For the environment a great idea. In most cases the payback on investment is never realized, the only person that benefits are the people selling the panels to you.

My electric bill never goes over 200$ with SECO. Most times below $120. It seems like it would take a really long time to recoup the cost. It is not popular if you have to resale your house.

solar power
 

Harbor Hills Area 11.5 kw solar system
 

My 2,000sq ft home used received 37kw from Seco and returned 32kw for a net usage of 5KW. I have a Bosch 20 seer HVAC 1-29-22 7am thru 1-30-22 7:30 am Done Right Electric Perry 303–8166

Great question. Google solar shingles! Although we don’t have them from reading the information they sound like a great investment for Florida considering both cost and longevity. Good luck.

At $100-140 +/- per month for utility bill, it didn't pencil out for us, and when buying we rejected houses with solar, concerned about roof issues.

The other issue with SECO is that SECO is a coop, and not governed by the same rules as Duke and others. A non-coop electric company must pay you the same rate for your electricity as they charge you. A coop is exempt, and SECO pays you about 85%-90% of what they charge you. None of these systems directly power your home - electricity must be sold back to your provider, and then they sell back to you. Even with Tesla, power goes to your provider, then Tesla has an option to store incoming power in a battery bank (called a Tesla Wall) to cover outages.

With SECO, you need to get enough banks to cover ~115% of the power you use - and even then you'll never get to zero. There is a $30/month member fee that never goes away.

I researched this heavily - going solar may make you feel good, but you'll never come close to paying it off.

One more important thing to take into account if you do purchase - all solar panels lose about 10% efficiency in their first year of use. They remain stable after that, but I guarantee the salesman won't mention that you'll only have 90% of what you paid for after year one.

Feathering the shingles is very simple and it does work. And no one sees beneath the solar panels so getting an "exact" color is not an issue.

Perhaps we should be talking about just plain "do the right thing" for society rather than "outliving" the system.

"Do the right thing" for society? Have you ever researched the amount of toxic waste the environment gets from old solar panels and batteries? Far worse than anything the power plant puts out, yet the powers that be call it "green".

Solar Panels Produce Tons of Toxic Waste—Literally - Foundation for Economic Education

Simple one word answer to your question: Lobbyists.

Don’t forget the 24% Federal Solar Tax Credit.

Here in Florida because of rainfall and humidity the shingles under the panels will suffer from mold and mildew. They may not even last as long as the exposed shingles

“Savings for us”? Net net there are no savings when tax credits are involved, one parties savings are others tax burden.

I have had it since 2019 and love it. I wish I had done it years earlier. I have never had a zero bill because SECO is a co-op and customers pay $1 a day to be a member but I have had bills less than $10. Solar companies will tell you payback period is 8 to 10 years but it is really 12 to 13 years. Another problem is that the Florida legislature has a bill that is back by electric companies to not pay solar customers as much for what they produce, don't use and goes back into the grid. Currently SECO charges customers about $.11 a kwh and pays solar customers a little less than $.08 a kwh. Florida politics is backing big utilities. SAD!

Ohiobuckeye
 

Maybe I don’t understand SOLAR PANELS. What happens when you need a new roof? Do you have pay to have Solar Panels taken off & replaced or does the Solar company pay for that? Also I’m sure there’s some maintenance to Solar Panels, explain because I don’t know!