Going Solar

mrloren · June 2020

With my wife working from home our electric bill jumped $60 a month. Plugging in the freezer didn't help either. SDG&E 32 cents a kw is just too much.

So now we are looking at going solar. We have received 9 quotes ranging form $14k to $23k. I am surprised at how much the cost of solar has gone down. We looked into it in 2012 it was close to $30 for a 3kw system now a 4.5hw is less than $20k

With all the quotes in now, we spent all day yesterday reading reviews on the companies. All the big Sun____ are off the board. We are looking at the 3 local companies and will most likely contact the one offering veteran and nurse discounts of $1000.

I always thought looking for a car was bad, some of these sales guy's were just over the top on being pushy jerks. One guy even said my house is 20 years old and will need a new roof and electric panel.. gee how can he tell without looking at it.

msg · June 2020

Neat, Loren. I've always been interested in solar and sustainable designs, but never really looked at the specifics. Are the systems you're looking at for power and water heating, or just power?

Would you be able to provide all your electrical needs with the solar system alone, or would you still have a power bill?

Kex · June 2020

Very opportune timing, sir!

We will probably go solar this year too. Our electric bills average out at under $100 per month, even with a/c, but we have to replace our roof due to age, and would like to do both at the same time.

Currently, the options we are considering are:

New Tesla solar roof, including back-up battery, or,
Standard new roof from a local contractor, then add Tesla solar panels from as low as $65/mo. That would average out over a year to about the same cost as our electric bill, so solar would be basically a “free” bonus in this case. We would most likely pay extra to get the back-up battery in this scenario.

Our electricity charges are split into delivery costs, and generation costs. Delivery is by far the most expensive. The total on our last bill was somewhere between 14¢ and 20¢ per kWh, depending on the time of day (approximately 2/3 of our usage is the lower of the two). July and August are always the most expensive months, and sometimes September and October.

BlueFox · June 2020

I went solar after getting my July electric bill that went up a hundred dollars for two weeks of running the AC to cool down the house from the amp heat. This was around 4-5 years ago, and I have been very pleased with it.

Kex · June 2020

@BlueFox, can you elaborate on the choices you made at the time? Thanks! 😉

BlueFox · June 2020

Not too much to elaborate on. I found a company with a reasonable price, little over 20K, and had it done. At that time CA had a tax credit for solar that reduced the price, although I have forgotten how much, but it reduced the 20K to something in the teens.

mhardy6647 · June 2020

We're solar fans... umm, wait, I mean, fans of solar.

mrloren · June 2020

msg wrote: »

Neat, Loren. I've always been interested in solar and sustainable designs, but never really looked at the specifics. Are the systems you're looking at for power and water heating, or just power?

Would you be able to provide all your electrical needs with the solar system alone, or would you still have a power bill?

No we are not going off grid. We are getting a 135% of what our current electric usage is. This will let us run the A/C now or once it is installed.

Yes we will still have a power bill, neighbor has solar their bill went from $200+ to nothing more than $60. The other day it was topping 100f outside we didn't use the A/C don't want that bill. With the wife working at home and the freezer plugged in we moved up a tier, our last bill was 32 cents a kw X the 596kw used add in fee's, taxes and gas just too much. It's not called San Diego Greed and Extortion for nothing.

invalid · June 2020

With all the quotes in now, we spent all day yesterday reading reviews on the companies. All the big Sun____ are off the board. We are looking at the 3 local companies and will most likely contact the one offering veteran and nurse discounts of $1000.

[/quote]

With this quote did you tell the company after or before they quoted the job that you were a veteran or a nurse.

mrloren · June 2020

invalid wrote: »

With all the quotes in now, we spent all day yesterday reading reviews on the companies. All the big Sun____ are off the board. We are looking at the 3 local companies and will most likely contact the one offering veteran and nurse discounts of $1000.

With this quote did you tell the company after or before they quoted the job that you were a veteran or a nurse. [/quote]

before the quote,

2 of the big SUN_____ and the local companies all came in within $500. Company we are going with dropped it by a grand with the veteran and nurse discount. Same equipment and warranty as the others.

invalid · June 2020

Sounds like a good deal then. There are contractors in our area that do the discount for senior citizens and they just inflate the quote to absorb the discount.

msg · June 2020

invalid wrote: »

Sounds like a good deal then. There are contractors in our area that do the discount for senior citizens and they just inflate the quote to absorb the discount.

Despicable business practice.

audioluvr · June 2020

mrloren wrote: »

SDG&E charging 32 cents a kw is just too much

That's insane! Ours went up to 9 cents from 7.5 last year and I thought that was high.

WagnerRC · June 2020

Make sure you are up to date on all the solar news. It is changing. My system payback paid off this year. Its all gravy now.

https://www.savesolar.org/?sourceid=1036116&fbclid=IwAR3Kv7YREc5UNB8c509JvBN1MkSkbfmQa5usiudXcC79GwBb3yrGTj37Nrw

muncybob · August 2020

Wow, that's a killer view!

It's to my understanding that the federal residential tax credit expires at the end of 2021. Does anybody know if the carry over from a previously filed credit will be available after 2021? If I install this year it will tax us at least 3 years to be able to get the full credit since our federlk tax liability is not very high.

muncybob · August 2020

OK, I meant to say "it will take us"...not tax us.
An installer has proposed a south facing roof that does not have much of a pitch. We can get some heavy wet snow here and I'm concerned that the panels would be covered too long on those days. We are also considering batteries for power outage back up. I've read that this technology is advancing and it may be prudent to wait a few years before investing in them?

mhardy6647 · August 2020

muncybob wrote: »

OK, I meant to say "it will take us"...not tax us.
An installer has proposed a south facing roof that does not have much of a pitch. We can get some heavy wet snow here and I'm concerned that the panels would be covered too long on those days. We are also considering batteries for power outage back up. I've read that this technology is advancing and it may be prudent to wait a few years before investing in them?

Sure. It will only get cheaper per kW -- you might want to think about the "net" of not generating while you wait and try to do a net present value type of assessment, though.

We're at about 17 megawatt-hours of juice generated since the second bank of panels went on line.

Our roof is steep, but we sometimes get clingy snow. I bought a roof rake and put a piece of pipe insulation on it. I can clear some of the panels by hand -- that gets 'em going, and the process of clearing the panels by (solar) heat becomes autocatalytic.

Usually they clear themselves, though.

mrloren · August 2020

Hello,

Just over a week ago we got permission to operate our nice little 13 panel system. Just in time for this heat wave.

Looking at the monitoring system we are generating between 25-29kWh a day. Our last (July) SDG&E bill we had an average daily usage of 19kWh, that was with 5 days of the AC on.

We'll see how it is at the end of the month.

DaveHo · August 2020

I can't comprehend paying that much for electricity. I think my current rate for generation charges is 4.5 cents/kwh. Delivery is separate but still far less. To keep my 2300 sqft house at 70deg in the summer, my monthly bill is around $150.

Solar doesn't make sense around here(SE Pa). I'd be dead before it paid for itself.

rooftop59 · August 2020

DaveHo wrote: »

I can't comprehend paying that much for electricity. I think my current rate for generation charges is 4.5 cents/kwh. Delivery is separate but still far less. To keep my 2300 sqft house at 70deg in the summer, my monthly bill is around $150.

Solar doesn't make sense around here(SE Pa). I'd be dead before it paid for itself.

Here is central TX (otherwise known as Satan's bunghole) we are paying almost $400 a month in the summer with two new large units (the house is 4300 square feet) and we keep it at 77-78 most of the time (upstairs its a little cooler at night). I know people here with smaller homes that keep them much cooler like you who pay over $500 in the summer...so yea, this would probably be a worthwhile investment for us...

BlueFox · August 2020

In CA my summer electric bill with solar is just the minuscule connection charge. Now gas is a different story.

DaveHo · August 2020

When I replaced our system about 10 years back. I had the Nordyne IQ drive system installed. A/C unit is like 23 Seer, very efficient. Actually cost slightly more to heat in the winter. That's unusual for our climate. The Nordyne wasn't cheap but since we like it on the cool side, it's been a good investment.

mrloren · August 2020

DaveHo wrote: »

I can't comprehend paying that much for electricity. I think my current rate for generation charges is 4.5 cents/kwh. Delivery is separate but still far less. To keep my 2300 sqft house at 70deg in the summer, my monthly bill is around $150.

Solar doesn't make sense around here(SE Pa). I'd be dead before it paid for itself.

Here in the PRC we are around 32 cents a kwh. My mom is in Oklahoma paying around 9 cents and my bro in GA is at like 6.5 cents. Even with paying this high price for electric we are having rolling black outs.

Right now it's 90 outside with about 70% humidity glad I have AC and can now use it without fear of a $400 bill.

DaveHo · August 2020

Let's shift gears to water/sewer. Used to be cheap, at least around here. These days the monthly cost is more than electric. Of course I have teenagers who feel the need to shower for rediculously long. I'd like to chew them out, but I can remember being the same at their age so I let it slide, usually. Though I have been know to shut the hot off if I'm in a fowel mood.

muncybob · August 2020

I once thought going solar made littler sense here too. But apparently the panels are much better these days so even cloudy days gets you some production. Spoke with somebody here(N Central PA) that has had solar for over a year now and he said it will pay for itself in the long run. I plan to install the panels on out barn roof myself then pay somebody to tie into the grid and do the battery back up install. With the tax credit(which I'm told you can only stretch out over 2 tax years) the initial cost should be around 12-15k.

Need some cooler temps so I can get up on that roof and paint it before the install.

WagnerRC · August 2020

I used the 2 year write off on taxes too. Are you being charged sales taxes? You will enjoy the solar for sure.

muncybob · August 2020

Most likely sales tax. Just about everything except "necessities" are taxed here.

mrloren · August 2020

Water/Sewer for the 3 of us living in this house full time is $130-$160 my back lawn is done. I turned them off when we got a $160 bill.

Payback on our solar is 4.5 to 5 years. Made for a decent weekend not sweating my ### off. Nice cool breeze right now.

Need this humidity to go away, today we only generated 22.78kWh our best day was 29kWh, a little overcast today.

muncybob · August 2020

Our only cost for water/sewer is every 3 years septic has to be pumped out ($120). Water is only repairs which us usually a new pump head every 12-15 years. Last time it was about $250.

So it's a cheap situation for us but we have to be aware of our water usage during dry times. Have yet to run dry and want to keep it that way!

Going Solar

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