Solar Panel Financing Trickery

Not surprising, is it? It's a complicated deal, exactly how much your electric bill will go down, how much your utility will pay for excess today and in the future, loans to finance it or a lease, tax credits the value of which depends on your tax bracket. Most consumers can't figure that out.

What I found most interesting in that is that they said that in Europe the cost to install solar is about half of what it is here. That's not good.

My idea of solar heating is to open window blinds when I think it will help. I'm just shy of 70 and I don't think it would pay me to do anything else.

Seems the trick is to contract with a local guy with experience, finance yourself. Avoid the telemarkerters and door to door types. I get a few calls a week about solar panels.

There is a payback but it is years, not months. I'd never see it.

I agree. Regardless of the product, smart personal economics includes learning how to estimate total lifetime costs of a product or service including initial cost, finance charges (if any) and maintenance expenses as well as how long it is likely to take to break even before potential savings can be realized if the product or service is being purchased on the premise of ultimate cost savings.

However, if we're fortunate to be able to enjoy our senior years in financial comfort, convenience becomes more important than cost savings. I'm 78 and the prospect of fully paying up front for something very expensive with the probability of only beginning to save big bucks after a decade or more has passed is no longer attractive.

There comes a point where a lifetime guarantee doesn't mean much.

... " lifetime guarantee " usually doesn't mean much regardless.

John T.

It could be the lifetime of the business. Dad had some tile work done in his bathroom and the man guaranteeded it as long as he lived. Contractor died in a year and a year later the tile started falling off the wall.

I checked into the solar electric about 10 years ago and With good interest rates ( which at one time was almost nothing)The interest or stock market gains would have paid for what it would have saved me and then some. My electric bill averages about $ 170 or less a month for heating and cooling.

In Ontario the small grid-connected solar installations < 10 kw >

wouldn't save the homeowner a penny on his electric bill -

- the solar panels are connected directly to the distribution feeder through a dedicated kWhr meter - the homeowner continues to pay his usual electric bill at eg. 15 cents/kWhr as he collects the highly subsidized rate of his solar output 40 - 60 cents per kWhr ! The subsidized rates were guaranteed for 20 years when the program was first introduced - it became so popular, so fast, that some of the small rural distribution lines were not up-to-the-job and a lot of upgrades were required. John T.

I am also at the stage where convenience is more important.

I have not paid interest on anything since I paid off my mortgage over

Only guy I know with solar panels had to sue the installer after a few years when his roof started leaking.

If I were to think of solar panels electric cost where I live would be considered:

Some big variations in Canada also :

A friend (who was about 50 at the time fwiw) bought a house from an architect, I think he was, with all the gadgets, solar panels in the back yard, hidden by bushes; emergency generator, water treater for the well (I think she has a well); two separate central ACs for the house even though it's not that big.

The first several years the electric company was paying her a lot for her excess electricity. Her net bill was quite small. Then the rate changed and they paid her 1/2 to 1/4 of what she'd been getting. Then I think it went up some. But she didn't borrow any money for the solar; it was part of the price of the hosue.

A few of my n'bors have solar on the roof. The first one has a galvanized conduit running down the front of the house. My gosh it's ugly. (It's not even brown conduit to match the siding). The second is end-of-group has nothing showing in front at all. Looks fine. I really should pay attention to the others.

For me, if they couldnt' do it invisibly, I didn't want it. I don't even want conduit on the side of the house. They should put a hole in the roof, run it through the attic, down the stack, and over to where the electric enters now, which is the farthest corner of the laundry room. Besides the extra trouble, that would mean my cleaning the lumber, etc. out of the middle of the laundry room. Solar is a good idea, but I'll let someone else do it.

In 1957 my mother bought a house, built in 1954, and only 3 or 4 years later, chips started coming off the bricks. Big ones, as much as 2x3" and half-inch thick, in some areas from all of the bricks, especially the chimney. She heard this had happened to other houses the builder had built, that he had bought a load, or seveal loads of bad brick, and she called him and he made an appointment to come see it. I'm sure he was going to give her money, like he had with others, but he died before he could come over.

I painted the one-story house with some sort of silicone coating, which did help, but I coudlnt' do the chimney and after she moved in 1967, the new owners rebuilt it short and squat, shorter than the peak of the roof. Looks strange and probably doesn't draw well, but it was in the living room and we never used it anyhow.

Did she not have a mortgage?

I'd be happy if the utility put up a whole solar array in my backyard, provided they did all the maintenance (including mowing down the black walnut trees that the squirrels plant). Or a couple of wind turbines.

She didn't get a loan from anyone for the solar, it was part of the price of the house. And yes, she did get a mortgage on the house, but how much of the cost of the house was the value of the solar... Who knows? I don't think anyone knows. I thought this was clear.

I installed a 3.5kw system in 2018. It will have paid for itself by the end of this year.