anyone here do solar?

[jperry1290]

I have people knocking on my door daily trying to get me to buy or lease a solar panel system for my home. My electric bill is quite low at $100avg per month so a small system will cover all the power. Looking for opinions or experiences

[Efibroncoman]

Re: anyone here do solar?

I have a friend that does. Great guy and very knowledgable. www.saveyousolar.com
He can help you out with what system will work best for your needs.

-Jacob

[904Bronco]

Re: anyone here do solar?

We did Solar City, No out of pocket $$$.

We are/were in 4th Tier with PGE because of pool. We did a partial system, which is supposed to drop our monthly bill $70.00 It will take a year to see the trend. The meter runs backwards in the summer... The 1st guy you talk to promises you the world, as you progress through the process there are limitations. By the time we got to the installer they were telling me that the equipment had to be in the garage. I stopped the whole process and said that I was told that equipment would be outside, not exposed to the street. I was not going to give up 3ft of storage around their panel as required by code. They relented, but not after making lawyer noises. I asked them if they really wanted that kind of word of mouth bad press... I have cleaned the panels once, while cleaning out my gutters. so far so good... August will be a year, then we can see what we really saved.

The Installers were very professional and got the work done in two days, very clean, and painted all the conduit to match the roof and stucco

[NorcalKD]

Re: anyone here do solar?

I do but not for Residential anymore. I mainly do large commercial, utility grade, and federal jobs. More than willing to give some pointers on what to look for.

Depending on the size of the system and if you are looking to potentially buy, with an average $100/month bill with PGE you would be looking at approximately a 2-3kW system. If this is a typical simple solar system on a composition roof mount, I would estimate it about $4ish per watt depending on type of modules, inverter, and racking system. $4x3,000=$12,000 - 30% (tax credit) =$8,400 Net
Most utility companies no longer have rebates available. The only rebate is the tax credit but that only applies depending on your tax liability. Tax credit expires in 2015 too, so anyone looking to buy should look soon.

$100 x 12= $1,200/year bill $8,400 / $1,200= 7 year return on investment

Its the quick and dirty but a 3kW system should $0 your bill and a 7 yr ROI, not bad. Warranty on solar panels are 25yrs, inverters depending type can be 10-25yrs.

Jake, Jacob's referral is a good guy too, I used to work with him when I was doing Residential. I have a few more contacts if you want.

Kyle