Solar panels (purchase, tax credit, bill)

[d from birmingham]

hahahahahaa everyone should read this stuff and see how nuts a lot of these people are. the amazing thing is that its the wackos that are controlling where your tax dollars are wasted.

You mean like the billions sent to oil companies each year? The oil companies that are making record profits? These same oil companies that avoid paying taxes.

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by d from birmingham

You mean like the billions sent to oil companies each year? The oil companies that are making record profits? These same oil companies that avoid paying taxes.

look!! its another one!!!

[ice_mike1234]

Bump. What are your experiences? Anyone using Solar for outages(off grid)? Debating solar + battery or natural gas generator.

Curious how people feel about their investment that own it currently?

[Airborneguy]

Originally Posted by PDD

Nothing can screw up the looks of a beautiful home more than those ugly solar panels on your front roof. If you live across the street from me it means I have to look at the mess while you are saving money on elect. They do make nice targets for plinking so keep that in mind if you want to f**K up the looks of your neighborhood.
The better upscale neighborhoods should have rules that do not allow those panels to be seen from the street.

People who shoot at my house make great targets as well.

[Airborneguy]

Any current posters have experience with solar in NJ? It seems that my home is perfectly positioned for maximum solar panel output, so I am considering it. I have not spoken to any companies yet as I hate salesmen.

[HudsonCoNJ]

Don’t do it. You keep talking about moving. I hear it’s a pain to sell a house with solar panels, especially when the lease is still in place.

[Airborneguy]

Originally Posted by HudsonCoNJ

Don’t do it. You keep talking about moving. I hear it’s a pain to sell a house with solar panels, especially when the lease is still in place.

If I do it, I’m definitely going to purchase them outright. Besides the ball and chain a lease creates, it seems to be the fastest way to recoup the initial outlay.

With the EV, my monthly bill will rise enough to make this a serious consideration. If I can produce $250+ per month in energy, get the tax credit, and sell the market credits, I’ll come out on top before we move, which isn’t definite anyway.

[Retriever]

Originally Posted by Airborneguy

Any current posters have experience with solar in NJ? It seems that my home is perfectly positioned for maximum solar panel output, so I am considering it. I have not spoken to any companies yet as I hate salesmen.

After ignoring a bunch of overly-aggressive solar salesmen who claimed that my home was properly positioned for panels, I got in touch with a former student who was working for a solar panel company. Because she was always a person of high integrity,
I was confident that I could trust her opinion, and she quickly came to the conclusion that the positioning of my home would result in an very large number of years before the price of the panels could be amortized, and she recommended that I NOT install solar panels.

I was initially skeptical of the claims made by all of the other salesmen, and her recommendation confirmed for me that my skepticism was warranted.

Caveat emptor!

[GiantRutgersfan]

I looked into it heavily. Math was 15 TRECs per year at $94, plus $200 average savings on my monthly electric. So $3810 in estimated benefits per year, with a system cost of $30,400. 8 year break even point for the panels. I would need a new roof before doing solar, so it would be more like a 10 year break even point overall.

The front of my house is south facing, so that’s where I would have to put the panels. The Tesla solar roof is very attractive, but still expensive. I can get another 5 years out of my roof. If the “solar roof” comes down in price a bit by the time I need to replace the roof, that’s the route I will take. If not I will likely do panels.

[peoj]

Originally Posted by GiantRutgersfan

I looked into it heavily. Math was 15 TRECs per year at $94, plus $200 average savings on my monthly electric. So $3810 in estimated benefits per year, with a system cost of $30,400. 8 year break even point for the panels. I would need a new roof before doing solar, so it would be more like a 10 year break even point overall.

The front of my house is south facing, so that’s where I would have to put the panels. The Tesla solar roof is very attractive, but still expensive. I can get another 5 years out of my roof. If the “solar roof” comes down in price a bit by the time I need to replace the roof, that’s the route I will take. If not I will likely do panels.

What is the breakdown between materials and labor? I've been hearing for years that price of solar is going down but somehow the total cost doesn't seem to change.