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Old 02-02-2023, 01:13 PM
 
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According to the app that's hooked up to the system, yesterday and today's level of sun and production cover almost 100% of my daily average use.
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Old 02-02-2023, 02:51 PM
 
Location: Newburyport, MA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by simplexsimon View Post
According to the app that's hooked up to the system, yesterday and today's level of sun and production cover almost 100% of my daily average use.
Nice! We've had little snow this season, but I'd also be curious to know how many days of a normal winter that snow is covering these rooftop panels.

I am planning to build a small retirement cottage in Maine - when I retire, likely in 2 years, and am thinking hard on a standing seam metal roof with rooftop solar, plus a cold climate heat pump and a good insulation/air sealing package. The panels and roof might well last as long as I do.
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Old 02-06-2023, 11:51 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by timberline742 View Post
You could look at a lease system to avoid that gamble, and avoid upfront costs.
Good luck selling the house with this if the buyer wouldn’t want to assume your project - besides other serious limitations
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Old 02-06-2023, 11:53 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by robr2 View Post
Leasing or a power generation contract is the least cost effective method of going solar. Buy it upfront and eliminate the hassle of possible liens and long term contracts.

The warranty is on the equipment and a good manufacturer should be around.
Doubt the manufacturer would still be in the game and good luck getting your warranty.
Read the fine print.
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Old 02-07-2023, 09:38 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OutdoorLover View Post
Nice! We've had little snow this season, but I'd also be curious to know how many days of a normal winter that snow is covering these rooftop panels.

I am planning to build a small retirement cottage in Maine - when I retire, likely in 2 years, and am thinking hard on a standing seam metal roof with rooftop solar, plus a cold climate heat pump and a good insulation/air sealing package. The panels and roof might well last as long as I do.
Metal roofs can still leak and be loud during rainfall. You also will slip from the room if you are working on it. This is as far as I heard, I am sure there are special methods to sound reduce the metal roof. Also, there are moisture issues under metal roof causing mold - potentially. Unless you know how to engineer all of those, you may get the roof and end up with problem in ten years.. who knows. When people try to play their own architect, they end up with unexpected problems. Instead, you want to get the standard building stuff that has been tested over decades by millions of people. So get a good architect/contractor and proven house plan you have seen standing in place - none of that imagine stuff. My relative designed his own house and it lacks privacy and I would hate to live there. He thought open floor plan was great because it looks nice in a magazine - turns out you can hear everyone in the house fart and sneeze because of it and can't sleep there.
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Old 02-07-2023, 11:31 AM
 
Location: Newburyport, MA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stevepumpkinman View Post
Metal roofs can still leak and be loud during rainfall. You also will slip from the room if you are working on it. This is as far as I heard, I am sure there are special methods to sound reduce the metal roof. Also, there are moisture issues under metal roof causing mold - potentially. Unless you know how to engineer all of those, you may get the roof and end up with problem in ten years.. who knows. When people try to play their own architect, they end up with unexpected problems. Instead, you want to get the standard building stuff that has been tested over decades by millions of people. So get a good architect/contractor and proven house plan you have seen standing in place - none of that imagine stuff. My relative designed his own house and it lacks privacy and I would hate to live there. He thought open floor plan was great because it looks nice in a magazine - turns out you can hear everyone in the house fart and sneeze because of it and can't sleep there.
Well, I won't be getting up there anymore at my age. I am sure there can be leaking issues with improper installation - that's also true for asphalt roofs - for example if they screw up the flashing, which isn't rare. I had a 15yo condo here in Newburyport when I first moved to this area that I bought and it had skylight leaks on the 3rd floor loft space... it turned out that the crew that built the house never installed the flashing properly around those skylights, which were fine. A roofer identified the trouble, flashed it properly, and that was that.

Last edited by OutdoorLover; 02-07-2023 at 11:45 AM..
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Old 02-07-2023, 11:58 AM
 
Location: Los Angeles
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This could also happen in your state.
https://www.city-data.com/forum/poli...its-solar.html

Looks like a huge scam by California on it's residence.
Be careful when it comes to solar, be very careful.
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Old 02-07-2023, 12:21 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CALGUY View Post
This could also happen in your state.
https://www.city-data.com/forum/poli...its-solar.html

Looks like a huge scam by California on it's residence.
Be careful when it comes to solar, be very careful.
I had to look up what program they're referring to. It looks like in California, they pay you for surplus energy produced, which they reconcile on a 12-month billing cycle. Additionally, the article says this is for new solar installs, not current customers so the people up in arms about this in the thread you linked didn't understand that or didn't read the article.

In MA the SMART program pays you a certain incentive rate for all energy produced but there is a 10-year expiration starting from when the system's turned on. The incentive rate depends on when you get your solar installed and declines in blocks as more solar projects go online. The incentive rate will be zero for new builds once a certain solar capacity is met (I think I read it's 3,200 MW). My fixed incentive rate is about $0.04/kWh produced. It's something, but doesn't significantly alter the breakeven calculation I mentioned earlier in the thread.

I can't say MA won't do anything to change things, but it sounds like MA already thought about ways to sunset the incentives compared to CA.
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Old 12-07-2023, 07:45 AM
 
Location: Newburyport, MA
12,387 posts, read 9,493,040 times
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A nice review by Marques Brownlee of the Tesla Solar Roof system. Brownlee had been an owner for a full year at his house in NJ when he made this video. He speaks cogently and the review is based on first-hand experience. Lots of interesting details here.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJeSWbR6W04
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