Taking the Solar Leap

We have been thinking about it for a while and finally opted to add solar panels to the house. We have a textbook solar setting with living in the south and a perfectly facing north/south home.

With today's inflation and supply shortages it's only a matter of time before the local electric utility company starts cranking up rates. They also are being forced to invest in alternative energies which will add to their future costs. I hear some California areas are paying almost 40cents/kwh.

One benefit of getting solar now is the solar federal tax credit is being reduced each year. It's 26% in 2022 and might be 22% in 2023.  

We shopped around. There was a wide range of quotes. Tesla promises they will always be the cheapest ($2.1/watt) but installations are slow, their service is poor, their supply is nonexistent, and their technology is arguable a bit behind.

We opted for a small local installer with good reviews, who offered the latest solar tech, and we got a great quote ($2.4/watt). Fingers crossed it all turns out well.

Will it be grid tied?
How much per kwh do you get back?

Our POCO only buys excess at $0.02/kwh and you have to get rent a special meter at $25-30/month. So your first ~1,500kwh/month of excess just pays for meter rental.

Yes, tied to the grid. No battery storage. Up front it's cheaper to have a standby natgas generator especially if it's rarely used. The lithium battery backup storage is way overpriced at ~14kw and $9k. It's about the same price to buy a new EV and park in the garage and just use it for battery storage.

Our utility agrees to buy any excess energy at 9.5cents/kwh for the next 10 years. It's not great but it'll help pay it off quicker.

Utilities always seem to find ways to get their pound of flesh. Ours is regulated by 5 elected corporate commission board members but even then the utility lobbies to get whatever they can.

Diseasel wrote:

Our utility agrees to buy any excess energy at 9.5cents/kwh for the next 10 years. It's not great but it'll help pay it off quicker.

Almost 5x what ours pays out!
However our cost, IIRC, is 10-10.5 cents/kwh.

Our rates are pretty reasonable but we use lots of electricity in the summer trying to keep homes cool in the almost 24hr triple digit outdoor temps.

Our off-summer plan is:
- 3.166cents/kwh for super off peak (10a-12n),
- 5.137cents/kwh for off peak (8p-10a) and
- 6.323cents/kwh for peak (3p-8p).

Our summer plan is:
- 5.146cents/kwh for off peak (8p-3p) and
- 8.615cents/kwh for peak (3p-8p).

At the end of the year they plan to reduce peak hours to 4p-7p so I imagine they'll have to also increase rates.

In hindsight our 9.5cents/kwh excess energy buyback is pretty fair.

We moved to East Texas a year and a half ago. Bought a small rancher but added a 25 foot extension to the end of the house for a recreation room then added a 72 x 60 metal shop to the end of that. The roof on the shop is metal and the house is asphalt shingles. We have no obstructions so our place is a great candidate.

Not doing it. Our electric is 10c kwh. Our largest electric bill is $200-$250 a month during the extremes.

The systems are expensive, ugly and require me to help you pay for it. Depending on your roof type they recommend installing a new asphalt roof prior to installing the panels if the roof is 10 years or older.

They need to be cleaned periodically.

Payback is a pretty long time.

They degrade over time.

They don't work at night or very well in overcast.

So if I look at $180 avg x 12... my electric for the year is around $2160 a year.

X 10 years is $21600

I just don't see any significant benefit. I have a 10k portable backup generator that I never use here so far.

I know I sound negative but the way I see it, solar is more for those who live places where electricity is harder to come by.

I've been asked so many times by the traveling salesmen to install solar on my roof. Just not doing it. I don't want any material over the roof that can potentially cause a leak. If the power goes out, they do not have a battery back up that will keep me in electricity if the power goes out. I have a generator for the times when we lose power.

We have some property that if I build on it, leaning heavily towards off grid solar.
1,200' off the road, no easy/cheap way to run power. POCO unwilling to drop a 480V single phase can to allow smaller conductors, etc.

Current house has standing seam metal roofing so we could clamp on mounting brackets, no holes.
Have considered a 7kw array and battery pack to act as a generator and recharge a Chevy Bolt, something else I'm considering.

Sounds like a good way to go.

hoot wrote:

We moved to East Texas a year and a half ago. Bought a small rancher but added a 25 foot extension to the end of the house for a recreation room then added a 72 x 60 metal shop to the end of that. The roof on the shop is metal and the house is asphalt shingles. We have no obstructions so our place is a great candidate.

Not doing it. Our electric is 10c kwh. Our largest electric bill is $200-$250 a month during the extremes.

The systems are expensive, ugly and require me to help you pay for it. Depending on your roof type they recommend installing a new asphalt roof prior to installing the panels if the roof is 10 years or older.

They need to be cleaned periodically.

Payback is a pretty long time.

They degrade over time.

They don't work at night or very well in overcast.

So if I look at $180 avg x 12... my electric for the year is around $2160 a year.

X 10 years is $21600

I just don't see any significant benefit. I have a 10k portable backup generator that I never use here so far.

I know I sound negative but the way I see it, solar is more for those who live places where electricity is harder to come by.  

It's not for everyone. I was negative on solar.


It can be good for remote living. The government solar rebates increased again so that helps knock off about 30% or so. Of course some states also give tax breaks (not ours). Most of the time you can sell back power which helps pay it off. Also one needs to consider utility rate inflation as a benefit which reduces the break-even time. And finally it adds some home resale value.

Even charging an EV our monthly electric bill is down almost 66% when compared to before adding solar and owning an EV.

The new solar panels are built better and guaranteed to maintain 95% efficiency for something like 20 or 25 years. Lithium battery back not so much - we haven't taken that leap..

Diseasel wrote:

Lithium battery back not so much - we haven't taken that leap..

At the present time I think I'd lean towards a lead acid pack for off grid storage.
Hopefully in the next 5 yrs iron-air batteries will make some decent gains.

I have looked at solar also but for the above mentioned reasons I decided against it. I did the math and so much of my electric bill is fees that I would be paying nearly the exact same but with a potential headache years down the road. But Im keeping an open mind since this summer we will finally get competition in Lubbock.