Posted on 10/27/2024 5:56:01 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
Asolar power system is a big expense, but if it gets enough sun, it can pay for itself and reduce your carbon footprint in the process. Unfortunately, obstructions can substantially reduce the power your panels provide and make it much harder for your investment to pay off. That's why it can be so frustrating if your neighbors plant a tree in the wrong place.
If there’s a tree in the way of your energy production, it's important to understand what your options are. They may depend on where you live and whether the tree or your panels were there first.
Can you make your neighbor cut down a tree? If your neighbor's tree is stopping the sun from shining on your solar panels, the first big question to ask is whether it was in place before you put the panels up. If so, you can't just force your neighbor to cut down pre-existing vegetation on their land. Ideally this issue is something you or your solar energy technician would anticipate prior to the installation.
However, if your panels were there first, you may have some recourse. Many states and municipalities have rules in place that regulate vegetation to protect solar access.
For example, California's Solar Shade Control Act prohibits someone who owns a property from planting or growing an obstructive tree if solar panels have already been installed and the tree or shrub would cast a shadow over more than 10% of the panels between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Money still works. Offer some to the neighbors.
I am already planning to move my small section of panels after less than a year.
The Sun makes a rather amazing 47° swing across the sky from North to South throughout the year. This makes shading vary drastically if you have any trees on your property, at all.
The balance, for me, seems to be getting away from trees, and the length of cabling I have to run to get to the panels.
What in tarnation? I've had solar for 3.5 years. The only maintenance I've had to do is twice per year clean them with a water hose and a brush.
“My neighbor’s massive tree is blocking my $35K solar panels — can I demand they cut it down or am I stuck losing money every day?”
I don’t know Christy Bieber but my common sense tells me that she is an entitled nitwit who is incapable of thinking before acting.
Building solar panels in a shady location is a tax on stupidity.
Cutting down the tree is not going to make your solar panels pay for themselves. You only bought them to virtue signal and that is your return.
I’d sue the Solar Company. Don’t give a damn what the small print says. It means nothing if the tree was pre-existing. It would be part of the Solar Companies job in viewing the site and its surroundings.
Bottom line to solar panels. VERY expensive to install and require a new battery every 5-10 years at $1000’s. The monthly payment is usually offset by the savings in electricity. Unless the plan is to stay put for 15+ years, youre in the hole and most people will not pay extra for the panels when you sell the house.
Best to have your crawl space encapsulated and double insulated vinyl windows installed which increases the value of your home.
The solar company scammed a fool and now the fool says it’s the neighbor’s fault.
Given the total lack of personal responsibility, I’m going to go out on a limb and say the fool is a Democrat.
“The massive tree didn’t grow overnight.”
You don’t know that. Maybe the neighbor traded a cow for some magic beans.
It goes both ways. My solar panels had shade thrown on them for about 2 or 3 hours a day from one side. No big deal in Florida. And my entire house and panels were shaded after about 4 pm from huge trees on the other side of the house.
As it worked out all the trees were taken down on both sides of my house. Before the trees came down I still had a small electric bill of $40 in the summer due to AC usage.
Now without any of the trees my bill is $100 per month in the summer. In the fall and winter my bill will be zero and I’ll get credits for a surplus of power.
This situation has me laughing out loud.
I bet the house is next to the airport and he also wants the airlines to scale back flights.
Well, at least you are asking the right questions.
I working in the spacecraft industry today. And while solar cell are not my area of expertise, I took full coursework in post grad on them and have a decent knowledge of how the work from academics and some research projects.
Fact is, while in space point the solar panel to the sun is super important for its efficiency, here on Earth mostly all you need is a clear view to the sky. It helps to be pointed at the sun, but the drop in efficiency for not pointing at the sun is much less than in space. This is due to all the specular light we get from the atmosphere (our blue sky). This is also why most solar on home does not track the sun and you mostly engineer it to be on a south facing roof.
This guy bitching about his neighbors tree is making a mountain out of nothing so long as his panels can see sky above. And no panel works at 100 percent efficiency anyway. Most start at about 20 percent in perfect conditions and go down from there at times when the sun is not directly overhead or when clouds are present or when other things like trees partially block the view.
His are WAY older than that.
I don’t know the details but he is refusing to spend the money.
He has gotten violation letters from our HOA warning him to clean his panels and he refuses to even do that, so there’s no telling how bad he’s neglected them and the rest of the system.
He also told me once he doesn’t believe in privacy fences.....whatever the hell that means.
He exhibits every lunatic behavior you would ever think a liberal could.
I call him “a rebel without a cause”.
What battery? I have 30 solar panels and no battery.You only buy a battery for emergency power storage.
I do have plenty of trees, but my property is very large, with a large gap between the tree line and my house -- the panels are on the roof of the house. So shading is not an issue. All that was left to figure out as far as sun's angle during the change of season goes, is which angle the panels should be at.
During the summer, the steep pitch of the roof (which means steep pitch of the panels) aren't optimum. But during the warm 7 - 8 months of the year I don't hardly need the grid anyway because of how many panels I have, and how much the avg daily peak solar hours are here during the warm half of the year. So even with all the AC I run to fight the Alabama heat, I'm good even with steep pitched panels.
I calculated that two times: both before I bought panels, and later after having a small system for a year before upgrading to the full system. I used the year's worth of telemetry data (imported into a homemade SQL database so I could query the stew out of it) to figure out what was good and bad and, therefore, which fine details I needed when I upgraded to the full system I wanted all along. I determined that I didn't need a system to allow me to change the angle of the panels twice per year to go from warm half to cold half of the year. I leave them angled for cold half of the year and they're still literally 95% of what I need during the warm half of the year.
As I understand it, any fruit that falls on your property is yours. The article didn’t say it was a fruit tree.
Leftists are such control freaks.
If you’re shaded don’t put up solar panels. Don’t make your neighbors comply with your demands.
Answering the headline question, I hope Christy Bieber is stuck losing money every day.
The government making the neighbor cut down the tree is much worse than Bieber falling not looking around before putting up expensive solar panels.
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