Got Solar?
- Thread starter Jason
- Start date
I've looked into it all a lot but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I need a new roof though so I can justify some of its new cost as needed to get solar panels. So I can get the solar tax credit for both the solar panels and new roof. It almost pays for itself upfront which easily makes it worth it long term.
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It's been a popular conversation in my neighborhood. A lot of people have done it. A couple have done it themselves. Talking to one guy, he took out a home equity line and bought the panels and rails and installed it all himself. And with this guy, if he could figure out how to do it, anybody could. There was a website that pretty much did ask the figuring for him, but I don't know what it is.
You'd probably have to take out a building permit through your city, and they'll likely require some engineering certificates for your roof (that's a lot of weight going on it), and if your roof needs work done you'll want to do that first.
This guy said he saved at least 20% over the bids he was getting.
If I knew for sure I was going to be in my house long term, I would probably (like 90%) do it.
You'd probably have to take out a building permit through your city, and they'll likely require some engineering certificates for your roof (that's a lot of weight going on it), and if your roof needs work done you'll want to do that first.
This guy said he saved at least 20% over the bids he was getting.
If I knew for sure I was going to be in my house long term, I would probably (like 90%) do it.
Interesting considering you're an electrician if memory serves? I don't want to do it myself for sure but also don't want to get screwed - there are like 4,325 solar installation companies it seems.
I'll ask some questions in my neighborhood Facebook page. Find out who people went with, how much power they're producing, what their power bills are like, etc.
Yes, I took the plunge earlier this year. Took a month to do the installation, then another month or two to get all the paperwork in order with electrical company and with the city before we could actually start using them. But things are going well. We got enough panels to cover about 85%-ish of our electrical needs. We have a nice southern facing roof side with the appropriate area. Tax credit was $4000-$5000, somewhere in there. We got a 12-ish year loan for the panels (I'd have to look it up to be sure). The monthly payment for now is around $50 if I recall correctly, but then will increase after about a year to $100 or so. In our last monthly bill, we saved around $100 relative to the previous year. So our combined payment of panels + electricity will be about the same as our old payment for electricity alone. That was our goal; that way we're not paying anything that we wouldn't have paid already. Then the two most important points are (a) our payment won't increase (fixed rate loan) whereas the electrical bill likely would increase each year, and (b) when we pay off the loan we're sitting pretty. Sorry I'm a little fuzzy on the numbers right now, it was back in December that I worked them all out. I'm a math guy so I crunched the numbers all kinds of ways, to make sure it really made sense for us. Also for what it's worth I think we have a 20 year warranty on the panels. Panels and loan were both through Zing Solar. They had a good loan program and seem to have done solid work on the install. No complaints about the install. We own the panels ourselves (some companies just lease them), and can sell them to the new owner if for some reason we decide to sell the house.
Miggs
Well-Known Member
Beantown is the resident expert on this.
I've considered it. Before you waste too much of your time, determine if you face west enough. Most people think it's south but facing southwest, or even moreso, west, is better. Read up on it if you don't believe me. If you call a bigger company (Solar City is one of the biggest or is thee biggest nationally), they'll quickly tell you if your roof is ideal for optimum sun exposure, how many panels they can fit on it (depending on the areas of the roof you'd be willing to use--I'd personally only want the back of the house), and the approximate energy accumulated and therefore money saved per month that should be expected based on your average kWh consumption utilizing their GPS.
I'd do that, epecially if the tax rebates are out there which I think they are. All it takes is a phone call and about 15-30 minutes of your time. I'd do it now when you can get them virtually for free rather than wait because the more this picks up steam, the more likelihood they get rid of the tax rebates imo.
Personally, I don't want them because I don't like the look of them. I think they make it more difficult to sell one's house (even though the research says otherwise) for both aesthetic reasons and recycling (cost) reasons once they wear down and go kaput after about 20-25 years. They have made some that are essentially shingles for a long time now but I've never actually seen them on the house and for me, that's the type that I'd want.
Also, Colton, track your energy vigilantly. You say you saved about $100 but so have I in recent months compared to last year. Some of that is me being more energy efficient. More of it is due to more moderate temps over the last three months as compared to last year. Compare average temps from this year to last.
I've considered it. Before you waste too much of your time, determine if you face west enough. Most people think it's south but facing southwest, or even moreso, west, is better. Read up on it if you don't believe me. If you call a bigger company (Solar City is one of the biggest or is thee biggest nationally), they'll quickly tell you if your roof is ideal for optimum sun exposure, how many panels they can fit on it (depending on the areas of the roof you'd be willing to use--I'd personally only want the back of the house), and the approximate energy accumulated and therefore money saved per month that should be expected based on your average kWh consumption utilizing their GPS.
I'd do that, epecially if the tax rebates are out there which I think they are. All it takes is a phone call and about 15-30 minutes of your time. I'd do it now when you can get them virtually for free rather than wait because the more this picks up steam, the more likelihood they get rid of the tax rebates imo.
Personally, I don't want them because I don't like the look of them. I think they make it more difficult to sell one's house (even though the research says otherwise) for both aesthetic reasons and recycling (cost) reasons once they wear down and go kaput after about 20-25 years. They have made some that are essentially shingles for a long time now but I've never actually seen them on the house and for me, that's the type that I'd want.
Also, Colton, track your energy vigilantly. You say you saved about $100 but so have I in recent months compared to last year. Some of that is me being more energy efficient. More of it is due to more moderate temps over the last three months as compared to last year. Compare average temps from this year to last.
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So were you using solar over the winter? I've been curious about how much productivity there is in the winter months here.
No, it was probably mid or end of March before it got turned on. But clearly it won't be as productive in the winter. However, the biggest expense is in the summer when air-conditioning and the "heavy use" prices from Rocky Mountain Power hit hard. And that's exactly when solar is helping the most. So if it doesn't do too much in the winter, that's OK--our prices are already pretty low in the winter.
Right. I was just curious to see how much the productivity dropped.
This is not quite correct. South maximizes total power produced. West gives you a slight optimization for peak times. However, as far as I know, with Rocky Mountain Power what's important is not to reduce during peak times but to reduce monthly usage in general. They don't do an hourly price, they do a monthly price (depending on total usage during the month). So south is better for that.
Here's an article which goes into that, and concludes that given the hourly prices in Texas the optimal alignment there is 39 degrees west of south. But like I said, that argument wouldn't apply to Utah. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/so-what-direction-should-solar-panels-face/
Yes, that's certainly possible. Installation would likely be more expensive, though, and possibly substantially more. The installation company would have to build a framework to support the panels, instead of using the ready-made frame of the roof. And they'd have to run wires from the panels to the house. That might cause the economics to not make sense, you'd have to get quotes.
It seems I looked that info up (the theoretical info based on weather & tilt of earth's axis). If I can find it when I get home I'll let you know.
Here are some more details on my system that I was able to look up:
We got 22 panels, each producing 260 W, for a total of 5.72 kW. Given our expected sunshine in Orem, they should produce about 8700 kW hr over the course of a year. Our total system cost was about $24K, which includes some additional energy-efficiency things (LED lightbulbs, smart thermostat). We got about $9K of federal and state tax credits (incentives), so the net price was about $15K. We wouldn't have done it without the tax credits! We got a 12 year loan at a nice interest rate from Zing or more precisely a Zing-related bank.
A few words about taxes: the money is given through tax *credits*, which means that you can only use them to pay down the taxes that you owe. It's not free money from the government above and beyond what you owe. If you owe less in taxes than the credits are good for, then you can generally roll over the credits to the next year. However, I'm not sure if the current federal solar incentives have been renewed into 2017. When I got my system they were set to expire in Dec 2016.
We got 22 panels, each producing 260 W, for a total of 5.72 kW. Given our expected sunshine in Orem, they should produce about 8700 kW hr over the course of a year. Our total system cost was about $24K, which includes some additional energy-efficiency things (LED lightbulbs, smart thermostat). We got about $9K of federal and state tax credits (incentives), so the net price was about $15K. We wouldn't have done it without the tax credits! We got a 12 year loan at a nice interest rate from Zing or more precisely a Zing-related bank.
A few words about taxes: the money is given through tax *credits*, which means that you can only use them to pay down the taxes that you owe. It's not free money from the government above and beyond what you owe. If you owe less in taxes than the credits are good for, then you can generally roll over the credits to the next year. However, I'm not sure if the current federal solar incentives have been renewed into 2017. When I got my system they were set to expire in Dec 2016.
Miggs
Well-Known Member
Didn't know you don't do higher cost at peak hours.
Did u look into the net metering credits that will expire December 31? The power companies are gaming this in every state. You earn tons of credits during summer months then the steal them from u. It is like a Flex spending acct.
Ok this makes much more sense than ur initial post on 4-5k tax credits.
One think u need keep in mind Colton is it is not a credit more like a rebate. I do a lil accounting and many my clients cannot actually claim the rebate because tax bill is too low. This is similar to gambling losses or cap gains losses. This is not a credit this is a limit to what u can write off.
[MENTION=14]colton[/MENTION] I hope for you you make enough to get the full subsidy.