Wasn't sure if I should post this here or WU.  

 

Anyway, has anyone here added solar to their house?  If so, how did you find your panel supplier, were there loans you applied for or did you find some "no up front cost" option, etc.  We are just starting the process and I'm trying to get input from anywhere I can get it, including you psychos.

 

And of course, this is the dream but I don't think we can afford this at this time:

 

 

Edit

Lessons Learned:

• SRECs aka Solar Renewable energy credits.  I had no idea this was a thing before, but apparently you can generate these and sell them on the open market if you own the panels.  For our system we are estimating $400-$500 per year
• For most people, the two options that are most attractive are leasing them or financing them.  
  • If you lease them, you basically pay the solar company a much lower rate on electricity than what the power company offers. The companies are responsible for the life of the panels, so if one craps out, it’s all on them.
  • If you finance, you put no money down and get everything you need installed.  Panels come with warranties, but after that if one craps out, its on you.  You WILL be quoted a monthly rate that is lower than your average electric bill (in most cases), HOWEVER there is some fine print you need to read (and some companies were not forthcoming about this until you go a bit further down the road).  After 15 months, there is a large bubble payment due that is roughly equal to the 26% refund from the govt.  If you pay it, your rate stays low, however if you do not pay it the rate will go up significantly.  Roughly 40% in our case.  Careful tax planning is extremely necessary to make sure you have the funds to make this payment.
  • Either way you go, I found most companies offer apps to monitor the health of your solar system
• With most power companies, you can’t go and buy as many panels as you please.  Why?  I have no clue.  For example, with PECO we are having to jump through some hoops to make a case to put more panels than what would be needed to cover our current usage by 110%  (110% is the maximum amount they allow in their net metering program, so basically you can cover your electric and roll over an additional 10%). We have built into our proposal two future electric cars (which is why we are jumping on the Mustang now) as well as a tankless water heater.  
• If you are thinking about saving a few bucks now and only getting enough to cover 100%, make sure you are aware that solar panels degrade over time  (roughly 2% in efficiency the first year, 0.4% every year after that) so after 25 years they will only be operating at 86%
• Solar panels efficiency rating – This is one stat that’s fun to nerd out to but honestly, I believe is worthless.  It’s great a more expensive panel is at 22% (which double where we were 10 years ago), but a panel that is 20% may be much more affordable and produces the same total output.  Focus on the panels total output and its durability over efficiency.
• Shop around and don’t be afraid to look at smaller companies to do your install.  I talked to about a dozen or so companies and we ended up narrowing it down to 2.  One is a huge company that covers most of the US (Hint: they give you a $4000 Costco cash card if you are a Costco member) and the other is a much smaller company that only serves parts of PA, DE, MD and NJ.  We haven’t signed anything yet but we are 99% going with the smaller company.  They offered a better financing rate, better panels, and a better overall price.  Plus I have been working with their VP directly which has been a huge advantage in terms of service and communication.  Being that said, I also spoke with some mom and pop shops that were duds, so do your research.
• If you install a smart battery backup system, they can be configured to help lower your bill in a ToU (Time of Use) billing plan.  ToU is basically interval billing, where your energy usage is broken down into chunks (usually 15 minute chunks).  Your energy provider will determine different prices for different hours of eletric usage, so during peak usage hours they will charge you a higher rate than say energy usage at 2 am.  You can configure your system with smart batteries so that if you are using energy during those peak hours above what you are generating, it can be configured to drain from the batteries instead of the grid.  Then you recharge the batteries via your panels or during off hours at a cheaper rate.  

We had it installed a few months back. The financing is stupid cheap at like 0.9%. Will post the name of the company when I can find it, but it pays for itself.

1 minute ago, vikas83 said:

We had it installed a few months back. The financing is stupid cheap at like 0.9%. Will post the name of the company when I can find it, but it pays for itself.

Did you do panels or solar roof (and is there a difference with financing).

 

And if you didn't get a powerwall, be less poor.

Just now, paco said:

Did you do panels or solar roof (and is there a difference with financing).

 

And if you didn't get a powerwall, be less poor.

Panels. We have a flat roof, so was easy to install. Brand new house, so no interest in paying to have the roof replaced.

Make sure you lay out all the expenses and estimate projected savings based on your location. Last time I ran the numbers, the break-even point was still 15 years or so. That's without storage, so with storage I'd imagine it's even longer.

Planning on it once our roofline is finalized after renovations. Would be interested in this info as well.

My brother got a linked Tesla battery partially subsidized by his state (VT) so might be worth looking into in PA. Made it much more reasonable. The state can borrow power from it during times of need but not beyond a certain percentage and not during any proximity to any kind of inclimate weather. Hasn't had any issues. 

3 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Make sure you lay out all the expenses and estimate projected savings based on your location. Last time I ran the numbers, the break-even point was still 15 years or so. That's without storage, so with storage I'd imagine it's even longer.

Agreed but it will be difficult to figure out.  We are moving in October and while we can ask the owners what their month to month expenses look like, I don't know if ours would be higher since it was just the two of them vs the three of us.

 

But I feel like I have to move because isn't the federal tax credit going away after this year, or did I read fake news?

Also don't forget to take cell degradation into account if you're planning on a system with storage. 

My house already had them installed. We took over the lease on the panels, it's like 100 bucks a month and the amount of money we save is a LOT more than 100 dollars.

52 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Also don't forget to take cell degradation into account if you're planning on a system with storage. 

Thats more of a future item.  Cant afford it right now and battery tech keeps getting better\cheaper

A company called "Trinity Solar" came thru our neighborhood, the guy canvassing the neighborhood told me "no out of pocket expenses and the government and power company pays for everything to be set up and installed" which set off some alarm bells, but I still agreed to have someone come by the following week for more details.  Before the visit I saw someone post on social media that its some sort of goofy arrangement, you don't own anything, they ruined his roof, etc., so I cancelled the appointment.

Last week I saw them installing a system on a house up the street so I'm waiting to run into the guy and hear what the story is...

I looked into them a few years ago with a company that came through our development door to door. At that time, the break even point was like 15 years out and they didn’t account for reduction in efficiency over the lifespan of the panels. 

1 minute ago, Gern Blanston said:

A company called "Trinity Solar" came thru our neighborhood, the guy canvassing the neighborhood told me "no out of pocket expenses and the government and power company pays for everything to be set up and installed" which set off some alarm bells, but I still agreed to have someone come by the following week for more details.  Before the visit I saw someone post on social media that its some sort of goofy arrangement, you don't own anything, they ruined his roof, etc., so I cancelled the appointment.

Last week I saw them installing a system on a house up the street so I'm waiting to run into the guy and hear what the story is...

This is what I'm trying to avoid.  I do my research google searches and its hard to tell what is legit and what is crap

44 minutes ago, paco said:

This is what I'm trying to avoid.  I do my research google searches and its hard to tell what is legit and what is crap

You should ask our resident internet research expert EagleVA to help you out.

48 minutes ago, Gern Blanston said:

A company called "Trinity Solar" came thru our neighborhood, the guy canvassing the neighborhood told me "no out of pocket expenses and the government and power company pays for everything to be set up and installed" which set off some alarm bells, but I still agreed to have someone come by the following week for more details.  Before the visit I saw someone post on social media that its some sort of goofy arrangement, you don't own anything, they ruined his roof, etc., so I cancelled the appointment.

Last week I saw them installing a system on a house up the street so I'm waiting to run into the guy and hear what the story is...

I was just getting ready to point this out.  You have to be very careful with who you contract with to install them, otherwise you'll wind up with an unintended sprinkler system in your house.

18 minutes ago, The_Omega said:

I was just getting ready to point this out.  You have to be very careful with who you contract with to install them, otherwise you'll wind up with an unintended sprinkler system in your house.

One of the companies I found claim "Our roots are in roofing".  They also have $0 down, so not sure if scammy. 

3 hours ago, paco said:

But I feel like I have to move because isn't the federal tax credit going away after this year, or did I read fake news?

Damn you, Paco!  I got a call from our security system company to talk about solar…

Theres an easy way to know who is a legit solar roof installer, and who is not. Its a simple test and takes less than 1 minute of speaking with a person from the company.

If they say roof with the same U sound in Ruth, then they probably have no idea what theyre doing.  If they talk about your roof and pronounce it like a dog barking says roof- those are they guys you want doing the work on your roof.

 

Make sure that if any rebates are available where you live, that you get them and not the solar company. 

I have family that has them. They chose the non-battery option because they could just buy a home battery for cheaper than what was offered. They said they may get a wavier from the state to install more since they reached the limit on the number of panels the company offers and have a roof they can still cover. They did it to lower the electric bill. Winter wasn't good obviously but the hope is that the spring and summer make up for it. I think this fall will be their 1 year to see if it was actually worth it

I think they went through who does their electric and just brought every solar company in their area and had them give their offer and just picked the best one

Pretty sure they did a loan

I might wait a few years until I need to replace my roof.  Hopefully the TESLA system will come down in cost some and the fact that the system "is the roof" could make it "make sense".

For example, if a new roof will cost me $20k then spending 30K for a TESLA roof could make sense.  An extra $10k knowing I will likely save that in (potentially) 5 years (in electricity cost) would be a "win-win" imo. 

4 hours ago, Ace Nova said:

I might wait a few years until I need to replace my roof.  Hopefully the TESLA system will come down in cost some and the fact that the system "is the roof" could make it "make sense".

For example, if a new roof will cost me $20k then spending 30K for a TESLA roof could make sense.  An extra $10k knowing I will likely save that in (potentially) 5 years (in electricity cost) would be a "win-win" imo. 

You mean like Tesla’s solar roof tiles?

https://www.tesla.com/solarroof
 

The tech exits, but not in the price range you were hoping

13 hours ago, paco said:

You mean like Tesla’s solar roof tiles?

https://www.tesla.com/solarroof
 

The tech exits, but not in the price range you were hoping

Yea. A buddy of mine just had them installed on his new house. Over 60k more than if he went with a traditional roof and it put the build of his house 3 months behind schedule because Tesla is a joke of a company.

On 8/18/2021 at 5:22 PM, paco said:

Just one taste of teh socializms, and you can't imagine getting off the government teet