Ken7

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Not entirely. Our house is to shaded for solar to be efficient so we lease a share in the local community solar project. The result is we buy > 75% of our power from a local solar farm on a reclaimed landfill site. The rest we buy in RECs from regional wing producers.
OK, I should have said living in our condo or virtually any NY condo, it aint happening. ;)

In NY you have no choice as to where to buy your electricity. It's a monopoly here
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timbop

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OK, I should have said living in our condo or virtually any NY condo, it aint happening. ;)

In NY you have no choice as to where to buy your electricity. It's a monopoly here
That sucks. Here in NJ it is still $.185/kWh from the local utility but we have the option to buy the power from elsewhere, with the utility still getting $.05/kWh as a "delivery fee". The alternate suppliers aren't really much cheaper. I was toying with solar panels but my wife and I are about to be empty nesters and we're probably selling within the next couple of years so it didn't seem worth it.
 

dbsb3233

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Ken - it's always cheaper on electric when you produce your own electricity for free (essentially).
But you do need a climate where solar panels are a good investment. ;) My payback for my solar installation is 6 years (not counting increase in house value) and I have free power to charge my wife's PHEV and my MME (hopefully soon).
It's never "free". The hefty cost is just divided over the length of time you use the panels. For some people that cost ends up being cheaper than the grid utility, for others it's not. I looked at it for my house and even though I have an ideal roof for it, it just didn't make economic sense. Electricity here is pretty reasonable though ($0.105/kWh). Plus I'd be taking on higher risks. It would add cost to any future roof replacements (we get hail here), there's risk of something breaking or needing replacement, and it's harder to sell the home if/when I decide to sell (more expensive than the comparable home in the neighborhood, and it downgrades the look of the house).
 

Ken7

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Tim, it does suck. At one point there was supposed to be some alternative energy suppliers here in parts of the N.Y. area. When I researched them, I found out as you did, they weren’t much cheaper. I then found out they had no plans to compete on LI anyway.

Now I’m waiting for our local utility to provide discounted rates for off hours EV charging. The funny thing is the same utility gave me a $500 rebate for a wifi enabled charger, with the idea that they’d be able to monitor my off-hour charging for those discounted rates. That was nearly 2 years ago...still waiting.
 

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It's never "free". The hefty cost is just divided over the length of time you use the panels. For some people that cost ends up being cheaper than the grid utility, for others it's not. I looked at it for my house and even though I have an ideal roof for it, it just didn't make economic sense. Electricity here is pretty reasonable though ($0.105/kWh). Plus I'd be taking on higher risks. It would add cost to any future roof replacements (we get hail here), there's risk of something breaking or needing replacement, and it's harder to sell the home if/when I decide to sell (more expensive than the comparable home in the neighborhood, and it downgrades the look of the house).
It is basically free for me. Payback on electricity generation and delivery savings is about 6 years (based on pre-car charging bills). Note that CA electric rates are notoriously high - my TOD rates range from $0.22 - $0.48pkWh in Summer ($0.16 - $0.30 pkWh in Winter). Also, actual net cost of total install is roughly equal to the increase of home value from solar install and panels on my house are virtually invisible from the street / neighbors. So in 6 years, I will have saved enough on electric cost to cover total install cost, increased the value of the house, and been able to charge vehicles at no cost.
 


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Note that CA electric rates are notoriously high - my TOD rates range from $0.22 - $0.48pkWh in Summer ($0.16 - $0.30 pkWh in Winter).
Oh. My. God. :eek:
 

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Oh. My. God. :eek:
Tim - yes, our rates are very high! The good part is that with TOD (time of day rates) and solar generation, I am putting energy back into the grid when prices are highest (daytime) and taking it when rates are lowest (night) so even if I don't generate enough electricity to be usage neutral, I definitely am revenue neutral. I can charge overnight. You can see from my prior post that the rate difference between peak and non-peak rates is quite large.
 

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Putting solar on my house was one of the best things I did. Didn't make any economic sense w/o the government subsidizing half of it (this was 11 years ago) though. I broke even in 6 years. Plus the panels are considered more durable than the roof they are covering. I pay about 100 bucks a month in the summer for my bill while some people I know pay 300 (116 degrees makes an A/C run a lot).
 
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dbsb3233

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Putting solar on my house was one of the best things I did. Didn't make any economic sense w/o the government subsidizing half of it (this was 11 years ago) though. I broke even in 6 years. Plus the panels are considered more durable than the roof they are covering. I pay about 100 bucks a month in the summer for my bill while some people I know pay 300 (116 degrees makes an A/C run a lot).
The durability of the panels isn't the problem, the durability of the rest of the roof is. When that needs replacing, they basically have to uninstall and reinstall the panels since replacing the roof is typically an all-or-nothing thing.

Granted, I'm in a bad spot for that. Got hit 2 years in a row with bad hail and had to replace the roof both times. Upgraded to Class-4 shingles the second time though so hopefully it won't need replacing anytime soon.
 

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The durability of the panels isn't the problem, the durability of the rest of the roof is. When that needs replacing, they basically have to uninstall and reinstall the panels since replacing the roof is typically an all-or-nothing thing.

Granted, I'm in a bad spot for that. Got hit 2 years in a row with bad hail and had to replace the roof both times. Upgraded to Class-4 shingles the second time though so hopefully it won't need replacing anytime soon.
Solar shingles might be the answer to getting mass adoption of residential solar power. Still too pricey right now for most and may not stand up to the hailstorms!
 

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Ken7

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That's odd, that's actually an old story that I saw weeks ago.
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