LIB,MR BEARS said:
BellCountyBear said:
I got them in January and had a negative-balance electric bill last month. They also saved me about $10k on my income taxes.
how many square feet on the roof ( or are they measured another way)?
How does it impact your insurance regarding wind or hail damage?
Is there a useful life to the solar panels?
What other questions am I not asking that I should be?
They look at your annual electric bill then size the KW needed to take out your bill or come in slightly lower than your annual bill. Most places it doesn't pay to over produce since the utility might only pay you 2 or 3 cents per KW hour for excess production. Say you average $200 per month or $2,400 annually spent on your electric bill they will then decide how many panels you need to produce that much annually.
Most panels will still produce at 80% of their original production after 25-30 years of use. Damn hard to damage them in a hail storm.
A lot depends on which way your roof slopes, if there are trees in the way etc. Still not convinced they are a good deal yet. Let's say it cost $30,000 after the ITC to put on your roof. At $2,400 per year it will take at least 12 years to pay them off. If you plan to be in your house for 25 years it might make sense. The one thing I haven't added in is that electric bills seem to rise around 3 to 5% per year so that will work in your favor. So take that $2,400 and increase it by 3% annually and that will shorten the payoff.
Make sure you have a great warranty and especially make sure you have a good warranty on the inverter(s) they use. Inverters are not cheap to replace. Your panels produce DC current so you need an inverter to turn the current into AC so it can be fed to the grid. Some systems have inline inverters on each panel so if one inverter goes out your whole system doesn't go out. If you have only one large inverter for the entire system and it goes out then you are producing no power until the inverter is replaced. Fronius makes good inverters and they have been around for quite some time. I'd stay away from some no name product.
https://www.cleanenergyreviews.info/blog/best-grid-connect-solar-inverters-sma-fronius-solaredge-abbhttps://thephoenixsun.com/solar-inverter-manufacturers/
