Are you crazy or just ignorant. I have a 15kw system on my roof in North Texas it cost me ZERO dollars installed with grid tie and inverters. I have NEVER usee a net kwhr of grid power in the 5 years it has been up. My system in August with the AC set at 70 day and 68 at night still out produced my gross monthly usage. Texas net meters but only at the offset rate as in they pay you for the fuel costs and generation costs you offset and not the distribution which is Oncor a wholly separate entity from the power producer’s which are deregulated and cooperative. During the winter’s in sunny DFW we get over 300 days a year of sunshine my system puts well over 2000 kwhr a month to the grid at 3.7c per kwh the retail offset rate. Oncor charges the consumer of said kwhr their licenced 3.4c distribution charge. Should I ever use more net kwhr in a month then the energy cost is what u banked but oncor will still charge you the distribution fee there is no free solar lunch in Texas every pays for distribution it’s only the source of power and since it’s bid on in real time and during the days solar has legal priority solar set the basement rates in the day times. My panels cost not to me but the installers 35 cents a watt by the pallet and the two 8000 watt inverters were 50 cents a watt the whole system installed and grid tied was right at a dollar a watt. I chose to allow the installers to contract for the gross power I sell back to the grid every month they keep the profits I’m renting them roof space on my huge home with Prime south facing roof lines. In exchange I pay only for what kwhr I use to the solar company at 3 cents a kwhr for a 25 year contract. I quit trying to save power that rate is so cheap I run my AC at will and leave lights on everywhere 24/7. Even with zero efforts to save power my system still banks some times 2000+ kwhr a month we get that much sun here.
How long have you been holding that in?
just curious ... who put up the money for it?
While I am ignorant of your experiences and situation but more familiar with my own experiences and situation.
We ended up saving money with our system in California because of the very high electricity costs there. We had a guaranteed rate and sold power back to the grid and all.
But it also cost us when we moved, as the installers had caused roof damage to the tiles, which caused some water damage from weather that ended up causing a mold problem that the inspector found in our house. We paid a hefty sum to get it all repaired.
Also many home buyers looked over our house because they just didn't want to figure out the deal on the solar, which was fairly good deal there (other than the roof damage nightmare).
Now we are in a big house in Texas where electricity rates are dirt cheap compared to California. We may move after a few years, we are not sure, so don't want to get locked into a contract that makes it hard to sell the house. We are afraid of roof damage that we don't know about until years later again. And we don't particularly want to buy it outright with the large costs.
Also solar panels are getting better every year--but once you get them you are locked into the level of technology they are at at the time you buy. Makes sense for us to hold off in my opinion for our situation and just pay the relatively low electric costs.
When it starts to make sense for us, I may go for it again.