Anyone here have solar panels on their house?

[CTyankee]

I'm wondering a few things: does making an investment into these panels pay off when you sell your house and does it make sense for an elderly couple like us to make that investment at this point in our lives?

Looing forward to your input....

and thanks...

[SHRED]

1. I'm wondering this also

My electricity rate starts at 27 cents per KWh.
It then is 3 tiered to the 40 and 50 cent range depending on use.
Everyone makes it into the second tier just about.

[cyclonefence]

2. We had panels installed about ten years ago

and it's been great. There were state (PA) and federal rebate and tax credit programs for them, so we ended up paying about 40% of the cost. The law here says that PECO has to buy our excess output at the rate they sell their kilowatts, so we are signed up with a seller (it's like companies selling carbon credits) and get a big fat check every few months. Our electric bill is about a third of what it was (there's no storage battery, so we can't get all our power from our panels). We are 71. I think you should look into it, at least. I don't know what kind of incentive programs are around now, but I think the cost of the panels has fallen drastically. We have 18 panels on our roof; it cost (before rebates etc) about $40,000. They paid for themselves in seven years.

I don't know about impact on resale of the house.

[Meadowoak]

3. The local electric company where I live has another option, the have a solar farm

And you can lease the panels for $460 each (25 years) they meter each panel and deduct that energy from your bill. They maintain the panels and replace them free of charge if needed. If you move, they transfer to the new address. And they will buy them back if your situation changes. I'm getting ready to lease 10 panels, that should more than power my house. And for $4600 to not get an electric bill for the next 25 years is a bargain. Check with your local power company and see if they offer a similar deal.

[FSogol]

5. Thanks for saving me from typing that. They're been doing that in our area & it seems popular.

I'll give it a try after i replace the roof.

[Kaleva]

7. My local utility charges more for green energy

"
Why does renewable energy cost more?
Renewable energy facilities are currently more costly to build and operate. Wind and biomass – the “fuels” for these facilities – are free, but the equipment and maintenance cost more per unit of electricity than conventional power plants. The cost of renewable energy is decreasing. Wind energy, for example, has fallen dramatically in recent years, from about 38 cents per kilowatt-hour in the early 1980’s to about 7 cents per kilowatt-hour today. That’s still more expensive than the electricity from conventional energy sources. The cost of wind and other renewable energy will likely decrease over time as developers build more projects to meet rising demand.


Back to Top

Where does my money go?
Your UPPCO Green payments are used to purchase the more expensive renewable energy and to cover the administrative costs of providing the program."

https://www.uppco.com/our-company/helping-the-environment/renewable-energy/uppco-green/green-faq/#Question9

[BBG]

4. Depends

We installed a system in early ‘14 and to date have generated less than $4k in electricity at avg retail rates of $0.11/kWh here in Seattle. System costs were ~$27k and we took a 30% federal tax credit. And are drawing a state run sustainable energy rebate thru 2020. We should break even around 2022.
So we produce about half our consumption offsetting about $800/year in electricity costs. I doubt it will mean much when we sell but then if we were to add a Tesla Powerwall battery and have some power outage redundancy it should.
We did it mainly as a green, sustainable thing to do. Of course a less than 10 year payback helped rationalize it too.
Site details:
22 panels
4.4 kw inverter
Seattle 1916 Bungalow

[Pachamama]

6. When we built our house ten years ago, we installed SUNPOWER panels on our house and purchased them

They have been great and we basically pay nothing for energy. Even the electrical credit we earn on unused electricity pays for the natural gas we use.

But if we were looking at the same thing now and looking at Solar, we would go to a company like Sunrun and have them essentially "lease" our roof space for the panels to us and benefit us the green energy and low bills. I don't exactly understand their model, but in talking to people who have used them, it works out better.

For us when we got the solar panels, it was about doing the right thing. We didn't do it to "break even" or anything like that. And the value of the house as being solar was big too.