Residential Solar Systems

[KF7EEC]

Anyone have solar on their house?

[ghostcat]

I wish!!

[Aldon]

I looked into the current FAD. Solarcity. At the time i did an ROI.

They may have state to state differences or have changed their business model entirely so take it for what its worth.....

The problem is that the lease was to be for the equipment and included installation. As such, if during the lease period i was to attempt to sell house, Out of the pool of potential buyers, I would then have to try and sell them on the lease. Out of the winnowed list they then had to pass a pretty high credit check. The chances were actually pretty high that someone could be approved for mortgage but not the lease. If that was case, i had option to not sell or to have the equipment removed and re-installed on my new domicile at additional fees. Not cheap. The win was to lock the electric bill into a flat rate. Not really a big win. And the equipment is not the latest and greatest. I may have still considered it but the real reason I initially looked into it was to have an emergency back up should power fail. That was outside the scope. Available again for a large cost.

Solar can ROI depending on the system and geographic areas but having a system designed specifically for your home and area along with ability to be off grid seem to be best bet. But this is pricy and ROI is over decade or more.

[KF7EEC]

another big negative, in my opinion, of SolarCity is after the 20 year lease, you either have to sign a new lease or they take the equipment. Per the contract, you do NOT have the right to purchase the equipment.

[althor]

I think you're a lot more than a decade for an off-grid system.

I helped design and install some 3kW arrays with 6kW inverters (battery backed-up) and our cost was about $30,000. This was a few years ago and some pricing has come down, but it's still expensive.

If you get some used equipment and DIY, you could save a lot, but you'll likely need stamped engineering plans and/or licensed installation to get inspected and tied to the grid.

And as mentioned above, you might be able to coerce your neighbors into helping to pay for your system... I mean get tax credits.

[Julie]

I have a system at my cabin and absolutely love it. You have to do it right though.

[Looking Forward]

We do, and if we could do it all over we would change our set up. We had/have no money so we were/are limited on what we could buy. We could only afford the 12v inverter so it limited the wattage of the solar panels. They may have improved the panels since we bought them, but we would love to go the 48v system. (though when we were first starting out it was nice to charge our house with our car. Hehe). Having a battery back up is essential if you are going to go off grid. If you are serious about having your house off grid (power companies are making it harder to economically tie in) you need to have something more than just solar panels.Unless you have sun most of the time you might get away with just panels, but you still can't use them at night (hence the battery backup). My husband helps those who want to go off grid or partial,helping them to know what it is they really need. We always recommend that you have more than one source of alternative power, such as wind, hydro, etc. He has build a 10 ft windmill and is in the process of building a 20 ft, it has helped tremendously. I have to have power to home dialysis, so he is always trying to increase our power, so far its been working.


Althor is correct, in that to go off-grid it will be expensive, batteries themselves will run you about $8000. Panels have come down in price with the best deals buying in bulk. If you chose not to grid tie, you may be able to do the installation yourself. However, even counties are making laws that you have to hire someone, have permits and such.


I don't mean to discourage you, if you would like to I say go for it. We recommend anyone who has a well or are in need of constant power, to always have some kind of back up besides a generator.


Good luck!


:)

[Dr.Jride]

Has anyone looked into the new system, Tesla Powerwall (http://www.teslamotors.com/powerwall)? Powerwall (http://www.teslamotors.com/powerwall)

[DMGNUT]

We have solar on our house and our lease agreement gives us the entire set-up free of charge, at the end of the 20 year lease.
Seems that by then the technology will be out-dated and not worth their time or expense to remove it, so they give it to the home owner.
During the 20 years, they are responsible for all repairs (including hail, kids playing baseball in the street, etc).
In the meantime, our unit has been on the roof for about 3 years now and we're saving about $1,200 per year.
Our lease payments are locked at $80 per month, so as electric rates continue to increase (which they will always do), so does our monthly/yearly savings.
In regards to selling the house, since we live in AZ and have a constant influx of libs coming here from CA, they seem to only want homes with solar, and homes with solar are selling in half the time as those without (in some cases even starting bidding wars to see who gets the home with solar over one without solar...).
Not that it matters, as there are a lot of good choices to choose from, but we went with Solar City, and have only had good experiences with them.

[althor]

DMGNUT, If you don't mind me asking, what is the size of the solar array in Watts, and what is your approximate cost per kwh. Also, does the local utility pay you at the same rate as you buy from them (at least at the lowest tier)?

[thack]

I am a loan officer in AZ and you see solar more often. From what I have seen it's not that hard to qualify for solar but the last I heard you need a 660 credit score however and FHA loan goes down to 620-640 so there are people who qualify for a home but not solar. I think AZ is one of the better places because there is so much sun here. I have been hesitant to purchase just because I know things will improve and I hate to be tied to more things but one day I may bite the bullet.

[DMGNUT]

As I understand it, the basic system we got was designed to cover at least 40% of our "average" electric cost, and whatever the system generates and pushes into the grid, we get back for free.
We had the option of bumping our system up, by adding more panels (at a cost) but chose not to do so.
I don't know what the cost was as I didn't even ask.
This is where you might generate more electricity than you use, and at the end of the electric company's fiscal year (whenever that is) the elec. company would buy back unused electricity, at the lowest rate.
Hope that helps a little...
I'll have to go look to see what the watts are, but our system has 24 standard panels (if that means anything... ).

[KF7EEC]

the local utility accepted my application today for my hybrid solar system. Still have to get city permit and hoa approval, but both of those should be fairly quick.