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[quote=Anonymous]I bought solar panels for my small house a couple of years ago (late 2020). They were about $10K before state/federal rebates. I bought through a solar coop that is supposed to provide lower costs for participants.

https://www.solarunitedneighbors.org/maryland

The solar company estimated it would take me about 7 years to recoup my investment, and that seems about right. Since I've had the panels I only pay about $9/mo for electricity (that's fees to Pepco) and I've earned about $900 in SRECs.

I also needed to get my roof replaced for the installer would put the panels on. Your roof needs a certain amount of years of life left, and mine was well past that. I would have needed to replace my roof anyway, so this just sped up my timetable for that.

I'm happy with my panels. However, I also think that they're not worth having if you can't buy them outright; the finances only barely make sense if you own them, and the benefits are really not there if someone else is getting all the tax breaks and you're having to pay a leasing fee every month. If you want to get them to "save the earth," then honestly, there are better and cheaper ways to do that.

I also think that they work best if most of your house runs on electricity. I am considering switching to a heat pump, for example (currently I have a gas furnace.) I'd also like to get an induction stove and an electric dryer. But those changes are expensive so I haven't done that yet.

Again, I am happy with my panels, I'm not sorry I got them. But realistically, I'm not maximizing their benefit to me yet.[/quote]

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