My wife is a Realtor and these leased panels do NOT add to the value or salability (sp?)of your home. The 20-25 year lease is the problem. Many buyers are leery of being tied into that length of contract for a mere $50/month savings (and most installations do not even make that).
Now I did say “many”. There are the few that are willing to pay more for their electricity to look “green”.
DON’T DO IT.
So the lease is attached to the property rather than the owner...I assume you have to get lender approval (assuming a mortgage exists) for the encumbrance then?
Three years ago I bought panels and had them installed on my house.
These panels cut my bill by 4/5, so I was paying 1/5 the amount of my previous monthly bill.
The panel cost went down so I added 4 more, higher output panels and now for 3 or 4 months of the year my bill is slightly negative.
The recovery time on the cost is about 10.5 years from the installation time and I will be even. I do expect to live in this house that long or more.
The panels all have a 25yr warranty. So far, so good.
Yes, a hit initially but I get a kick out of watching my meter run backwards on nice days (I am in So Cal).
The electric bill here is divided into two main parts; the electricity you use and the generation and transportation costs.
When I am negative I still owe about $2 for generation and transportation. The effective cost that I did not use is credited to my account at Edison and defrays my annual total bill.
I am happy with this deal.