DH pushing for solar panels

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had 17 kw of solar panels installed in NoVa last year. Cost was $46K. With the tax credit of 30%, cost came to be $32K. Dominion requires you to pay $7 a month for infrastructure. Otherwise, I have paid nothing for electricity. In addition, the panels have provided 9,000 miles of electricity for my EV. My payoff will be 9-10 years but the panels have a warranty for 25 years with a drop off of only 8% efficiency total.

At this moment, batteries are not cost effective. Prices may come down over the next couple of years with the new technologies coming out.

If your DH wants backup, Enphase has the IQ8 microinverters which allow the solar panels to provide power to the house without batteries during a power outage. He can get a smaller battery and allow the solar panels to provide extra power. A second way to do it, is Enphase is coming out with a V2H system in 2024. You can buy a Nissan Leaf which has a 40 kwh battery and costs $26K before the 7500 credit. You would then have double the battery backup of the Tesla Batteries and have a vehicle to drive when you didn't need backup all for less than the Tesla batteries cost.

I have been 100% happy with my solar panels and highly recommend them.

Solar + V2H is the way to go! Same decision here.

[Anonymous]

The EV as battery power is interesting. The WP had a long article about it a few months ago. I think Hyundai and maybe VW are workiing on home power systems. The Ford EV truck supposedly has (or will soon have) outlets to plug things into.
The WP article is here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/07/ev-battery-power-your-home/

[Anonymous]

I thought about putting solar panels on my house back in 2018. It was going to cost me about $33K after tax credits. My electricity bill averages about $125/month, but I just couldn't make the numbers work and my roof was about 10 years old. It wasn't even close. My breakeven point was about 18 years making various assumptions. I decided to invest the money into the market instead. Bought several stocks including TSLA. Boy am I glad I took that route. My investments quintupled before I sold them and now I can superfund my daughter's college fund and apply the rest toward our next home. Much better than saving $125 a month in an electricity bill. I understand these returns are most likely not the norm and solar can make sense in various situations. Now it turns out we are moving to the Lake Tahoe area this summer so another reason I'm glad I didn't put solar on the house.