Who has solar power at your house? Regret or good move? Worth the effort or waste of time? Who is your supplier?

Asking since my wife is hammering me about doing it.

Not on my house but I do have it on my feeders I use to corn for deer.



Does that count?

I considered it when I lived in arizona as it was economical due to abundance of sun and lack of perils that could damage the panels (aka hail).

Do NOT sign onto a lease or a rental program. Buy it from your own money. When my company was going to move me from AZ to texas the FIRST thing they asked was whether or not I was in a solar panel lease/rental.

Had I been, the company would not touch the home at all for relocation assistance.

If you get them you MUST buy them, not rent/lease them

I'm building a house with solar now in the SoCal desert. I'll get back to you after the summer. But my projected utility bills will be $85/mo

Supplier is Tesla. Pro tip: don't rent the system if you don't have to

zwhag2010 said:

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I considered it when I lived in arizona as it was economical due to abundance of sun and lack of perils that could damage the panels (aka hail).

Do NOT sign onto a lease or a rental program. Buy it from your own money. When my company was going to move me from AZ to texas the FIRST thing they asked was whether or not I was in a solar panel lease/rental.

Had I been, the company would not touch the home at all for relocation assistance.

If you get them you MUST buy them, not rent/lease them

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This is a policy for most relo packages.

I think the other concerns are two things:
1. Cost
2. Reliability

Right now they are ridiculously expensive which is why companies try to get you on a lease. Then you realize that the panels only last you 15years before you need to replace them and so the homeowner will never get their money back unless you are paying California utilities.

Thanks so far; keep talking.

monarch said:

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Thanks so far; keep talking.

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Where do you live? This plays a huge factor.

aggiedata said:

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monarch said:

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Thanks so far; keep talking.

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Where do you live? This plays a huge factor.

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If he says somewhere like the Orkney Islands, Ima die.

Sid Farkas said:

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I'm building a house with solar now in the SoCal desert. I'll get back to you after the summer. But my projected utility bills will be $85/mo

Supplier is Tesla. Pro tip: don't rent the system if you don't have to

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My energy bill is between $100-200 without solar. I don't see the point in buying something that will take 20-30 years to break even, if it lasts that long without needing repairs in the first place.

There will be a tax credit likely coming up - no way some free money not thrown at green industries.

monarch said:

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Thanks so far; keep talking.

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We looked very hard at it when we built in 2012-2013. Even with the Federal subsidy at the time (30% tax credit), it did not make economic sense. I believe that subsidy has gone/is going away.

Our electric provider would only "buy back" at fuel cost, so we would not be getting much for what we might feed back to the grid (fuel charge is about 1/3 of the $/kWh you pay). So the only real economic benefit was offset usage. Even with natural gas prices very high at the time, the payback was long.

If I remember correctly, the payback was about 18-20 years. The warranty on the panels was only 15 years.

I understand the warranties are longer now, and the units are cheaper. But at the same time, electricity and natural gas is cheaper too (and nat gas prices will be low for a long time). I haven't redone the math, but I would expect the payback to still be longer than the warranty, especially if the federal subsidy is gone.

I have a friend that has had them for about 15-20 years now. He got in at a time when the electric provider paid 100% offset, and there was both a Federal and local subsidy. He may have only paid 1/3-1/4 of the actual installation cost, so it has made economic sense for him.

BTW, without a subsidy of some kind, I don't see how they will be economic at all. Which, of course, means that we probably shouldn't be doing it. Just my 02.

Another question. If the solar panels are on your roof then how does the solar panels affect the roof shingles? How much more does it cost to replace the roof shingles with solar panels.

I looked at this at our last house (large south/west oriented roof facing, 100% electric, well, septic, etc.). This was 2017/2018 time period.

One of my college roommate's had a good buddy that owns a solar panel install/service company. When asked for his opinion, I got something to the effect of... "I've made good money installing, and a killing servicing them. For that reason, you won't catch them on my house."

His stance was to rent vs. buy. In a rental contract, it's stipulated how much they'll produce. If not, you can get out of the contract. Company is incentivized to keep you up and running. When you buy, you have the "guarantee" (TommyBoy.gif), but we all know how good those are when you actually need service. In areas with hail, trees, dust, etc. he said you needed to regularly clean/inspect/repair them to keep them operating as advertised.

ETA. A good friend is a roofer. He hates solar panel houses because you have to have the solar panel company remove them and re-install after the roof job to keep the "guarantee" live. In his experience the timing is often very inconvenient for the homeowner who wants/needs a new roof.

My parents have them in the Austin area. They are building up a huge stockpile of energy credits so they're actually paying a very small electric bill every month. I think they still have to cover a few bucks in fees but that's it.

They would need an electric car or run a datacenter or something to ever make the investment worth it. They're just continuing to accumulate the credits. Given all that I don't think they'll recoup their cost.

Solar costs more. No cons if you can afford.

Without subsidies, solar will not pay for itself. If you want solar to have the security of an independent power source in case the grid goes down then fine, but if you want it in order to save money over the long haul then don't bother with them.

Even then, most solar systems use an inverter that is grid-following which means if the power is out the solar panels won't work.

Ag87H2O said:

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Without subsidies, solar will not pay for itself. If you want solar to have the security of an independent power source in case the grid goes down then fine, but if you want it in order to save money over the long haul then don't bother with them.

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I've looked into solar a few times, and the backup power for grid problems is really the only thing that makes it worthwhile. Even then, you need to have a whole home battery and inverter system to take advantage.

If you're going to do it, at least make sure you have a good south facing roof with a clear view to the sky. Otherwise, there's no way in hell you'll get anywhere close to break even.

not often mentioned enough con is the panels are not recyclable and need to be replaced ~20 years or so. So eventually this "green energy" will have to be dealt with.

My FIL put them in a few years ago. If you do this, do it because you are a gadget guy or whatever feel good reason you need because the financial reasons don't work. My FIL is a gadget guy with money to burn and he can't stand for others to have toys he doesnt

doubledog said:

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Another question. If the solar panels are on your roof then how does the solar panels affect the roof shingles? How much more does it cost to replace the roof shingles with solar panels.

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I ended up not going solar but thought very seriously about adding them a couple of months back. They don't negatively impact the roof, but if you put them on you have to take into account, you are more than likely going to have to reroof your house during the lifetime of the solar panels and having them on the roof makes that a lot more expensive. I've got enough property that had I gone solar, I would have gone the ground mounted panels approach because I know I'm going to have to reroof my house in the next 5 to 10 years

Kind of depends. With a battery setup, it's more expensive but you can be 100% off grid if power goes out. A few weeks ago that would have been really nice if you could get the snow off and get production up. You could get this kind of independence with a generator, but they are also costly and require fuel and maintenance. They will never pay for themselves.

Payback period really depends on a lot of things. Local pricing, net metering, personal consumption, initial pricing, and other factors. As an example, my company built an office a few years ago and had a large system installed. Our payback period was less than 12 years. We get quite a bit back on the weekends during spring, fall, and especially summer when the AC's are not working as much and no one is around.

Also, a lot of providers got huge bills after snowmageddon. That money will probably be made up over the long term in higher rates or fees. CPS in San Antonio, for instance, got hit with about a billion dollars in costs for February. It's not being passed on yet and they're trying to explore their options to reduce the burden, but at the end of the day there will likely be hikes coming. If you bought solar panels beforehand, your payment for electricity is essentially locked in at this point in the form of upfront capital or loan payments in lieu of electric bills. Depending on provider, reimbursement rates, and other factors, payoff period might be much lower after that.


Panels also last longer than 15 years. Most have warranties of 25 years for 80-85% production, with some kind of deprecation curve they need to stay ahead of. They're also generally hail resistant. Most are tested up to golf ball sized hail. Whether that's important or not really depends on if you see hail a lot. In areas that see extreme hail once every few years, they probably aren't a good idea for a roof installation. If you don't see regular hail, it shouldn't be a concern. Solar had come a long way in the last 10 years. It's not always the best or even a great option, but the are certainly use cases and instances where it is the most economical choice. You just have to do the analysis to figure out if your particular situation is one of those.

I like the idea of them, but it sounds like a terrible investment and massive hassle factor from what everyone on here is saying. So, typical green energy.

Also, I recall recently where I thought I read that some energy companies were going to actually start charging a new fee for solar that would nullify the whole point of it. Point of it being you are/were able to charge back to the energy company for excess supply they can use. I may be dreaming that though.

Depends on the roof type. Shingles? Yeah. You're probably not going more than 20 years out of a shingle roof, and unless it's brand new it'll be replaced in the panel lifetime. Metal? Probably not. A metal roof will last 50+ years and you could probably go through 2 sets of panels before needing to reroof. EPDM? Depends on roof age, but also probably not. You're looking at a 40-50 year roof there too. Again, depends on an individual's particular situation.

As my FIL learned, the jacked up rates of the sell-back plans when you actually need to use non-solar erased any benefit of selling his excess back. So he switched to a regular plan

Fore Left! said:

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As my FIL learned, the jacked up rates of the sell-back plans when you actually need to use non-solar erased any benefit of selling his excess back. So he switched to a regular plan

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Gotcha. So, they just get you on the other end.

Squeezing the balloon.

I agree with you but the person I responded to specifically asked about shingles which is also what I have

Some have looked at charging connection fees for having you connected to the grid. It's not going to come close to your bill though. It's usually to cover the economics of calculating bill credits and reading meters. Like $5-$20/month, and it's not all providers. Really depends on providers in your area.

The investment and hassle really depends on you and your installation. The economics of it are like anything else: it depends on you. It's like buying a new vs used car or renting vs buying a home. Which is more economical depends on a lot of things that are particular to your situation and no one can tell you that one is exclusively better than the other. Dig into the details and run the numbers for yourself underway of asking for opinions here. The opinion you get will ultimately depend on where you ask, but the numbers are the numbers.

As for sell back plans and other plans, you don't know what they are or the economics of them until you ask. Don't ask here. Get the actual rates on selling back and buying from the providers in your area. What is available to you may be different than what others have.

Didn't see that. You are correct there.

Alluded to early in the thread but said differently; A $30,000 system on an $800,000+ house isn't going to dissuade many buyers because they get the virtual signaling points of saying "green". A $30,000 system on a $400,000 house may start to thin the number of potential buyers where mamma is thinking "virtual signal" or "more square footage in those other houses" for that extra 30k.

Clob94 said:

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Not on my house but I do have it on my feeders I use to corn for deer.

Does that count?

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The deer aren't hungry are they?

Regarding warranties: be careful. I'm not sure if there are any solar companies with the kind of history that would give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about a 20 year warranty. I'm not sure I'd feel real confident in performance of a 5 year warranty in this relatively young industry. I had a commercial client that installed a solar array for a women's shelter and the company that installed the facility was in bankruptcy a year after installation.

The 2 jotos that moved into our neighborhood from LA put solar panels all over their roof. Looks like dog****.

Cromagnum said:

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Sid Farkas said:

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I'm building a house with solar now in the SoCal desert. I'll get back to you after the summer. But my projected utility bills will be $85/mo

Supplier is Tesla. Pro tip: don't rent the system if you don't have to

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My energy bill is between $100-200 without solar. I don't see the point in buying something that will take 20-30 years to break even, if it lasts that long without needing repairs in the first place.

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I mentioned my home is in Calif...and the desert.

Avg daytime high thruout the summer is 108 deg, regularly above 110 even reaching 120 in some years. There are horror stories about four figure electric bills in that area. (other than the three months in summer the weather is stellar)...

I'll be running my AC to the point where I'll be wanting to don a sweater while it's 115 outside - not giving a single f about the cost. I'll be adding storage capacity and buying an electric or plug in hybrid vehicle...fueled free of charge thanks to that big ball of fire in the sky.

..and not dependent on So Cal Edison for ****