Ran into a Tesla Solar sales guy while looking at weather-stripping yesterday at Home Depot. We have been thinking about doing solar panels some day, but have a whole bunch of other projects that seem more critical right now, and in any case need to learn quite a bit more before signing on with solar purveyor. One neighbor installed solar last fall with Solar City, and those turned up on Mr. Tesla’s pad computer screen. Evidently Solar City is the local installer, but Tesla is the service owner??
If we do go solar, I want a big battery, and a way to shut off the feed that goes to the grid. We have occasional massive days-long power outages, and I figure solar on the roof should be at least as good as the generator I’ve dreamed of installing in the back yard.
Maryland suburbs of DC. Townhouse faces dead south. Mr. Tesla was very excited about that. Apparently it is optimal for electrical production.
Tesla solar shingles can make sense if you need to replace your roof anyway, particularly if you want to use high end shingles. But if your roof has a long remaining lifetime left, the cost considerations are more likely to favor putting regular panels on the roof (Solar City and other contractors offer those, of course).
Before contacting any solar / roofing contractors, you should evaluate your electricity use to determine how much solar and (if you want battery backup) how much battery you need. Be sure to consider that cloudy days will result in much lower generation than sunny days. Of course, the cost of grid electricity in your area is a significant factor in cost effectiveness. Then you may also want to consider buy versus lease.
^^Tesla owns Solar City. We don’t have solar, but that is our next big project. We are seriously considering a Tesla roof as we will need a new roof in about 5-7 years anyway (ours has 10 years of life left in it).
If you have a HOA, make sure solar panels are allowed in the CCRs.
Solar is OK with our HOA. One neighbor already has panels. Mr. Tesla told me that the entire process from initial home assessment visit to live power wouldl be several months, in part because of the formal HOA approval step.
I would so love to install solar panels! Do your local laws allow you to use your own power? I know some states require that you sell it to the grid and then buy it back. Very frustrating when there is a major blackout and you can’t even use your own electricity still being produced by your solar panels.
@NJres - That is one of my concerns. If I understand correctly, the power is mine if I own the system, and I get to sell any extra to the grid/buy extra needed from the grid. I’m not clear on how that works if I lease the system. It kind of sounded to me like they would be generating power for the grid on my roof, and I’d get a discount on my electricity because of that.
Presumably, you mean those places where it is not allowed to disconnect your house from the grid (necessary if you want to keep your house powered by local generation or storage without causing utility workers on the grid to risk electric shocks).
@sherpa, there is also a cost to delaying, which is of course a variable you cannot determine without a crystal ball, Suppose you can save 50 bucks a month starting now, versus whatever you could save at some point down the road, How far down the road matters, and how much more matters. if you can only save another 10%, or $55, per month but suppose that’s two years down the road, it would take many years to recover what you didn’t start sooner.
My father installed solar panels on the roof in 1983, for hot water heat. Back then, he had calculated that based on the cost of electric hot water heater, and based on the family usage, it would pay for itself in just over 6 years. He had even included in his projections a decrease in hot water usage when my siblings and I would be moving out of the house for college, etc. What he did not initially anticipate was the electricity KW/Hr rate hikes, so the system paid for itself in just under 4.5 years according to his calculations. He was very proud of this “foresight” because he wanted everyone to know that there is a cost to doing nothing yet.
That being said, DH and I do not have panels on our house - while it would have been nice to add them when we re-did the roof 12 years ago, we couldn’t afford the extra initial expense. The installation costs in our home, with a different roof style than I had growing up, made it prohibitive at the time. We save in so many other ways that I rationalize putting it off.
Our neighbors have an identical style house as ours. He is an engineer, and he recently told DH that the options available now are starting to make sense for houses like ours as well. I am sure we will be looking into this more as well.
Off topic, but if u have enuf yard space, geothermal could be a possibility too. Unlike solar panels, which are mainly used for water heating, geothermal havc can be used to the whole house. Of course it is not completely off the grid.
@makemesmart - We’re in a townhouse in the DC suburbs so geothermal is almost certainly a no-go for space. Two of my sisters who live in Iowa do have geothermal and are very happy with it.
Wonder whether some new condos would have geothermal built in. It makes more sense that way.
Some of my neighbors have geothermal put in while the house was built, we had to dig up a large track of back yard, it had not been easy to restore the grass so we decided to get rid of the back yard lawn and changed it to gardens, still a working process.
We have solar water heater and photovoltaic electric, connected to the grid. Most months we just pay the minimum $18 to be connected to the grid. When produce more than we use (most months) we well the excess to the grid. When we use more than we produce, we use up sone of the credit we have built up with our excess production.
We have had the solar water heater over a decade and the photovoltaic about 5 years. We have had no problems with either. We did replace the heater when it started leaking due to old age.
Our roof is well situated for the solar &PV panels and didn’t need much extra hardware or bracing. We get a lot of sun most of the year. Electric rates in our state have always been highest in the US. :(. Most of my relatives also installed PV.
We got 35% state tax credit and 35% federal tax credit when we installed each system.
When you take the federal solar tax credit, you can only take it once in your life. For that reason I’m waiting. My roof is too shady now for anything but a really small system.
I don’t believe you can only take the federal solar credit once in your life. I already took it once for solar and once for photovoltaic in separate years.
Our local power company put a cap of 20% of homes in the community can have PV, so the grid doesn’t become unstable. Anyone after that has to pay for a study or can buy their own batteries to store their own power.
My inlaws built their retirement home in the early 80s. My mil put in solar panels. Their home was 6000 square feet with 6 bathrooms and a pool. The most she ever paid was $12 for a billing cycle. So…
I had solar panels installed by Solar City about two years ago. Apparently I have 50 year roof shingles with at least another 30 years of life on them. I leased for 20 years with no OOP costs. I am saving about 35% on my monthly bill overall, they had estimated 30%. While my annual electric bill total was somewhere around $1200, it has been around $800 each year since the installation.