Anyone installed PV panels for the home?

[Barko1]

Thinking about installing panels on the house to counter the electric bill. Have great solar exposure and the Electric company will buy all the juice I don't need. With the 30% fed and 10% state credit it would cost me about $8500 and maybe save me $1500 a year, seems hard to go wrong. I can lock the electric company in for 12 years at that rate.

 

[Hittheroad]

Thinking about installing panels on the house to counter the electric bill. Have great solar exposure and the Electric company will buy all the juice I don't need. With the 30% fed and 10% state credit it would cost me about $8500 and maybe save me $1500 a year, seems hard to go wrong. I can lock the electric company in for 12 years at that rate.


We put panels on our barn 2 years ago and this summer put more into our field. The economics of it depends on several variables and each state has different laws - which change with time. Our first year we got a better than 20% return on the money we invested (counting after the return of the fed and state tax credit. If the numbers look good to you I would say go for it. I am not sure about locking in the electric rate. I would expect energy prices will go up not down.

Even if the numbers in the end don't work out quite as good as expected there is great satisfaction from generating your own power and lowering your carbon footprint. It helps to justify putting more miles on the truck and spending more time in the camper.

The state and fed tax credits are real (make sure you have the income to credit against). Check that the transformer near your house is big enough to accept the level of power you will be putting into it. Our second set of panels went over the limit and we had to have it upgraded at our expense. But most of our surprises have been on the side of doing better than expected rather than the reverse. On the down side you may find you spend too much time watching the meter run backwards and counting up each days kilowatt output.
In short -go for it.

 

[pods8]

Biggest deal is getting the right grid tie setup done legally/properly without paying out the rear. Other than that its just mounting/wiring...