* plus cost for penetration-free anchoring system.
Green
Light Solar (150 Shoreline
Highway, Ste. 1A Mill Valley,
CA 415-381-2400) got the business.
The price was great, and more
important - the owner of the
company really seemed to care
about each project.
My Thoughts on Solar:
· In purchasing
solar I would guess that a panel
is a panel. So for me,
the decision came down to a
vendor that cared about the
installation details. After
all - what you will be doing
is authorizing the placement
of multiple holes in your nice
roof.
· I
don't have the perfect house
for solar. My lot slopes to
the east, and I have a row of
tall trees on the southern property
line. The best location for
the panels was clearly as far
out from the hill as possible
- they would need to be atop
the new wing. Unfortunately,
that's a flat roof, and putting
holes in a surface where water
could sit didn't appeal to me.
But I had no choice. I
worked with the panel installers
and roofing crew to do everything
possible to assure that the
penetrations would be watertight
for years to come.
· My
panels are tilted to better
capture the sun. This means
that they also catch the wind.
It's one more reason to periodically
inspect the seals around the
roof penetrations.
· When
purchasing solar, it makes a
lot of sense to pay our local
utility, PG&E, $288 for
a "Time-of-Day" meter.
A Time-of-Day meter means is
that the energy we provide to
PGE is purchased by the utility
at the higher daytime rates
(when our panels are working),
and the energy we consume is
purchased by us at the less
expensive evening rates (when
we're home, using electricity).
· Solar
does not seem to be a no-brainer,
financially. One needs
to compare the fixed cost today
with savings that stretch out
30 years. While you can
grab a finance textbook and
determine the present value
of a future stream of payments
(those "payments"
being the free electricity you'll
receive every month) a simpler
way to do this is to simply
shop for a loan to pay for the
panels. Since it is a home
improvement the loan will be
deductable.
Here's
how the calculation worked for
me. 2004 was a good time to
get a home-improvement loan. We
have a 15-year fixed loan, at
6%, with a monthly payment of
~ $90. Our electricity
bill was roughly $50-$60. With
the interest-portion of the
loan deductable, our loan payment
approximates our electrical
bill. Fifteen years from
now, our loan payments end,
but our panels still have another
15 years. (I will need
to spend a few thousand replacing
the inverter, I'm told.) Even
ignoring the extra 15 years
that the panels have, remember
that 10 years from now, by loan
payment will be the same, while
the cost for power will have
steadily increased. Note:
My understanding is most financial
experts do not consider a deal
with a 15 year breakeven to
be a wise investment.
· You may be surprised to learn that your $20,000 investment in solar will be useless during blackouts - even when those blackouts are in the middle of a sunny day. That's because you're feeding the grid, rather than your house.
Note: It's been four years since solar was installed. Our electrical bill has been 100% covered by the panels. Three notes here:
Terry and I are thrifty.
PG&E still charges us ~$6/month for admin.
Every
12 months, PG&E resets your
account. If you owe them money,
they will demand payment. But
if they owe you money, too bad.
They erase the credit, and start
you off again at zero. This
is a PG&E policy, and it's
criminal!
Update:
Effective 2010, PG&E will
compensate me for any excess
energy I've produced at the
end of the 12-month cycle. Excellent!
Apparently the credit goes to
a politician, as the legislation
is known as "Assemby Bill
920-Huffman-Wind and Solar Generation."
Thanks Assemblyman Jared Huffman!
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