Solar

[muwarrior69]

Anyone contract a solar company to install panels on your home? Our average bill is about 300/month for a 4100 sqft home with a 20x40 inground pool. For a 20Kw (estimated annual energy use) system the best offer I got was 20k down and 300/month for 15 years after state and federal incentives to purchase. I live in New Jersey. Is that a good offer? I don't want to lease.

[mu_hilltopper]

Sorry, I don't have that answer, but a tangential comment.

I was watching a story about "networked solar" (might not have been called that) .. basically .. it was outsourcing your solar panels to another location, 100 or 1000 miles away.   Someone else builds it, manages it, points it in the right direction, but the electricity it generates is "yours" as it spins the needle backwards on the grid somewhere sunny.

Do you really need panels on *your* roof?  Nope.  Sounded cool.

[brewcity77]

I think the best way to figure it out is how long you will be there and how much time it will take to effectively pay it off.

We got three quotes. The cheapest was a large firm in multiple states (Sun Badger) but we went with a slightly more expensive local company, both to support local business & because they were up front with their sales tactics while SB tried to use a lot of misleading math to get our business.

I calculated the numbers and our energy savings will pay for the system in 9 years. We planned (at the time of purchase) to be in the house for 12-17 years, so it made sense. Comparing our bills to the years before, we're already ahead of their projections.

Our system is smaller than what you would need, so it's hard to really compare. If my math is right, your total cost of $74K seems like a steep price to me. If you completely nullify your energy bill, it would take just over 20 years to break even. It seems unlikely you'll completely nullify your bill and by the time you break even, there's a good chance the quality of your panels will be degrading.

I would contact more contractors. I would also share the quotes you get to see the prices they can get to once they know there's competition. Figure out what your energy provider does; in Wisconsin WE Energies pays us for overproduction, but only 10 cents on the dollar, so we got a system designed to roughly zero out our bills in summer so we don't overproduce. We pay a little more in winter, but even in colder (cloudier & snowier) months my bills saw reductions of 30-40%.

[muwarrior69]

I think the best way to figure it out is how long you will be there and how much time it will take to effectively pay it off.

We got three quotes. The cheapest was a large firm in multiple states (Sun Badger) but we went with a slightly more expensive local company, both to support local business & because they were up front with their sales tactics while SB tried to use a lot of misleading math to get our business.

I calculated the numbers and our energy savings will pay for the system in 9 years. We planned (at the time of purchase) to be in the house for 12-17 years, so it made sense. Comparing our bills to the years before, we're already ahead of their projections.

Our system is smaller than what you would need, so it's hard to really compare. If my math is right, your total cost of $74K seems like a steep price to me. If you completely nullify your energy bill, it would take just over 20 years to break even. It seems unlikely you'll completely nullify your bill and by the time you break even, there's a good chance the quality of your panels will be degrading.

I would contact more contractors. I would also share the quotes you get to see the prices they can get to once they know there's competition. Figure out what your energy provider does; in Wisconsin WE Energies pays us for overproduction, but only 10 cents on the dollar, so we got a system designed to roughly zero out our bills in summer so we don't overproduce. We pay a little more in winter, but even in colder (cloudier & snowier) months my bills saw reductions of 30-40%.

That was the lowest quote out of 4 and the only proposal that was straight forward. Quite frankly the only difference that I see is your paying the solar company or your paying the utility and here I thought they were suppose to save you money on your energy bill and be good stewards of the environment. I am disappointed.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

There is usually an option to just install solar for your water heater which is the largest electricity user in the house.
Would probably be significantly smaller cost but biggest bang.

[muwarrior69]

There is usually an option to just install solar for your water heater which is the largest electricity user in the house.
Would probably be significantly smaller cost but biggest bang.

I have gas heated water.

[brewcity77]

We got solar when we did because a number of tax credits were expiring. It might be best to wait to see if the Dems push through green incentives. If that's the best offer, I'm not sure if that's a location thing or incentive thing, but it seems like a s**t deal compared to what we got, even though the system size is significantly different.