“panels....stealing”
It’s more than panels. A home system needs power management.
Electric rates will continue climbing with no end in sight. Eventually you will be rationing your electricity and cycling it yourself. Shifting from coal baseload operations was a HUGE mistake. I am even against scrubbers because they are extremely expensive and a large drain on the output of the power plant with a tiny bit of pollution control. It’s just not worth it. Some day your grand kids won’t believe you when you say we had electricity 24 hours a day. Even at night when we slept.
The price of having such a solar system with the ability to defend such a system and home when society has crashed is what I was trying to point out or even when a major regional disaster will affect macro power systems for a time. Having the ability to produce useable power for lights and small tools(even if there isn’t enough juice for the whole house heaters or freezers)and well pumps is the intrinsic payoff of self sufficiency which is worth more than gold. One would have to have the means of defending it.
Some get stuck stuck on the notion of “payoff of a solar system” vs normal stable economy and society prices for traditional electric and gas. Sure in normal times one would take years to recoup the costs of a solar power system and upkeep especially in trying to resell power back into the grid. That is not why people buy such systems. You buy such systems that will allow at least basic functions when the world around you goes to hell but with the notion that there might be some sort of future recovery of sorts and survival...expecially for younger families with kids. Thus having a functional system like that will pay for itself in the having of such a system when there is nothing else available.