exactly. The batteries were very cost ineffective when we installed 5 years ago.
We put in solar panels in Feb/Mar of 2020, so we've had them a bit over a year. Our roof line wasn't ideal (faced the wrong way, too many gable/peaks) but we had a great spot in our larger backyard. So - we went with a ground mount grid tied system. Bonus, I have less grass to cut! Ground mount isn't always feasible/preferred, but it works well for our location. And except in the winter, you can't really see them from the front of the house. It may or may not make the house harder to sell later, but we aren't looking at moving anytime soon.
We're in VA and at the time could only put in a system x% over our average monthly usage over a year. Thankfully we already had the EV for a year so we could factor that in. In the year +, we've only paid the connection fee. All other electricity costs have been earned by the panels (and I still have a "credit" but you have to manually calculate it. It isn't obvious on the bill). We do have gas heat though.
Total cost for us was right at $26,000 and after the tax credit was $19,000. I don't remember what the payback was exactly, but it was 10 plus years. That's already decreased though, as the electric co has raised rates by 10%.
Oh, I love this idea! I wonder if they could do a ground mount, but place it up, like 7 or 8 feet above ground... Get yourself a whole bunch of covered patio space that is shaded for enjoying shade in the summer heat (I'm pasty, pasty white, if I'm going outside in summer, it's _not_ for the sun).
We're in the Midwest, so I'm not sure how snow affects solar panels. I'm guessing if they're angled right, and facing the correct direction, snow might slide off/melt off, except for during the worst of winter. But, I'd love to see data on it. (not from you, picaflora, just another fuzzy thought on the idea of getting solar someday, if we ever manage to find a home to buy....)
We put in solar panels in Feb/Mar of 2020, so we've had them a bit over a year. Our roof line wasn't ideal (faced the wrong way, too many gable/peaks) but we had a great spot in our larger backyard. So - we went with a ground mount grid tied system. Bonus, I have less grass to cut! Ground mount isn't always feasible/preferred, but it works well for our location. And except in the winter, you can't really see them from the front of the house. It may or may not make the house harder to sell later, but we aren't looking at moving anytime soon.
We're in VA and at the time could only put in a system x% over our average monthly usage over a year. Thankfully we already had the EV for a year so we could factor that in. In the year +, we've only paid the connection fee. All other electricity costs have been earned by the panels (and I still have a "credit" but you have to manually calculate it. It isn't obvious on the bill). We do have gas heat though.
Total cost for us was right at $26,000 and after the tax credit was $19,000. I don't remember what the payback was exactly, but it was 10 plus years. That's already decreased though, as the electric co has raised rates by 10%.
Oh, I love this idea! I wonder if they could do a ground mount, but place it up, like 7 or 8 feet above ground... Get yourself a whole bunch of covered patio space that is shaded for enjoying shade in the summer heat (I'm pasty, pasty white, if I'm going outside in summer, it's _not_ for the sun).
We're in the Midwest, so I'm not sure how snow affects solar panels. I'm guessing if they're angled right, and facing the correct direction, snow might slide off/melt off, except for during the worst of winter. But, I'd love to see data on it. (not from you, picaflora, just another fuzzy thought on the idea of getting solar someday, if we ever manage to find a home to buy....)
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 can actually vary by city. Our's doesn't allow rental/leasing and you have to buy the panels if you want them. A couple of towns over, my parents lease.
SS - Our power is technically supplied by a community solar farm that was commissioned in the past year, about an hour west of us. My neighbors are getting their own panels installed literally left, right, and center, though.
Post by sillygoosegirl on Jun 22, 2021 5:38:59 GMT -5
Our system/house are grid-tied, so our power goes down when the grid goes down. However, our inverter does have 1 outlet that can remain on during a power outage, if the sun is shining. This allows us to charge our electric car, charge our phones, run the lighter on our gas stove (it has some sort of interlock that turns the gas off if it doesn't have electricity), run the fan for our woodburning fireplace so it can actually warm our house, or the like. We can run those other things off the car battery when the sun isn't shining. It's a pain in the butt to run extension cords, but good to know we always have the option. I think something like this is becoming pretty standard, so being grid-tied without a dedicated battery backup system doesn't necessarily mean you can't access your electricity at all in a power outage.
We also live somewhere that doesn't have frequent power outages, and when we do get them, it's normally less than an hour before it is back on. So mostly it's an inconvenience, not a concern for us.
We put in solar panels in Feb/Mar of 2020, so we've had them a bit over a year. Our roof line wasn't ideal (faced the wrong way, too many gable/peaks) but we had a great spot in our larger backyard. So - we went with a ground mount grid tied system. Bonus, I have less grass to cut! Ground mount isn't always feasible/preferred, but it works well for our location. And except in the winter, you can't really see them from the front of the house. It may or may not make the house harder to sell later, but we aren't looking at moving anytime soon.
We're in VA and at the time could only put in a system x% over our average monthly usage over a year. Thankfully we already had the EV for a year so we could factor that in. In the year +, we've only paid the connection fee. All other electricity costs have been earned by the panels (and I still have a "credit" but you have to manually calculate it. It isn't obvious on the bill). We do have gas heat though.
Total cost for us was right at $26,000 and after the tax credit was $19,000. I don't remember what the payback was exactly, but it was 10 plus years. That's already decreased though, as the electric co has raised rates by 10%.
Oh, I love this idea! I wonder if they could do a ground mount, but place it up, like 7 or 8 feet above ground... Get yourself a whole bunch of covered patio space that is shaded for enjoying shade in the summer heat (I'm pasty, pasty white, if I'm going outside in summer, it's _not_ for the sun).
We're in the Midwest, so I'm not sure how snow affects solar panels. I'm guessing if they're angled right, and facing the correct direction, snow might slide off/melt off, except for during the worst of winter. But, I'd love to see data on it. (not from you, picaflora , just another fuzzy thought on the idea of getting solar someday, if we ever manage to find a home to buy....)
I can also confirm that snow slides right off of our ground mount. If we want to speed up the process, we clean off one little corner until the panel itself is exposed. Within 30min it's all clear!
Ours are angled. The bottom is about 3ft off the ground, and the top is 10-12ft high. The width underneath would be large enough to park a car so... 8ft? 10ft?
I have seen covered parking before with panels on top though! No idea how well they produce since they aren't angled for optimum production, but it is a thing!
ETA: sillygoosegirl - we have the same thing, one outlet and a switch that will let us access power as long as the panels are producing. We also rarely lose power, so we haven't tried it out yet!
We also rent, but they are going up all over our neighborhood. I wish our landlord would get them for us - ha.
My landlord in HI got them. He was a nerd, so he would have gotten them anyway, but he also realized it was a good investment for enticing renters. Try contacting your landlord. If you're a good renter, they might be open to it.
Our system/house are grid-tied, so our power goes down when the grid goes down. However, our inverter does have 1 outlet that can remain on during a power outage, if the sun is shining. This allows us to charge our electric car, charge our phones, run the lighter on our gas stove (it has some sort of interlock that turns the gas off if it doesn't have electricity), run the fan for our woodburning fireplace so it can actually warm our house, or the like. We can run those other things off the car battery when the sun isn't shining. It's a pain in the butt to run extension cords, but good to know we always have the option. I think something like this is becoming pretty standard, so being grid-tied without a dedicated battery backup system doesn't necessarily mean you can't access your electricity at all in a power outage.
We also live somewhere that doesn't have frequent power outages, and when we do get them, it's normally less than an hour before it is back on. So mostly it's an inconvenience, not a concern for us.
that’s good to know. One outlet v no power is a huge difference. Especially after the first day.
Post by DotAndBuzz on Jun 22, 2021 11:29:47 GMT -5
We've thought about it and looked into it, but we don't get much sun in the fall/winter/half of spring. It's gray from November through about April, and last I checked the break even time was about 20 years because of our shit weather.
That said, H keeps an eye on new technology, and it's always kind of hanging in the back of our minds as a possibility.
Post by MixedBerryJam on Jun 22, 2021 12:33:47 GMT -5
I have panels and I’m a little miffed about it. I have known for years that selling the house was a medium-term plan, so always passed on installing panels, figuring I’d leave the decisión to the eventual new owners. My son, who has rented the house from me fora couple of years now, pointed out, not incorrectly, that I’d been talking about selling the house for years and he really wanted to install them. So I put him in charge of it. And it turns out we pay $150/month to RENT the panels and, while i haven’t actually seen the contract, if I remove them before X number of years I pay a penalty. Even with the $150 monthly rent i think the course of the year we end up saving money. But now that I’m months away from selling I feel like they’re just a stupid, avoidable albatross that I shouldn’t have let me son talk me into. Not mad at him, just miffed at myself for adding a layer of complexity to home ownership i guess. E have had a few months when we’ve had $0 electricity bills and sold excess power back.
Can I ask kind of a spin-off question here and other renewable energy sources?
I'm in MN and I haven't seen many houses here with solar panels, but I live in a city with a wind turbine that creates renewable energy. We have the option to pay an additional $1-3 monthly to source our electricity from the renewable sources vs other sources.
For the business side they tout this as "Meet Your Business’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Goals" and "Promote Your Business as being Powered by 100% Renewable Energy." But I'm not sure I understand the benefits of it as a residential user. Is my payment and use of the renewable energy actually reducing other energy sources and making an environmental impact? Or would I just be giving them money to feel better because I'm using renewable energy?
Can I ask kind of a spin-off question here and other renewable energy sources?
I'm in MN and I haven't seen many houses here with solar panels, but I live in a city with a wind turbine that creates renewable energy. We have the option to pay an additional $1-3 monthly to source our electricity from the renewable sources vs other sources.
For the business side they tout this as "Meet Your Business’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Goals" and "Promote Your Business as being Powered by 100% Renewable Energy." But I'm not sure I understand the benefits of it as a residential user. Is my payment and use of the renewable energy actually reducing other energy sources and making an environmental impact? Or would I just be giving them money to feel better because I'm using renewable energy?
My understanding is that the more people sign up for this, the more renewable energy the local utility is required to put on the grid. So if *only* you do it, yeah, it's pretty much just greenwashing. The electrons coming into your home don't change and where they are coming from more than likely hasn't changed. But if enough people sign up, they are (or hypothetically would) be required to buy more renewable energy/fund more renewable energy projects to meet that demand. We pay the extra for this (during the months we buy electricity beyond what our solar panels generate), and encourage others to do the same. I'd GREATLY prefer a top down governmental solution, because realistically we're not going to get there any other way. But until we have that, I do feel like it's a cheap but meaningful way to put my money where my mouth is and show my support to getting our grid onto renewables.
Can I ask kind of a spin-off question here and other renewable energy sources?
I'm in MN and I haven't seen many houses here with solar panels, but I live in a city with a wind turbine that creates renewable energy. We have the option to pay an additional $1-3 monthly to source our electricity from the renewable sources vs other sources.
For the business side they tout this as "Meet Your Business’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Goals" and "Promote Your Business as being Powered by 100% Renewable Energy." But I'm not sure I understand the benefits of it as a residential user. Is my payment and use of the renewable energy actually reducing other energy sources and making an environmental impact? Or would I just be giving them money to feel better because I'm using renewable energy?
Are you a XCEL customer? Essentially, the more people that sign up for renewable energy sources, the most they are able to invest in that and shift away from coal powered-and hopefully shut down more of their coal fired plants sooner
Can I ask kind of a spin-off question here and other renewable energy sources?
I'm in MN and I haven't seen many houses here with solar panels, but I live in a city with a wind turbine that creates renewable energy. We have the option to pay an additional $1-3 monthly to source our electricity from the renewable sources vs other sources.
For the business side they tout this as "Meet Your Business’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Goals" and "Promote Your Business as being Powered by 100% Renewable Energy." But I'm not sure I understand the benefits of it as a residential user. Is my payment and use of the renewable energy actually reducing other energy sources and making an environmental impact? Or would I just be giving them money to feel better because I'm using renewable energy?
My understanding is that the more people sign up for this, the more renewable energy the local utility is required to put on the grid. So if *only* you do it, yeah, it's pretty much just greenwashing. The electrons coming into your home don't change and where they are coming from more than likely hasn't changed. But if enough people sign up, they are (or hypothetically would) be required to buy more renewable energy/fund more renewable energy projects to meet that demand. We pay the extra for this (during the months we buy electricity beyond what our solar panels generate), and encourage others to do the same. I'd GREATLY prefer a top down governmental solution, because realistically we're not going to get there any other way. But until we have that, I do feel like it's a cheap but meaningful way to put my money where my mouth is and show my support to getting our grid onto renewables.
This is not necessarily true. My municipality has guaranteed that all energy providers will produce their electricity from renewable sources by 2030 (and the goal is on track to be met). Which has forced the largest providers to step up production.
Post by sometimesrunner on Jun 22, 2021 18:25:50 GMT -5
We’ll get them once we redo our siding. They’re only related because we’ll put a new roof on when we redo the siding. Our local companies buys back excess at retail rates, so it could work out really well for us.
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
There are 10-12 states with some major tax incentives and that’s where the solar companies concentrate.
But if anybody has any thoughts on that aspect I'll happily store them away for the day the big cherry and sycamore trees out back die and leave half the house sunny again. Any roof issues? Leaking? How much of a hassle is it to take them down and put them back up if you have an unrelated roofing issue?
We've only had the current system for a week, so I'll speak to the system we had on our old house - No roof issues. No leaking. We had them removed to repair the roof and it was painless. Just called the company and they removed it and then reinstalled. Unsure how that is going to work with our new system since we own this one, but the company has promised the same thing (easy removal and reinstall should there be a need). Of course, that's only good so long as the company is around.
This was going to be my question about if you take the panels with you when you move. So it sounds like they are easy to remove and reinstall somewhere else? I’m a perpetual nomad, so was wondering about that aspect. Saving up 20-30k and then leaving them behind a few years later seems daunting to me! :/ But obviously doing what’s better for the environment is important!
We've only had the current system for a week, so I'll speak to the system we had on our old house - No roof issues. No leaking. We had them removed to repair the roof and it was painless. Just called the company and they removed it and then reinstalled. Unsure how that is going to work with our new system since we own this one, but the company has promised the same thing (easy removal and reinstall should there be a need). Of course, that's only good so long as the company is around.
This was going to be my question about if you take the panels with you when you move. So it sounds like they are easy to remove and reinstall somewhere else? I’m a perpetual nomad, so was wondering about that aspect. Saving up 20-30k and then leaving them behind a few years later seems daunting to me! :/ But obviously doing what’s better for the environment is important!
Yes, you could, theoretically, take the panels with you. You would still need to do all the electrical/panel upgrades, and you may need new mountings for them at a new home. Plus, the system would probably have to change (like adding more panels) depending on how your roof faces. I have no clue how that would compare, price wise, to leaving them and starting a new system.
We've only had the current system for a week, so I'll speak to the system we had on our old house - No roof issues. No leaking. We had them removed to repair the roof and it was painless. Just called the company and they removed it and then reinstalled. Unsure how that is going to work with our new system since we own this one, but the company has promised the same thing (easy removal and reinstall should there be a need). Of course, that's only good so long as the company is around.
This was going to be my question about if you take the panels with you when you move. So it sounds like they are easy to remove and reinstall somewhere else? I’m a perpetual nomad, so was wondering about that aspect. Saving up 20-30k and then leaving them behind a few years later seems daunting to me! :/ But obviously doing what’s better for the environment is important!
I think most people leave them and they add value to your house. At least that's what the salesman said. LOL. But we got ours with the thought that we will be in this house for a while. They are warrantied for 25 years and will be paid "back" around 10. We paid outright so they are already paid for. We might make the money back before that. We'll have a better idea once we crunch the first year's numbers. That sweet spot of 10-25 years will be when we get "free" power.
I supposed you could take them with you. It costs money to uninstall, transport, and install. Ours are not something small or we could ever DIY. Whenever we need to replace the roof, we'll have to pay about $1K to get them taken off and reinstalled. Of course that's according to our sales guy so we'll see what it costs when the time comes.