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Neither a swimming pool nor solar panels are investments. See a financial planner.
On the other hand if you wish to improve the way you live either may be personally, but not financially, rewarding.
We added a pool and a solar system to our home. Both are an improvement and are rewarding to us. Investments allowed us to add these to our home. We never considered either as a way to make money.
We live in FL where pool homes are desired, but we have no plans on selling. We thought a pool would be nice for the grandkids and family. It is, but it’s a godsend for us. We work in our garden and do our own yard work year round, even during our six month long summer. Knowing we can use the outside shower and cool off in the pool is the dangling carrot that helps motivate us to be outside instead of sitting in the AC. The ambiance of our pool area has added another dimension to our enjoyment. It is an extension of our living area with a pool enclosure.
The solar panels are our back up power in outages. We are grid-tied, but with battery back up and newer hybrid inverter technology, we can run solar in an outage. We have no natural gas available in our neighborhood. We looked at whole house propane generators and for the cost, more money for a solar system that we use daily instead of a costly propane system sitting while waiting for an outage made more sense to us. Our monthly bill for our all electric house is $9.36. That is the cost of being tied to the grid + tax.
The pool will not give a return other than possibly a quicker sale if we ever sell. The solar system as an investment remains to be seen, but it is fulfilling its purpose as back up power and not totally relying upon our grid.
There are very few cases where solar panels will have a 10 year payback. Think about it. A lot more people would have them. Even if they had to take out another loan.
There are very few cases where solar panels will have a 10 year payback. Think about it. A lot more people would have them. Even if they had to take out another loan.
It's state specific, actually even more local than that. The single most important factor in the payback period is the cost of electric, and the second largest factor is government incentives. If you are in a very high cost of electric region, then solar payback is extremely short. Also another huge factor is whether you get pure net metering, or a watered down tariff system.
Where I live, our electric is insanely expensive- 23.5c per KwH. Additionally, our state government gives an additional incentive on top of the federal incentive. Lastly, we have pure net metering. Accordingly, everyone in the Con Edison region of NY state is insane not to get solar. The break-even can be even shorter than 5 years depending on your roof orientation.
However, about 50 miles away from me, across state lines where the incentives are smaller, the electric costs are lower, and the net metering is tariff-based (i.e. you sell electric for less than you pay to buy electric), break-even can be over 10 years.
One last point- people keep talking about roof replacement as if it somehow destroys the investment. When I purchased solar, they pre-negotiated the fee to remove and replace the panels should I ever need to redo my roof- it's $2k ($1k to remove and $1k to replace). Not a big deal. The most expensive part of a solar installation is the equipment, wiring and permitting; mounting the panels on the roof is just a few hours labor.
It's state specific, actually even more local than that. The single most important factor in the payback period is the cost of electric, and the second largest factor is government incentives. If you are in a very high cost of electric region, then solar payback is extremely short. Also another huge factor is whether you get pure net metering, or a watered down tariff system.
Where I live, our electric is insanely expensive- 23.5c per KwH. Additionally, our state government gives an additional incentive on top of the federal incentive. Lastly, we have pure net metering. Accordingly, everyone in the Con Edison region of NY state is insane not to get solar. The break-even can be even shorter than 5 years depending on your roof orientation.
However, about 50 miles away from me, across state lines where the incentives are smaller, the electric costs are lower, and the net metering is tariff-based (i.e. you sell electric for less than you pay to buy electric), break-even can be over 10 years.
One last point- people keep talking about roof replacement as if it somehow destroys the investment. When I purchased solar, they pre-negotiated the fee to remove and replace the panels should I ever need to redo my roof- it's $2k ($1k to remove and $1k to replace). Not a big deal. The most expensive part of a solar installation is the equipment, wiring and permitting; mounting the panels on the roof is just a few hours labor.
We had solar companies give estimates without looking at our panel. The company we chose put in new panel as we were out of space and an accessory emergency panel beside it. We were without power for 10 hours as they re-wired. It was a big deal. The solar permit required three different inspections.
I personally find solar panels to be ugly either on the rooftop or on the ground. I notice that many people in my subdivision down own panels and it isn't because they can't afford it. However here in Texas, a pool is absolutely something that helps a house and at a certain price point, it's almost expected whether you use it or not.
Is it necessary for me to refute this every time someone new comes to this thread and says this? Or can I just point to my half dozen posts so far, every single explaining how solar panels are specifically an investment?
Feel free to express your opinion, but do not expect anyone to take it as anything more.
Feel free to express your opinion, but do not expect anyone to take it as anything more.
It's not an opinion. Explaining my ROI on solar is facts. I've been very detailed in sharing them here. I've also acknowledged they aren't for everyone, and not all can attain the same 10 year payback that many of us get.
Having new posts that continually say "it's not an investment", that's an opinion, and it's wrong. There's no polite way to say it.
We had solar companies give estimates without looking at our panel. The company we chose put in new panel as we were out of space and an accessory emergency panel beside it. We were without power for 10 hours as they re-wired. It was a big deal. The solar permit required three different inspections.
Wow that's really interesting. I wonder why mine was different- they just clamped the solar output to the main feed line inside my breaker box; didn't even give the systems their own breakers. The amazing thing is that my systems are before the main breaker, so shutting off the main breaker still leaves the systems energized. The solar systems themselves have big red "on/off" boxes right next to the main panel.
Those clamps together have about ~17,000 watts running through them at certain times of the day. I can see the insulation slightly melted around them. Although, it was nice not to have to get a new main panel!
Totally agree on the permitting- lots of inspections, rewiring, and red tape. First system took nearly 8 months to get online due to permitting, but the second system was much faster (ironically because they never closed the first permit so the building department just added the second system to the first and closed both at once).
I had a pool for years when the kids were growing up. As they became teenagers they preferred hanging out with their friends to going into the pool. The last year I had it the only exercise I got was cleaning it. If I had to do it again I would get a lap pool with a device that generated a current to swim against. At least that is real exercise.
As far as the solar panels, figure out your ROI and if you plan to stay in the house long enough to realize it. Quite a few houses in my neighborhood have roofs covered with solar panels. My main concern outside of the ROI would be how long they will last. When I bought my current house the HVAC system was new. After just 14 years I had to replace both the furnace and the A/C. I was told that was longer than expected, that 10 to 12 years these days is average.
I was the kid who grew up with the pool and I always complained that I never got to go anywhere since my friends would just want to hang out at my place. They got to get out of their houses but I didn't!
These days I get at least 1 person a month coming to my door trying to convince me that I can't afford NOT to install solar panels, that it won't cost me anything, blablabla. I just shut the door. My my place was solared up in the 80's by the previous owners.. I bought it in the 90's and got to rip out everything they put in...roof panels, water heater, wall heaters, and plastic panels on every window held in place with magnets. Who needed fresh air right? Things change fast and it's not where it needs to be yet for me to jump in.
Curious to hear what the consensus is with this question and the why behind your answer. We live in the SE where we can justify either purchase.
Would you :
A) put in an inground pool in the backyard ($60-80k) even though we have a community pool ( I personally hate communities pools)
or
B) Invest in solar ($17k after incentives) and have a 8-10 year true ROI on the cost.
or
c) do both
Pool.
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