Took the plunge. Finally going solar!

[4570Man]

Does your total system cost include the interest you'll be paying back?

Not trying to pick it apart. Trying to justify it in my pocket book.

Here in Indiana, the point is moot, as they changed the laws and anyone not in by the end of this year won't be able to get the benefits of net metering like they used to. The utilities have a good point, to some degree. The more people using net metering and not buying electricity, the fewer customers paying for the infrastructure that they still have to maintain. Kinda like the gas tax for road use. The more fuel efficient or electric cars, the less gasoline purchased, the less gas tax paid, the less money for road repairs.

Net metering would clearly never work on a large scale basis. The only way it could work is if they paid you significantly less per kWh than they charged you for a kWh.

 

[Ford850]

What about a Tesla roof? They make some nice looking solar shingles.
Tesla Solar Roof | Tesla

 

[fordmantpw]

Net metering would clearly never work on a large scale basis. The only way it could work is if they paid you significantly less per kWh than they charged you for a kWh.

Which is what they do. For me, they pay 2.xx cents / kWh, but charge 8.xx cents.

 

[Soldier415]

Which is what they do. For me, they pay 2.xx cents / kWh, but charge 8.xx cents.

Currently my utility pays 18.9 cents per kw hour for power put back onto the grid, they charge me 10 cents per kw hour for the first 200 and 23 cents per afterwards. In theory the power I would be drawing from the grid would all be in the lower bracket.

If I added a power wall system later I could draw from that at night

 

[fordmantpw]

Currently my utility pays 18.9 cents per kw hour for power put back onto the grid, they charge me 10 cents per kw hour for the first 200 and 23 cents per afterwards. In theory the power I would be drawing from the grid would all be in the lower bracket.

If I added a power wall system later I could draw from that at night

So if you had a way to ensure you draw 200 kWh and then sell it back, you'd be making money for doing nothing but storing it. That makes no sense.

I would be happy if my utility (a co-op) would just do a 'true-up' at the end of the year instead of every month. So power I overproduce during the summer could be used on a one-for-one ratio through 12/31 instead of giving me a monetary credit at the end of each month.

 

[MossRoad]

My solar contractors figure of 7-8 year payback? no, I guess not. My ten year loan has monthly payments just a touch higher than I normally spend on electricity, so I guess my payback will be 10-12 years. I am kinda frustrated to have installed the system in the fall, because I got great output for about a month before the weather clouded up, now today there is 4" of snow on the panels. So I didn't "bank" any credits from high summer output. If the summer output is as high as I am hoping, I will be able to charge an electric car for free as well and my payback time will plummet, but we'll see how that pans out.

None of this payback calculation factors in the 30% tax credit, either. If I plow that back into my loan and reduce payoff time to 6 years instead of 10.... then it's even better.

But here's the logic that finally swayed me to go solar: If you can get a low-interest loan with monthly payments at all close to your regular monthly electricity bill, and know you will produce enough to be cover all consumption (or get close, anyway).... then solar is basically free. I cringed a bit at getting such a long-term loan (10 years) and I know some people do 12 or even 20 years loans. The equipment typically has a 25 year warranty (to still have 80% or more of rated power). During the loan, you've traded energy bills for a loan bill, and after the loan, your power is free. Just need to flex a little credit up front and jump into some more debt (the american dream, haha). And if you want to think REAL irresponsibly about it: you trade your elec bill for a loan bill and then POCKET the 30% tax credit, so.... you actually get paid to go solar (thanks, taxpayers..?)

edit: I even forgot about the REC (renewable energy credits) that kcassidy mentioned. Mine were projected at about $150 payment to me every year, we'll see.

Yeah, I've taken advantage of the tax payers a time or two as well. Tree farm got planted for about a nickel per tree after 75% rebate for planting on highly erodible soil.... that erodes into itself and not a watershed, but hey, a slope is a slope. :laughing:

My only concerns around here are we live in this weird micro-climate with lots of cloudy days due to being predominantly down wind from Lake Michigan. Go 30-40 miles east or west and its not such a big deal. Anyhow, I think our electric bills average around $105 per month, but I'd have to check again. It spikes in summer due to swimming pool pump, chlorine generator and air conditioner. And another spike in December due to 3500 twinkle lights on the 40' blue spruce out front.

I'm kind of leary about the warranty.... is the company going to be around in 25 years to hold up its end?

 

[Oaktree]

We are not doing an off grid system. Net metering system. Excess power generated gets fed back onto the grid in the spring/summer/fall earning credits from the utility which we draw against at night and during winter when production is lower.

How does that work? You'd think the power you generated would need to match the utility's voltage, phase and frequency exactly. How does the system know when to use your power vs utility?

We have SRECs in Mass that further incentivize solar beyond net metering and the Fed and state tax rebates. For every 1MwH produced, we get a an SREC certificate. The utilities are required to produce a large amount (forget exactly how much) of "green" energy that they can not produce so they have to buy these certificates for ~$300 - 400. My house has had solar since 2012 and the system has now paid for itself. The state allows a system to generate SRECs for 20 years so now it's all profit.

I wonder how long these arrangements will stay in effect? I'd imagine at some point ratepayers are going to have enough of subsidizing someone else's solar setup.

 

[bunyip]

How does that work? You'd think the power you generated would need to match the utility's voltage, phase and frequency exactly. How does the system know when to use your power vs utility?

Solar panels generate DC, typically about 17v so with ours in sunlight we have an output of about 340vdc, this fed into an inverter which turns it to AC.
The inverter operates from the grid and regulates the voltage and frequency to match what is coming in so any drops in voltage will be matched.
The output from the inverter is fed to the meter which is an electronic device, what you need you get and surplus runs reverse metering, as your load increased this can level out or reverse and will show when read what is infeed or outfeed and you will be charged or credited at both rates, our bill has a breakdown on both.
If the grid has an interuption at any time your solar system will not supply your property as the inverter stops operating, this is to prevent linesmen getting fried when they turn off power to maintain the grid.
Our system went in about 5 years ago and has paid for itself already so everything now is a bonus.
It is interesting looking at your prices as we find that generally we pay a lot more than the USA but in this instance we seem to be about 1/3 to 1/4 of the price, we do get rebates from the government but not sure how much it is but a figure of about AU$8000 comes to mind and our heat pump with rebate cost us AU$250 which was pretty much the fitting charge.
Added to that our generators sit in the middle of open cut brown coal mines but the greens objected to them and the biggest one was shut down early this year which is now causing some major headaches, the brown coal is now exported for someone else to burn and pollute (read China).

 

[wagne223]

If the homeowner owns the panels, what happens when mother nature decides to violently remove the panels from your roof?

I'm sure the ins co will only pay if you have a rider. How much more is that in hurricane or tornado region's?

 

[RalphVa]

We got into a co-op type of thing where several homeowners went to a local organization using 3 contractors about 3 or 4 years ago. Had the 30% federal rebate at the time. The rebate and slightly lower price via the co-op got us to about a 7 year payout. Have a 3 kw panel. That's about all that would fit on the roof of the carriage house. Don't have a good roof position on the main house unless we take down one of the two trees near it.

Ralph