It’s interesting that homeowner’s insurance covers damage to the panels. I wouldn’t have guessed that. My folks have been considering it; in Oregon the power laws are even more favorable; if you produce more power than you consume in a month, you get credit toward next month’s bill. Makes it possible to pay your whole October or November bill with the extra produced over the summer. But I digress…
How much of your roof is covered by the panels? (In square feet, I mean, not as a percentage.) How long did the install take, and how did you select the contractor to do the work?
Very little in the way of subsidies in TX. There’s the federal tax rebate, of course. Besides that the state puts pressure on the utilities to produce from renewable sources and/or to give incentives to customers to produce from renewable sources. My utility offers a $1k incentive on solar. The state also requires utilities to offer net metering where you can send electricity into the grid, and later get it back at no charge. But you have to get it back within the same bill period (month) or you lose it. Works fine in the summer when usage is high, but not so good in the spring/fall when you tend to produce more than you use.
We use asphalt shingles here also. Good for 20-30 years. But it’s rare that a storm doesn’t get them before they wear out.
I wish they would do it the Oregon way here in TX. I don’t like the idea of having to give away electricity for free. My utility company gives nothing away for free, yet I have to.
The panels are 1640mm x 992mm and I have 20 of them. Total is 350 sq-ft.
Install took 2 days.
I found a site where you could get quotes from multiple installers. Of course I’ve never been able to find that site again! But I had 2 responses. As my utility co has low incentives I had to work on the price. One installer was hungrier than the other as they wanted an install in my area (they are located about an hour from me) and they lowered their price to where I was ok with it. Initial price was $3k more, so they lowered it quite a bit. The other installer would only meet my price by going to a single inverter rather than the 20x microinverters I wanted.
Power Purchase Agreement; basically a third party buys and owns the panels on your roof, and sells the power to you for cheap. It can be advantageous if you can’t afford to buy your own panels up front, but maybe Texas doesn’t have them?
Ok, that would be like Solar City where you buy power from them. I haven’t seen it here in TX. I think it mostly makes sense in areas with high electricity prices. We pay $0.11/kWh.