Posted on 11/25/2021 12:45:48 PM PST by Captain Peter Blood
I have been researching putting Solar Panels on my home and would like to know out there who has done this. How did it work out and what suggestions or opinions do you have.
I live in Arkansas and my home seems to be a good candidate for Solar Panels, it is finding the right company and getting the price that makes sense.
So far on Monday I dealt with a company here in Arkansas and I received a estimate for $35,000, without a battery backup system. That would cost and extra $25,000. Well I can't make those numbers work even without the battery backup system.
The recommendation was for about a 9.62 KW system.
The plusses on any Solar System are a 26% Tax Credit on the cost of the system, plus my energy provider, Entergy, would buy my excess electricity and run that as a credit on my monthly Bill.
After talking to this first company I decided to see what Tesla had to offer just as a comparison. Their bid was about $21,000 including the Backup Battery System. Huge difference here and I can make those numbers work for me.
So now I have something to compare to and will look at other installers in my area to see what the average deals are. Not sure Tesla even has a company they affiliate with in my state. Will find out.
I sent the Tesla bid to the first company I talked to and told them if they could match this we might be able to do business. Of course I have yet to hear back and probably will not.
We live in southern Arizona, where temps reach 115 during sunny summer days. This is the ideal location for solar. We’re building a home, and will get solar panels. It makes economical sense, and should pay for itself within 7 years.
Those who are trashing solar maybe just don’t live in places where it makes sense.
Can’t afford this solar stuff. On fixed income so I will continue with my very reliable electric company, thank you very much!
When figuring your costs ask how much extra a roofer would charge to replace your roof if it had your solar system installed on it versus roof replacement without the system.
Go in with open eyes and open mind. Find out actual, real-world experiences with solar panel efficient degradation over time.
We installed a 12Kw system 2 years ago. Material cost $17,500. We installed ourselves and then had a friend hook it up and ran additional gas line and installed a while house natural gas generator. So for solar we had $20k in it, got a 30% tax credit, brought the cost down to around 13k. Went online Nov of 2019, by February 2020 we were making enough power with daylight to start building up credits. We have the same plan you seem to be offered. Since Feb 2020 we have had zero electricity cost, only the meter reading fee. We have gas heat and hotwater. I budget billed myself $300 a month for utilities and would pretty well break even. This summer when my electricity bill for AC would run $400, our bill was $50, all meter reading fees and taxes. From March thru November our bill is $50-$55. Payback is figured at 7 years roughly and the panels are rated for 28 years for this output. We have built up a credit base of almost 3800. I am fortunate to have a husband and sons that could install it and save the cost. I was not in favor of it at first but when he got the cost down to 17500 vs 35k, I agreed. Gained 5 pounds on the words I ate saying we would never do it. I must say it has been money well spent.
“Yet knowing all of this, the airport/City of Denver still crowed publicly about how much money they would save on electricity, and of course about producing “green energy.” They simply lied.”
And they could, thanks to the Big PFC’s.
I’m from Australia so things like subsides, costs, and break even points are way different.
That said, before getting solar I’d look at your household energy consumption. Doing some things on that side can make a big difference.
- How well insulated is your house? How drafty is it? How much sun gets into the house during summer and winter? Addressing that first could save a bunch.
- How do you heat/cool your house? What hot water system have you got? Do you use a clothes dryer much and if so what kind is it? How old are your fridges/freezers?
Once you reduce the power needs of the house, then look at solar PV as the needed PV size is lower so should the cost of the system.
As for batteries, is the primary driver having power even during outages or saving money? If it’s saving money, batteries aren’t worth it yet.
“We live in southern Arizona, where temps reach 115 during sunny summer days. This is the ideal location for solar.”
You will get a lot of sun, but the temperature works against you, so won’t get nearly the rated power on those hot days.
...just FYI, in case you didn’t know!
“When figuring your costs ask how much extra a roofer would charge to replace your roof if it had your solar system installed on it versus roof replacement without the system.”
That’s a scary job. What also scares me is how easy it is to cause roof leaks when installing this kind of system.
If I remember right, you’re pretty much told (by responsible installers) to either replace the roof when putting in solar, or only use the existing roof if it’s less than 5 years old (after that the shingles get brittle and will break as the solar system is installed).
What state are you in?
What do you mean by this?
“As for batteries, is the primary driver having power even during outages or saving money? If it’s saving money, batteries aren’t worth it yet.”
It depends on whether you have real-time (i.e., peak) pricing and what the differential is for peak pricing. Can go either way, but I think you’re generally right, even with peak pricing, you come out behind in most cases.
But what you have here at FR is a desire to be as free as possible from an ever-worsening Big Brother, who may well be controlling when we can use power, how much we can use, and for what specific items (i.e., no AC during peak times...in other words no AC when you actually need AC). If we generate some or all of our own, we can tell Big Brother to shove it, at least in this little corner of life.
Chucking a log on the fire...
In Tx the wind never blows in summer, and my balls are sweaty...
“What do you mean by this?”
The voltage that the cells can put out drops as temperature increases, while current increases, but only slightly. Net result is a significant drop in power. I just checked a data sheet and it’s not as bad as I thought. Probably a drop of around 14% on the hot days. The other thing that people don’t factor in, but has caused problems with commercial systems are are contrails. Not the end of the world, but makes it hard to make spec numbers.
‘’A 6.3 kw system cost me $14k, was tax deductible, and saves about $2,500/year.’’
so is that about 1/3rd of your electric use or is that all per month?
I’m not in Texas right now, so my balls are dry.
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