DH pushing for solar panels

[Anonymous]

Do NOT lease them. It can cause title nightmares if you need to sell the house.

[Anonymous]

This math isn't adding up. The tax credit is 30%. On a 48K initial investment, the tax credit would be $14,700, not $21k.

[Anonymous]

I posted above about the math not adding up. FWIW, we have solar + batteries. I think that the solar was a probably worthwhile investment for us, the batteries were just because we wanted them. Honestly, the batteries were a tech splurge more than anything else - though it is nice to know that we'd have some backup power in the event of a long outage.

Agree with the posters asking about the age of your roof. We have a brand new, south facing roof with no trees, so it's the perfect setup for solar. Plus we're planning to stay here for 20+ years. We probably wouldn't have made this investment with an older roof.

Would strongly recommend getting a couple of quotes, plus spend some time digging in to what that battery investment is going to do. You might have to talk to the engineers to really understand it - we thought that some of the salesmen didn't really understand the nuances of the battery systems. My bet is that $10k in batteries probably won't get you too much backup anyways. We spent more than that, and only have some of our circuits on the back system - for example, we should be able to run heat in the winter, but wouldn't be able to do ac during a summer power outage (though we would have ceiling fans, refrigerator, and lights in most rooms)

[Anonymous]

In this area, unless you are positioned to benefit from extremely generous DC SREC prices, solar panels are not going to generate a positive economic relative to other uses of the money, and even with such subsidies it’s economically marginal. The reasons it may make sense to do it: candidly, it’s a luxury status good that impresses the neighbors; there can be circumstances where it can improve resilience to power outages (but you need some pretty hefty investment in batteries, which makes the economics worse), and, likely the best reason, it’s a hedge against electricity price increases, which seem reasonably foreseeable in the future.

[Anonymous]

I posted above about the math not adding up. FWIW, we have solar + batteries. I think that the solar was a probably worthwhile investment for us, the batteries were just because we wanted them. Honestly, the batteries were a tech splurge more than anything else - though it is nice to know that we'd have some backup power in the event of a long outage.

Agree with the posters asking about the age of your roof. We have a brand new, south facing roof with no trees, so it's the perfect setup for solar. Plus we're planning to stay here for 20+ years. We probably wouldn't have made this investment with an older roof.

Would strongly recommend getting a couple of quotes, plus spend some time digging in to what that battery investment is going to do. You might have to talk to the engineers to really understand it - we thought that some of the salesmen didn't really understand the nuances of the battery systems. My bet is that $10k in batteries probably won't get you too much backup anyways. We spent more than that, and only have some of our circuits on the back system - for example, we should be able to run heat in the winter, but wouldn't be able to do ac during a summer power outage (though we would have ceiling fans, refrigerator, and lights in most rooms)

In the summer there are more hours of sun so you would probably be okay. If it were a cloudy summer day then yes, you would probably have to conserve. What I like about having the power wall is that it is quiet, comes on instantly in an outage and requires no testing every month to make sure it works, etc. We have had ours come on several times now and it's seamless. If you have someone older who needs that security for health reasons, it becomes more than a price decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I posted above about the math not adding up. FWIW, we have solar + batteries. I think that the solar was a probably worthwhile investment for us, the batteries were just because we wanted them. Honestly, the batteries were a tech splurge more than anything else - though it is nice to know that we'd have some backup power in the event of a long outage.

Agree with the posters asking about the age of your roof. We have a brand new, south facing roof with no trees, so it's the perfect setup for solar. Plus we're planning to stay here for 20+ years. We probably wouldn't have made this investment with an older roof.

Would strongly recommend getting a couple of quotes, plus spend some time digging in to what that battery investment is going to do. You might have to talk to the engineers to really understand it - we thought that some of the salesmen didn't really understand the nuances of the battery systems. My bet is that $10k in batteries probably won't get you too much backup anyways. We spent more than that, and only have some of our circuits on the back system - for example, we should be able to run heat in the winter, but wouldn't be able to do ac during a summer power outage (though we would have ceiling fans, refrigerator, and lights in most rooms)

In the summer there are more hours of sun so you would probably be okay. If it were a cloudy summer day then yes, you would probably have to conserve. What I like about having the power wall is that it is quiet, comes on instantly in an outage and requires no testing every month to make sure it works, etc. We have had ours come on several times now and it's seamless. If you have someone older who needs that security for health reasons, it becomes more than a price decision.

No - our AC is NOT one of the circuits included on the battery backup system, so my understanding is that it will not be powered during a power outage. We haven't been through a summer power outage yet, so it's possible that this will work differently that expected, but we had many, many conversations with electricians and the system engineers and they said that our battery setup wasn't large enough to handle the surge that comes when the AC starts, so they didn't include the AC on the backup system.

[Anonymous]

We have had panels for four years now with two batteries and we love it. We did not do it to save money, honestly. It does take a long time to break even. We did it, because we could afford it and wanted to generate clean energy for our house. The main part of our roof is south-facing, so we get great production during the day. We pay nothing but the fee to pepco from late spring through early fall when the days are longer; the panels and battery provide enough to power our four bedroom house during those time. With the batteries, we never have to worry when the power goes out for a few hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted above about the math not adding up. FWIW, we have solar + batteries. I think that the solar was a probably worthwhile investment for us, the batteries were just because we wanted them. Honestly, the batteries were a tech splurge more than anything else - though it is nice to know that we'd have some backup power in the event of a long outage.

Agree with the posters asking about the age of your roof. We have a brand new, south facing roof with no trees, so it's the perfect setup for solar. Plus we're planning to stay here for 20+ years. We probably wouldn't have made this investment with an older roof.

Would strongly recommend getting a couple of quotes, plus spend some time digging in to what that battery investment is going to do. You might have to talk to the engineers to really understand it - we thought that some of the salesmen didn't really understand the nuances of the battery systems. My bet is that $10k in batteries probably won't get you too much backup anyways. We spent more than that, and only have some of our circuits on the back system - for example, we should be able to run heat in the winter, but wouldn't be able to do ac during a summer power outage (though we would have ceiling fans, refrigerator, and lights in most rooms)

OP here. We have had a few quotes and Tesla was the least expensive. This was with two batteries for $22000. After credits it goes down to $8000. DH is an electrical engineer so I assume he knows about the battery mechanics. Also, for those wondering, our roof is 3 years old, which is when the house was built.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look into geothermal

We wanted to do this, but we were told we didn't have enough space in our yard to make it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I posted above about the math not adding up. FWIW, we have solar + batteries. I think that the solar was a probably worthwhile investment for us, the batteries were just because we wanted them. Honestly, the batteries were a tech splurge more than anything else - though it is nice to know that we'd have some backup power in the event of a long outage.

Agree with the posters asking about the age of your roof. We have a brand new, south facing roof with no trees, so it's the perfect setup for solar. Plus we're planning to stay here for 20+ years. We probably wouldn't have made this investment with an older roof.

Would strongly recommend getting a couple of quotes, plus spend some time digging in to what that battery investment is going to do. You might have to talk to the engineers to really understand it - we thought that some of the salesmen didn't really understand the nuances of the battery systems. My bet is that $10k in batteries probably won't get you too much backup anyways. We spent more than that, and only have some of our circuits on the back system - for example, we should be able to run heat in the winter, but wouldn't be able to do ac during a summer power outage (though we would have ceiling fans, refrigerator, and lights in most rooms)

OP here. We have had a few quotes and Tesla was the least expensive. This was with two batteries for $22000. After credits it goes down to $8000. DH is an electrical engineer so I assume he knows about the battery mechanics. Also, for those wondering, our roof is 3 years old, which is when the house was built.

OK - you must be getting some sort of state level credits that are not available here. Which is great for you, but it's not very helpful to post on a DC forum asking for advice, since we're not getting the same credits that you are. Federal tax credits are 30% - applies to both the solar setup and to the batteries.

[Anonymous]

We got insane discounts when Obama first became POTUS because of his stimulus plan and energy independence agenda. We got national, state and county level discounts. We have extensive solar panels (and proud of it), we also got an energy audit for our whole house and fixed issues - windows, storm doors, attic fans, insulations etc. Before having our Solar City (now Tesla) panels put, we got a new roof and put special shingles so that they can withstand high wind speed etc. Then we leased the panels for 30 years because we do not intend to leave soon. Also, since the lease is already prepaid by us, we don't foresee a problem to sell the house. The panels comes with the house.

By the time the lease expires, we will need a new roof anyways and whatever new tech is in the market. So the timing dovetails well. All repairs and upgrades remains Tesla's responsibility for the duration of the lease. If a tornado tears our roof off and the panels off - they will repair. Also, a baseline output is guaranteed. They do all the maintainence and repair. We sell our extra solar energy to the grid in the day time and buy back at night. We do not have batteries to store the energy yet.

Anyhow, my DH gets tremendous cheap thrills every time PEPCO gives us a couple dollars back because we generated more electricity than we use.

Yes, we have made modifications to the house to handle extreme weather events and climate change. We drive hybrids or cycle to places, our lawn has rainscapes, pollinator garden, composting, native plants and clover instead of grass. We have made modification to reinforce our patio slope, fixed our grading, extensive drainage to handle excessive rain or snow, berms to let rainwater sink in ground, lots of mulched beds, lots of pruned shade trees. It is a habitat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


In the summer there are more hours of sun so you would probably be okay. If it were a cloudy summer day then yes, you would probably have to conserve. What I like about having the power wall is that it is quiet, comes on instantly in an outage and requires no testing every month to make sure it works, etc. We have had ours come on several times now and it's seamless. If you have someone older who needs that security for health reasons, it becomes more than a price decision.


No - our AC is NOT one of the circuits included on the battery backup system, so my understanding is that it will not be powered during a power outage. We haven't been through a summer power outage yet, so it's possible that this will work differently that expected, but we had many, many conversations with electricians and the system engineers and they said that our battery setup wasn't large enough to handle the surge that comes when the AC starts, so they didn't include the AC on the backup system.

This is news to me. We have a Tesla power wall and all of our circuits, including AC, are on the battery backup system. Our AC draw is about 3 kw/hr. If it were cloudy, we may have to run it judiciously, but if we were having sunny or even partly sunny days, no problem at all.

[Anonymous]

Did he fail math?

[Anonymous]

If inflation keeps going at 8% the solar panels will pay off much more quickly. I think if you have the money and you are staying in your house for at least 10 years, it will be fine. Especially if you get the aggregator credit checks (which we are getting here to the tune of several thousand per year). So it might not be the best investment, but it's another one for your portfolio. Plus it's not as messy as a generator.

[Anonymous]

For anyone concerned with environmental:

We had solar panels on our home in DC and loved them, but our suburban home is tree covered.

It's not perfect, but we signed up for the Dominion Energy 100% renewable program: https://www.dominionenergy.com/virginia/renewable-energy-programs/100-percent-renewable-energy

The difference in cost is not noticeable.