Many solar companies have popped up in the past few years with different options to make getting solar more affordable.
The most popular of those is a PPA or Power Purchase Agreement. With a PPA the solar companies install the panels on your roof at no cost, they own and maintain the system and they get the benefit of any state or federal tax incentives. You then buy the electricity that the panels produce from them at a rate lower than your utility. These are usually 20 year contracts and the rate goes up through the contract. There is some savings with a PPA. But for me not enough to outweigh the disadvantages. One major disadvantage of a PPA is if you were to sell your house before the contract is up the buyer would have to assume the contract. This may scare some buyers away.
To maximize your savings though you really need to take advantage of the federal and state tax incentives. Currently there is a 30% federal tax credit for your system through 2019. It reduces after that. My state also offers a $1000 tax credit. So there are significant savings to be realized. Depending on the size system you have installed it could cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 before incentives. Many people don't have that mush cash laying around so many states offer a low cost solar loan. I'm my state interest rates are under 4%. Not a bad rate but you are still not maximizing your saving by paying interest.
I called Solar City for an initial consultation around the end of September 2016. The initial consultation consisted of getting a copy of my electric bill and looking at satellite photos of my home to see if it would be a good candidate for solar. My home passed this test so the next step was to have someone come out and look at my house and take measurements for a potential solar system.
Not every house id a good candidate for solar, there are various factors to look at to determine if it is worthwhile to install solar.
- State you live in - Some states and utilities in those states make it difficult to install solar. Also some sates offer better tax incentives than others. In addition, if you live in an area where it is cloudy most days the energy generated will be minimized.
- Condition of your roof - If you need a new roof, replace it before you consider installing solar panels. Installing panels is expensive, you don't want to pay for it twice.
- Orientation of your home - Ideally the panels should be facing south to maximize the amount of sun. If you don't have a roof plane facing south, that will minimize the amount of power your system can generate
- Angle of your roof. The panels have to point at the sun. If you have a flat roof brackets may have to be installed to angle the panels toward the sun. A 30- 45 degree roof pitch is ideal
- Obstructions - If you have tall trees close to your home that will block the sun that will minimize the amount of power that your system can generate.
- How long do you plan on living in your home - Payback on a solar system can be 10 years or more. If you are planning on moving before your solar system starts paying you back it may not be a good investment.
The state I live in has great incentives and my utility offers net metering which means any excess energy that my panels produce goes back into the grid and I get a credit on my bill. My house faces south, my roof is only a year old and is a 45 degree angle. I have only been in my house for a year so I have no plans to move within the next 20 years so I am a pretty ideal candidate for solar and the solar rep agreed. About 2 weeks later they sent me my solar design for a 26 panel 6.5 kwh system that they guaranteed would generate 85% of my power needs. After all rebates and incentives my out of pocket costs would be just over $10,000 which would give be about a 10 year payback. I decided to pay for my system upfront to maximize my savings.
 |
| My Solar Design |
I probably could have paid less for a system by going with s smaller mom and pop solar company but I liked the idea of using Solar City with the backing of Elon Musk and Tesla and all the coming technology that would mesh nicely with a solar system. Solar City guarantees the system for 20 years and I think they, if anyone, are going to stick around for the long term. One factor that may be a show stopper for some is where the panels are installed on the house. Some people just don't like the look of the panels and would not want them installed on the front of their home. Luckily for me the back of my house faces south and you can't really even see the panels unless you walk to the back of my yard. I don't mind the look of the panels but I think I would have been in for a fight with my wife if the proposal was to install on the front of the house.
After approving the design and signing the lengthy contract I had to get permission from my utility to build a solar system. Luckily Solar City handles all if the legwork, all I had to do was forward the email once I got it. That took a couple weeks and then they scheduled my install for the end of November. Install went pretty smoothly, just make sure you are there when they install the system. I have a finished basement and there were some wires from my panel to the inverter that needed to be pulled though walls and some questions that needed to be answered regarding placement of the inverter. The installation took just one day but unfortunately you can; just start generating power right away. I needed the town building inspector and electrician to inspect the system and the utility to authorize you to interconnect and turn your system on. I think the utility also had to install a new net power meter.
This was all completed by mid December when I was able to turn my system on and start generating power. Unfortunately, December is one of the worst months for solar generation, with the sun low in the sky and short cloudy days the amount of solar energy I was generation was minimal. This was to be expected though as Solar City laid everything out in my proposal. Fortunately every month got better. Solar city has a great mobile and web app that you can see current and historic power produced. Some of my charts below.
 |
| Typical partly cloudy summer day. My best day so far has been 36kwh |
 |
| July has been a pretty good month. The dips are the rainy days. |
 |
| It is nice to see how much you are saving at any given time. |
 |
| May should have been better but it rained a lot |
I didn't see much savings for the first couple months but the last few months have been great. My April electric bill was $25, May was $5, June I has a credit of a couple dollars and my July bill was about $30 due to the increased AC use. I am on track to save at least $1000 this year so that would give me about a 10 year payback on the system. Overall I have been pretty happy with my system. I am saving money and nut using fossil fuel to generate power for my home.
 |
| Finished Project |
Feel free to post a comment if you have any questions about the process.
No comments:
Post a Comment