Home solar system

[CVRick 42]

Has anyone gone solar recently. Who should I get quotes from?

[Covered in Dust 162]

I used Baker Electric and was very happy with the price and service. I purchased my system outright.

Covered in Solar

[Joliet 0]

Just bought a system from Solar City, still waiting for SDGE to give me the OK to turn it on. No complaints so far.

[ADV Bum 205]

We just had Petersendean install solar a couple of months ago. Get lots of bids and compare everything.

[bikeslut 1]

I don't know who he used, but a buddy just got his electrical bill for THE WHOLE YEAR.... $10 credit

[CVRick 42]

We just had Petersendean install solar a couple of months ago. Get lots of bids and compare everything.

Getting bids now. Looking to buy.

[TrophyHunter 15]

Used SolarScapeUSA - Adam Zoldan

I like the extras on the install over some other bids. Same price. Panels made in the USA with a 25 year warranty. He also got the approval with SDGE done quickly. Wireless monitoring with it. Adam also emailed me with CA rebate I didn't know about - another $650 back over the Fed 30%.

Be glad to go over stuff in person with ya if needed. Quoting bills is fine, but each system is different and if you design it to eat your entire bill, it will. We had room for 17 panels which develop enough to soften the blow. Even with the pool pump on, etc, we get $30 NEG bills and maybe $30-$40 positive during heavy use. Works for us.

[ADV Bum 205]

Just so you can have some real numbers of what a system produces.

My system is a 6.6 kw with 24 panels. American made panels with micro inverter with the monitoring system. The last two months with lots of crappy weather I have been producing over 1000 kwhs each month.

[TrophyHunter 15]

The key thing I wanted to do was get out of tier 3 & 4 billing as the cost per KW hour goes through the roof. It's done way more than that most months - resulting in the "credit" statements. Forgot to mention, we purchased ours by taking a loan against one of our cars that's paid off. 1.9% loan is better than the programs the solar folks have in most cases. Paid that off so now it's all gravy. Thx for the figures, Mike.

[danrider 5]

My neighbor and I have been getting quotes from everyone and there brother to do solar, both of us are going to need 26 panels to get the correct watts, our quotes have ranged from $38,000 down to$24,800. I am doing it myself for a top notch systems with the best panels made for $14,000. I am using my friend who made my drawings for me and submitted them to the city for a permit. We just finished my neighbors house. His from start to finish was $14,800. We hired people in the business all of who had contractors license to do the job, from electrician to roofer. If you want to save a bank post me, you can come by and see my neighbors house witch was just completed and now we are going to start mine. I can hook you up, save the money and buy yourself a new bike. Post me if you need help

[darylhunter 1]

I had a 3.1 kW system purchased several years ago through the Solar Alliance. Haven't heard much from them lately and I think they may have merged with someone else. Did a great job and got me out of the tier 3 & 4 rates down to tier 1 most months and my bill was typically less than $35. I bought the system and my cost was $14,000 after the rebates

We moved a year ago to a new house and sold the old house. My realtor didn't understand the value of solar and wasn't doing much to try to get any extra out of the house for the inclusion of the solar system which was still pretty new. The new buyer didn't want to pay extra so I took the system with me.

The electrical bill at the new house was around $400 each month. The pool accounted for a significant portion of the monthly electric costs, so I swapped out the pool motor with a variable speed unit which helped.

I was going to do a self install of my old panels but some health problems kept me from being able to do anything physical for a while. When I checked with the various companies to do the installation for me, most wouldn't touch it because they were only interested in doing new installations of their own panels.

Finally I found Precision General Contracting who is doing solar these days. They in turn sub contracted the work to Sun Fusion Solar. In addition to having my old system (14 panels) installed I also added 8 more panels, which was the amount we figured was needed given my bill. Cost after rebates was about $10,000.

I should add that the Sun Fusion guys did a really great job. Very clean work site and crew was respectful and knowledgeable about each aspect of the job.

The old panels were Canadian Solar 315 W units connected to a Sunny Boy inverter. I don't remember the brand of the new panels but they use one micro-inverter per two panels and have improved output over my old panels.

The orientation of my house is such that I don't have a due south facing roof, so we went with a south west roof facet. Still, my old 14 panel system now generates about 17.5 kWh on a good clear day and the new system generates 15.5 kWh for a total of 33 kWh. That's just a bit over my typical daily use of around 30 kWh.

I'm in unincorporated San Diego county on the San Marcos side of the border with La Costa. Still coastal enough to be affected by the marine layer sometimes, but not as bad as my old house in La Costa. Still, there were a surprising number of crummy days last month and the most recent three days haven't been great for solar either. Still last month's bill was $22 and this month is looking to be in the same ball park if the June gloom doesn't go away. I'm definitely generating more than I use on clear days, so come July hopefully I'll be due for some credit.

If you or someone you know can do the roof work of installing the mounting points for the rails and any necessary conduit to the electrical panel and you know a decent electrical contractor, you could save a lot on a DIY system. About half the cost of my first system was equipment and the rest was labor/profit. The new system was more skewed toward labor/profit because of the reinstall of my old panels.

If not going the DIY route, for new installs there is a fair bit of competition in the market so I would get a couple bids to weed out anyone who's price gouging. A number of sellers are also touting the lease option which I haven't taken the time to understand and compare with outright purchase.

[Bagstr 287]

Hey Gang, Know how long you plan to stay in your house. $$ Saved x months to pay off loan. If you owe on install when you sell, you lost $$.

[TrophyHunter 15]

That's with any mod/upgrade. Since it's become more popular, it's almost a dollar for dollar bump up in sales price. That's a better return than my kitchen, bathrooms, new windows...... Def a good thing to look at, Dave.

[Oracle 195]

I agree with Bags. You really need to be committed to staying in your house a min of 7 years to break even. I just got done going through the bidding process with three companies, and that's the conclusion I came to after crunching all the numbers. Since I'm pretty sure we will be out of this house in the next 10 years tops, it wasn't a great incentive for me to go solar at this time as I really questioned whether a solar systems adds equity to your home. See Daryls post, case in point. Dollar for Dollar??? I say no way. Maybe 50 cents on the dollar IMO.

[SDlineman 0]

A reliable source told me that the way electric bills are calculated for SDG&E customers with solar will be changing, possibly as early as August, but existing systems will be grandfathered in their existing rate structure. If you're thinking about doing solar, I would recommend doing it sooner rather than later.

[TrophyHunter 15]

Daryl's example was from years ago and things have changed. I looked at some listings before deciding but then, they may have changed back a little. Maybe "drought tolerant landscape" is the new hafta have. After all said and done, I'm $13K outta pocket with a 25 year warranty. My capitol cost payback was 6.5 years based on our bills and we're here for at least that run. Good consideration for sure.

SDL - I've heard of this changed and can't stand when the cry for "help save electricity" turns into "we're losing money on you guys so we're gonna punish you." The PUC shouldn't allow it but it'll prolly happen. Agreed - get in now.

[blakeNY9 0]

I went with Solare Energy. Had a great experience. Got several quotes and went with them because they took the time to truly evaluate our energy needs and really customized a solution for us. For example we had, although pretty new, a older technology pool pump. Instead of bumping up the solar system to compensate (which other companies did) they recommended replacing the pump with a variable speed pump as it was more cost effective than adding additional panels and they took care of it all with a pool guy they keep on staff. Between our quotes we had a range of $8k cost difference and 10 solar panel difference i.e. it is worth it to get several quotes.

I can provide a point of contact at Solare if you want. They also did my neighbor with great results as well.

[darylhunter 1]

My neighbor went a bit overboard I think. He's got something like 60 PV panels, plus a fair number of hot water panels too.

Here's a snapshot from Google Earth:

[Bagstr 287]

I'm glad it was your neighbor who went overboard.

[Spaugh 1]

50$ a month for power, $8 a month on water here. You guys are doing it wrong.

[bikeslut 1]

Brad- I most certainly am "doing it wrong"...$150 water bill (5 people, 3 dogs and a cat, plus a swimming pool. I "may" water trees if they start looking dry, but my septic drains by the non-native trees. Power is $300 plus most months...I just got a note from the water board, calling for "mandatory watering 2 days a week"....lol. I don't think "mandatory" is the word they are looking for...stooped

[PbdBlue 46]

So as I understand it there are currently three ways to finance solar (maybe more). Buy, lease or purchase the power generated by the panels at a reduced fixed rate (not sure what to call the last one). What's everyone's take on this and which way did you go?

[Joliet 0]

I purchased my system. It also has a 30 year warranty on everything, and the warranty is transferable if I sell the house. If the system does not make the claimed power, the solar company sends me a check for the difference. It is in Solar City's best interest to make sure every panel is producing the watt's is should for the next 30 years.

I definitely could have got a system cheaper, had I done most/all of the work myself, but I like the warranty (and of course not doing any work).

Some may not know, if you are in need of a new roof and have it done the same time as the solar, you can get the govt. rebate on the roof as well as the solar.

Ken

[Spaugh 1]

Brad- I most certainly am "doing it wrong"...$150 water bill (5 people, 3 dogs and a cat, plus a swimming pool. I "may" water trees if they start looking dry, but my septic drains by the non-native trees. Power is $300 plus most months...I just got a note from the water board, calling for "mandatory watering 2 days a week"....lol. I don't think "mandatory" is the word they are looking for...stooped

I forgot, I'm getting bent over on propane. Would be nice to get rid of propane and go all electric everything and get some panels. Would really like to wait a few years until panels and batteries come down in cost and just get rid of SDGE for good and go completely off the grid.

[TrophyHunter 15]

Ditto - but with a 30% tax credit right off the top of your cost, it softens the blow. Battery tech for home storage is coming along.

To answer PBD - same as Joliet but 25 years. No production guarantee cuz I kinda figured they charge you upfront for that deferred cost to them. It's a math and preference equation.