Going Solar

[Spyderjockey]

I am tired of paying our very high electric bills, right now we are paying $200 a month on the budget plan and I'm sure that it will be getting even higher. Our solar panels are guaranteed to produce 100% of our electric usage. Here are a few pics. of the installation in it's early stages:

http://s777.photobucket.com/user/spy...20Installation

Will add more pics. as installation proceeds.


If you have any questions about solar panels send me a PM and I'll try to answer with my experience so far.

[Bob Denman]

Jim,
How long does it take to get a system installed?
Enjoy the sunshine!!

[bscrive]

How much did it cost? Are you still spending $200/month or more to pay for the panels. If you bought them outright, did the cost of them more than compensate for the money you would have spent on electricity over the lifetime of the system? These panels do need upkeep as well as the batteries needed to store the energy for rainy days. When my cousin's looked into this it was not viable for them because it didn't actually supply enough energy all year round. So, they had to stay hooked up to the grid. So, they still would get a bill from the electric company for delivery charges even if they didn't use any electricity because it was there if needed. Hopefully you took that into consideration. There are a lot of snake charmers out there that will sell you something that looks like gold but it is just gold painted lead.

Hopefully, it works out forthe betterfor you.

[jcthorne]

We looked hard at installing a 75% solar system on our house about 2 years ago. Was going to cost in the $45,000 range ( 1800KWh/month) and had a payout of greater than 15yrs even considering zero maintenance cost which obviously was not true.

Until the costs of the panels drop considerably there just is no payback other than bragging rights. You just cannot generate electric for less than 10c a KWh from solar on your own. There was a time when the tax kickbacks would tip the scale but Houston never got those, bunch of folks in Austin did.

[Chupaca]

You need better days for solar..but great day for installation. Hope it does work as they say but will cut your bills for sure...nice slide show..!!

[Bob Denman]

Our last bill for two Months, was just about $85.
Apparently; we stumble around in the dark a lot!

[retread]

There is a company that will install and maintain a solar array for you, and bill you monthly for their service. The problem is, they aren't in the USA yet.

john

[PrairieSpyder]

I'd also be interested in learning the costs for this. People I know who looked into it decided the costs did not justify the savings for them. But I know technology has improved and costs may have gone down.

[cuznjohn]

my electric bill here is a avg of 400 a month but i didn't like the idea of solar being i have a BLACK CLOUD over my head lately

[Bob Denman]

Four hundred dollars each Month??
Our electric bills for the entire year don't even reach $700...
I believe that we pay a touch over 11 cents per KWH up here; they must really be sockin' it to you guys!

[jcthorne]

There is a company that will install and maintain a solar array for you, and bill you monthly for their service. The problem is, they aren't in the USA yet.

john

Because it is not yet cost effective to do so in most of the US. When it is, companies will be all over the internet signing folks up for no money down leased systems with full maintenance included. There are a scant few companies in very limited locations in the US doing this now. Mostly in CA and AZ that I know of.

[jcthorne]

Four hundred dollars each Month??
Our electric bills for the entire year don't even reach $700...
I believe that we pay a touch over 11 cents per KWH up here; they must really be sockin' it to you guys!

Mine runs 275 to 300 for July, Aug, Sep here in Houston. I pay 10c / KWh on contract. Rest of the year its 125 to 150. This is considered pretty low for a 3000sqft single story house in Houston.

[Bob Denman]

To be fair; it's just me and the Missus in this old shack: a 2000 square foot two-story Colonial...DSCF1090.jpg
We've installed energy saving bulbs in most of the lamps now, and we just shut things off when we leave a room...

The energy bills at our office are pretty similar. We'd consider adding solar panels to it's roof just because it soaks up so much sunlight...

[bscrive]

For us here in Ontario we pay about $130/month on equal billing and I think we are being hosed. I am also using power tools pretty much on a daily basis as well. We also keep the AC on from May until September to keep the humidity down in the house.

[Bob Denman]

We just sweat, and run some fans...
We actually have no AC units in our house this year at all...
Oh! And we drink lots of iced-tea!

[Spyderjockey]

We did a lot of research on this, and quite a few months considering doing it and have talked to a lot of people in our area that have already gone to solar over a year ago. One family in Skaneatlas has been over a year with there system and there electric bill is the basic service charge of about $18. a month. They went with a paid up lease so have no actual monthly lease payment.

We are going with a 20 year lease and will be paying well below what we are now paying for electricity through National Grid. The lease includes any maintenance or repairs to the system for the whole 20 years and is insured so any thing that might happen is covered under the lease. There are no batteries, we are still on the grid. When the system makes more electricity than we use it is pumped back into the grid through our meter which has already been changed to accommodate this through National Grid. It works like a "point for point" bank and we draw from that when the system isn't producing enough electricity.

Everything is in a written contract and we know what our monthly paymt. will be for the next 20 years, which is a lot less than our $200 a month budget pymt. now to National Grid. It is better than paying the yearly increases through our power company and will save us about $20,000 over the life of the lease. In the last 20 years our costs have just about doubled from what they were back in 1994 for the same usage. At that rate of increase it will be about double what it is now over the next 20 years. It just makes sense to lock in our costs with the lease. It costs us absolutely no up front cost for installation, or panels, or equipment,or anything. We make our first lease paymt. after the installation is complete and the power company gives the go ahead to power up the system which will take them about a month to do their inspection.

Our system is quite large because of the usage that our electric bills have shown over the past year of usage. It is suppose to be finished in 1 week, but may go over a day or so depending on the weather. Right the crew that is doing the installation says they are right on schedule or a little ahead if anything. It is a local company doing the installation and the company, Sungevity Solar, is out of California. They take a picture of your house and design a system with all the info. that they ask you to provide and them send the local company to your house to do a feasibility inspection of the roof, shade, location of the inverters and so on. So far everything is being just as was described to us in the beginning of the quote process.

Solar is definitely not for everyone but for us it makes solid sense. Like I said we have talked to many people in and around our community and that have already gone solar and have had nothing but positive feedback. By the way not all of the people were Sungevity customers, but from competing companies that we found just by driving around randomly and stopping and talking with people that have solar arrays either on their house or on the ground. So it isn't that we were just going to people that Sungevity wanted us to talk to.

All in all we are very confident that we have made the right decision. The tax incentives in New York are some of the best in the country, but are coming to an end next year. I believe that New York State is among the highest in conversions to solar.

Will keep you posted about how things progress.

[Ford 1]

My bill was 107.00 for last month.

[SpyderAnn01]

Jim, I've got a friend here in Las Vegas who is having a similar system installed. Like you he has a contract and knows exactly what his payments will be for the next 20 years. Two things we have an overabundance of in Las Vegas are sun and wind. Yet there are relatively few wind generators and solar projects in the state.

[Bob Denman]

It's going to be pretty neat; seeing how much power you can produce with the system!
Please keep us posted as to the progress on it, and it's operation!

[jcthorne]

We did a lot of research on this, and quite a few months considering doing it and have talked to a lot of people in our area that have already gone to solar over a year ago. One family in Skaneatlas has been over a year with there system and there electric bill is the basic service charge of about $18. a month. They went with a paid up lease so have no actual monthly lease payment.

We are going with a 20 year lease and will be paying well below what we are now paying for electricity through National Grid. The lease includes any maintenance or repairs to the system for the whole 20 years and is insured so any thing that might happen is covered under the lease. There are no batteries, we are still on the grid. When the system makes more electricity than we use it is pumped back into the grid through our meter which has already been changed to accommodate this through National Grid. It works like a "point for point" bank and we draw from that when the system isn't producing enough electricity.

Everything is in a written contract and we know what our monthly paymt. will be for the next 20 years, which is a lot less than our $200 a month budget pymt. now to National Grid. It is better than paying the yearly increases through our power company and will save us about $20,000 over the life of the lease. In the last 20 years our costs have just about doubled from what they were back in 1994 for the same usage. At that rate of increase it will be about double what it is now over the next 20 years. It just makes sense to lock in our costs with the lease. It costs us absolutely no up front cost for installation, or panels, or equipment,or anything. We make our first lease paymt. after the installation is complete and the power company gives the go ahead to power up the system which will take them about a month to do their inspection.

Our system is quite large because of the usage that our electric bills have shown over the past year of usage. It is suppose to be finished in 1 week, but may go over a day or so depending on the weather. Right the crew that is doing the installation says they are right on schedule or a little ahead if anything. It is a local company doing the installation and the company, Sungevity Solar, is out of California. They take a picture of your house and design a system with all the info. that they ask you to provide and them send the local company to your house to do a feasibility inspection of the roof, shade, location of the inverters and so on. So far everything is being just as was described to us in the beginning of the quote process.

Solar is definitely not for everyone but for us it makes solid sense. Like I said we have talked to many people in and around our community and that have already gone solar and have had nothing but positive feedback. By the way not all of the people were Sungevity customers, but from competing companies that we found just by driving around randomly and stopping and talking with people that have solar arrays either on their house or on the ground. So it isn't that we were just going to people that Sungevity wanted us to talk to.

All in all we are very confident that we have made the right decision. The tax incentives in New York are some of the best in the country, but are coming to an end next year. I believe that New York State is among the highest in conversions to solar.

Will keep you posted about how things progress.

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal. If I could find a company willing to offer a package like that here in Houston, would be all over it. But the last quote we got for $45,000 up front cost and a 'written warranty' from a company that will be gone before the 20 yrs.....no thanks. Sounds like the terms are getting better and the long term lease contracts are getting more wide spread. Glad to hear it. Perhaps someday Houston too.

[cuznjohn]

what i forgot to say was that i also included gas in that cost also, con edison bills me for gas and electric

[Bob Denman]

Whew! I'm glad to hear that it wasn't just the cost of electricity for you!

[PrairieSpyder]

What I've heard about here is in the country. People use propane and/or rural electric. It seems the propane cost vary widely with the market and it's hard to predict your cost of the winter. In town, we have natural gas for heat. But if I was setting up in a rural area here I'd go all-electric and look into solar.

[jcthorne]

what i forgot to say was that i also included gas in that cost also, con edison bills me for gas and electric

Now gas is cheap here.....My largest gas bill ever(other than 2 weeks after Hurricane Ike) was $45. Almost always pay my $26 minimum monthly charge for gas every month.

[ARtraveler]

Our last bill for two Months, was just about $85.
Apparently; we stumble around in the dark a lot!

I got you beat by a little. May - August, my electric bill is usually less than $40.