Is your home powered by a solar panel system?

I am looking into it. My neighbor has a good set up and saves a ton of money. I live in New England, so there are lots of cloudy days. Here, we don’t have to be entirely off the grid if we switch to solar, the utility kicks in if the draw is too great on the panels.

You shouldn’t believe the hype because there is a great deal of misunderstanding about what you can and cannot do with them and also how environmentally friendly they are.
I have built solar panels by hand and several power my work shed right now by keeping a bank of batteries charged.
In certain areas they work well but not in others. Latitude is also a huge factor. They are not effective in the winter during short days and their efficiency drops dramatically on very hot days. Cool weather, lots of sun in more southern latitudes are where they work best so a mountain top is ideal.
Really though as the technology progresses they’ll be primary energy sources for residential and for some people they’ll work now but it’s by no means a magic bullet. They need replacing every 10–15 years if you’re lucky, so do the batteries around every three to five. Your power hungry appliances like water heater, climate control and electric ovens etc you may have to either do without or use natural gas. They’ll run lighting, TVs and computers just fine. If I give up AC in the summer I could easily run my house with a roof full of them and a battery bank the size of a small car.

Check into how it works in your area. Where I am, I wanted to get solar panels so that if we lost power for an extended time, such as after a hurricane. But where I am located, I can’t use the solar panels to power my house. The way they like to work solar here is that if you put panels on your house, they install a second power meter. All the power produced by your panels goes out onto the grid. All the power you use in your house comes through your normal meter as you buy power from the grid. In the event of a major power outage, the solar panels would not do a bit of good. I could install a separate battery bank and have the solar panels power those, but that is a HUGE expense in both up front money as well as maintenance and replacement over time.
That being said, I have a friend that lives in a different area and it works differently. He has one meter. The solar panels produce power that is used by the home and any excess is sold back to the grid. When the solar isn’t working, his house is powered by the grid. This arrangement allows his solar panels to give him electricity year round as well as selling power back to the electric company to offset any charges he gets for electricity coming off the grid.

My friend purchased a few panels installed on her two story home and after talking with her realize that the expense out ways the costs!
She spent $19000.00 for about two or three panels on her roof to pay for electricity of which is only minimal ( I pay only $45..but then I live in an apartment)..so hers would only be under $100 per month.
She will still be paying for these solar panels long before getting any benefits or profits!
It was a “fad” that she wanted to be the first one in our Town to purchase and therefore have written up in the local newspaper?
It caused serious problems with her husband as SHE decided on this agreement without his input? I think that because she is so independent ( she owns and runs a hair Salon) that she may soon find herself a single mother if she continues to override her husband?

It is too bad that she actually jumped on the bandwagon and believed the “Hype”.
I believe that these solar panels ( BTW they came out with newer thinner panels that are easier and cheaper to install) are best suited for Business corporations since they would be using much of the electricity than a single home?

Unfortunately for her,she signed the agreement “before” finding out the newer developments of thin solar panels as thin as tin foil came out later.

Do a cost ratio vs profits first.

Had she done this simple ratio she would had learned that it would take many many years BEFORE she gained any benefits.

Yes, they can be cost efficient, but there are a lot of variables, some of them particular to your home, utility, weather, latitude, etc.

I would get a couple of estimates. The installers will give you a better answer than we could.

The New Yorker had a really interesting story a few years ago about a Vermont power company, that changed its focus from burning fuel for electricity to managing customers’ energy needs.

They will re-do a home with solar, energy-efficient heating and cooling, insulation, etc. The company finances the job and rolls the payments into the utility bill. The monthly payment can drop significantly.

The New Yorker – June 20, 2015 – Power to the People – Why the rise of green energy makes utility companies nervous

I’d like to thank ALL of you for your input!!! I don’t trust the sales people to give me REAL data on the product that they are selling; so, I wanted some REAL USE input!!! With the info shared here, I’ll be better prepared when the next sales rep slips through my security net!!! I’m NOT even interested in purchasing them; but my “I’m NOT interested” just seems to excite the sales people. Now, I’ll have some more appropriate Q’s to ask them creating a situation where they will need to WORK for a living & hopefully STOP bugging me!!!

@Inspired_2write “19000.00 for about two or three panels”

Your friend was ripped off, badly. She should get a lawyer. You could have knocked two zeros off the end of that if DIY. The three panel system I put in my shed with the batteries, inverter and all only cost me $300. If you bought it all off the shelf and had someone install and set it up it would be at most $1500 -$3000

@ARE_you_kidding_me
Yes she had installing done by professionals.

Sales people are different from installers.

If they knock on your door, they are predators. They will push a contract at you, with high-interest financing and an inflated price.

Take the initiative and ask for estimates from installers. Bypass the middle men.

@Call_Me_Jay
Good advice but too late for my friend, she did this last couple of years ago .

This is highly dependent on where your house is and the energy rates you currently pay. Google has a great site: Project Sunroof that allows you to punch in your address and enter in some numbers and it will calculate estimated costs and years until payback.

I would love to have rooftop solar, or even better a Solar roof. but I’ve got way too much shade on my property and I’m not going to chop down the beautiful old-growth trees in my back yard.

@seawulf575 Even a single 80W panel, charging regulator, inverter and a single deep cycle battery will power emergency items like a coffee maker, small TV, radio, laptop, LED lights, microwave and cell phone chargers. Not all at once but you get the idea. It’s pretty inexpensive to put together as well, perhaps $350 for an emergency setup like that.

@ARE_you_kidding_me I looked at emergency solar generators. There are some decent models out there. I thought about getting one. But for what I wanted…something to run a refrigerator/freezer, some fans, lights, etc it was closer to a $4k set up. For that price I can get a diesel or gas generator that will power my house. Not what I want, but for the price….