Thinking of adding solar to my house

3,007 Views | 14 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by Carnwellag2
75AG
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AG
I couldn't find a thread about this. Does anyone have experience with going solar. Costs? Installers? Rebates? Any info would be helpful.
The Original AG 76
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AG
many of my friends have looked into solar and have had the presentations, in home, and ALL of them passed on the solar. Even with the big rebates and tax breaks it can take 20 PLUS years to really achieve a true pay back for the heavy front end investment. Additionally there have been a lot of complaints from solar adopters about the needed up grades and plain old maintenance costs.
There are a couple of companies that specialize in home solar that will love to come out and give you the presentation with , surprisingly , fairly accurate numbers.
momlaw
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AG
I have been told by a realtor in California where these are heavily marketed and subsidized that when it comes time to sell your home it is a giant headache. Relocation companies will not approve and there are also difficulties with mortgage lenders. Just something to check out and consider.
halibut sinclair
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https://www.tesla.com/solar
91_Aggie
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AG
Wait about 2-3 years. Costs are dropping fast for solar. But right now it is still "new" so all the companies doing it now are trying to make "bank" on every sale.
Goat Man
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AG
91_Aggie said:

Wait about 2-3 years. Costs are dropping fast for solar. But right now it is still "new" so all the companies doing it now are trying to make "bank" on every sale.

This is a good recommendation. I work in the electric utility industry and solar costs have been reduced dramatically in the past 3 years. Projections indicate even more reductions in the next few years.
Carnwellag2
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momlaw said:

I have been told by a realtor in California where these are heavily marketed and subsidized that when it comes time to sell your home it is a giant headache. Relocation companies will not approve and there are also difficulties with mortgage lenders. Just something to check out and consider.
definitely consider this.

When you go to sell - if you can't remove the system and take with you - do you think you will get your $$$back on a sale?

-would be limiting pool of potential buyers dramatically and it won't necc. appraise and what you need it to.



tvoiles
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I have an array installed on my home for 5 years now. That I have seen there is no maintenance since my system is a "grid tie" and has no storage to care for. I am in College Station so they do "net metering" so I get the most value for the electricity, essentially my home consumes the electricity before it goes into the grid and so it just limits my overall consumption and on occasion I make to much power and I get a small credit for a few minutes on certain days (rare)

If you are on BTU this is a different case, they give you wholesale credit for the electricity produced, giving you ~ 1/2 the value.....

Investments and costs have changed considerably since I installed mine. There are no longer utility incentives here, although the federal tax credit is still active (for now). Running an investment scenario as such:

Initial cost to install 4 kw array - $18,000 (probably overestimate but it is the reference I have)
Federal tax CREDIT of 30% knocks that down to $12,000 (assuming you pay $6,000 of fed taxes)
We get average 4 hours direct sunlight throughout the year (based on solar tables), so you would generate average of 5,840 kWH per year
Assuming College Station cost of electricity is $0.11/kWH you get an annual value of $624.40 produced
This matches with my experience over last 5 years
This would produced a Cash-on-Cash return of 5.1%
BUT
This return is UNTAXED income though since it is a "savings" or "reduction in expenditure". A true comparison would be to compensate for Fed income tax rate to show a real comparison of this investment vs. a traditional taxed one. Using 15% rate that boosts the equivalent return to 6.0%

This is a guaranteed 6% return for as long as you own the system.

Doing some simple math this means you return the investment in 17 years, which does not look good, but that is assuming a ZERO scrap value when you sell the house. I don't think this is true since the systems have a very long life. They are guaranteed for 20 years to have at least 80% of rated power and there have been panels in service for much longer, nobody knows how long they really last.

I don't think the industry nor the property market has figured out how to value the systems upon resale but it is a system that requires no maintenance, lasts for 2 decades or more and produces $50-60 per month in value I would think there would be some resale value

duffelpud
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AG
We have a rural property in Burleson County that we are setting up as an off-grid system. We don't need or use much electricity and are adding storage as we go. I got a good deal on panels up front, so we produce a lot more than we need or can store right now.

A good source for information that has helped us can be found here.
nwspmp
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Not to mention, the cost of solar parts have gone way down.

I was recently building a design for a customer that was a 10.6kW grid-tie system (41 panels), and the total parts cost (no labor, just the parts, mounting, hardware, wire) was right around $15k, producing an approximate 12,800 kWh/year, using the Ubiquiti SunMAX gear.
75AG
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AG
Great info! Thanks so much.
dave99ag
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AG
duffelpud said:

We have a rural property in Burleson County that we are setting up as an off-grid system. We don't need or use much electricity and are adding storage as we go. I got a good deal on panels up front, so we produce a lot more than we need or can store right now.

A good source for information that has helped us can be found here.
Would love to know more about your off-grid system. I'm starting to research off-grid systems for a future cabin down in Brewster County.
DBSwooper
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dave99ag said:

duffelpud said:

We have a rural property in Burleson County that we are setting up as an off-grid system. We don't need or use much electricity and are adding storage as we go. I got a good deal on panels up front, so we produce a lot more than we need or can store right now.

A good source for information that has helped us can be found here.
Would love to know more about your off-grid system. I'm starting to research off-grid systems for a future cabin down in Brewster County.
Color me jealous!

I've done similar reading about solar with the thoughts of a small place near Terlingua, but our primary concern was water resources not electrical.
dave99ag
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AG
DBSwooper said:

I've done similar reading about solar with the thoughts of a small place near Terlingua, but our primary concern was water resources not electrical.
We're installing a 20x40' carport to capture rainwater to a water tank(s). Since we won't be there year-round, our water needs won't be as much as those living there all the time. A future neighbor recently struck out on a well that went down 1100'. That one hurt!
techno-ag
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AG
Along these lines, what do y'all think about the natural gas backup generators designed to kick in when the power goes out?
Carnwellag2
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techno-ag said:

Along these lines, what do y'all think about the natural gas backup generators designed to kick in when the power goes out?
I've thought about- but when I think deeper- we lose power for maybe 5-6 hours per year. So for me really not a Big Bang for the buck
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