Got Solar?

[mellow]

Does anyone know if solar panels must be placed on a roof top? My parents live in a rural area, big open property , with a south facing hillside with nothing but weeds and ants. Could install panels on the hillside?

 

[colton]

Does anyone know if solar panels must be placed on a roof top? My parents live in a rural area, big open property , with a south facing hillside with nothing but weeds and ants. Could install panels on the hillside?

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.

 

[colton]

Right. I was just curious to see how much the productivity dropped.

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.

 

[colton]

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.

 

[Miggs]

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/

Didn't know you don't do higher cost at peak hours.

 

[Boris]

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.

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.

 

[Boris]

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.

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.

 

[Boris]

Also should mention Utah has the cheapest power on the planet and hasn't seen rate increases in 4 decades. I know because my aunt is on the power commission.

 

[Ron Mexico]

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.

They were renewed for 2017. I think they might have been extended through 2018 as well.

 

[babe]

There are technological breakthroughs on the horizon that will make solar power much cheaper than the grid. Power companies are going to pay you to put solar panels up on your roof and let them have the power you don't use.

 

[♪alt13]

I have a solar powered calculator. You just take off the sleeve and boom it works. It has a little photovoltaic panel on it that produces power so that it can do math stuff. It's pretty ****in nifty.

 

[franklin]

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.

That sounds like a lot better of a price than what I've seen and researched. $15k is reasonable; I've seen closer to $30k.

I've been getting pounded by door-to-door solar sales people. I tell them all I don't need a sales pitch and that I understand about the rebates, etc. I ask for an estimate of monthly payment and power production, and let them know I'm interested. None of them have returned.