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Because you do not get the tax credit-the leasing company does. Your missing out on thousands of dollars.
Trust me, I bought a house that has Tesla solar panels that are leased. Their customer service SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS. Our lease payment is $77 and the highest bill we had in winter running the heat at 69 was $80. I live in Denver
I had Tesla on the house I sold. You're right, the service sucks, but I saved big time on my bills (over $500/month in the summer months). Whenever, I had a problem, they notified me before I knew about it, but they were hard to get in touch with. They system was/is reliable. Personally, I would not avoid purchasing a home with a Tesla System because the savings in AZ is so great.
I've not done the math, but I'm not sure that the tax credit is motivation enough for me to get up off of $30k. Especially, when I would not live a house long enough to hit the break even point.
Main issue with lease is new owner would need to agree to take over the lease
Why would they not? The alternative is to revert to those super high (at least in AZ) bills and a thermostat set at 80. With solar, I can open the doors, run the A/C, have the thermostat set at 65, while running the washer and drying in the middle of the day, with the refrigerator door (and freezer) open.
Why would they not? The alternative is to revert to those super high (at least in AZ) bills and a thermostat set at 80. With solar, I can open the doors, run the A/C, have the thermostat set at 65, while running the washer and drying in the middle of the day, with the refrigerator door (and freezer) open.
Because people do not want to have something that they rent for the rest of their life.
Why would they not? The alternative is to revert to those super high (at least in AZ) bills and a thermostat set at 80. With solar, I can open the doors, run the A/C, have the thermostat set at 65, while running the washer and drying in the middle of the day, with the refrigerator door (and freezer) open.
The problem with the lease from my prospective is that it does not maximize the savings for the life of the panels. When we were home shopping I didn't want a house with leased solar. We were looking for one we wanted it to either have an owned system or no system at all. The lease deals typically save you 15-50% annually on your electric bill. The owned systems when sized right can completely eliminate your eliminate your solar bill so you're just paying the loan for 10 -12 years at a cost less than you were paying monthly for electricity.
Our break even is less than six years. If for some reason we sell the house before six years then that is just a risk we are willing to take. We can also try to price the house 5-10K higher then comps without solar to get some of that money back too.
I had Tesla on the house I sold. You're right, the service sucks, but I saved big time on my bills (over $500/month in the summer months). Whenever, I had a problem, they notified me before I knew about it, but they were hard to get in touch with. They system was/is reliable. Personally, I would not avoid purchasing a home with a Tesla System because the savings in AZ is so great.
I've not done the math, but I'm not sure that the tax credit is motivation enough for me to get up off of $30k. Especially, when I would not live a house long enough to hit the break even point.
I can't get ahold of anyone. I seriously sat on hold on the phone for 2 hours one time. My emails are taking weeks to get responded to and when they do, it's generic BS.
They still have the old owner on the account and are not automatic debiting our account. It's a total nightmare
it seems to me that if you finance 100% of the system and your monthly loan payment isnt less than your average monthly electricity savings, its probably not worth buying the system.
it seems to me that if you finance 100% of the system and your monthly loan payment isnt less than your average monthly electricity savings, its probably not worth buying the system.
Only depending on the length of the loan. If you have a 6 year breakeven and a four year loan, your payments will exceed your savings but it's still a worthwhile endeavor as the system will last 20+ years and you'll get 16+ years of free electricity.
My system happens to be net positive every month because I have a 5.5 year breakeven and a 12 year low-interest loan, but I had the option to pay less overall for the system and get a 3 year loan; that would have made each month a loss until the loan was paid off. I ran the numbers and decided that I put more in my pocket with the higher cost low interest loan for the longer period, but it's hard to make blanket statements since everyone's case is different.
it seems to me that if you finance 100% of the system and your monthly loan payment isnt less than your average monthly electricity savings, its probably not worth buying the system.
Not exactly true. Our rainy day fund and overall savings (not retirement) is in a Fidelity account with a 10 year average rate of return at 14.83%. The finance package we received through the State of Montana was 4% for 100% of our system- which was about $14,000 over a 5 year term.
Even though the monthly solar loan payment is marginally more than my monthly utility savings, I would have been worse off to use my own money in this case- I make up for that in my funds rate of return by a fair margin. We simply earmarked that $14,000 MUST be never touched out of our Fidelity fund for 5 years.
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