Frugal solar panels?

 Every year I get excited about installing solar panels. I then do my
research online and quickly get discouraged by the high price tags
and mediocre performance. Has anyone had any luck with them?

  oprah.chopra@gmail.com wrote:


Not in that sense except when the grid isnt available.

 On Jun 18, 2:44 pm, oprah.cho...@gmail.com wrote:

in some areas (and of course I don't know where yours is) there are
companies that are doing something similar to a "lease" of the solar
panels.  Now I'm not sure if you get to keep the "overflow" if there
was any (like how some utilities will credit you back if you produce
more than you use); but it's a fairly reasonable cost; they're
advertising around here for $85 a month.  The one advertising around
here is "Solarcity":

http://www.solarcity.com/

 For residential customers, they discount future costs and benefits by
8%/year to come up with a net present value in today's dollars.  That
percentage seems high to me - we haven't seen inflation at that level since
Carter was President.

The example also assumes that at the end of your 15 year lease, you'll buy
the system for $13,500 (presumably, that's the price discounted to today's
net present value, so the nominal price would be higher).  I don't know what
used equipment of this sort goes for, but that seems high as well,
considering that they say the stuff costs $17,800 when they install it.

A few minutes of back of the envelope calculating, and assuming their
initial price is more or less correct, if you went out and bought the
system, financing it with a 15 year loan, it'd probably cost somewhere
around $110 - $120 month.  That's more than the lease payments over the same
period, but at the end you'd have the system without that $13,500 balloon
payment, meaning you'd be able to hang onto somewhere around $10,000 instead
of giving it to them.

The stuff about increasing power costs and net metering apply whether you
buy or lease, but I'm not sure about government rebates.  And of course,
their numbers are averages - some months you'll probably owe the electric
company money, while others you may get a credit.

I wonder if this kind of installation reduces the need for power plants,
transmission lines, etc.  Since they're tied to the grid and are without
battery backup, whenever the sun isn't shining, a traditional power plant
has to take up the slack, and the net effect might be to increase the price
of electricity for everyone because all that capacity will be used a smaller
percentage of the time.

No new material below, included for reference only.
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On Jun 18, 2:44 pm, oprah.cho...@gmail.com wrote:

in some areas (and of course I don't know where yours is) there are
companies that are doing something similar to a "lease" of the solar
panels.  Now I'm not sure if you get to keep the "overflow" if there
was any (like how some utilities will credit you back if you produce
more than you use); but it's a fairly reasonable cost; they're
advertising around here for $85 a month.  The one advertising around
here is "Solarcity":

http://www.solarcity.com/

 oprah.chopra@gmail.com wrote:

  Your best investment with solar is thermal used to offset heating and
hot water. The panels cost a fraction of the PV and the efficiency is
much higher (~50%). You can buy the guts and build the boxes yourself
(and save about a half or so) if you wish. I built both, and still have
a bit of work to do. Lowering energy usage through insulation and more
efficient appliances is your best value.

   As far as PV goes, there's a few things that may be coming down the
pike in about the $1/watt range.

   You can ask in alt.solar.pv .

   Jeff