Solar city
- Thread starter Craigar
- Start date
My bill is cut in half! Literally. The company is good to work with and the system out performs what they quoted it would do. They told me that it would off set about 85% and I'd say it is closer to 99%. I'm only about 5 months into it, since the system was turned on, but so far so good.
If you are going to see Charlie to gat a coral or two I live less that 5 min from him. You are welcome to come see how it looks and such. I know mike and Cindy have been pleased as well. We are actually thinking of converting to electric hot water heater!??
If you are going to see Charlie to gat a coral or two I live less that 5 min from him. You are welcome to come see how it looks and such. I know mike and Cindy have been pleased as well. We are actually thinking of converting to electric hot water heater!??
30 years? My lease is 20 years. The 20 year term almost scared me off too. I spoke to our real estate agent and they said it was easily transferable and if we could show the perspective buyer a real cost saving it could help to sell the house if we ever decide to do that. No increase in value just attractive to many people.
You can pay it off sooner than that you dont have to pay there payment say your system is 40k you get 15 k back next year so your financing 25k over 20 years thats your monthly bill if you pay.more per month and pay it off faster then you you dont have to pay them anymore and then.you get free energy
Kip had them come out to give a quote. The guy told him they needed to drill holes in our roof per OSHA to get on it and measure etc. Kip was not willing to have holes drilled and so [even though we get that they have OSHA compliance to deal with] that is as far as we went. The other problem for us is that their system does not store energy. A grid outage or major storm would leave us without power and we would like to have storage batteries/cells or whatever.
all that being said we know people who are happy with their Solar City systems and paying much less. As a realtor, Kip feels it is a plus for selling a home as well.
all that being said we know people who are happy with their Solar City systems and paying much less. As a realtor, Kip feels it is a plus for selling a home as well.
I have had solar panels from them for over a year now. Love it. I put 1k down to fix he price for the next 20 years. No rate increases during the lease term. Of course if I use more then the system produces in one given month then I buy electricity from Xcel. I rarely go over, may be a couple of hot months in the summer. Plus in the months when it produces more than we concume i keep the overage till it is needed, pretty much works like rollover minutes. It is working for me.
If you are gonna sign a 20 year lease on one of these, do keep in mind that solar panels and batteries require yearly maintainance at a minimum and maintainance on the inverter every 5 years minimum. Make sure that is in the contract for them to do. Another thing to keep in mind is that legislation to remove net metering is very close to being finished and will likely be rolled out completely in less than 5 years. This will change billing procedures so that energy injected into the grid will be credited at a lower rate than energy you take from the grid. Since home energy peaks tend to occur when solar generation is at its lowest level, the amount of offset will change quite significantly.
We LOVE our system. No equipment or install cost, just lower electric bills. Last month's Xcel bill was $31, with a solar bill of $80. That's a huge improvement over $600/month. With the tanks in place, Solar City cut our bill in half (including the $80). And we had our house under contract in 5 days, with a contingency that the buyers had to take over our lease. It's like anything else about a property - if it's there, some people will like it and others won't. A lot like carpet vs hardwood.
If you're considering using Solar City, get a referral from Dr. Tutu!!! Seriously, it will save you money and they'll send him a check. That's great karma, no matter how you look at it.
If you're considering using Solar City, get a referral from Dr. Tutu!!! Seriously, it will save you money and they'll send him a check. That's great karma, no matter how you look at it.
Solar city
Solar city owns the panels in my case. They do ALL the maintenance. It is in there best interest to keep them working up to par. They pay you back if they under perform. With net metering you have NO batteries. That's why you have net metering. The energy companies have been trying to block the net metering thing for years. The fact is, even if they do win, that it will ale very little difference to the consumer. Legislation is already in place to protect the electric companies, not allowing anyone to have an array that exceeded 110% of the yearly usage. Anyone wanting to make money selling solar power to electric companies is already on a fools journey. The main point is... IMHO lower bills and a smaller overall carbon footprint if that matters to you personally. Anyone wanting a referral from me is welcome to give them my name! Mike Lemke!!! I'll get a nice referral check just like Cindy got one from referring me.
I'll owe you a case of beer. Lol and you'll love your new electric bill. And, it'll look like you live in the Death Star. Haha
Solar city owns the panels in my case. They do ALL the maintenance. It is in there best interest to keep them working up to par. They pay you back if they under perform. With net metering you have NO batteries. That's why you have net metering. The energy companies have been trying to block the net metering thing for years. The fact is, even if they do win, that it will ale very little difference to the consumer. Legislation is already in place to protect the electric companies, not allowing anyone to have an array that exceeded 110% of the yearly usage. Anyone wanting to make money selling solar power to electric companies is already on a fools journey. The main point is... IMHO lower bills and a smaller overall carbon footprint if that matters to you personally. Anyone wanting a referral from me is welcome to give them my name! Mike Lemke!!! I'll get a nice referral check just like Cindy got one from referring me.
I'll owe you a case of beer. Lol and you'll love your new electric bill. And, it'll look like you live in the Death Star. Haha
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Dr.HarlemTutu;320801 said:
Solar city owns the panels in my case. They do ALL the maintenance. It is in there best interest to keep them working up to par. They pay you back if they under perform. With net metering you have NO batteries. That's why you have net metering. The energy companies have been trying to block the net metering thing for years. The fact is, even if they do win, that it will ale very little difference to the consumer. Legislation is already in place to protect the electric companies, not allowing anyone to have an array that exceeded 110% of the yearly usage. Anyone wanting to make money selling solar power to electric companies is already on a fools journey. The main point is... IMHO lower bills and a smaller overall carbon footprint if that matters to you personally. Anyone wanting a referral from me is welcome to give them my name! Mike Lemke!!! I'll get a nice referral check just like Cindy got one from referring me. I'll owe you a case of beer. Lol and you'll love your new electric bill. And, it'll look like you live in the Death Star. Haha
I'll owe you a case of beer. Lol and you'll love your new electric bill. And, it'll look like you live in the Death Star. Haha
Now I want to cover my whole house in Mexico with solar panels!!
They are a lot closer than you would think, and I really beleive net metering will be gone in the next few years. The reason it will make a difference is that for the average household with solar, 60-70% of the power generated exceeds the amount of energy used by the household at the time it is generated. That means only 30-40% of that energy the solar panels are generating will directly reduce your bill by the full $0.15 per kWh. Once net metering is no longer done, the 60-70% that is injected to the grid will only credit you $0.05-0.10 per kWh. This would therefore give you about 50-80% of the credit you are getting now depending on how the PUC rules in rate cases. If your solar cells are performing well and you are currently seeing a $500 reduction for a $80 monthly fee (like finsup) you would still see a $250-400 reduction for a $80 monthly fee, which is still worth it. Just wanted to point out that this possibility needs to be considered before signing a 20 year agreement. From what I've heard from others, this is still a very viable option that is well worth looking into further.
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