Getting solar at the house

Attic upgrades have been completed today. I'll contact the solar provider and see if their engineers approve for more panels.

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I keep sitting on the fence with Solar - whether to do it, and if so whether to go direct buy or one of the lease-type options. Every time this thread gets refreshed, I am a bit more annoyed I didn't just do it 2 years ago when I looked at it the first time.

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Originally Posted by Brian

I keep sitting on the fence with Solar - whether to do it, and if so whether to go direct buy or one of the lease-type options. Every time this thread gets refreshed, I am a bit more annoyed I didn't just do it 2 years ago when I looked at it the first time.

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Sorry. :) I'll quit bumping the thread once I've got everything I desire and no more information to share.

My small system is up and running, just got notice that I start paying Solar City this month. $20 a month and it's saving me more than that.

If I really had the extra cash at this time, I would probably just purchase my own system vs lease. Catch 22, do I purchase a system and then burden all the costs of maintenance or lease from someone else who takes care of everything. (if there is anything to do)

Just waiting to see if I can get the bigger system now.

I hope it didn't come off like I was annoyed at you. I've really enjoyed this thread and hope you continue to post, even after you're up and running. I just am annoyed at myself that I didn't do it 2 years ago as the incentives have started to expire...

I'm leaning towards buying my own equipment. Prices are pushing down around $1 a watt, including inverters and mounting hardware. I have a friend in the industry that is convinced we'll see $.50 a watt in the next year. At that point, if I do the install myself, equipment should pay for itself in 3-4 years.

just out of curiosity who designed the upgrades to your joists? did you have a truss company engineer that system?

I think he used NFATrussguy.

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Originally Posted by Irving

I think he used NFATrussguy.

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Now that is funny.

I/they being contractors I used for other framing work came up with the added support. No specific engineering done.

Just adding support where solar city said it was lacking and we knew it was lacking. Well see what they say.

Only $300 in materials and about 10 hours of work. Lots of glue and nails. :)

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Originally Posted by Irving

I think he used NFATrussguy.

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Hahaha nice.

Nice thing with Solar is you can use it for hot water too