No solar?

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Hoonose

That would be silly. Mine are now 10 years old, and have paid for themselves. 20 years is just too long. They must have eliminated some subsidies?

I used the numbers that were provided by the company that was trying to sell them to me. Why would they understate the savings.

[Hoonose]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

I used the numbers that were provided by the company that was trying to sell them to me. Why would they understate the savings.

Of they wouldn't. When I installed in 2009 after the crash solar was my single best investment prospect. Roughly 10% tax free while raising the value of your house.

[Movn-on]

We moved from California where our cost per kwh was about $.37 and our bills were routinely in the $500-$1000 per month range. Solar made complete sense and the roi was only a few years. We moved to AZ where the kWh cost was a fraction of what we paid before. It would take way too long to recoup the investment here for us and in the meantime, our electricity bills are very reasonable. Not much incentive to put up all that money at this point. We can sit back and wait until solar improves and get the latest technology when it makes sense for us.

[DrDog]

Originally Posted by ceteague

Checking into Arizona for retirement and am seeing higher than CA utility rates and no solar on roofs? Seems odd. What am I missing.

Maybe a little more info would be helpful. Are you buying or renting? Apartment, condo, or house? What city?
If you don’t find solar, you’re not looking very hard.

[veritased]

re solar, let me ask. Alot of these AZ yards seem to have lots of open space... have we thought about putting solar panels across part or even much of the backyard, maybe stood up about 3-5 feet off the ground, and could that be a good way to put panels up without disrupting your roof and make it easier to upgrade to new technologies ?

[Hoonose]

Originally Posted by veritased

re solar, let me ask. Alot of these AZ yards seem to have lots of open space... have we thought about putting solar panels across part or even much of the backyard, maybe stood up about 3-5 feet off the ground, and could that be a good way to put panels up without disrupting your roof and make it easier to upgrade to new technologies ?

It is uncommonly done. Mostly because of aesthetics. I have a friend that did 14KW that way on a hidden slope.

Of course utilities do it that way.

[fluffythewondercat]

Originally Posted by veritased

re solar, let me ask. Alot of these AZ yards seem to have lots of open space... have we thought about putting solar panels across part or even much of the backyard, maybe stood up about 3-5 feet off the ground, and could that be a good way to put panels up without disrupting your roof and make it easier to upgrade to new technologies ?

Does your HOA allow that?

I think you will find that solar won't be worth the money invested. APS changed the net metering rules a few years back. People who already had solar were grandfathered in. If you switch to solar now, APS puts you on a Time-of-Use plan, which means that from 3 to 8 pm, you'll be paying through the nose for electricity.

https://www.sunrun.com/solar-by-stat...port-rate-plan

[veritased]

Interesting, thanks Fluffy.

HOA doesn't seem to specifically forbid that... I read pretty much every line, and I presume they could decline to approve the proposal, but again, nothing in the HOA rules call out such a solar panel construction as verboten.

But good to know about the rate plan... will learn about it.

[Hoonose]

Originally Posted by veritased

Interesting, thanks Fluffy.

HOA doesn't seem to specifically forbid that... I read pretty much every line, and I presume they could decline to approve the proposal, but again, nothing in the HOA rules call out such a solar panel construction as verboten.

But good to know about the rate plan... will learn about it.

It has been a law for a few years now at least in AZ that HOA's cannot rule against residential solar.