htownag10 said:
I need some education to throw at my brother. Currently he lives where the old speedway was. His electric provider is Entergy and can't shop it around. They are charging new customers a fuel delivery fee because of the winter storm.
He has the idea solar panels will save him money. Nerf some pros and cons to help educate.
Don't do business with anyone that knocks on your door trying to sell you solar.
During the period that they are financed, it basically comes down to prepaying your power bill for the next 25 years or so. They offer low interest loan packages, but you are basically buying down your interest rate by paying financing fees up front. If you have access to credit
The panels are generally warrantied for 25 years. They're generally expected to keep 80-85% of their capacity over that period. After that they don't turn to dust or anything, realistically you could get way more life out of them than 25 years. The power electronics generally have 10-25 year warranties. Unless you have a metal roof, you will probably have to replace your roof approximately one time during the life of the system. In order to do this, you're going to have to pay someone to remove the solar panels and then replace them after the roof is replaced.
One thing to remember is that if you have solar and are still connected to the grid, unless you have batteries, if the grid goes down, your panels will not provide you power. You may be able to get a backup generator and and a transfer switch and remedy that.
With rates for power being in the $0.15-0.17/kWh range, you could probably get a solar system that would cover most of your power needs most of the time for a similar price to what your power bill currently is. One benefit is that you are sort of locking in the cost of your power, so if you think the cost of power is going to continue to increase, that provides some upside.
I think the price increases (that go into the pockets of people like Jerry Jones) that came from the freeze in 2021 change the value proposition for solar in Texas. At $0.10/kWh, the payback period is long. At 50-80% more than that, the payback period is closer.
I'm in the process of doing solar with battery because I don't trust the grid in Texas now, and I think its going to get worse. I would like to minimize the amount of money that I give to the companies that run the grid, and I want to have power when it goes down.
