My average electric is under $100 in the current home, so I won’t be doing solar this time, but I was averaging close to $200 before solar in the last home. Also had electric hot water, dryer, oven, etc. A big long ranch and not well insulated. I mentioned that the state at the time also paid 70% of the cost of the panels and installation. That made the payback and decision pretty easy.
Geothermal is great for new construction, retrofitting one in though is very expensive and the chance of payback is very low. I had looked into this also.
Part of our conversion to solar was to plan to replace the gas furnace with a hybrid heat pump - furnace system, which we finally did two years ago. Unless the temperatures stray outside of the setpoint, the heat is electric and powered from the solar or drawn off of the banked power. The last we checked, our gas usage had dropped almost 40%.
This has caused us to use our banked power quicker, so we figure we’ll be eligible to add a few more panels, but we’re waiting until we are also powering an electric car charger. We’ll likely add to the panels after we see how our consumption has changed.
A friend of mine had them installed, but it was a deal where he paid for nothing and got a reduction on his bill each month. Installation, they pay. Hail storm, they pay. Tree falls on your roof, they pay. He took on no risk and has enjoyed a 35% reduction in his electric bill. If something like this is available in your area, this one is a no-brainer for me.
I have heard of such things. Sounds like a great deal, although my understanding is that it can be a hassle if you want to sell the house since the company has like a 20 year lease on your roof. But worth looking into.
35% might be wrong, that’s just the number that came to mind from a conversation a number of years ago.
But I have asked him periodically how his solar panel deal was working out for him, simply out of curiosity. He’s had nothing but positive things to say.
A neighbor had solar panels installed on his house about 5 years ago. The first couple years he bragged often about the money he was saving on his power bill. Year 3 saw the saving take a dip. He called the company that installed the panels. They asked if he was cleaning the panels twice a year as shown is the maintenance section of his instruction booklet. Because of his age, he is unable to clean the panels himself and had to hire someone to do it. That cost basically wiped out much of his savings. A tree branch took out some of the panels last fall, he had them all removed instead of replacing the damaged panels.
I would love to put solar panels onto my roof and have a large storage battery for using the extra generated power during evenings. To round out the power generation needs, I’d also add one or two wind generators.
The primary reason why is I’m an engineering geek, and it’s fun to design and use such systems. Reason number two, I would feel great generating my own power and doing my small part to slow the demise of our world. The financial considerations (savings on monthly power bills) come third.
Carefully examine financing plans the solar panel companies offer before taking them up on one. A friend was about to do this until finding in the fine print that the panels are actually owned by the finance company until paid off. I don’t know the proper term for this but they effectively have a lean on your house and you can’t transfer the property when you sell the house unless the new owners assume the same contract, and that will be the only way they can maintain warranties.
