Have you put in solar panels recently?

amother

Fri, Jul 29 2022, 10:31 am

We are considering this. DH works from home and our electric bills are over 500 dollars a month. We know the advertising for free panels cant be true.
If you recently put in panels in NY (not NYC) how much do you end up paying monthly? Do you have a company to recommend?

amother

Clear

Tue, Nov 15 2022, 11:05 am

So the way it works is that a company installs the solar panels for you, and then you sell the energy that was produced to the government or to large corporation that need to fill some kind of clean energy quota, either by yourself, or through a broker of sorts. The money you make from selling the energy goes at first to paying off the panels, and once those are paid off, you can apply them to your electric bill.

I wish I had understood all this beforehand. You are basically renting out your roof to the government for their energy production needs. It doesn’t change anything practically, it’s just good to know what you are getting yourself into.

You don’t personally benefit from the solar energy unless you switch over the wiring in your entire house to be solar enabled, which is extremely expensive. And nobody’s paying you for that Wink

Being that the energy isn’t used right away, you need a battery to store it. These batteries produce a lot of dirty electricity very close to your house. The inverter also need 5g to be able to send energy output information to the broker who sells it for you, so you need to be ok with that as well. All in all, not so clean.

amother

Bone

Tue, Nov 15 2022, 11:57 am

There's a difference if you own the panels and if your leasing them which doesn't really cost you. You do gain by lower bills but if you buy the system straight out then u fully gain from electric produced plus get checks in the mail based on what you produce. You also can get a tax deduction on your taxes . We have it and know pple that do that are gaining from it.

amother

Honeysuckle

Tue, Nov 15 2022, 12:18 pm

I did solar panels in lakewood. I did not pay anything for installation. We are very happy we did it. We have them for a few years.
We had an issue once with squirrels making a nest on the roof under panels. They chewed on some of the wiring. I called company and they took care of it.
We pay $85/month to solar panel company. Most month we don't pay anything extra to electric company (beside for $2.50 for the service charge). In the summer we'll sometimes go over our usual usage when using lots of A/C and get an electric bill.
I'm wondering why there are ppl that don't have solar panels. LOL

Of course I dk what will be 20 years from now but right now I can only think of advantages.
The only problem is if your roof is situated in the wrong direction.
[Also electric rates keep on going up, afaik our price of $85 is locked for a 25 yr lease.]

Chayalle

Tue, Nov 15 2022, 12:19 pm

amother Honeysuckle wrote:

I would appreciate it so much if you would PM me with more details (company you used, etc...)

amother

Ballota

Tue, Nov 15 2022, 12:49 pm

I had solar on my house in Jackson which I just sold (was on before I bought it...)
while we didnt have any issues with the roof and panels there are a few things to consider
- how old is your roof? it will cost a lot to remove and reinstall if you need to reroof
- are you planning on selling? some ppl didnt want to take over the contract
- not sure how other poster got her solar price locked in for 25 years. Ours increased by about 25 dollars a year so we were paying about 150 a month

Cmon be nice

Tue, Nov 15 2022, 1:36 pm

amother Ballota wrote:

FYI We're in the process of getting solar and one of the things they do is also put in a new roof

amother

Bluebonnet

Sun, Nov 20 2022, 10:49 am

One of the main reasons we did solar was cuz they redid ur roof for u! (Kamtech solar)
We also now switched from central to split units for ac and steam so we have no more gas bills! And it’s mostly covered by the solar! Bh it’s been great for us

amother

NeonBlue

Sun, Nov 20 2022, 7:51 pm

amother OP wrote:

Hi OP did you get solar panels yet?

amother

Honeysuckle

Sun, Nov 20 2022, 8:03 pm

amother Bluebonnet wrote:

Can you please explain the bolded? Very interested to find out more

amother

Melon

Tue, Nov 22 2022, 10:29 pm

Hi we are in Rockland and considering using SunPower, has anyone used them? They want 98 a month and it goes up 2.4% a yr. So no fixed rate. I'm wondering if my projected annual $1900 electricity bill will really increase to $3,921 in 25 yrs. Since they estimate that the cost WITH solar in 25 yrs will be $3,890, so just wondering how accurate this all is. Also really worried about roof repairs, we will be restricted to using their company? Wish I knew someone at least 10 yrs in to tell us how its going!

ETA: went online and read company reviews. Sounds like power output was not at all as promised, this companys customer service was terrible, hard to get a picture of accurate energy production as the app sending the data reports often has glitches. I wonder if people who are thrilled in the beginning are still thrilled five years in.