Residential Solar

What kind of concessions?

 

Ohio dave I think you're asking me?

Whether or not to install panels on roof; whether or not you have to.

Cost.

Giving up part of your yard for panel array.

Tying up your $$ for years.

In my case, probably deciding between a tractor or a solar system.

Importantly and in my case, not knowing enough about them to make a multi thousand dollar investment decision. Heck, the market would be a much better place to drop $40K and realize a profit in shorter time, no?

 

Waiting till the technology is better and you don't need so many panels that cover my entire roof surface. Maybe that happens, maybe not. Not a fan of eating up land for solar panels, again if you didn't need so many to generate what you needed then perhaps in time that would be an option. I think we are just beginning to scratch the surface of electric. Given enough time I think it can be really harnessed and enhanced.

 

I was thinking it was more changes to personal habits. Like no longer using electric clothes dryer or dishwasher, making sure chargers get unplugged when to being used, etc

 

Given the stock market's volatility ( such as the last 6 months ?), given equal risk loss assessment, the solar panels would likely be a safer wager.
Some states have a better environment to yield ROI than others. It would be nice if everyone everywhere could get the same equal deal, but we are 50 individual states with unique living environments and some of us like it that way. I hope most of us try to keep it that way.

 

At my age, it wouldn't be any investment in risky stuff.

 

When it comes to many things, such as energy alternatives, getting back the money spent isn’t the way to consider it. What is the return on the money?
If my electric bill was around 100, I wouldn’t mess with firewood.

36,000 spent, and saving just a few hundred a year isn’t worth it.

my two furnaces would cost me over a thousand in the bitter cold months. My 10,000
Resulted in thousands saved ann

I have mentioned this before on investment in any utility reducing source- such as an OWB, solar, etc. Rather than looking at how soon do you recover your costs? It is more palatable to look at is a purchasing stock, a bond, etc.
What do I get as a return on X dollars. My ten thousand put into my OWB had a return of several hundred my first two months, with thousands annually- opposed to my two electric furnaces.

My brother bought a small Kubota with all kinds of attachments from a nursery/landscaping company. The revenue created from his purchase did much better for him, that his money in the bank would have done. Heck one job exceeded the annual interest payment- so in that sense just working with it a couple times a year was money ahead.

having to finance a solar system of course puts a different spin on it.

 

One other thing to consider. When you install solar panels you will be increasing the taxable value of your home. Some states offer abatements not sure all do.

 

Sourwood What?? I think I understand the point you’re trying to make. And it could just be I have advanced degrees in finance. This is a real easy number to calculate.
I know these numbers are wrong and I am leaving a Whole lot out. But just to make it easy to understand.
Life span panels 40 years. (End useful life)
Electric bill $100 month
Cost to install $12,500 (20% tax credit) $10,000
Pay cash
If, some big IFs, net metering life span electric bill not increasing etc etc

end of 40 years electric bill cost $48,000
Upfront investment is after tax $10,000
Savings 38,000
rate of return is little over 3.2%
If lasted 30 years rate almost identical 3.2%
savings is only 26,000
For reference inflation since 1961 averages 3.8%

 

Those look like generic and typical numbers to me.
Here in Ma we have some rather generous incentives although the SREC are going away eventually. Fairly close to 1/2 the houses on my street have paneled roofs and one house about ten houses up has a huge single pole tracker.

 

Roofs if facing south are ok; trackers on poles receive about 30% more sun..
of course the North East of North America sucks because of clouds and humidity on efficiency but we won’t discuss that!

 

My electric bill averages close to $400 a month. Solar made total sense to me. At current usage and rates, my payback time will be around 8 years. And as kids move out and my usage goes down, I can look into possibly getting an ev or at the very least crank the AC way down and have goosebumps when I come in from working in the heat.

 

Holy crap jrider !!!!

I realize that my bill is only going to go up from here on. There was just a rate increase this spring.

 

X2!
We average about $1000 for a whole year!

 

It’s simple. If a person has 10,000 in cash to put into a wood heating system, every dollar saved is a ROI. My response is where some look at is as “how soon to I save enough to get my money back?” You eventually can, of course, but the return on the dollars invested immediately is an alternative thing to consider.

my 10,000 dollar investment saved me at least 2,000 the first season. That’s a pretty strong return. 1% interest if it sat in the bank. Regardless of long term forecast formula, I still save thousands a year for my investment. Enough to have “paid for itself “ by now.


As I mentioned, a 100 dollar electric bill is a little tough to justify going through all that. Fiscally speaking only. Plenty of good reasons to do it beyond the hoped for savings.

 

In NH it depends on the town. After application, my town, they will waive up to $30k of the added taxable value.

 

No. Its Return OF investment
Length of time it takes is Payback period
After you that you get a Return ON investment.

It’s important to be specific because words have meanings
For example jrider said $400 month electric bill 8 year payback. I know his system is roughly 40,000 dollar install

 

Okay. regardless- a 30% annual return shows it is a good investment. Its a perception of letting money work for your or trying to get back your money.

 

I've been researching DIY solar setups and stumbled on this discussion. If you all have not heard of Will Prowse, he's an excellent source of information. He has a cool story as well going from homeless and using solar as a necessity to creating a successful business sharing his knowlege.

 

WOW!

A second bid for residential solar came in this evening. I hope you are sitting down, I was!

The second bid, from another company of course, was over $46K! The only difference between the 1st and the 2nd bid was that each solar panel had it's own inverter in stead of one inverter for all of the panels. (Both have their advantages and drawbacks)

IMO, they will price themselves right out of the market. Just like new vehicles. Yeah, there will be people that buy those new vehicles for 60,000 80,000 bucks but it wont be many.