Anyone go solar lately?

[Mac'nCheese]

Thinking about putting solar panels on my house. Anybody do it lately and have any advice/warnings?

 

[djjclark]

I put in a system about 4 years ago and would most definitely go with solar again and would consider it a requirement for any new house we would consider. When we first started to look in to solar I had calculated out what I expected my savings to be and so far we are pretty much on schedule for it to pay for itself. We had estimated that we would have paid for the system in a little over 7 years. We went with a 6 kW system that would cover our usage averaged out for the year meaning that some months we would produce more energy and some months we would use more of the grids energy. All of it gets totaled up at the end of the year and we have owed about $100 each year. We couldn't really go any bigger because the electric company would only pay about 5 cents per kW for any overage for the year which would make it much longer to pay off the system. I went with Sun Power panels because they were slightly higher efficiency meaning they were smaller and had a complete black face to appease my wife for putting them on her house (and I promised not to complain about the AC running).

 

[heehee]

I don't have solar panels. My 2600 sq ft house use $75 worth of electricity per month in the summer, less in winter. How much are the panels? I'm assuming thousands.

 

[C DM]

I don't have solar panels. My 2600 sq ft house use $75 worth of electricity per month in the summer, less in winter. How much are the panels? I'm assuming thousands.

Is that without AC then? How many people in the house?

 

[heehee]

Is that without AC then? How many people in the house?

That's with AC. Me and my wife.

 

[Huntn]

How much does an average system cost?

 

[MAH11]

I went solar 11 months ago and have had no problems. I went with the high-efficiency Sun Power panels with microinverters. While this increased the costs somewhat, the microinverters have an impressive 25-year estimated lifetime (and warranty). I can also monitor my energy production over the internet -- a feature that I find entertaining albeit not strictly necessary. Off the top of my head, my 5 kW system cost me about $7500 once my ~$11,000 federal and state income tax rebates were taken into consideration. The system is projected to break even in 7 years, which is impressive (to me) given that Ithaca NY gets very little sun during winter months.

In 11 months, I have generated 5.8 MW hr of energy which puts me on track for the 6.3 MW hr estimated annual production of the system. You can see my energy production data here.

 

[Spectrum Abuser]

Is that without AC then? How many people in the house?

New homes are a lot more efficient compared to even a decade ago. $110 for the month of July in Texas with AC set at 72. Comparable home size give or take a few SQ.

 

[JackieInCo]

Just don't accept those offers to install free panels on your house. If you read the fine print, your monthly bill starts out small and as in the offer I got, after so many years the monthly payment increased almost double what I would be paying without panels. I think that company is called Solar City that makes that offer.

I leave a few lights on 24/7 to deter burglars but they have the low energy bulbs in those lamps.

I don't have any panels here. In the summer, I pay about $50 and about $100 in the winter.