Rooftop solar in Georgia (Atlanta: house, buying, low cost)

[Soccernerd]

My family and I are in the process of moving to Atlanta. I'm interested in installing solar panels on our roof, and so I've been considering roof pitch and amount of exposure to sunlight in our house hunt. We eventually will get a plug in hybrid vehicle and perhaps a full electric car in the future. My husband was thinking of installing them himself (he's an engineer and is pretty mechanically and electrically minded), but there's a lot involved and we want to do it correctly. We would connect into the grid. Have you done solar? Are there any incentives in Georgia to install solar? Do you recommend any installers? I understand the economics aren't quite there yet i.e. one can invest x number of dollars and see a higher rate of return than the electric bill savings, but I think we need to use more renewable energy.

[Mattie]

My brother, in Chandler Park, did both the outlet for an electric car and solar panels this year. He hasn't gotten the car yet, there's an availability issue he said. He also said it will take years to recoup his investment in the solar panels, but he wanted to do it. I'll see if I can get a recommendation for installers when he returns from vacation in a week or so.

[LTCM]

I need to get a few projects done while it's light out.

I'll try to respond tonight or maybe tomorrow.

[ca2dfw]

I recently moved from CA to GA and found that the economics of solar panels in GA is not viable compared to places like in CA.

I had solar panels in CA. The cost of electricity in CA in the higher tiers is around 3x that in GA, so the payback period in CA is manageable.

If you want to support renewable energy, there might be other ways to do it. For example, the utility might have a "green power rider". Here's the one from Sawnee EMC

https://www.sawnee.com/content/green-power

[Soccernerd]

Originally Posted by ca2dfw

I recently moved from CA to GA and found that the economics of solar panels in GA is not viable compared to places like in CA.

I had solar panels in CA. The cost of electricity in CA in the higher tiers is around 3x that in GA, so the payback period in CA is manageable.

If you want to support renewable energy, there might be other ways to do it. For example, the utility might have a "green power rider". Here's the one from Sawnee EMC

https://www.sawnee.com/content/green-power

I was kinda thinking that. I just thought since we will likely buying plug-in electric (we're thinking of buying a Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid down the road provided there aren't serious problems that crop up in them) and electric vehicles in the future that it might be worth it.

[evannole]

I looked into adding solar panels to our house as well, and was surprised that the estimated payback time would be over 30 years. I suspect that this is, in part, because our roof isn't very large relative to the size of the house, which is 3 stories tall, plus a basement, so we have a pretty large area to air condition and light without a lot of roof on which to mount panels. That, combined with the relatively low cost of electricity in Georgia and relatively paltry solar rebates and subsidies here, seems to make it a non-starter for us at the moment. Here's hoping that the cost of solar continues to fall and that this becomes a financially attractive option in the not-too-distant future.