Solar Panels

[Tyek]

Anyone have solar panels on their home? I am tired of paying 500-700 dollars a month to the utility. I am already approved on a 6kv system and we are probably officially going forward with it tomorrow. I figure we can pay the 500 to the bank and in 5 years own the system and hopefully have little to no electric bill. I just want to hear from someone that has the panels that they work well or they don't.

[Fairweather Pure]

I looked into panels breifly about 4 years ago, but the signal to noise ratio for home use was fucking awful, the closest professinal installers were a 100 miles away, and the panels themselves seemed to be going through a technological growth spurt at the time.

I would be curious about any useful info that you find. I haven't bothered with it since, but am still interested. Hopefully that industry has matured since I looked into it.

[miir]

Holy fuck!
Our electricity bill is less than $200/month

[Boogahz]

you also live in an igloo!

[Winnow]

The Chinese are pumping out mass amounts of polysilicon and solar wafers with more poly plants being built. The price for solar panels will continue to go down over the next few years. This sure hasn't resulted in Chinese solar stock prices climbing though. Their P/E is ridiculously low. At some point these stocks will skyrocket. Compare their P/E with U.S. companies like FSLR (P/E 18+) and the Chinese solar stocks should be 5-10 times higher than what they are.

I picked up 10,000 shares of a Chinese company that mines and manufactures the raw materials for lithium batteries. (cobaltosic oxide and lithium cobalt oxide anode materials, lithium iron phosphate)...basically all the stuff you need for lithium ion batteries. The company has a P/E of 3....3! If the paranoia over Chinese companies goes away again, I stand to do well with this investment.

With the nuke issues in Japan, other alternative energy is getting more attention.

No home solar for me yet but things will be looking better over the next couple years.

[Aslanna]

$500-$700! That's probably my yearly electric bill. Natural gas in the winter though can get pricey although the highest its been has probably been $200 for a month.

I have no knowledge of solar panels!

[Aabidano]

Buddy put them on his new house, keeps the utility bill down but hitting $0 is un-realistic as you're paying consumer rates and they pay you wholesales rates. Lifetime on the panels is an issue as well.

Unless you're buying the panels commercial it's a break even deal over time. Which isn't so bad really.
*Edit - meaning with today's lower panel prices you're definitely money ahead, but aren't going to turn a profit.

After putting in a SEER 17 AC ~2 years ago my power bill dropped to $125-150.

[Ransure]

Dont have a bunch of time to go into it as Im pretty busy today, but Ive been doing residential solar in MD for a bit over 2 years now. If you plan to be in your home for more than 5 years in most incentivized states going solar will never be better than it is today. This comes from the Federal ITC, state grant programs, and depending on your local market the brokerage and sale of S-REC's (solar renewable energy credits). In MD right now we are seeing 5-8 year paybacks on these systems.

While prices will continue to drop on panels and installation costs will be streamlined the credits today far outweigh even a 40% in price drops for the foreseeable future.

Make sure your going through a reputable installer that will handle all of the incentive paperwork for you, look into setting up your own S-REC broker relationship with someone like http://www.srectrade.com. And make sure your choosing a panel manufacturer that has a chance to be here in 25 years near the end of the warranty life.

[Aslanna]

Unless you are a Republican. Than you'd just be a hypocrite for accepting socialism.

[Aabidano]

For a 2.2kw array I'm looking at roughly ~$5k out of pocket after state and fed stuffs. Much cheaper than last I looked even w\o the incentives. using the power companies guestimator.

Lined up a couple system quotes,see what happens

[Aabidano]

Booo, state program stopped and is $50 million in debt besides, fed rebate is all I would get. Power company has a decent subsidy but that's no go as well

Since I last talked to one of these guys my trees and worse my neighbors' trees have grown a lot. To get enough sun on my SE exposure to make it worthwhile I'd have to take out two huge hickorys and lop the top off the neighbors' laurel oak.