I am getting a quote to put a barrel new roof on my house with a 6.8 kw solar laminate system integrated into the roof. I currently have clay s tile. FPL may offer me up to $14,000 to pay for the solar and the fed govt. will give me a 30 percent credit and the contractor said I should average $126 a month in savings from my electrical bill. Has anyone done this and was your experience positive?
Solar energy
By mrcharlesecurry Follow Tue, 27 Mar 2012, 5:19pm 2,055 views 21 comments
In Miami FL 33175
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Solar incentives are simply Welfare for the Middle Class. SRECs, Federal Tax credits, State tax credits and state cash incentives to the installers are all paid for by your neighbor with higher taxes, higher power costs and more government. It's an absolute travesty. That said, I did it and have been enjoying the sunshine for a month (7.7kW array). My payback is calculated at 4.7 years and I'll be saving ~$165/mo off my energy bill. 19 cents per kWhr local rates pushed me to it.
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Miami, FL
Yes, if you win the lottery and get the rebate then your neighbors are paying for it but Fpl wants to build more nuke plants going solar might help to alleviate the need for the nuke plants. Is your solar working as wells as you thought or as well as it was advertised?
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It is MUCH better than advertised but it has been a gorgeous weather month. Today's peak production was 6.89kW (but I have chimmney shadow during the winter and spring). 48.6kWhr just today and 716kWhr since March 1st. Find a Great installer. If I had one piece of advice, it would be to go with micro-inverters (Enphase) especially if you have any shade up there.
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Miami, FL
Did you go with solar laminate? The contractor was talking laminate.
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Do lots of research. I'd recommend www.solarpaneltalk.com where some truly gruff but grounded authorities hang out. Searching on laminate there yielded alot of caution. My panels are Sanyo HIT220N's; established company manufacturing in the US (among other places).
Since this is a Real Estate forum and I have made the Solar 'investment', what do folks think panels will do to the value of the house? My place is a long term keeper but my kids might be interested for when I kick.
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Miami, FL
The brand he would install is unisolar. Thanks for the link.
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Pleasanton, CA
We put on ten 235Watt monocrystalline Solon brand panels with 10 roof rack mounted Enphase m215 microinverters last August. Faces SSW (243 degrees) and the local power company (PG&E) has a time of use net metering in the summer where they buy it at peak rates and I can buy back at off peak rates.
The system was designed to produce ~70-80% of the electricity we use, but >100% of the electrical bill.
System supplied more than we used until the first week in October and started going net positive on sunny days (today its raining) in early March. Thats electrical consumption not $ consumption, $ being at a 2.8 multiple.
I agree with Seymour, if you have any shade, go with Enphase. I also have a neighbor's chimney shadow that sweeps across a section of roof in the afternoon and I can watch one panel at a time blink off, then back on as it moves across. With the microinverters you can monitor each panels production, unlike a whole string with conventional inverters.
Having looked at laminate, they are less expensive per kW and require more surface area. I had limited space facing the best direction for TOU billing, so went with a smaller number of higher efficiency panels.
The system output is here:
https://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/public/systems/9ZSy26911
You can see even on the worst rainy day the system produces ~ 2kWh per day, and should peak out above 15 kWh a day. We consume 9-12 kWh a day (its hard to drop that much more with 24/7 computing systems)
After tax credits, state of California and utility incentives, it should pay for itself in a
total of 7 years, assuming utility rates stay flat, faster if they climb.
I suggest you should spend $300 right now and get a couple of The Energy Detective (TED) circuit breaker panel monitors and determine your electrical consumption, thats the best $ spent first. Figure out what you consume, what devices and when.
For the dear wife and I, the house produces energy in the day and we consume energy at night, almost picture perfect of time of use metering. Sell at $0.29 kwh, buy it back at $0.11 a kwh, hard to find a guaranteed 2.8 multiple these days.
The system is working better than designed as I was very conservative in the assumptions, and I've had a _very_ positive experience. I would do it again, and I would use the Solar Universe installers again, although I really wanted to be up on the roof pulling wires and racking the panels myself.
I may add another 7 panels with batteries and switching inverter before the end of the 2016 tax credit to create a grid independent system, for when the zombie apocalypse makes a grid-tied system useless.
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Miami, FL
Do you need an electrician to install the Ted devices?
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Pleasanton, CA
mrcharlesecurry says
Nope, check out their instructional videos, if you are comfortable with basic electrical work, you can add these to inside the electrical panel.
http://www.theenergydetective.com/
An electrician could do it in 10 minutes, it took me 20 minutes.
Good advice from an electrician friend: when working inside a live panel, pretend one arm doesn't work, so if you do short it doesnt go arm to arm across the heart.
I have a 2nd breaker on an outside wall where the mast and meter meet the house, and could make the whole inside panel cold, so the install was easy peasy lemon squeezy.
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I went solar/wind a few years ago I got a solar/wind clothes dryer. The wind power even works at night, if the wind is blowing at night. Doesn't work during rain though. Cheapest kilowatts I never spent.
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Pleasanton, CA
B.A.C.A.H. says
had one of those for a long time myself, the best ROI for string and wood clips ever spent
bacah's point being a good one, dont over think the technology, simplify first
insulation, windows, doors, drafts, behavior, etc., all being better ROI on a solar PV array's costs every time
unclogging your lint infested dyer vent line is probably the easiest way to reduce your clothing dying costs, NOT looking at PV solar for a techno solution
after minimizing consumption with behavior or simple solutions, _if_ PV makes sense the economics will be clearer
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NorCalBear says
Yes... Common sense ...
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Miami, FL
Real estate studies have found that, by reducing electricity costs, solar increases a home’s value. According to the Appraisal Journal, for every $1000 saved in annual energy costs, $20,000 is added to the value of the home. Other home improvements, like kitchen and bathroom renovations and decks, are only worth about 75-100% of the cost, making solar 20 times more valuable than other home improvements.
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Miami, FL
Equivalent Environmental Benefits of a 5 kW Solar System
3,030 Trees planted
22 Cars taken off the road
41 Tons of waste recycled instead of landfilled
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Miami, FL
As a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) reduces the cost of your system by 30%. This tax credit was extended through 2016 for all qualifying residential and commercial solar systems.
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Santa Cruz, CA
No one asked you the most important question: Where do you live?
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Miami, FL
Miami, fl. I think our electric rates are low about 12 cents per kilowatt.
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mrcharlesecurry says
could be, in Miami. Not here though. Here, what determines the value of the home is the location. Location will trump solar on the roof, everytime. Anyone can put a solar onto the roof of the home they purchase, but they cannot put a new location.
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If there are two nearly identical homes in nearly the identical location, the solar home is worth more.
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San Diego, CA
mrcharlesecurry says
I would buy the one on top. I'm guessing solar would be more effective on that house as well.
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mrcharlesecurry says
In Miami perhaps.
Not here.
Homes are so expensive here, and here it is all about location. Folks get the best location they can afford. It means they cannot afford more for that gizmo on the roof. Besides, life is good enough here without air conditioning.