I have 2 homes both with solar and battery storage- NH and FL - not sure you save money... but being off grid you do control your expenses. and if you add things like tesla vehicle, lithium golf car.. (as I have done) you can add all of that extra savings into it. (I have no vehicle maintenance, oil changes, filters, belts, hoses.) and don't care what the gas costs at the pump. I have a 25 year warranty. (I probably have 25 years of life left on this body) for me it was worth all of the benefits going solar.
literally too many to list, below is the short list.
snow sheets off of the tempered glass roof. no power outages. no electric bill
FL sunshine state no brainer, no maintenance, free driving. (tesla vehicles ONLY need new tires) nope you don't use brake pads to stop)

and you're doing some good.. so they tell me .

PROTIP- may states are adding VPP (virtual power plants) states are required to have XX amount of VPP (folks with solar and battery) in NH which isn't the sunshine state-- my local power company cuts me a check for summer dip into battery in high demand times $1200.00. this is over and above no electric bill and REC credits. (and not to mention FED credits when both systems installed )

[CoachKandSportsguy]

Originally Posted by Dotneko

In MA, it was worth it. SRECs alone were over $15000 a year. Heating and electrical usage costs on our farm were over 10,000 a year. Feb historically costs is $2500 for the month.
We had 175 panels on the roof that cost $200,000. A 5 year payback. In Massachusetts!
I dont think FL has an SREC program or net metering though.

Forgot to add it was 175 panels and I forget the power...maybe 32kw? That doesnt sound right....

That's a small solar farm to power a ?? farm, which isn't quite the same as maybe 10 panels on a house roof. your original cost had some economies of scale, being on land rather than a roof, that is a commercial investment and not quite a residential scenario.

Another way that used to be available, though not sure it is still available, is to buy a portion of a solar farm development and receive a portion of the revenue generated to offset your current electric bill.

The point is that the size of a residential roof doesn't generate enough during the day to make the net metering profitable. Put a small solar farm on the land with a sun tracking array, and you have more generation for a shorter payback.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy

That's a small solar farm to power a ?? farm, which isn't quite the same as maybe 10 panels on a house roof. your original cost had some economies of scale, being on land rather than a roof, that is a commercial investment and not quite a residential scenario.

Another way that used to be available, though not sure it is still available, is to buy a portion of a solar farm development and receive a portion of the revenue generated to offset your current electric bill.

The point is that the size of a residential roof doesn't generate enough during the day to make the net metering profitable. Put a small solar farm on the land with a sun tracking array, and you have more generation for a shorter payback.

Guess I should ask the ARC if I could put a small solar farm in my backyard and if really daring front yard as well.

[Brad-tv]

Originally Posted by DAIII

I have 2 homes both with solar and battery storage- NH and FL - not sure you save money... but being off grid you do control your expenses. and if you add things like tesla vehicle, lithium golf car.. (as I have done) you can add all of that extra savings into it. (I have no vehicle maintenance, oil changes, filters, belts, hoses.) and don't care what the gas costs at the pump. I have a 25 year warranty. (I probably have 25 years of life left on this body) for me it was worth all of the benefits going solar.
literally too many to list, below is the short list.
snow sheets off of the tempered glass roof. no power outages. no electric bill
FL sunshine state no brainer, no maintenance, free driving. (tesla vehicles ONLY need new tires) nope you don't use brake pads to stop)

and you're doing some good.. so they tell me .

PROTIP- may states are adding VPP (virtual power plants) states are required to have XX amount of VPP (folks with solar and battery) in NH which isn't the sunshine state-- my local power company cuts me a check for summer dip into battery in high demand times $1200.00. this is over and above no electric bill and REC credits. (and not to mention FED credits when both systems installed )

That’s great!!
Did you use Tesla solar? How many power walls?

I received a quote from Tesla roof tiles with 3 power walls and it was interesting to say the least.

in FL - its all TESLA ! 1 power wall.
in NH - it's Sunpower/Sonnen battery (tesla doesn't go far in the mtns of NH)

both 16kwh

in the villages my home is mostly natural gas 1 power wall was sufficient.

[Brad-tv]

Originally Posted by DAIII

in FL - its all TESLA ! 1 power wall.
in NH - it's Sunpower/Sonnen battery (tesla doesn't go far in the mtns of NH)

both 16kwh

in the villages my home is mostly natural gas 1 power wall was sufficient.

Did you go with panels or tiles?

[villagetinker]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

Guess I should ask the ARC if I could put a small solar farm in my backyard and if really daring front yard as well.

IMHO, I would not expect ARC approval for a ground level solar panel array, you can get approval for roof mounted arrays. Let us know what you find out.

Panels in both places- in the Villages no ARC needed for panels.. I dont think solar tiles will work as the villages has a strict shingles rule. and no to solar farms in a development such as the villages.

Hope this helps.

[PoolBrews]

In addition to the above, you need to factor in your power company. If you have a for profit company like Duke or Leesburg power, you get the same price for every kWh you generate as what you pay to consume - i.e. if it's $0.13/kWh, then you get credited $0.13/kWh, so you only need to generate as much as you consume.

If you have a coop, like SECO, they aren't bound by this law. In my case, they charge $0.11/kWh, but only give you $0.08/kWh - so you need to generate far more than you consume to cover this difference. In addition, it costs $1/day to be a "member", so your bill will always be ~$30/month regardless of what you do.

[sjbevan]

Originally Posted by Bay Kid

Looking for opinions on adding solar. Is it worth the money?

I was wondering the same thing. Sat through a few presentations but just more confused! Then I set up a second appointment with SOLAR SUN when my daughter came down to visit, figuring she could help explain anything I might miss.

This time they sent James Hall. VERY honest and informative!! I finally felt like I understood the advantages and disadvantages and all that would be involved. When he left he let me know it was a close call as to the advantages. Depending on whether I wanted to leave this home to my children and have the advantages for them down the road, or decline the installation because it was of little value to me and the near future.
AND I received a $100 VISA gift card for sitting thru the presentation!

(In addition if you refer someone that gets the solar panels installed, they receive some cash too.)

[blueash]

Originally Posted by Toymeister

... Maybe your son has demand based (time of day) billing where daytime electricity costs more, with sense he can tell his wife dry the clothes in the electric dryer after 7 so we can save 38.00 or whatever.

Please give me a thumbs up for this detailed reply.

Maybe your son is smart enough to not "tell his wife" when to dry the clothes. Maybe he's even able to operate a dryer on his own after 7 PM. Even if it is a household job she agrees to manage, perhaps she likes her evening free of running the dryer. So after running the program to find potential savings options, somehow TELLING your wife when to run the dryer smacks of a serious case of stupid if not outright misogyny. While I recognize you were picking a possible savings finding, your choice might reflect an unrecognized view of gender roles and authority that should have ended with Leave it to Beaver.

By the way..

In the .U.S., it costs approximately 45 cents to dry a load of laundry in an electric dryer, based on a 5,600-watt dryer, 40-minute run-time, and a 12-cent-per- kilowatt-hour rate

Please give me a thumbs up for this detailed reply? No, I don't need social media approval bonus points for my self-esteem

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by sjbevan

I was wondering the same thing. Sat through a few presentations but just more confused! Then I set up a second appointment with SOLAR SUN when my daughter came down to visit, figuring she could help explain anything I might miss.

This time they sent James Hall. VERY honest and informative!! I finally felt like I understood the advantages and disadvantages and all that would be involved. When he left he let me know it was a close call as to the advantages. Depending on whether I wanted to leave this home to my children and have the advantages for them down the road, or decline the installation because it was of little value to me and the near future.
AND I received a $100 VISA gift card for sitting thru the presentation!

(In addition if you refer someone that gets the solar panels installed, they receive some cash too.)

Just curious. When he calculated the payback period for the initial cost for the system, did he include the lost investment return of the initial cost, and what rate of return did he use? Most payback calculations include no investment value, which often results in an unrealistic payback period of about half of what it should be.

[Toymeister]

"On an average day, 22 percent of men reported doing housework—such as cleaning or doing laundry" U S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey: Charts by Topic: Household activities in the link are detailed breakouts on time spent by females/males on laundry. This is not a Leave it the Beaver standard, a figment of my imagination.

Blueash's post is a small example what is wrong with political correctness. The story is changed to fit the advocates political leanings but it simply does not change the facts. Facts are an inconvenient truth to political correctness, even in something as innocuous as solar power.

Facts are kryptonite to political correctness. When faced with solid facts advocates resort to insults and personal attacks. It is truly a sad when a discussion on solar energy becomes an advocate for changing gender roles sounding board, very sad indeed.

[Bay Kid]

After much study my son-in-law decided it wasn't worth the money. Thank goodness. He has a beautiful home and solar panels would have been sooooo ugly.

[justjim]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Search for other threads on this topic. In my opinion, it is not worth the money. The payback period for the upfront cost is way too long.

Spot on…