house with solar

Solar electric? Solar water heating? If electric, how many panels? Is there a charging system or does it feed right to the panel? Age of the system?

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
The pictures show most of one roof surface full of panels. Thise questions will help me get started. Also wondering about who owns what, maintenance, life span, what will need to be repaired on the normal course of things. etc. Size an age of inverter(s). What else? Are there any gotcha's?
 
Mine is a feedback to the grid with net metering. I don't have any batteries. If I generate more than I use it goes to the grid and I get a credit. When I use more than I generate I use the credits. The credits are direct kwh for kwh.

I get a bill every month but I either owe 0 dollars or I earned credits. In winter I use up the credits I earned. About march or april I break even, then generation also ramps up and I start banking again.
 
Different country - different legal system. Big caveat. But.

When these kind of systems first got popular here in the UK there were some operators who effectively bound people into a kind of reverse leasing. So rather than them providing a system and you defraying the cost over time , you provided a roof and effectively gave them a lease to use it for their panels. All kinds of pain in that scenario. Avoid anything like it. Will cause problems with house financing among other things.

If it is the other way round everything depends on the age of the system and the terms of the lease.
 
So I've found it is a leased system. But I do not yet know the terms of the lease.

Carol, call your local utility. They have a person there who has that sort of information, at least the one I used to work for did. They can also give you the unit's power usage over time, monthly averages, how much you supplied the grid, etc.
 
When I was looking into solar I reviewed the differences between a lease and a purchase.

With the lease you do not own the system. The lease, (say Solar City) owns the system and you purchase electricity from the lease company.

What I found was that the lease company was making a TON of money in credits and also making money on the electricity generated. To me - they should GIVE you the electricity free of charge.

1) They are using YOUR roof. RENT FREE
2) They get 4-5 credits just for being a generator of green energy.
3) They charge you for electricity being generated on YOUR roof.

I decided to BUY, my system - not lease.

1) I own it
2) I got the 30% Federal tax credit
3) I got the $1000 Mass Tax Credit
4) I get the SRECS for 10 years
5) The SRECS pay out 4 times per year. I just got my 4-th check this year, it was for $850 These checks are varying between 500-900 so far.
6) NOW - when I generate electricity it is MINE. I use what I need and the rest goes into the grid. I get a credit on my bill and when I use more than I generate I use the credits.
7) My electric bill is ZERO

Based on the math in #2, #3, #4&5 -- there IS a payback. This does not even include the FREE electricity monthly cost

Over 10 years with a conservative SREC the savings and credits add up to $31500 on my $35,000 solar system. Add in the saved money with FREE electricity of about 12000 conservatively - that is $43,500 putting me at a profit of $8500 over 10 years. In reality - it is better than that.

After 10 years I continue getting FREE electricity.

The company I bought my system from said that a LOT of their customers are Doctors, Engineers and Scientists. All very analytical people.

Personally, I would not buy a house with a leased system on it. Rather, I would buy a house with no system and finance a little more to add on a system. But, that's just my opinion. That plus $5.00 can get you a decent cup of coffee.
 
Gonna go with a LEASE?

Nah, he's gonna just run an extension cord from the neighbor's house. :D

Thanks for the numbers breakdown, Leo. Enlightening stuff. I could see the payoff being even better for folks like me in the high desert with lots of sunshine and a mile less of atmosphere.
 
Top