No holes in my roof
 

I don't want any holes in my roof. More places to leak & if get a minor hurricane they go flying like a kite

I suspect just the opposite is true. If solar panels went flying like a kite then it would make the news and would hurt solar panel sales. I don't remember hearing anything about that in the news. Are there homes in the Villages with solar panels? How did they make out?

My guess is the panels are designed and installed to handle a stronger hurricane than we will ever see here. If anything, they help protect the roof.

(A "guess" only because all the information I can find seems to be from the solar industry so I'm not too quick to trust it)

I don't think I've heard of anything sold door to door that makes financial sense.

What about the Encyclopedia Britannica books?

It's true that solar sales are totally unregulated. It's like the Wild, Wild West.

Did they glue the shingles to your roof?

There is simply no reason in the Villages to put solar panels on your house. My opinion:

1. You are old. You won't live long enough to recoup the cost
2. You are old. Why would you want this hassle?
3. Your roof will someday be old. And you will have to mess with this on top of it to replace it.
4. Your old insurance company. Why would they want to insure your roof with this on your roof? Sure, they are OK now, but their policies change like the wind that will rip the panels off.
5. Panels and their electronics get old. And they will need to be fixed/replaced.
6. Regulations/incentives get old. And they might get changed by new government folks to reduce the value of solar energy returns.

Bottom line: Electric prices are reasonable in the Villages. Cut back on your cable package and put up an antenna is you want to save money. Buy a used Toyota vs a new Lexus. Eat in more, eat out less. Solar is a PITA way to try and possibly save money.

Or...

If solar panels are such a good deal, why doesn't the electric company just lease our roofs?

They are busy managing all the solar farms they have already built - because they are such a good idea.

Installing solar on your roof for the sole purpose of selling back to the utility is a bad idea. The whole idea for this came from some smaller solar companies realizing that they can trick homeowners into this where the local utility will pay them for the electricity and then the solar company in turn pays the homeowner pennies on the dollar.

There's a podcast about this that explains the topic in detail:

Why prices for rooftop solar might be higher than they should be : Planet Money : NPR

Thank You
 

Thanks for the heads up

The warranty is only as good as the company putting them up
 

Unfortunately most of the companies that install go out of business after 2 or 3 years and those that don't may take 6 months or 12 months to act to get around to fixing your problems

Where we moved from in Virginia, many of my neighbors were getting solar panels on their roofs. These were the ones that fed excess power back to the electric company and wound your meter backwards (my description). I spoke with one of my neighbors who had this done. He reported that there was a $5.00 monthly charge for this service and many months that was the only charge on his electric bill. Your roof had to be relatively new for the panels to be installed. We needed our roof replaced and a friend of a friend did it for us. He said most of his business now was replacing roofs prior to solar install but he worked us in because he knew us.

Plenty of news report out of Orlando of panel companies leaky damaged roofs.. also was some sub contracting involved some didn’t even finish job and when the did didn’t work. I would make sure do good research before hiring any company out or town especially out of state. Neighbor close has them I guess they are working? At his age he will probably be gone before he breaks even? My son has them in Illinois they work for him, mainly the both work from day light to almost dark so no power being used during day. Time will tell if they still working and he recoups his investment? So, far pays very little electricity bill in Illinois and that’s saying something in that heavily taxed state.

Tinker.....Solar panels do not make financial sense anywhere in the country, not just here in Florida. Not to mention the panels look unsightly and deface the home. I would not want holes in my roof for the installation of the panels. The panels are a lose lose situation from my POV.