[tmullens]

Dear Villagers,
Do solar panels significantly supplement electricity use on air conditioning and/or pools to pay for themselves in a reasonable time frame? If so, how is this done (e.g. selling electricity back to the Utility Company) and which companies selling this technology in The Villages are reputable?
Theresa Mullens

[villagetinker]

Back up North, I was involved with all aspects of customer generation, and specifically Solar PV systems, for over 30 years. I am still on the national standards committees with IEEE and UL on these systems. Now for the bad news, Florida is a bad location to install these, if you want to at least break even. The "sunshine" state has no programs to support customer owned Solar systems. California, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey just to name a few have all figured out how this works. All of these states have deregulated the utility industry and established programs for customer owned generation.

As I understand it from the SECO webpage (I am a SECO customer), the best you can do is new metering. If your system generates 10kW, but you use only 8 kW you get a credit of 2 kW for the next day. I do not recall the details if you have a net credit at the end of a month or year, but I did not recall a payment for the excess electricity.

So bottom line is this, take your yearly electric bill, it will also have the amount of power used. Have your installer estimate the size of the system and cost, then look at how much you will save based on the proposed size.
In general, costs of these systems have been coming down, but I doubt that you will break even unless there is some from of subsidy. I believe the Federal subsidy ran out the end of 2014, and I do not think Florida ever had one.

Please do some additional research, and I will be glad to further discuss with you, just drop me a PM.

[jimbo2012]

Fl is not the best state for incentives I agree.

But it is nice to reduce your carbon foot print and go green

The Investment Tax Credit (“ITC”) is a 30 percent federal tax credit for solar systems on residential (under Section 25D) and commercial (under section 48) properties that, under current law, remains in effect through December 31, 2016.

also no sales tax --Florida Law exempts from sales and use tax solar energy systems and all components of such systems.

My guess is you need 3K -5K in PV panels.

cost about 3500 - $6000 for all components.

If you're handy you can install yourself, just let an electrician do the final connect.

If you hire a contractor not sure what they want for labor my guess is $4-5,000

I'm installing a 3K this fall, did a buch of research.

great site to lean more Solar Forum - Solar Energy Discussion Board on Solar Panels and Products

[graciegirl]

///

[jimbo2012]

I think the OP was asking solar electric

[rjm1cc]

My neighbor installed a larger system than recommended (he is an engineer and experienced in the field). Costs about $30,000. The system produces more electric than he uses. Will get back less than $500 for the first yr. He did not expect to cover his costs. I have been in discussions saying there is a 12 year payback but I think you should not expect a profit. Remember the roof will need replacement and probably the panels. Will your real estate taxes go up?

[villagetinker]

Originally Posted by jimbo2012

Fl is not the best state for incentives I agree.

But it is nice to reduce your carbon foot print and go green

The Investment Tax Credit (“ITC”) is a 30 percent federal tax credit for solar systems on residential (under Section 25D) and commercial (under section 48) properties that, under current law, remains in effect through December 31, 2016.

also no sales tax --Florida Law exempts from sales and use tax solar energy systems and all components of such systems.

My guess is you need 3K -5K in PV panels.

cost about 3500 - $6000 for all components.

If you're handy you can install yourself, just let an electrician do the final connect.

If you hire a contractor not sure what they want for labor my guess is $4-5,000

I'm installing a 3K this fall, did a buch of research.

great site to lean more Solar Forum - Solar Energy Discussion Board on Solar Panels and Products

Please, Please, Please do NOT install yourself. There are special bonding requirements, you will be working with high voltage DC, there are special wiring considerations related to the layout of the panels. There are specialized electrical components that must be installed correctly to avoid possible fire concerns. Then there are the physical installation considerations, the actual mounting hardware. I am relatively certain that you will run into lots of problems if you decide to make this a do it yourself job. Also, the entire installation will need be inspected, not just the electrical connection to the panel box. This is based on the assumption you will be installing a solar array of several kilowatts.
If you are looking at something much smaller based on the micro inverter design, you MIGHT be able to do it yourself, but please do not use extension cords, I do not want to read about you in the paper.

I hope this helps, and PM me if you would like to talk.

[jimbo2012]

It's really is not all that complex or dangerous.
It can't go live to grid until it's inspected.

I'm doing a 3,000 watt system

[biker1]

Thanks for your post. It appears that it continues to be hard to make a case for PV panels since the prices are continuing to drop. Also, we used 9700 kWhs last year and the payback period is likely out past 10 years. We may not be in the house 10 years from now and may not be able to recover the cost if the prices of panels continues to drop.

Originally Posted by villagetinker

Back up North, I was involved with all aspects of customer generation, and specifically Solar PV systems, for over 30 years. I am still on the national standards committees with IEEE and UL on these systems. Now for the bad news, Florida is a bad location to install these, if you want to at least break even. The "sunshine" state has no programs to support customer owned Solar systems. California, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey just to name a few have all figured out how this works. All of these states have deregulated the utility industry and established programs for customer owned generation.

As I understand it from the SECO webpage (I am a SECO customer), the best you can do is new metering. If your system generates 10kW, but you use only 8 kW you get a credit of 2 kW for the next day. I do not recall the details if you have a net credit at the end of a month or year, but I did not recall a payment for the excess electricity.

So bottom line is this, take your yearly electric bill, it will also have the amount of power used. Have your installer estimate the size of the system and cost, then look at how much you will save based on the proposed size.
In general, costs of these systems have been coming down, but I doubt that you will break even unless there is some from of subsidy. I believe the Federal subsidy ran out the end of 2014, and I do not think Florida ever had one.

Please do some additional research, and I will be glad to further discuss with you, just drop me a PM.