Have You Added Solar Power To Your Home's Edison Power?

No. Doesn't pencil out financially. Maybe if I was in my thirties I would go for it but at my age the pay off would never come.

I do use solar on my travel trailer,(caravan) to extend battery life. I use solar power on my weather station and have a couple of solar fence chargers.
 
We looked into it but found we would have to take down several trees to get the full benefit. Also the upkeep way to expensive unless we climbed on the roof to clean and maintain them ourselves. At our age, the whole process was way to expensive and not feasible. Now to get rid of the sales people who keep calling and knocking on the door even after we said no.
 
Going "Solar" is not really financially practical for most homeowners. Even with the latest reductions in the price of solar panels, a good "off the grid" system can still cost as much as $20,000...much of which is the batteries needed to sustain the power in extended periods of cloudy weather. In some parts of the country...the desert SW, for example, this might not be such a concern, but in our area, it is not unusual to have several days of overcast skies, especially in the Winter.
 
Whenever I enter a building materials store, there's usually a Solar sales person at a folding table who greets me and asks how much my electric bills are.

I then produce the stub of the previous month's electric bill and show it to the person.

They usually say something like: "Well, you sure don't need Solar Power with an electric bill that low!"

The reason for our surprisingly low Edison bills are (A), because the way our home was constructed, with a concrete tile roof, and the exterior walls framed with 2x6 studs instead of 2x4's, which allow insulation batts which are 50% thicker than normal.

(B), Because of our energy-saving habits. We only use the A/C when the outside temp is over 100, then we set the thermostat to 82. We are acclimatized to the hot, low-humidity summers of the High Desert. We always shut off a light or fan when nobody's in the room.

When not using the A/C, we use one of our 5 Ceiling Fans, or our portable Floor Fans to keep the air flowing over our skin, which is a cooling process even when the air is warm.

(C) Finally, I will not have those unattractive solar panels obscuring my beautiful Tile Roof!

HDH
 
Yes. 14 high-efficiency Korean-made panels, installed Nov 2014. LOVE THEM!

The Federal tax credit is a real savings. We ended up with $3800 cash back from our tax return that year, strictly due to the solar install according to our tax advisor.

PG&E's electricity and gas rates have been steadily increasing. What I didn't realize was that under the CA State agreement with the 3 utilities, the # of installs allowed net zero metering was capped. The NZM was to entice people to install solar, leased or purchased outright.

It's NZM that makes the payback period so short. We are on the grid, and power is sent to PG&E. PG&E credits us the RETAIL price of that electricity, rather than the WHOLESALE price which other commercial suppliers pay. The difference is a credit of over 26 cents per energy unit, versus a credit of 3 cents.

That credit is tallied against the amount of electricity we use. To make things simple, the utility bills for electricity only once a year (gas continues to be billed monthly). Each month's bill shows the running total. Since our rains come in the winter, our electricity bill starts to accumulate.

But when the rains end, our dry summers mean the panels start consistently generating enough electricity, so the credits not only cover our monthly usage, but also chip away at the total bill.

NZM also credits us for the connectivity charge of $10/mo we pay for being linked to the utility's grid.

Our first year's bill was.....$6

Our second year's bill had a sizable rate increase for all customers, plus we began to use more electricity for heat, since natural gas rates also shot up. Our bill for the year was $118.

We installed solar because I knew rates would increase, and our bills for minimal usage, insulated house (we heat and cook with gas), were running $100+/monthly (back in 2014 – since then we've had 2 rate increases in 2015, one in 2016, and now 2 more for 2017!).

Under a modified 2016 agreement with the state, NZM is now capped for existing customers at a 20 yr period. So our generous credit will expire in 2034, but we'll be long gone to senior living by then.

PG&E is very close to meeting its overall NZM cap for # of installed systems, and expects its NZM program to end forever sometime in 2017 (as outlined above, as existing customers we get that 'grace period' of 20 yrs from install date). The other two utilities still have room under their caps and don't expect to retire their programs before the end of 2018 or early 2019.

Assuming no further rates increases from PG&E (ha, ha!), our solar payback will be 8 yrs from date of install, or 2022.
 
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