Anyone have solar panels?

[exranger06]

A friend has them installed on his house. I dont recall his final out of pocket cost but it did require him to cut down several trees to get enough light on the roof. He says it saves him about $50-60 bucks a month depending on the season and weather.
My only issue with his system is the large cluster of boxes on the outside of his house. One is white plastic and appears to be the main controller, one is a disconnect for the system, and one is unmarked other than a "high voltage" sticker and assumed to just be a J box. There is also another disconnect box inside the house. The big cluster of electrical equipment hanging off the side of the house just looks crappy. He tried to get them to move the disconnect 6" further away from the other boxes so that he could build a hinged wood box over the 2 big boxes to hide them and only have the disconnect box visible, but was told that covering them up or even painting them to match the color of the house was not allowed.

With the solar panels and wood heat, he saves quite a bit of money. I'd love to have them on my house, but it would require cutting down a lot of trees in my yard and getting my neighbor to cut down around 4 that are on her property to get enough light due to the way my house is oriented both in terms of compass direction, and proximity to one edge of the lot.

I'm assuming your friend doesn't have a basement or garage? Usually all that equipment (except for the disconnect) gets mounted to a wall in the basement or garage, right near the main panel. Where is his main panel located?
One of those big boxes is the inverter. That converts the DC power the panels produce into AC. Instead of having one or two large inverters for the whole system, you can get micro inverters. Every panel would have its own small inverter, mounted right beneath the panel on the roof. So that's another big ugly box eliminated.

 

[egdede]

The net metering is really under attack, that's where the utilities are mandated to buy solar electricity at the rate they sell for peak hours. I have to agree, I don't like the idea of subsidizing solar energy. As an example, I have a lot of fruit trees in my yard, I wouldn't expect the grocery store to buy my fruit at the same price they sell it.

But grocers don't benefit from the utility line grid which is a sort of Monopoly.

 

[G_P]

I'm assuming your friend doesn't have a basement or garage? Usually all that equipment (except for the disconnect) gets mounted to a wall in the basement or garage, right near the main panel. Where is his main panel located?
One of those big boxes is the inverter. That converts the DC power the panels produce into AC. Instead of having one or two large inverters for the whole system, you can get micro inverters. Every panel would have its own small inverter, mounted right beneath the panel on the roof. So that's another big ugly box eliminated.

He has a walk out basement. These boxes Ara actually right next to the door. It's on the same wall as his main panel.

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[CobraJake]

He has a walk out basement. These boxes Ara actually right next to the door. It's on the same wall as his main panel.

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yea thats strange....mine are all inside the basement in the utility room

 

[G_P]

yea thats strange....mine are all inside the basement in the utility room

I thought the same. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled and see if any other houses in that area have them outside.

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[stang2007]

Bought a new house that came with Solar, 3KW system, love it it makes a real difference in the summer being able to run the AC and not worry about the Bill (too much).

 

[bd8134]

I thought the same. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled and see if any other houses in that area have them outside.

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Might be a local or state requirement that boxes are mounted outside. I had one quote with central inverters and they insisted they needed to mount multiple boxes outside so they could be shut down safely if required. I cancelled that company, just have the one disconnect box outside with my present solar company.
In MA the incentives are high so on track for a ~4 year break-even point on our purchased system. A leased system would only make sense for a shaded plot, moving house soon, financial reasons, etc.. I looked at solar about 4 years ago when prices, efficiency was not as high as now..
Each to their own..

 

[CobraJake]

Might be a local or state requirement that boxes are mounted outside. I had one quote with central inverters and they insisted they needed to mount multiple boxes outside so they could be shut down safely if required. I cancelled that company, just have the one disconnect box outside with my present solar company.
In MA the incentives are high so on track for a ~4 year break-even point on our purchased system. A leased system would only make sense for a shaded plot, moving house soon, financial reasons, etc.. I looked at solar about 4 years ago when prices, efficiency was not as high as now..
Each to their own..

your system must have been nicely priced. Im in MA also. My 14.5kw setup was $55k to buy.

 

[bd8134]

I had quite a few solar companies quote me. Some wanted to put panels on roofs that were not optimal, shading, wrong angles etc, which might make sense if leasing but not if purchasing. In the end I covered my main house with panels and that would give me ~60% of my present electrical consumption. I also expect this to be my last house and my power consumption should go down as I get older, I am retired but I work every day in my 1,200 sqft garage. I paid ~$21,000 for 6.4kw, if new technology / efficiency comes around, I might consider covering my other roofs. With the SREC's I have had paid out, against what my electric bills have been since my panels came online, I am already ahead, even with the high National Grid winter rates.. Obviously on top of this are the savings on my electric bill and I still need to finish my taxes to get the solar tax reliefs. Certainly better return than some of my savings / 401k.
YMMV

 

[CobraJake]

I had quite a few solar companies quote me. Some wanted to put panels on roofs that were not optimal, shading, wrong angles etc, which might make sense if leasing but not if purchasing. In the end I covered my main house with panels and that would give me ~60% of my present electrical consumption. I also expect this to be my last house and my power consumption should go down as I get older, I am retired but I work every day in my 1,200 sqft garage. I paid ~$21,000 for 6.4kw, if new technology / efficiency comes around, I might consider covering my other roofs. With the SREC's I have had paid out, against what my electric bills have been since my panels came online, I am already ahead, even with the high National Grid winter rates.. Obviously on top of this are the savings on my electric bill and I still need to finish my taxes to get the solar tax reliefs. Certainly better return than some of my savings / 401k.
YMMV

21k is not bad, I would have bought also.....I couldn't justify $50k when in 20 years Ill have paid half that in electricity. Even after the federal tax rebate it just wasn't adding up.

 

[Steves32]

You really need to do your homework with solar leasing. Buy your panels & you can put up whatever number of panels you can afford. Lease- your panel numbers are what's based on usage over a set period- 2 year average I think. Most people complaining about their electric bill before solar have cut back on usage- not good for panel count on leased systems. Lots of contractor fraud going on here w/ double dipping & making promises they can't keep.
Average lease is 20 years here. Average time a younger HO stays in same house is 5 years.
The 1st lie they told you is the new owner would assume the lease. Big class action lawsuit going on in Riverside Co over that lie. That's the seller's lease & burden, not the buyers! Lots of people wrapped up their solar with HVAC upgrades, windows, insulation & got hurt bad at the sale of that property! If I'm buying your home- that lease is on you, not me.
Ignore that nightmare & look what happens when you don't have enough panels.
Most of the customers I know around here that lease were undersold on panels & now have a slightly lower electric bill but a payment too. Many of them are paying more now than they did before solar! Most people with enough panels have just traded one bill for another!
SCE is now talking about adding a surcharge here to all solar customers due to lost revenue.
How much will you save now?
There is 0 ROI on solar leasing. Leasing gives all the incentives to the contractor.
I'm a licensed solar contractor that stopped doing the installs 2 years ago. Couldn't sleep at night seeing people blindly signing on the dotted line for 20 years of burden.
The questions you need to ask:
Would I be better off investing that solar money elsewhere?
Will I be selling my house soon?
What if I need to add on to my home in future or add a pool or spa?
What is the warranty? Parts & labor? Many 20 year leases aren't covered for 20 years!
Don't believe anything a salesman tells you with payback.
Pass if your house doesn't have a large area of south facing roof.
Most offer 0 warranty for tile roof leaks & it's all tile here!
What happens if panels need to come down for roof repairs?

I'm a contractor & I have no panels on my roof.

 

[manwithtools]

This ^^^^^.

I'm no longer in the solar business either, the subsides went away and so did the viability of the big systems we were working on. It's simple economics, the cost is too high and the payback is too long. Until the watt density at least triples what it is today, it's just not worth it.

Don't base a decision on what someone told you they paid or estimate their ROI to be. The numbers change daily (getting worse instead of better compared to 4 or 5 years ago - the government ran out of our money). You have to get current pricing and hard output numbers to make a good decision.

 

[bd8134]

I think I have done my numbers as best I could, I have looked at the options for ~4 years. With the state rebate, Federal and state tax reliefs, SREC's and solar production so far that exceeds the predicted outputs from a couple my quotes, I should be ok. Our town also negotiated a group price for solar instals for interested parties which worked well. Our town is also in the process of negotiating a municipal aggregation program hopefully driving down our electric bill. Also replacing the strip lights in the garage with led strips. Time will tell..