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Was thinking about putting solar panels on the new house, but I can't find much information on cost savings and how long it would take to recoup the costs involved with installation. Our house is two story, with the two largest parts of the roofs facing due east and due west, all with no tree blockage. Seems like we would be a prime candidate for a medium to large panel set up the would collect the solar rays very well.
Has anyone here recently done a solar install and if so what sort of $$ figures did you come up with ??
Was thinking about putting solar panels on the new house, but I can't find much information on cost savings and how long it would take to recoup the costs involved with installation. Our house is two story, with the two largest parts of the roofs facing due east and due west, all with no tree blockage. Seems like we would be a prime candidate for a medium to large panel set up the would collect the solar rays very well.
Has anyone here recently done a solar install and if so what sort of $$ figures did you come up with ??
Thanks
Take your monthly LIPA bill, divide that by the cost for the solar panels. That's how long it would take to break even.
To me, its not worth it to me.
My parents ran the numbers recently on their current home, and found that it would take approximately 17 years for the solar panels to "pay for themselves." Since they're planning on retiring and relocating in 5-10 years, they opted not to install. (I should also note their house is small, so their LIPA bill is generally in the $150/month range, which I understand is on the relatively inexpensive side for the average homeowner.)
LIPA is more or less out of rebate money so getting anywhere near a reasonable ROI is very hard right now. That should change again but who knows when. They slashed solar rebates in the budget and made it harder for residential solar contractors. They are adding a lot of public solar but have really put the squeeze on assisting homeowners with solar installations.
Solar panels sound like a good idea but not practical. My neighbor once had his roof replaced and wouldn't have the guys reinstall the dish onto his roof because he didn't want to break the integrity of the roof shingles. Points to ponder. How many struts would have to be nailed through the roof shingles to support a bank of solar panels? Also what if the roof needs replacement? What if there is another hail storm like what happened in new hyde park area 2 years ago and destroys the solar panels? Alternatives would be to install solar panels on the ground next to your house if you have a large enough backyard....
We went solar last year - over all happy... here's my experience....
Research company's looking for the best price. There were many company's that wanted to setup a 2nd mortgage to pay for everything. I liked Long Island Power Solutions, he was quick researching my property, didn't go with him because they didn't offer any payment assistance or with the LIPA rebate. Went with A-Best Energy they had a better price plus could roll a portion of the price into the LIPA rebate, also broke down out the pocket into payments.
Originally was informed it would take approximately 90 days. It took six months for the installation, it involved filing for the LIPA rebates, having an architect filing a building permit. At 4 months was informed the German vendor had stopped making the panels we had ordered. Had to switch to a different vendor - Coenergy Inc. Sacramento, CA.
In September one week before the expiration of the LIPA application - had two large shipments (on pallets) delivered. One of the boxes was damaged. In reviewing the Bill of Lading with the driver discovered items were missing. Immediately was on the phone with Coenergy, emailing pictures of the damaged shipment. In two days received replacements, happy with their fast response time.
A-Best-Energy - they were quick,, clean, and very professional. They answered all our questions. Even doing follow up calls after the install.
Final price for (20) 4,800 Kw panels plus new electrical box installed was $21,000. Less LIPA rebate $8400, out of pocket $12,600. (three installments of $1500, $4800, $6300) This years taxes filed Federal $6300 and State $5250 rebated. With our tax refund and what we got back in rebates figured it cost me around $4800 out of pocket.
We had a major issue with LIPA due to Hurricane Sandy. Prior to solar we were on a balance billing payment plan. LIPA came and installed a new digital meter, we went full solar power in October. We paid our normal September payment, then in October was doubled charged. In November we argued many times with different people at LIPA. Finally in March of this year straighten every thing out. We finally received a credit.
My wife is a teacher so she's been off for the summer, plus my college son is been home. They had two air conditioners running, plus both have a habit on leaving lights, computers, TV's on. Our roof doesn't get direct sunlight until 11:00am due to large trees in the back yard - the wife doesn't want to cut down. So there is a lot of room to save more....
Some days the meter goes backwards (especially on bright days). Comparing what on balance billing was to our net meter billing. Years past averaged $8.23 daily, so far this year averaging $1.57 daily. What I spent out of pocket for solar to what I'm now spending now, figuring 7/8 years before seeing a return.
Hope this help you and others, have any questions PM me..
......
Last edited by Modification Specialist; 09-03-2013 at 02:23 PM..
We went solar last year - over all happy... here's my experience....
Research company's looking for the best price. There were many company's that wanted to setup a 2nd mortgage to pay for everything. I liked Long Island Power Solutions, he was quick researching my property, didn't go with him because they didn't offer any payment assistance or with the LIPA rebate. Went with A-Best Energy they had a better price plus could roll a portion of the price into the LIPA rebate, also broke down out the pocket into payments.
Originally was informed on it took approximately 90 days to install solar power. From the initial signing of the contract took six months for the installation to take place. It involved filing for the LIPA rebates, and having an architect filing a building permit. At 4 months was informed the German vendor had stopped making the panels we had ordered. Had to switch to a different vendor - Coenergy Inc. Sacramento, CA.
In September one week before our LIPA application was set to expire - had two large shipments (on pallets) delivered. One of the boxes was damaged. In reviewing the Bill of Lading with the driver discovered items were missing. Immediately was on the phone with Coenergy, emailing pictures of the damaged shipment. In two days received replacements, happy with their fast response time.
A-Best-Energy did our installation - they were quick,, clean, and very professional. They answered all our questions. Evening doing follow up calls after the install.
Final price for (20) 4,800 Kw panels into was $21,000. Less LIPA rebate $8400, out of pocket $12,600. (three installments of $1500, $4800, $6300) This years taxes filed Federal $6300 and State $5250 rebated. With our tax refund and what we got back in rebates figured it cost me around $4800 out of pocket.
We had a major issue with LIPA due to Hurricane Sandy. Prior to solar we were on a balance billing payment plan. LIPA came and installed a new digital meter, we went full solar power in October. We paid our normal September payment, then in October was doubled charged. In November we argued many times with different people at LIPA. Finally in March of this year straighten every thing out. We finally received a credit.
My wife is a teacher so she's been off for the summer, plus my college son is been home. They had two air conditioners running, plus both have a habit on leaving lights, computers, TV's on. Our roof doesn't get direct sunlight untill 11:00am due to large trees in the back yard - the wife doesn't want to cut down. So there is a lot of room to save more....
Some days the meter goes backwards (especially on bright days). Comparing what on balance billing was to our net meter billing. Years past averaged $8.23 daily, so far this year averaging $1.57 daily. What I spent out of pocket for solar to what I'm now spending now, figuring 8 years before seeing a return.
Hope this help you and others, have any questions PM me..
We went solar last year - over all happy... here's my experience....
Research company's looking for the best price. There were many company's that wanted to setup a 2nd mortgage to pay for everything. I liked Long Island Power Solutions, he was quick researching my property, didn't go with him because they didn't offer any payment assistance or with the LIPA rebate. Went with A-Best Energy they had a better price plus could roll a portion of the price into the LIPA rebate, also broke down out the pocket into payments.
Originally was informed it would take approximately 90 days. It took six months for the installation, it involved filing for the LIPA rebates, having an architect filing a building permit. At 4 months was informed the German vendor had stopped making the panels we had ordered. Had to switch to a different vendor - Coenergy Inc. Sacramento, CA.
In September one week before the expiration of the LIPA application - had two large shipments (on pallets) delivered. One of the boxes was damaged. In reviewing the Bill of Lading with the driver discovered items were missing. Immediately was on the phone with Coenergy, emailing pictures of the damaged shipment. In two days received replacements, happy with their fast response time.
A-Best-Energy - they were quick,, clean, and very professional. They answered all our questions. Even doing follow up calls after the install.
Final price for (20) 4,800 Kw panels plus new electrical box installed was $21,000. Less LIPA rebate $8400, out of pocket $12,600. (three installments of $1500, $4800, $6300) This years taxes filed Federal $6300 and State $5250 rebated. With our tax refund and what we got back in rebates figured it cost me around $4800 out of pocket.
We had a major issue with LIPA due to Hurricane Sandy. Prior to solar we were on a balance billing payment plan. LIPA came and installed a new digital meter, we went full solar power in October. We paid our normal September payment, then in October was doubled charged. In November we argued many times with different people at LIPA. Finally in March of this year straighten every thing out. We finally received a credit.
My wife is a teacher so she's been off for the summer, plus my college son is been home. They had two air conditioners running, plus both have a habit on leaving lights, computers, TV's on. Our roof doesn't get direct sunlight until 11:00am due to large trees in the back yard - the wife doesn't want to cut down. So there is a lot of room to save more....
Some days the meter goes backwards (especially on bright days). Comparing what on balance billing was to our net meter billing. Years past averaged $8.23 daily, so far this year averaging $1.57 daily. What I spent out of pocket for solar to what I'm now spending now, figuring 7/8 years before seeing a return.
Hope this help you and others, have any questions PM me..
......
Thanks for the information. We are closing on a house with 28 solar panels and we're excited to see what its all about. We never planned on having a house with one, but it seems pretty cool.
You may want to check out leasing. I don't have any personal experience or know anything about it but my friend is looking into it and said it was a good deal for them!
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