Solar power (Phoenix: credit, hoa, maintenance)

[Dazgaz]

Why is there not more solar power being used in the valley? It seems to make sense to me that everyone should benefit from "free" electricity by installing solar power, but there appears to be minimal use of it. Can anyone shed any light on this? No pun intended

[sablebaby]

I think it costs a lot to install? It's funny though, I don't know a single person (lived here my whole life) who has ever mentioned this anywhere. I do see an occasional home with solar, but it is very rare. I'd also like to hear the opinions from others.

[Ponderosa]

In the last energy crunch (early 80s) many houses in Phoenix were fitted with solar water heaters and pool heaters. There was even a subdivision built in west Phoenix where the homes had solar panels that fed the grid and the homeowners got money back from APS if they generated more than they used. Solar was huge and there were all kinds of companies - good and bad - in on the act. Anyone remember SolaHart? HOAs were stopped from banning collectors on rooftops (still are, I believe). The solar boom was fueled by big subsidies from the state in the form of tax credits. Over the years, of course, we all lost interest in conservation as the price of fuel fell. The solar collectors broke and were replaced with regular appliances and we sold our homes and moved further out to new ones without subsidies to offset the cost.

[azloafer]

I checked into solar and found that I would never get to a break-even point in my lifetime. The initial cost is so high and then later part replacement negates any profit at all. One of my neighbors did have it installed and 15 years later it was all in need of repair and they had it removed because they never realized enough of a savings to even cover repairs. Anything that is not metal gets eaten up by the sun!

[brittZ]

Originally Posted by azloafer

I checked into solar and found that I would never get to a break-even point in my lifetime. The initial cost is so high and then later part replacement negates any profit at all. One of my neighbors did have it installed and 15 years later it was all in need of repair and they had it removed because they never realized enough of a savings to even cover repairs. Anything that is not metal gets eaten up by the sun!

Isn't it kind of ironic that there isnt more solar power in the Valley because the sun is so strong it ruins the solar panels. Guess we need industrial strength

[irwin]

All the subsidies go to the traditional dirty energy generation. Sad, but you get the government you vote for.

[azzarazona]

I wondered the same thing when we moved to Arizona. Our HOA does not allow solar panels. I have no idea why.

[AksarbeN]

I thought about some solar water heating back in the early 80’s when I moved here now the technologies are improved and there are some real paybacks over several years with less maintenance. I would hope that the state government would go back to giving credits in incentives to install the units now.

HOAs seem to ban too many things and have too much control over those who live there.

[jodymu]

when we first moved here in 1991 we bought a house on Mc Cormick Ranch that was built in 1979. It had a passive solar water heater on the roof. It worked great - we had tons of hot water. Our electric water heater never ran in the summer. We were lucky, though. I heard people had problems with them cracking. The water in the summer was so hot = it was hotter that what we had out heater set at...
We've also used solatubes in a few houses and loved them (they in natural light, but no heat)