Some salesman left a note on my door about installing solar power in my house and saving me thousands of dollars. On the tag, it claims 3 free months of electricity, 50% - 80% lowered power bills and no money upfront and no out of pocket expense. Seems too good to be true which means it probably is.
Do any of you guys have any experience with this? Is there a lot of installation work that goes into it? I tried doing some research online for this particular company and there wasn't much there.
Any feedback you guys can give would be great, thanks.
Aren't the systems really expensive?
I thought so which is why the "no money upfront" and "no out of pocket expense" on the flyer has me wondering.
In Ca you get a tax credit for solar systems, so they have you pay what the credit is worth up front, and then the rest gets financed over a period of time that makes the payments slightly lower than your avg power bill.
So if you pay an avg a $400 a month, they might ask you to put $15,000 down that you will recoup in the tax credit, then finance the rest for a $350 monthly payment until it's paid off.
I'm pretty sure there's a tax credit for it in Florida too.
You're putting a lot of faith in the sun rising every day.
I was just thinking about starting this thread! to funny.
I'm in the research phase of switching over to solar power, let me say what I've found is the cost are high but with some hard work you can significantly lower the cost. For example DO NOT buy your equipment from the guy that just left you a note on the door, he's going to sell it at retail, you want to pay wholesale.
First figure out what you want solar for, are you trying to go 100% off the grid (my preference but also the most expensive), you can also do a 100% solar grid tie-in where you are selling energy back to the power company, then there's specific systems for an attic fan, hot water heater, well pump and so on.....
once you know how much you want to use from what I'm finding you take the potential (advertised) amount of wattage a panel has and multiply by the peak sun time and then multiply that by .85 for loss of energy when transferring from DC to AC. On Amazon you'll find 250 Watt panels for about $350 so that one panel in Florida where the peak sun light is 4 hour (4 * 250 * .85 = 850 watts per day) from there you can figure out how many panels you'd need for what system you want. Keep in mind you need to price invertors, batter backup system grid tie ins, cables and so on.
Quote:I thought so which is why the "no money upfront" and "no out of pocket expense" on the flyer has me wondering.
no out of pocket I'm calling bull on that
Quote:no out of pocket I'm calling bull on that
They twist words to make it sound better. I had these guys come out.
No money up front = they give you a loan
No out of pocket expenses = they show you all of your savings and explain how you're not
really spending the money since you get it back.
In reality, if you have one of these guys come out you need to stay in your house for 10+ years to ever 'make your money back'. Consider that as well. You need to be in your house long term.
Some things to consider:
1. How often do you need to climb up on the roof and clean the solar panels?
2. Is a payment by the electric company for excess generation part of the savings? If so, are you sure that such policy will continue?
3. How long will the solar panels last? Is the warranty provider likely to be in business all that time?
4. Does performance degrade with time? Is this covered under warranty?
5. Are solar panels insured against wind damage? Hail? Lightning? How will this affect your homeowner's insurance cost?
Eric is right. If you do this, don't buy it from the guy who sell it door to door. Research the companies.
Personally I'd love being off the grid. But until electrical storage (battery) technology makes a huge leap, I'll wait.
Just some number out there, if you buy all your own parts so this isn't including labor, here's what I'm finding:
A system that can handle roughly 1400 kwh (monthly) which is about 46 kwh (daily).
46 kwh * 1000 = 46,000 watts (daily consumption)
one 250 watt panel in Florida on a normal sunny day will provide 850 watts of daily power. (250 * 4 * .85 = 850)
take that 46,000/850 = 54.11 call it 55 solar panels needed. The BEST price I've found on the panels is about $190 a piece or in bulk pallets of 25 for $5250. Say you buy them individually (I think after shipping the bulk option would be cheaper) $190 * 55 = $10,450 (solar panels alone) you'll need multiple inverters, I'm finding a 4,000 watt inverter runs about $2,200. At one time you'll be converting 55 panels at (250 watts * .85 = 212.50 watts) each so that's 11,687 watts in an hour/4000 watts per inverter = roughly 3 inverters. 3 inverters * $2,200 = $6,600 I haven't really looked into the battery backups yet but I know they're pricey. Without a battery backup when the power goes out so does your solar, that's the bad part.
So without figuring labor, mounting brackets, cables, in raw materials for a system that doesn't do anything for you when power goes out your looking at about $17,050.00
Quote:Some things to consider:
1. How often do you need to climb up on the roof and clean the solar panels?
2. Is a payment by the electric company for excess generation part of the savings? If so, are you sure that such policy will continue?
3. How long will the solar panels last? Is the warranty provider likely to be in business all that time?
4. Does performance degrade with time? Is this covered under warranty?
5. Are solar panels insured against wind damage? Hail? Lightning? How will this affect your homeowner's insurance cost?
Eric is right. If you do this, don't buy it from the guy who sell it door to door. Research the companies.
Personally I'd love being off the grid. But until electrical storage (battery) technology makes a huge leap, I'll wait.
if they're roof mounted that's a good thing to consider, some more rural areas they can mount them on ground level makes the maintenance and installation a little cheaper.
from what I've read they're pretty durable, that said a good hurricane/tornado could be disastrous for your solar system.
Depending on what solar panel you buy they come with either a 10-20 year life span and I think almost all of them come with a 10 year warranty. They do gradually lose their ability to convert solar power over time. I imagine in 10 years what you have now will be outdated anyways.
I know there is
Solar City, a company founded by the same guy who founded Tesla. They sell solar energy as a service. Their general motto is "Think solar power is expensive? Pay for power, not panels -- just like your utility bill." Installation is free and you pay a monthly bill. Don't know much more about it than that.
Thanks for the feedback guys. I don't think it's for me - at least right now. I plan on being in my house for the next 20 years but there's too much that goes along with it that's a big turn off. I'm a lazy American.
Yeah - the "no out of pocket" must include some scammy loan situation. A decent solar system that ends up saving significant percentages of your electricity bill will not be cheap and by most accounts will take years to "pay for itself."
I am a proponent of them if you have the disposable income and plan to stay put... but it's not for everybody.
Getting solar isn't about saving money, you should only do it for one of two reasons.
1 - your environmentally concerned, you want to help reduce carbon footprints and that kind of stuff.
2 - you want to be self sufficient and able to produce power for yourself regardless of what happens to the grid during a storm/catastrophe.
The technology and demand just simply are not there for it to be a cost saving move, that's why the government steps in and tries to subsidize the market to offset the extreme cost and encourage people to do it.
I was going to do it on a commercial level and it would've absolutely saved money but I've got better things to do with that kind of money at the moment. I'll probably revisit the idea in 10 years.
Quote:Getting solar isn't about saving money, you should only do it for one of two reasons.
1 - your environmentally concerned, you want to help reduce carbon footprints and that kind of stuff.
2 - you want to be self sufficient and able to produce power for yourself regardless of what happens to the grid during a storm/catastrophe.
The technology and demand just simply are not there for it to be a cost saving move, that's why the government steps in and tries to subsidize the market to offset the extreme cost and encourage people to do it.
After being without power for 8 day up here in Toronto over Christmas while traveling for work, this right here would be the key selling point to me.
Quote:After being without power for 8 day up here in Toronto over Christmas while traveling for work, this right here would be the key selling point to me.
As it is for me, I'm big into self sufficiency, which is never cheap, it's always cheaper and easier to rely on the system maintaining the status Que.
I think you can get panels installed for some of your individual appliances. For example, you can buy one panel and have it focus on your high energy consumption products like your hot water heater. I also believe they back up to electricity so if a hurricane blows through you aren't without hot water after a few days with clouds. It might be worth it over the long haul, and you can start adding panels if you find it beneficial.