Solar panels / solar roof ??

[Spiderman11]

They are well established but highly overpriced for comparable systems. Yes, it comes with a lot of perks and amenities but they aren't worth the additional 15k price tag. At least that was the price difference for the system they quoted for me compared to another company's estimate.

I highly recommend not going with them, personally. But others may feel different.

Also, the tax incentives everyone inevitably mentions are not what they're made out to be. You only get as much tax credit as you owe in taxes, or something to that effect. So unless you owe a lot you don't get that big tax check they dangle in front of you during the sales pitch. Just FYI. I think solar is an awesome concept I hope to invest in at some point.

Yes, so update > basically this is exactly what happened. Very sales pitchy and very pushy from this particular company and in my opinion very overpriced.

Ultimately I do believe at some point I will go with solar - I like the concept and I think the technology is fairly well established but will no doubt become even better in the future. Highly doubt I will go with this company though. Being told I have to take their offer today or they can't honor the "discounts" they are giving me and they don't know if the salesman can come back out because he has so many other appointments are pretty well defined turn-offs for me haha.

I know there have been multiple suggestions to just do a generator and while yes, that would be cheaper, we are in a total electric house. So, I'm struck with getting a diesel or propane generator & tank and it would only be used as truly a "backup" power source that will only run as long as I have fuel. What I want is a more primary power source and the grid being my backup - something that while it may not run the heat pump/AC, can theoretically provide at least some amount of power indefinitely throughout a longer term power outage. Not really looking to "save" money - my opinion is you are going to pay someone somewhere for power every month - I just don't want to double my bill with grid power plus a solar payment.

Based on the technicals and my location/layout I think I can achieve a minimum of about 80% offset so theoretically I shouldn't have to use much grid power with the right system and should actually produce more then I use most of the time for a credit from the power company. Now the trick is finding a company that is reputable and isn't going to price gouge me.

 

[FreedomUSMC]

I had a company come out and do a quote. They sent me some answers via email and I've researched as well; a residential solar setup produces 350-850 kWh/ month. The average US home uses approximately 909 kWh/ month, so owning solar can save you upwards of 90% on electricity.

My parents installed a solar roof about 3 years ago and they haven't paid an electric bill yet. My parents get about $2600 back each year from the excess power provided to the grid; on top of not paying electric bills. Make sure you check for rebates and claim the Federal Solar Tax Credit. You will get 30 percent of total system costs back from equipment and installation as a Federal Income Tax Credit. So you would save $7,500 on a $25,000 solar system.

The solar company said it takes between 3-5 years to recoup the investment, but it depends on how much energy the house uses vs how much the solar panels generate. The "10 year payback" comes from the warranty of most panels being 10 years, so companies offer budgets that coincide with that. Panels last 25+ years though. The Technician said that most homes get panels that generate about 5% more power than they need, or don't get enough so the owners only see savings on their electric bill. He said the smart way to do it is get panels that generate 10% (or more) electricity than your home uses; that way the SRECs payments are significantly higher. That equates to only 1 additional panel.

 

[FreedomUSMC]

When I did the research 18 years ago. It was cheaper/more efficient to have a dedicated property generating electricity that you sell.

Remember that all of the power generation happens during non use hours and the storage solution only adds to the costs

+1 for gas powered generator backup.

Any generators you recommend?

 

[FreedomUSMC]

How convenient for them since its is recommended they get replaced every 10 years.

Panels last 25+ years. The warranty just ends at 10 years.

 

[moosensquirrel]

I had a company come out and do a quote. They sent me some answers via email and I've researched as well; a residential solar setup produces 350-850 kWh/ month. The average US home uses approximately 909 kWh/ month, so owning solar can save you upwards of 90% on electricity.

My parents installed a solar roof about 3 years ago and they haven't paid an electric bill yet. My parents get about $2600 back each year from the excess power provided to the grid; on top of not paying electric bills. Make sure you check for rebates and claim the Federal Solar Tax Credit. You will get 30 percent of total system costs back from equipment and installation as a Federal Income Tax Credit. So you would save $7,500 on a $25,000 solar system.

The solar company said it takes between 3-5 years to recoup the investment, but it depends on how much energy the house uses vs how much the solar panels generate. The "10 year payback" comes from the warranty of most panels being 10 years, so companies offer budgets that coincide with that. Panels last 25+ years though. The Technician said that most homes get panels that generate about 5% more power than they need, or don't get enough so the owners only see savings on their electric bill. He said the smart way to do it is get panels that generate 10% (or more) electricity than your home uses; that way the SRECs payments are significantly higher. That equates to only 1 additional panel.

This is a prime example of having the taxpayers subsidize a solar installation, the utility rate payers pay the difference....kind of like a home style Solyndra.

 

[moosensquirrel]

These solar power companies are paying a ton of money for junk land. The govt kickbacks must be insane.

Yes, and we pay the bill 2x: Once as a tax payer, and again as a rate payer.

The energy generated per square foot depends on the amount of irradiation that reaches the Earth in that particular region, the number or number of sun hours and the efficiency of solar panels being used. For example a 15% efficient solar panel can convert 15% of incident energy into electricity, but only when the sun is at it's peak. The irradiation and sun hours vary over various regions across the world. Thus the same panel can generate different amounts of energy depending on where it is used. If one lives in the Sahara, that is good; most places in Georgia, doable but less than ideal.

Solar-photovoltaic power is not a “green” technology. Being “green” is a deceptive socialist-political invention that is designed to make people feel good about living lavishly riding the backs of productive taxpayers without having to put forth any effort to understand, much less solve the underlying problems associated with “green” energy. While solar-photovoltaic power is relatively clean at the point of production, the manufacture and installation of the necessary solar-photovoltaic components needed to produce it is not.

There are virtually no manufacturers of solar-photovoltaic cells in the USA today due to environmental regulations. Over 75% of the solar poly-silicone, cadmium-telluride and silicon-tetrachloride cells produced today are made in China where there are no environmental controls whatsoever. It is only a matter of time, (think Fukushima) until the pollution from foreign manufacturing and toxic waste dumping reaches us here, notwithstanding the pollution from disposal of existing solar-photovoltaic products are here now.

There is a host of environmentally hazardous chemical-cocktails involved in the manufacture of photovoltaic cells such as tri-methyl-gallium, tri-methyl-aluminum, tri-methyl-indium, and other tri-ethyl derivatives including hydrogen-selenide, di-methyl-hydrazine, silane, and worst of all, arsine. As an example, a typical solar-photovoltaic-component manufacturing facility with a 10 MW/year production of flat-panel solar-photovoltaic-modules will put about 25 tons of arsine a year into the environment. Arsine is a chemical with toxicity equal to methyl-isocyanide, the chemical released in the Bhopal/Union Carbide incident. Include the pollution from the mining, processing, and transportation of raw-materials used by the solar-photovoltaic industry, and a different picture of “green” energy unveils.

As with anything with Gubmint involvement, there is much deception and dishonesty.

Regardless, the technology is amazing and improving all the time. The question is, will any of us be here to use it.