Even the EV guy gets it..

Dave,

Great summary.

Few questions,

First your document says 4,300 kwh/year and you said 13,000 kwh per year. Why the difference. Wouldn't that $50,000 worth of electricity turn into $16,500? Around what the system cost? Nevermind, it appears the 4,300 kwh is for the upgrade

Also when was this system installed? Are these all hypothetical numbers or have you gone through at least a full year to see if the hypothetical numbers are accurate?

Lastly, it sounds like you bought your system outright in cash along with your vehicles. It's awesome you were able to do that, but I'm sure you're aware most people can't afford to do that so the savings they get from the panels and the interest in the cars needs to be factored in for the average person considering this.

 

X2

 

Ask him how well that solar panel works in Maine in winter. NOT TOO WELL! But those kinds of people couldn’t admit such and apparently have a lot of pride in double standards.

 

I believe that's addressed with net metering.
I don't know if it's intentional or not tree killer but your post feels really rude. I'm not used to seeing that on this forum. If I'm reading it wrong I apologize.

 

But, if your utility allows net metering it all works out in the end...the power company gets "help" in the summer when they have high demand (and high costs if they have to buy power off the grid to cover any shortfalls they have in capacity) and you get to bank the credit for low output winter months. Our local utility does not allow net metering...they really don't even want solar panels connected to their lines.

 

DaveGunter thank you for the numeric breakdown as I keep considering solar BUT in my situation the break even point is just not there yet. Retrofitting a 35 year old house is different calculation than building new. Also what saves more new windows or solar etc.

My two questions that no one seems to answer
1) the warranty is it a LL bean warranty or an asphalt shingle warranty. First replaces it second doesn’t include anything and takes more paperwork than you receive back
2) What guarantee do you have over 20 years that the state the power company whoever is going to continue to pay you for your electricity especially as more and more people go solar?

 

Solar power is going on all over the place here in Maine. My little town has 3 solar array in the works. The next town, Augusta has a few huge ones. There is no way that all this is going on unless it is profitable for someone. Most of them are offering incentives, no contract, to sign on with them. Like 15% less than the standard offer from CMP. Maine just had a monstrous cost increase for electricity. And that was before this latest bout of cost increases due to world unrest.
I'm 75. I own two low milage cars. paid for. At my age, I can't see any cost incentive for me to change. I did recently put in a mini split. with rebates and government hand outs, I got that whole system in for $100 out of pocket. We love it for both the heat and the cooling.
We seldom go anywhere. With chronic illness, it is up to us to protect ourselves from unnecessary exposure to Covid. So far, we haven't been infected. But our life style was drastically changed. We seem to have settled in and come to accept the reality of what it is our responsibility to do and not do.

 

Welfare in any form isn't free. We just pass the debt on to our kids. I hope the best for you two, like you said you have to do what you believe is responsible. Not easy living on a fixed income.

 

None of this was welfare. We used those government checks everyone under 150000 income got (stimulus cks,) Also rebates which is available to everyone, not restricted to income. While I do live on a fixed income, all my monetary needs are met and I qualify for no social benefits. That being said, I will say that many others are not as fortunate. Living on fixed income drives way too many out of their home and into a life of dependency.

 

I see. We still considered the checks welfare, as we did nothing to earn other peoples money. Ours went to the church and the kids savings account.

 

When I was working, I paid thousands of dollars in taxes. I still pay a lot in taxes. This just cuts the amount down. Like SS, it is money I earned and paid. My kids will get my assets, just not yet ready to give it. You are entitled to call the stimulus checks welfare, I do not, neither did the government when they were sent out. It was money intended to be spent to stimulate the economy.

 

Thank You. Have a good evening.

 

That is some great information there, thanks. Being too early in the morning for me to digest all this, I have a question. Do you have net metering and batteries? So the batteries can run your electric at night while net metering during the day? For some reason, I thought they were mutually exclusive (probably just an assumption I made). How much battery backup capacity do you have, and how much square footage do those take (or are they outside and not really matter)?

Sorry if you answered those questions already.

 

Minor point - The income level was not $150,000, but $75,000 (per person).

Mine went to charity. If I could have, I would have refused what I did receive, because it just isn't cost effective to have them send my money back after they've taken it and paid other people r administration costs to redistribute.

 

DaveGunter

Thanks for following up and posting a more detailed cost list. Like bogieb says, a lot of info there! I'll be reading through it again but with purpose next time.

 

A chip shortage issue no doubt. I think Ford underestimated demand for both the Mach-E and the F150 Lightning. Too bad, but also a bit encouraging to me as it shows a strong demand for EVs in general.

 

Very interested in f 150 lighting after a year or 2
I will never buy a year 1 again

 

Yes, the 4,300 kwh projected production number on that document is for the additional 10 panels

Not quite a year yet for the initial 6.8kw system, the addition was just recently installed. The array comes with an app and an online portal to Enphase that allows the owner to monitor production and so far it is performing exactly as expected, with the exception of one panel, which the install company is currently sorting out under warranty.

Yes we were able to pay cash for everything and of course that saves us finance charges so the overall picture would change for anyone who would need to finance the purchases.

I have been planning this house since 2015. It was built in 2018. I designed it with the intention of installing PV solar. We started started saving for the PV solar system the moment I realized that the project was going to happen.

The Mustang is my wife's car, purchased in Dec 21. Her last new car was in 2009 and we financed that purchase. After that car was paid off we just continued to make the "payment" into a savings account specifically ear marked for a new car for her someday. So that purchase was planned and saved for as well.

The Ioniq EV is a different story, I kind of lucked into that purchase. While shopping for my wife's new car, I had the Ioniq on my radar as a potential purchase for her so I made an inquiry with the local dealer about it. He said "maybe sometime next summer" so I dropped it and forgot about it because I needed to make the purchase in 2021 for tax reasons. About a month after we bought the Mustang, the Hyundai dealer called and said that they had a shipment of 5 Ioniq's coming in the next week, 3 of them were already sold, one of the two remaining was trimmed the way I wanted. So I had him evaluate my 2019 Ioniq PHEV for trade value even though I had just bought the car used 10 months earlier from Vroom. The dealers trade value was about $4K less than I paid so I told him I was not interested. He actually suggested that I consider seeing what Vroom would pay if I sold it back to them. Vroom's buy back offer was $5K more than I paid for it ($9K more than the dealers offer), so I owned that car for 10 months and drove it 12K miles and made a few thousand dollars on it...crazy times we live in. I couldn't pass up that deal, so I pulled the trigger on the second EV purchase.

 

Correct, net metering "normalizes" production of the array over a year.

That's unfortunate because as you so astutely recognize it is actually a win-win situation for the PV owner and the power company

 

Indeed, everyone's situation is clearly different.

About the warranty, I'm not exactly sure, I believe the warranty is likely somewhere in the middle of "LLbean" and "asphalt shingle" (love that description). We do currently have one panel down due to an inverter failure and unfortunately it has been down for sometime as the solar installer I used is having trouble getting the replacement. They are due here today to address the issue.

The Maine law governing net metering is written so that anyone who is "grandfathered" in is not subject to any future changes/laws.