Solar: Is It Worth It?

[wase4711]

it still seems undersized; is there a pool? Are all the appliances electric? How old is the AC unit?
orignal windows or newer ones? Any insulation in the attic? 2 story or single story?

Unless you can get the last 12 months of the current owners electric bill, you have no real way of knowing how big of a system the house actually needs to cover the electric bill 12 months per year.
Most owners dont want to provide their last 12 months, and APS won't release that info to you either, but if you insist on it because of the solar situation, they might

[EEngineer]

Originally Posted by wase4711

it still seems undersized; is there a pool? Are all the appliances electric? How old is the AC unit?
orignal windows or newer ones? Any insulation in the attic? 2 story or single story?

Unless you can get the last 12 months of the current owners electric bill, you have no real way of knowing how big of a system the house actually needs to cover the electric bill 12 months per year.
Most owners dont want to provide their last 12 months, and APS won't release that info to you either, but if you insist on it because of the solar situation, they might

There is no pool. There is no natural gas. AC unit age I am not sure. Windows seem newer. Insulation level to be verified. Single Story. Its kind of a gamble - the system has only been in place since Oct 2019. If I buy this house (possible), I will provide all the months of data I collect and show how much the system actually saves or loses, and if it loses $X per month, I would offer to make up for that amount in the sale because if I know how something really works, I can't lie to people.

[IowaViking]

Originally Posted by EEngineer

I know we have had some posters on this thread with extremely positive outlooks on their leases, and I would like to learn more about what I am missing. Maybe in the summer, the solar credits go up so high that it will feel like a great blessing to cancel out more of my AC usage, and I just didn't bother to model that out and see.

It is sort of like looking to buy a house, and at the last minute you find out that a timeshare comes with it. One of the houses that we looked at, the owner said that he could have the system moved to his own house. So it was obvious that others had balked at it (or that it was such a great deal that he wanted to keep it for himself). All you need to do is look at the hucksters that were selling solar. Even if the technical fundamentals were strong, and the economics looked ok, you felt like you were being hustled. I don't care for those type of sales folks- they were selling timeshares last decade, then solar, and probably variable annuities tomorrow. They are only interested in the commission.

A new system might be more attractive than an older one, simply because there have been improvements in efficiency, materials, converters, etc. One of the basics would be to look at the brand of the converter, and study up on the reliability experience and the cost to replace. The salesman will squeak about how it is covered by warranty (are you able to find the details and exceptions in the 38 page lease?), but that all means squat if the company is spun off and goes bankrupt in a few years. Would you lease a new car on a 25 year lease?

I know of several folks who have installed their own panels, and use the system to run a mini-split to provide additional cooling during the summer, and miscellaneous electricity during the winter. They are very pleased with the results. I could see doing something like that. It keeps coming back to- why would I sign up for a 25 year lease on a relatively new technology?

[wase4711]

we bought ours, didn't like the idea of the leasing company calling the shots, and, we got an almost 8000 federal tax credit for it.
It produces enough energy year round, so that we never pay more than the monthly service fees from APS, and, its nice to know I can set my AC to 70 degrees if I want to and not worry about a 300+ dollar electric bill

Same long term warranty as you get on a lease, and, I get all the tax breaks and control; it was a no brainer for me, and I dont ever have a pool/2 story house or any that other power draining stuff

Since there is no guarantee on how much or how little APS can and will raise their rates, it made total sense for us.

We used a company that was in business for almost 50 years, has been doing solar over 25 years, is vertically integrated with their own roofing division, structural eng, folks, and we had a few project managers assigned to our job.

If the roof needs repair, which, almost always means the paper under neath the tiles need to be replaced, not the tiles themselves, they can easily do it, (obviously at a cost) its nice to have the same company who is responsible for the unit to be also in charge of removing/replacing it after roof work.

[bobsell]

If solar is bad with APS, is it also as bad with SRP?