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If you don't mind me asking. How large is your house and what wass your average bill before installing solar
My house is right about 1900 sq feet. It's a colonial. Built in 2000.
My average bill was ~$190 per month, that's factored over 12 months.
I will be paying $146 per month, fixed for the next 20 years for the lease. I have two toddlers, we don't plan to move from this house for a long time. Even if I did, you can still transfer the lease to the new owner.
I included my bill below for your reference from last year.
I am going to be saving approx $540 per year, keep in mind that's just the first year, PSE&G/LIPA are sure to have constant increases year after year.
I have central air (5 ton) and a pool pump (non-variable speed) -- you can see how the summer bills spike into the $300s easily.
Keep firing questions at me, I enjoy discussing this stuff.
^^^ How much is it per month for the lease ? (I know its $40 less than your bill, but how much is it ?)
No other cost ? Installation ? New customer sign up ? any other ?
Hi Zulu:
No costs at signing
No costs for permits
No costs for architect
No costs for plans
No costs for site visits/analysis etc.
No costs for engineering/surveys etc
No costs for inspections
No costs for equipment
No costs for installation
No costs for materials
No costs for labor
Zero. Zero. No costs upfront.
The only thing you have to pay is your monthly lease payment.
It's a lease, it's designed to free up / maximize your cash flow.
I posted the financial structure above this post.
That's an export directly from PSE&G/LIPA. I can even scan the bills and post them here if people would like. Nothing to hide, full transparency. You can save money doing this.
I did pay about $1,800 (out of pocket), but that's because I had quite a few trees that needed to be topped. You can't have any shade with solar (obviously) as that affects your production. However that had nothing to do with Trinity Solar, it was in my best interest to trim/top the trees because you don't want your solar harvesting affected. If you don't have any shade issues on your roof then you're fine.
As you can see, my average costs per kWh from LIPA was around 20 cents (factored over 12 months). That figure is sure to increase over time.
I used 11,254 KWH last year. I am leasing a 10KWH system. There is a multiplier factor, the panels always produce a bit more than they are rated for. So I am using a multiplier of x1.3, so I'm covered for up to 13,000KHW by the panels.
The key is energy conservation before you go solar, I had switched out every light bulb in the house to CFL and some LEDs, installed wireless switches to turn off "phantom power" (TVs, audio receiver etc.) before going to bed at night. Everything adds up.
Seeing that leasing is running near $100-140/mo., that wouldn't be too great a deal for us. Did you figure out how much it would cost to purchase the panels instead? Do they need to be replaced/maintained every X years? Are there upfront costs for that or is it the same zero cost?
Seeing that leasing is running near $100-140/mo., that wouldn't be too great a deal for us. Did you figure out how much it would cost to purchase the panels instead? Do they need to be replaced/maintained every X years? Are there upfront costs for that or is it the same zero cost?
rh71:
It all depends on your electrical consumption. What works for me most likely won't work for you. If you check your LIPA consumption for 2013 you can get an approximate sized solar system to cover you. I went for a zero offset setup which means that I pay a little more, but still under my current usage so I will have an electrical bill from LIPA every month in which I only pay a subsidy/tariff fee of around $8-12.
There are different sized systems so most likely the one for your usage will be less expensive than mine.
To purchase the panels and everything up front would be ~36-37k. I would also need to add it to my homeowners insurance and then have to worry about any maintenance required including inverter replacement which can be expensive ($3000 - $5000 per inverter).
Panels do not need to be replaced, there is about a 0.5 -1 % loss every year, at the end of 20 years you're still generating 80% of the rated capacity.
If you wanted to do a purchase, you'd need to come up with the money, there are significant discounts, more so than with leasing. With my lease, while they insure and cover all maintenance, my deduction for the following tax year is $5,000 -- versus purchase, there is a 30% Federal solar tax credit claim allowable for a new system including installation.
I heard the solar leasing was a total sham. Tons of articles online about that.
Well I have had them for six months now and if it's a total sham then I am ok with that because thst sham is saving me a lot of money! My electric bills are a fraction of what they were!
Well I have had them for six months now and if it's a total sham then I am ok with that because thst sham is saving me a lot of money! My electric bills are a fraction of what they were!
I see the town of Huntington is now promoting solar on Channel FIOS 38 wondering how much money is being channeled to board members for this ???
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