If only we had someone who frequented this board who knew anything about solar...
Yeah, i love the idea. I don't think i would do it for pure ROI value....i just haven't seen a commercial/company that i completely trust what they say.
There's a realtor I trust in our 'hood and she is pretty pessimistic on residential solar. I don't recall all her reasoning, but I do know she feels it can actually hurt resale value by limiting the # of buyers, or folks who would prefer not to have it for the aesthetics. She sells many houses in our area and I have a pretty high opinion of her views.
that's a heck of a response! The only good portion of the roof to place them on would face west, and it would be in fort wayne. I am almost done with my perpetual motion machine...i will wait and use that.
Right or wrong, I always viewed those similarly to that strand of xmas tree lights where you don't know which one of the lights has shorted out, so you replace them one by one...hoping.
This is indeed a true statement. If you need to replace your roof, you'll probably drop about an extra $4000 to have the panels temporarily removed and then reinstalled.
bear in mind you may well be in the minority of folks who would "love" pre-existing panels on their roof. The realtor I'm talking about sells dozens of homes each year and I would guess has a pretty good gauge on buyer's preferences, and I'd imagine they translate pretty similarly from SC/NC to IN. Plus, are you speaking without talking to your wife; aesthetics may be more important to her. I remember when my ex wanted to spend $15-20K to add non functional dormer windows to our roof because too much of it was visible. Women often are not as practical as you may be!
Our house is shaded by trees to our east and west. The pool is only in full sun for a few hours in the day. We would need to cut some trees down and convince our neighbor to do the same. It doesn't seem practical.
We had geothermal in our last house and it was amazing. Home was about 5500 sf and 5 people living in it and we never had a gas bill over $25 or an electric bill over $100. It really was a crazy efficient system. The house had been "prepped" for solar (just re-enforced roofing), but the person who did it got sick and passed before it was completed. If we had solar, the damn thing would have been paying us to live there!
Prices are getting out of hand. I did a deal for $1,500 an acre with a 2% escalator for the life of the project. Cash rent is $250-450 an acre.
I’m still kicking myself for not installing a steel roof when we built 17 years ago.
Technology is moving fast in the field.
What’s typical? I know the guys here have server rack style batteries. They are insanely cheap now. One guy completely runs his house off grid. He just upgraded to 450w panels. He uses the inverter style heat pumps for heat and ac. It’s no longer atypical. Efficiency is way up.
The large majority do not have the financial or DIY skills to entirely convert their systems. Your co-workers are the outlier.
It’s getting a lot more common. DIY is much easier than it’s ever been. I agree mostly.
I’m thinking about it, in the past, I have looked at a huge upfront price, 10 years to pay off, and then possible maintenance issues.
Those questions are per state. Most are grid tied, panels do function some on overcast days. Most do not include battery back up. The options are endless really. Always go with local companies. Talk to people who have used them and research, research, research.
what other revenue opportunities/cash crops do you dabble in with available farmland?
1) I think most of the companies that are selling solar systems right now are mostly selling the installation itself and they buy their panels from another source. There are a couple of big ones (Hanwha, Jinko, Solaria) who I suspect should still be around in 25 years, so just be sure to find out the source from the installer.
