Do you have Solar panels on your house?

[colorider]

I can see doing solar for the earth first, save the environment thing, but I continually can’t find the economic upside of it.

[Great-Kazoo]

I got a quote of $120 a month for 20 years.

$120 is still more than my electric bill. Throw in it's approx. $29K not incl interest and once again, not affordable. Or much of an incentive for someone in their mid 60's.

[Rucker61]

$120 is still more than my electric bill. Throw in it's approx. $29K not incl interest and once again, not affordable. Or much of an incentive for someone in their mid 60's.

It's not much more than my current bill, and the sales guy times a time value of money comparison with an annual rate increase of 4-6%. Compared to a fixed rate of $120 per month, it's looks like it makes sense. Of course, his analysis was cherry picked to sell a solar set-up. I've got two kids in high school playing on high wattage gaming systems and wasting other electricity. They'll be gone in a few years, and we can certainly work to reduce our bill now. We'd likely downsize our house to a ranch to get rid of a bunch of stairs for when we get older. The analysis doesn't look as compelling then.

[CHA-LEE]

We got a few quotes from different Solar providers when there was a heavy push for it while the Tax incentives were good. Even with the tax incentives, with our average power consumption it would have taken us 15+ years to pay it off. That doesn't make much sense given that who really knows what the viable service life of these Solar panels will be past 15 years. We get mega hail storms that wipe out most of the roofs in our neighborhood almost every year as well.

The way I see it, if Solar was a truly viable power alternative then the power companies themselves would be pushing them. As it is, they are just a "make you feel good about the environment" liability at best.

[Rucker61]

We got a few quotes from different Solar providers when there was a heavy push for it while the Tax incentives were good. Even with the tax incentives, with our average power consumption it would have taken us 15+ years to pay it off. That doesn't make much sense given that who really knows what the viable service life of these Solar panels will be past 15 years. We get mega hail storms that wipe out most of the roofs in our neighborhood almost every year as well.

The way I see it, if Solar was a truly viable power alternative then the power companies themselves would be pushing them. As it is, they are just a "make you feel good about the environment" liability at best.

The panels also lose efficiency every year, giving you less electricity generated. My "salesman" didn't mention that either.

[Great-Kazoo]

The panels also lose efficiency every year, giving you less electricity generated. My "salesman" didn't mention that either.

So you not only pay for the lease, but also pay an electric bill, as well?

[Rucker61]

So you not only pay for the lease, but also pay an electric bill, as well?

If you consume more than you produce, yes, you have to buy the difference once you consume any credit you've created dumping your excess back into the grid.

[CHA-LEE]

So you not only pay for the lease, but also pay an electric bill, as well?

YES.....This is the thing that people looking into Solar don't understand. Solar Panels produce power when there is good sunlight during the day. Once the sun goes down, or the cloud cover gets thick enough, you need to rely on the old power grid. There are also a lot of local regulations that limit the maximum capacity Solar Panel setup you can have. Most of the time the maximum capacity limit is well under 100% of your usage so no matter what, you will always need power from the grid. There are also many local regulations that limit how much Solar power you can store in batteries. That or the cost of the battery banks are so cost prohibitive that it doesn't even make sense to buy them.

Here is the reality of the situation. You WILL still have an electric bill. You WILL have a Solar Panel system payment on top of your electric bill. You WILL NOT be able to get a Solar Panel / Battery setup that supports 100% of your power consumption. The Electric company WILL screw you (Penny's on the Dollar per KW) on the Solar power you produce which is fed back into the grid. You WILL dramatically increase your long term financial risk when it comes to insuring, servicing, and replacing the Solar Panels when they do have issues. The only "Good" in this Solar situation is the warm and fuzzy feeling that you are using SOME renewable resources in the form of Solar produced electricity.

[Gman]

How does one "renew" the sun?

[CHA-LEE]

The only way I can see Solar Panel / Battery bank setup making any kind of sense is if your home was out in the middle of nowhere and there wasn't a local power grid to tap into. Even then, you could run on generators for a loooooooooong time before you break even on the cost of a Solar Panel / Battery setup big enough to 100% support your power needs 24 hours a day.