[retiredguy123]

If I really thought that global warming was an existential threat to the planet, I wouldn't even use electricity at all. But, some of the loudest voices promoting things like solar power, come from people who own multiple houses and fly around the world in private jets. The hypocrisy is laughable. The people who sell solar panels to Villagers are scammers. I would suggest that, if you discuss a solar system with a contractor, the first thing you should do is to ask them if you can visit their house and inspect their solar panels.

[Kiminmiss]

Anyone considering the use of solar power really should look at their current history of kWh usage. kWh is kilo-Watt hours and represents just how much power your home consumes in order to live your daily life. Various sites which promote and sell solar power technology advertise that the average US home uses about 900 kWh / month. Personally, at my house we average a little over 3,000 kWh / month.

[rphil11ort]

Problem is when you go to sell your house the buyer won't be willing to take on the debt and you will be forced to pay it off.
QUOTE=zendog3;1977910]Thank you for buying your electricity from me.

On sunny days like today, my solar house makes more electricity than I need to cool it. So the electricity company buys my excess electricity and resells it to you.

I have no great-grandchildren yet, but if I did, they would thank you too because they will have to live on the planet we leave to them. If you have children and grandchildren, you might think of converting to solar. It costs almost nothing as the bill on the solar loan is about the same as the bill to the electric company would be. And every month, the solar company sends a report showing how many tons of carbon my house has offset.

If humanity is to thrive, we will have to defeat global temperature rise, and we Floridians have a unique opportunity to make a significant impact with minimum sacrifice.

If someone from The Villages LLC reads this, I hope they will consider making solar an option for all new construction – residential and commercial.[/QUOTE]

[rphil11ort]

Even Kerry admittedthat if we totally eliminated our carbon foot print it wouldn't change anything. Time for the rest of the world to step up.

Originally Posted by GoPacers

You are absolutely correct. The planet will get along just fine after you leave. The question is whether humans will survive. Humans have been on the planet for VERY small fraction of the planet's history.

[nick demis]

Originally Posted by JMintzer

Not a denier, but a realist...

Solar Panels are not without their own problems...

Giant desert solar farms might have unintended climate consequences | Greenbiz

Are you comparing a residential or small commercial array of a few panels to a giant system of thousands of panels? I had 160 panels on my property in Massachusetts and I doubt it had any impact on the climate but did save us a lot of $.

[nick demis]

Originally Posted by Kiminmiss

Anyone considering the use of solar power really should look at their current history of kWh usage. kWh is kilo-Watt hours and represents just how much power your home consumes in order to live your daily life. Various sites which promote and sell solar power technology advertise that the average US home uses about 900 kWh / day. Personally, at my house we average a little over 3,000 kWh / day.

The systems are designed in accordance to your usage or expected usage. We eliminated our oil usage for heat and hot water by customizing our design and saved over $3000. per year over the last 10 years before we sold and that was with a 0 down lease. I can't wait till I get a system installed here.

[tuccillo]

Doubtful. My power usage varies from 25 to 50 kWhs per day. It is highest in the summer and lowest in the spring and fall because of varying HVAC usage. The average residential usage in the US is about 29 kWhs per day.

Originally Posted by Kiminmiss

Anyone considering the use of solar power really should look at their current history of kWh usage. kWh is kilo-Watt hours and represents just how much power your home consumes in order to live your daily life. Various sites which promote and sell solar power technology advertise that the average US home uses about 900 kWh / day. Personally, at my house we average a little over 3,000 kWh / day.

[bluecenturian]

I would like to see your energy bill or in your case, your reimbursement check.

We had neighbors up north who had panels put up for FREE to run their house. After a year of nit coming close they called an independent inspector who said an average home requires 4500-5000 kWh of electricity for a year.

He advised that even in Texas, which is the ideal spot for solar you could not run an entire modern home on solar alone. You would need battery backup to store the energy for days you don’t have sun.

The neighbors eventually went to sell their house and found out there was a $49,000 lean on their home by the solar installer. Although you don’t pay anything for the panels the fine print has a 50 year lease in the contract. You are in effect leasing your roof space to them. They couldn’t sell the house without taking a loan to pay off the “FREE” panels.

All sounds like a great idea but I would be very careful and have an independent inspector evaluate your home first and have a lawyer read the contract over.

[Bay Kid]

What is the fluid inside these panels? What happens to the fluid at the end of life?

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by bluecenturian

I would like to see your energy bill or in your case, your reimbursement check.

We had neighbors up north who had panels put up for FREE to run their house. After a year of nit coming close they called an independent inspector who said an average home requires 4500-5000 kWh of electricity for a year.

He advised that even in Texas, which is the ideal spot for solar you could not run an entire modern home on solar alone. You would need battery backup to store the energy for days you don’t have sun.

The neighbors eventually went to sell their house and found out there was a $49,000 lean on their home by the solar installer. Although you don’t pay anything for the panels the fine print has a 50 year lease in the contract. You are in effect leasing your roof space to them. They couldn’t sell the house without taking a loan to pay off the “FREE” panels.

All sounds like a great idea but I would be very careful and have an independent inspector evaluate your home first and have a lawyer read the contract over.

I don't think they needed a lawyer to tell them that the panels were not free. They should have read the contract.

[1couple]

Originally Posted by zendog3

Thank you for buying your electricity from me.

On sunny days like today, my solar house makes more electricity than I need to cool it. So the electricity company buys my excess electricity and resells it to you.

I have no great-grandchildren yet, but if I did, they would thank you too because they will have to live on the planet we leave to them. If you have children and grandchildren, you might think of converting to solar. It costs almost nothing as the bill on the solar loan is about the same as the bill to the electric company would be. And every month, the solar company sends a report showing how many tons of carbon my house has offset.

If humanity is to thrive, we will have to defeat global temperature rise, and we Floridians have a unique opportunity to make a significant impact with minimum sacrifice.

If someone from The Villages LLC reads this, I hope they will consider making solar an option for all new construction – residential and commercial.

you must have a lot better system than me my electric bill went from 235$ a month to 185$ it doesn’t even pay for it’s own payment let alone the cost of the maintenance to replace the battery

[tuccillo]

You can buy the system outright or lease. Choose carefully.

Regarding average residential power usage in the US, it is more like 10,000 kWhs per year but does vary by almost a factor of 2 from the lowest state to the highest state.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Originally Posted by bluecenturian

I would like to see your energy bill or in your case, your reimbursement check.

We had neighbors up north who had panels put up for FREE to run their house. After a year of nit coming close they called an independent inspector who said an average home requires 4500-5000 kWh of electricity for a year.

He advised that even in Texas, which is the ideal spot for solar you could not run an entire modern home on solar alone. You would need battery backup to store the energy for days you don’t have sun.

The neighbors eventually went to sell their house and found out there was a $49,000 lean on their home by the solar installer. Although you don’t pay anything for the panels the fine print has a 50 year lease in the contract. You are in effect leasing your roof space to them. They couldn’t sell the house without taking a loan to pay off the “FREE” panels.

All sounds like a great idea but I would be very careful and have an independent inspector evaluate your home first and have a lawyer read the contract over.

[Raywatkins]

We looked at solar as we have it on our main home in the UK.
We thought it had to be a great option given all that sunshine in Florida.
But the scheme in the UK was different and we could not make it work on our home in The Villages. The main reason for us was that we could not benefit from the tax breaks.
If we had the tax breaks it did cost in. In the UK the government pay us for each unit we produce even if we use it ourselves. The rate per unit is very generous. We also get half of all units paid an extra fee on the assumption we feed it back onto the grid. We had to fully fund the initial installation in the UK. Our returns over the first 8 years even allowing for growth on our investments and other factors, was passed break even.

So with that in mind we thought about it for the US house for a while and the issue that finally swung us away from it was the potential structural issues.

[richs631]

Originally Posted by zendog3

Thank you for buying your electricity from me.

On sunny days like today, my solar house makes more electricity than I need to cool it. So the electricity company buys my excess electricity and resells it to you.

I have no great-grandchildren yet, but if I did, they would thank you too because they will have to live on the planet we leave to them. If you have children and grandchildren, you might think of converting to solar. It costs almost nothing as the bill on the solar loan is about the same as the bill to the electric company would be. And every month, the solar company sends a report showing how many tons of carbon my house has offset.

If humanity is to thrive, we will have to defeat global temperature rise, and we Floridians have a unique opportunity to make a significant impact with minimum sacrifice.

If someone from The Villages LLC reads this, I hope they will consider making solar an option for all new construction – residential and commercial.

The return on investment is just too long. Approximately 8 years and that’s assuming everything goes according to plan which it rarely does

[J1ceasar]

Glad you had the extra money to put on solar but we did the numbers and even in sunny Florida it really doesn't pay until you're 20 years out and there's a big inflation. Plus of course there's the problem of when you have to replace your roof and take it off and put it back. Don't forget it cost a lot of pollution to mine the minerals as well as create the factory to make the solar roofs. And of course you're giving you money to the Chinese today because very few solar roofs are made in the USA. But as long as you're happy that's great. I have to say if it was truly efficient and cost-effective you'd be seeing a lot more people with solar roofs