Let's talk solar power

[DesireeH]

I am so very interested in this....I saw my neighbors get new solar panels and I am jealous!

Anyone in southern CA have it done? Who did you use? Do you mind if I ask what you paid? Can I just buy the panels and an inverter and install it ourselves or is it hard? Any info appreciated!

I also found this: http://www.partsonsale.com/solacool.html for solar powered a/c. We could really use that! We pay 118 a month for our bill in summer because of the a/c. We live inland southern CA so it gets very hot out here (105 ish). I think that solar a/c would pay for itself within a year and a half.

[cornflake girl]

We're in socal and we've had our panels for two years now. This is the company we went with:

http://www.revcosolar.com/

I love, love, love our panels. When we are generating more than we're using our meter actually spins backwards, which means we are selling back to the elec. co. My neighbors probably think I'm crazy because I love to go out and stare at my meter to see if and how quickly it's spinning in reverse. I could stand out there for hours. lol

It was expensive, but for the life of me I can't remember exactly how much it was. I want to say around $8-$10k after rebates and tax credits. I think when I figured it out it was going to take us about 6 yrs. to make our money back on the system. I don't think that's too bad because this is the house we'll be living in forever, so after that point we'll be getting almost entirely free electricity.

I don't know anything about installing it yourself, my husband was too intimidated by our second story high roof so we didn't even look into that. One thing that might be a bit of a challenge if you go that route would be getting your permits. We had a hard time getting them because our city had seen so few solar installs that they took some convincing before they would believe they were installed correctly. Revco took care of all of that for us so we didn't have to worry about it.

Another thing we were told is that so many companies have jumped on the solar bandwagon in the past few years ever since all of the rebates came out, so you need to make sure you choose a company who's been doing it for awhile and has lots of experience instead of just someone who's trying to make a buck off of the latest trend.

Make sure that you get enough panels to cover all of your projected future usage. They don't recommend getting your elec. bill down to $0 because you will not get a rebate from the elec. co. if you generate more than you use, so there's no reason to give them free elec. I wish we had gotten one more panel ,though, because our bill still averages about $40/mo. year round and I wish it was lower (we have a pool which uses a TON).

Let me know if you have any more questions. Or, hey you're welcome to come over and take a look at it if you want. I'll show you how exciting it is to see it spinning backwards!

[DesireeH]

Cool thanks! I think I will call them. I am in Hemet so I dont know if they will come out this far but maybe they can refer me to a reputable company out here. The spinning backwards thing sounds awesome! That is so funny about your neighbors. :LOL


My brother is an electrician but I dont think he's ever done anything with solar. Hmm. I'll have to see if he knows about inverters, etc. It seems kind of expensive but I think I will just re-fi my house and get cash out since I have quite a bit of equity in my house anyways. I am excited! LOL

[mistisa]

desiree, i am in san diego and i have panels too. i agree w/ cornflake girl about getting the right amount of solar panels. i didnt quite research the whole thing as thoroughly as I should have and we just moved into the house so weren't aware of how much our bill really would be so we still pay some, less in the summer when there is more sun out, of course!

we went through the company that home depot contracts with, but there are tons out there. they do push the rebate factor in there to make it seem as if the price is lower, but you really need to look at it from your tax position.

for example, you get rebates from the state off the top but you can also claim a percentage (I belive) of the price on your state tax return. the thing with us is we have so many deductions, i dont even pay state tax, so i can't take that deduction. granted you have up to 7 years to use that deduction, which for us would have been about $2K, but so far, in the last 3 yrs, i have not claimed that deduction.

i believe we paid about $15K for our system....a lot to spend, but it does enhance the house, so if you take out a equity loan or home improvement loan, you can claim the deduction on your taxes!

[DesireeH]

Bumping this because we are going for it. I found out that there is a company called solarfinancing.com and they will finance it for 3.95%. It is through Real Goods/Gaiam website for California residents if anyone is interested.

[cornflake girl]

That is SO cool! You're going to love it!

BTW: I noticed you recently joined the IE yahoo group. I'm there, too, and didn't get a chance to welcome you - so, welcome! Maybe you'll get to come see our meter spin backwards after all if you come to a playdate.

"talk" to you soon.

[DesireeH]

Oh no! I just got a real actual quote from Revco because they are closer than the other company above and they said it will be 22,000 out of pocket (36,000 before all the rebates). EEK! That's high. The lady I talked to before made it sound like 10-15K. 15 is the absolute most I can do right now so we might have to hold off or find a different company.

I wonder if that is right. Our house is 1759 sq feet and our electric bill now ranges from 38 in winter to 118.00 in summer (with a/c....it gets up to 105 degrees out here in summer). He said it was for a 4.9 kw system giving us 7000 something kw a year? I wish I knew more about this to know what I really need to see if he is inflating it or anything.

I think I need to do more online research and check around with other companies.

[cornflake girl]

YIKES! That's a lot! That sounds like a GIGANTIC system.

Ok, I just got out all of our paperwork, and it looks like our system is 1.5kw giving us about 1100 kwh per year. But I swear this thing is not in english so maybe I'm not getting that right. Do you know how many panels that is for? We have 12 and it takes up almost our whole roof. Did he actually come to your house and see the roofline or did you just get the quote over the phone? Is it possible that your roof doesn't face south for maximum daytime exposure and so maybe you need more panels? Our elec. bill used to average about $100/mo. and now it's about $30-$40. Hmmm, something doesn't sound right to me. That just seems way too expensive.

Our out of pocket cost was just under $11k (rebate was $7k). I definitely would not have spent >$20k.

On a side note: we just had our taxes done and this is the first year we got to use some of the solar panel tax credit. I'm so excited!

[DesireeH]

No, he didnt actually come out. We only have the part on the garage that faces south but the majority of the roof faces east or west. We dont have any tall trees or anything shading us though since our neighborhood is only 2 years old the trees havent grown tall enough. LOL Our house is 1759 sq feet so I am guessing a 4.9 system would be too many panels anyways. I should just make him come out. LOL

That is so cool about your tax credit!!! YAY!

[cornflake girl]

Hmmm, that's weird that he would even give you a quote without seeing your roof. He told us that for maximum exposure the panels should be on a south facing roof, and that if they are put on a roof facing any other direction then you'd need more panels to compensate for less sun exposure. But how could he even know that without seeing your house? Sounds like he was just too lazy to drive all the way to Hemet. Shame on him.

[DesireeH]

I think so too. I am going to call a local company tomorrow. They probably wont mind driving 10 minutes for me. LOL