The best way to get into Solar is to buy your own solar kit and have a certified electrician install it. Don’t go with a solar installer they’re going to bump up the prices knowing you get tax credits. I purchased an 18 kW solar panel system with an 18 KPV inverter and three solar batteries each with 14.3 kWh for a total of approximately 43 kWh of solar back up for less than $25,000. Then it cost me approximately $9000 to install. In total, I spent less than 35 grand on a completely off grid back up battery system. The batteries are EKG4 pro all weather. I couldn’t recommend them enough.
The whole time watching this I kept wondering, what happened 2 the old school way of installing it yourselve or with someone who knows what their doing or maybe even learn how it works so you can maintain your own..... so thank ub4 ur comment itvmade my heart encouraged!
Or you can get multiple solar batteries kits with some solar panels 😂 I have an Anker 522 and I hook it up with a 100W solar panel. It gives me 24X7 electricity for my WiFi. I also have a bigger Anker power station and. 2000W solar panels. I just built a small rack and put them in my back yard. It runs my fridge and few of my 💡 24X7😊
We have solar with batteries and it's worth it not just for the lack of monthly expense, but we've had power (without a generator) when the power grid is off/down. Specifically our home in Maui, when the power was off for weeks in and around Lahaina, our solar and battery storage was enough to keep our home powered and provide shelter for several families.
That is the reason to get it. Sad that so many people look at solar like it is some investment with a return or they analyze it over some 20 year payback period. Get solar for security of stable power, that is the investment side that people ignore and are just looking for the 'when with this pay for itself' aspect. The investment is about risk reduction, but if you live where electricity is costly, then getting a reduction in electric bills that is significant is icing on the cake. Power when you need it when the grid is down....nearly priceless when it is even more than half a day let alone the weeks you experienced. Just look at so many of the comments here. Most of them are excited about the payback or cheaper grid power. Not the point. Solar from that perspective is a bad investment and a large opportunity cost. But for how you used it, awesome.
I built my system for about 60k (before tax incentives). Today, with the drop in battery prices the same system is about 35k (before tax incentives). This includes 150 amps of continual use, 92 kwh per day production in winter and 170kwh production in summer and a 92kwh battery bank. I completely disconnected from the grid 2 years ago. I do have a backup generator, thus far it isn't needed.
hi friends, sorry to disturb you, nice to meet you, I'm from Indonesia, if you like videos about Indonesia, I'll make a video of my daily activities for all of you, and please support me, nice to meet you all, thank you 😀🙏
@@kylewatson5133 That is fantastic! Where are you located and what percentage of the rated output of your panels do you get? I'm assuming you probably have around double (16kw?) what Shelby is using in panels? What would the cost be without batteries? I've priced panels around .55 per watt. I think even with the mounting, cables, inverters etc. it will still come in way under the $2.45 avg that Shelby mentioned. I think the full service solar installers are probably making a huge markup.
Two recommendations that I learned when analyzing if purchasing a solar system made sense: 1. Solar cell output diminishes with time. Make sure that when you calculate the entire system amortization cost, the cells will last longer than your breakeven date. If there's a warrantee: read all of the fine print. And choose a company that will likely still be in business during the warrantee period. 2. If you're using a roof mounted system and your solar cells are going to be hard mounted to your roof, check if you're getting close to reaching the lifespan of your roof. It may make sense to preemptively replace your roof prior to the system installation. Also get in writing who pays for removing the solar cells if you do need a new roof (or roof repairs) during the solar cell lifetime. Also who pays to reinstall the system after the new roof is installed. The solar installation company and your insurance company may not cover this and the labor could be expensive.
Hi Shelby! Loved the video. I'm getting my bachelor's degree in Power Systems Engineering and I can explain why getting the same amount of money on the energy you produce from PVs is not good for the grid power system. Basically PVs produce energy when the grid doesn't really need it and the amount of electic power generated needs to always be equal to the amount of electric power consumed. Because it's very tricky to store this energy from PVs and you can't store it for long time periods the power system people need to stop some of the generators so that the power from PVs will not be "lost". That sometimes costs more money than not stopping them. Another fact to consider is that the actual cables that they use to transport the electrical energy can only carry a certain amount and if many people choose to get PVs in a certain area they need to change them. Another aspect is that if you have a PV system you need energy from the grid during the evening and night and that's when producing it gets more difficult and it costs so much more. In spite of all this i do believe that people should get lots of money for the energy they insert into the grid from PV systems, I just wanted to explain why that may be difficult.
Homeowner from Washington State here! We have a ~1200 sqft house and we bought a 10.4 kW system with 3 batteries for about $60K. We have in general low energy needs with a heat pump but a 1 Tesla Model 3 on the system. And we installed last November (off season for production). Even during the winter months with minimal sunny days, we have halved our electricity bill. On the rare sunny days (ie last week when we had 7 days of 65° and sun) we produced 200% of our energy needs and sold back the extra. We have a $0 energy bills in our future because when we sell back our excess energy we will get money back from our electricity provider as a credit and we will have enough of a credit in the summer months to offset the winter ones (Marques Brownlee’s video on solar panels explains this well). Plus, we won’t lose energy if there’s an outage because of the batteries. Whether or not solar is worth it is VERY dependent on WHERE you live and HOW the electricity system there is set up. It made sense for us especially with NEM 2.0 and when you factor in that we are planning on living in our house for another 20 years and the panels will pay for themselves in about 10. Plus we’re thinking of the need to transition to a greener source of energy and climate change as a whole. I would encourage anyone who wants to do solar think about your particular variables and interview 3-4 panel companies. All should offer at least a 25 year warranty. We’re excited to be a little bit more future proof. It’s still possible even in cloudy Washington!
@@steephaniieeeee my power company installed a special meter that sends back the excess power I make to the grid and then a credit is seen on my account when I do that
The absolute BEST solar installation explanation I've ever seen. You touched all the interesting topics of what needs to be reflected upon, and in a fast and understandable way too. LOVED THIS. I'm so happy you went this route because it really makes sense with what you described in an earlier video. Solar seems SO right for you particular AirBnb location.
Before adding solar hopefully you had an energy "sleuth" investigate your house. They can advise on how energy is being lost (or even stolen) and can advise on energy saving options to reduce the losses eg insulation issues, energy leaks, power hungry appliances, water heater, etc. By Lowering your energy losses you might not need to add more solar or can have a much smaller solar system added. I think a backup battery system is a must though if your utility is not reliable and or your area is known for "brown outs".
She is renting the property -- tenants don't care about wasting power. They will open the door to the patio and run the AC full blast. Her issue is that power is expensive more than how much was used... it said she was only using around 1500 KWH a month and they were charging 600 for it. (that is about $.40/kwh after all taxes and fees -- my power in Texas is about half that much)
That's crazy talk. People don't think. 😅 would they ever turn off their tv that is connected to wifi and bluetooth all day and night long? Of course not. Laptop? No way. They need all the confort they can get, to hell with their bills I saw some random american youtuber, he spent 300 kwh a day... because he needed a full room of rackable computers to run his house, for 100+ loudspeakers.
I'm in New Hampshire and our surplus generation just goes into an "energy bank" and it deducts when you need it. I saved up so much in my energy bank from 2015-2018 that when I got my Tesla Model 3, my first 20,000 miles were free! Since then it bounces around between bank and costing. Most months have been $13/mo minimums grid fee, highest I've seen is $250/mo, for charging 2 EVs and home AC. Solar system was $25k before tax credit, ended up being around $14k, split over 12 years at 1.99% so it's $113/mo. So basically I pay $126/mo and that usually would cover one EV charging too. Only a couple years left until payoff! Also being in NH we get tons of rain and plenty of snow but the good news is that the rain keeps them clean and the snow slides right off after the storm stops.
Tesla told us our house was not a good fit for solar because of the way our house was situated and because we live in an area that gets more cloudy days than sunny days. We appreciated that honesty. Others told us we were perfect for solar so...be careful who you call. Another thing I should mention is a lot of HOA's won't approve solar systems and there are good and bad reasons for that so make sure if you live in an HOA that you know the bylaws.
Another thing people should find out about is will your homeowner's insurance even allow it. Believe it or not, many insurance companies will drop you if you get panels or at least will raise your rates. Usually, this is in states like Florida, Southern California and Texas, where they've been taking a beating with weather issues.
hi friends, sorry to disturb you, nice to meet you, I'm from Indonesia, if you like videos about Indonesia, I'll make a video of my daily activities for all of you, and please support me, nice to meet you all, thank you 😀🙏
For most people, who are to-be homeowners the most important decision you will ever make is the home you buy. If you buy a bigger home, the more it will cost to run it. If you plan for the long term (10+ years), then it might be a wiser choice to choose a more modestly sized house that costs less to run versus choosing a bigger home, then reacting to the utility bill by spending more money to add solar. Just food for thought. :)
My parents have a 600k home and love their solar. Lots of states people can go solar with no up front costs, they just replace the utility bill with a fixed solar payment. In these states solar always makes sense. You should do some research before yapping about it not making sense.
Buying a bigger home does not mean it will cost more to run it, it is not linear. There are many factors involved from windows, insulation, ceiling height, how much stuff you run, do you have multiple HVAC units, zoned system and the list goes on. I have had a couple 10,000 square foot homes and have had the bills as high as $1,000 a month and as low as $250 a month. Now if you talk about maintenance of a bigger vs smaller home, now that's a whole new ballgame. My bill in my current house which is about 5,000 sq.ft is around $500/month in the winter which is high, but I also have 9 flat screen TVs and a sauna in the house plus some windows that need replacing etc so that has to be factored in. Better advice is to work a little more to cover the expenses.
@@investments4170 What does a $600,000 home have to do with his comment? He mentioned size, not price. A $600,000 home could be 1800 sq.ft or 5000 sq. ft depending on where you are. Replacing one payment with another isn't exactly winning, in fact just a wash or worse. In my state there are several months where it's temperate and no heat or AC are running, in that situation I would be losing by still making a payment during those times.
Your solar installation looks perfect. Very good choice in company that you picked. Bravo, and bravo to your provider who was professional and not toxic. So a very good overall experience, I hope everyone has the same when they choose to “go solar” ❤
I left a comment but then you answered it. :). FYI: I design DIY solar kits with batteries for under $1.60/Watt. Oh! I just noticed they used the wrong kind of CMU blocks. They are supposed to be solid CMU blocks (33lbs ea.), not hollow blocks (24lbs ea.). Your system may be susceptible to high winds. I would have them replace the blocks with solid CMU blocks, per the engineering plans, or confirm that this difference was accounted for.
One thing many people don't realize is that the marginal cost of putting in solar at the time of house construction is much cheaper than adding it later, perhaps about half as expensive. There is also an opportunity cost of the money that you would have to invest in solar initially, that could be invested in somethng else to earn interest, etc. ... Anyway hi from Palm, Desert, CA !
had solar for years, love it, it's been paid off. we don't pay any utilities, I don't even have my gas turned on, I have all electric appliances, highly recommend! also our power never goes out like the rest of our block! we have batteries. that's so wild to me, so helpful & a huge incentive you don't hear much about
Dang. I'm "next door" to you in Phoenix, where the weather is ten times more harsh. My power bill for the last 30 days: $67. And I'm in a house built in the 1960s, back when they didn't put much insulation in the walls.
Did my house in Vegas in November last year 11kw system. Cost about 32k. 9% interest, which I will pay off early, but its financed for 25 years. NV energy keeps on raising rates. Makes sense even at the rediculous interest rate. Used Sol-Up with Solar edge system. Everything working great so far. Proably add a battery or two when I get an EV
Regarding permitting: "...it's like the sloth from Zootopia." BAH-HA-HA-HAAA!! I love it! So true. But seriously, I learn so much from your vids these days Shelby-san. So much digestable info and in an easy to understand way.
Yeah!!! She got royally charged for this very basic setup. I was hopping some batteries and a 18kwh - 15kwh inverter for the price, but what I saw is not remotely close to that. it is what it is.🤷🤷🤷
Me with my $70-$130 per month electric bill 😮. As much as I would love to go solar, the upfront investment/lease price/monthly loan costs make it unfeasible since i can't guarantee the amount i sell back will offset the higher cost.
Get batteries if you want the most ROI and most efficient use of the panels. Not only that, during power outages, if you set it up right, you will still have power and a/c while the neighbors are in the dark and sweating. The more you can make the home self-sufficient the better.
Batteries aren’t for everyone. I have a 12kW solar panel system and straight 1:1 net metering. The power doesn’t go out at my house. There’s no reason for me or my neighbors to get batteries.
@@anthonyc8499 That's why Cali has Nem 3.0..... too much solar production during the day, causes issues with the big power plants cycling and hurts their efficiency
Wow, that's pretty expensive but i guess that's USA pricing. Over this side of the pond, a system of this size without any batteries would cost you less than 10k$ (and until this year, we had yearly netmetering; meaning if you produced 10MWh last year, you could use 10MWh this year, so no waste and almost zero utility cost). Because of said incentives have run out, like every 5th home has solar now. It's crazy. If you go DIY route (you lose netmetering) you can build this sort of sized system for even half that, but would have to use DIY battery packs to make finacial sense. Also, solar panels have gotten DIRT cheap over the years. I've seen deals by the pallet for as low as 160$/kWh for new panels. Crazy. Almost cheaper per square feet than roofing...
I have solar panels on my primary home 🏡. I use to pay $600/ month. Now I pay at most $200 or sometimes -150 I would need a battery 🪫 or a power wall down the road. Thank you Shelby!
I work with installers (including OWE) just a note to you personally you might know already, CA just said ANY changes to your PV system including adding a battery will lose you your net metering and put you on 3.0. With the way battery prices are falling that might be ok but thought I'd mention it.
wow, I'm just at the pricing part of the vid, and that's crazy expensive. I'm in Scotland, where you think Solar would not be a great idea lol, had it a month and even in Feb/Mar it's generated over 500kwh in 6 weeks. I was £1.80 per w (with 10kwh battery), or £1.09 per w solar only. That's a third of the price!! I have a 6.4kw solar, 10kwh battery, with 5kw inverter - for a 5 bed house - total £12k.
I figured out that California is artificially inflating energy costs to force people to buy EVs and solar. If you are paying $6 a gallon for gas there's huge incentive to buy an EV but once you hit states where gas is $3 and under there's little inventive that's why these industries are dying once they expand past places like California.
Unless I missed it the biggest thing I think you should add to this is how long do you plan to live in that home. For you I would assume a good 40 years or longer so you should get as big a system as you can. In 10 years you would have a $50 or so monthly bill while others are at $600. I am on 5 years with my LG panels and pay about $15-17 a month. A much smaller system then you have. I think leasing overall is not worth it in most cases, but if you cannot buy them then it might be a good option.
Absolutely! Investing in solar panels not only enhances the sustainability of your Airbnb but also offers long-term cost savings and demonstrates your commitment to eco-friendly practices.
Hi Shelby, I don't have any solar panels here, but it makes a lot of sense to have them, as they should reduce your electricity costs enormously. Here in Germany, if you install these solar cells, you not only reduce your costs, but the energy provider is even obliged to buy the excess electricity produced and credit it to me. I don't know what it's like in the USA. In Germany, the total cost of an average system is around 7,000 - 12,000 euros. On the other hand, each kilowatt peak of solar power can generate between 800 and 1,100 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year.
I’m in Massachusetts. I DIY’ed my whole system (had an electrician do the tie in). I sourced my own materials, most new some second hand. I installed a 14.8kW system for $17,000 out of pocket. I got quoted $64,000 from SunRun for pretty much an identical system. If you have the know how, it’s definitely worth doing it on your own. I also get 1 to 1 net metering from my power company. With some of the highest rates in the nation ($0.33 kWh) I have completely eliminated my bill, and am in the process of getting out of fossil fuels and switching to heat pump heating and cooling. I sized my system to hopefully be able to cover my heating and cooling.
Like you I am on NM2 except w Central Cali. PGE. Have had solar since 2002 when the county did not know what permit to use. Have a 12 Kw system with 2 Inverters that when I am not charging my Tesla it puts out excess to the grid as a credit if needed. Your pool pump, and AC uses the most. Always add extra if you can for and EV, PV degradation, cloudy days. They have some great 500 watt+ panels that are bifacial, and would take efficiency advantage of the white reflective roof you have there. Great choice.
OMG 😱 solar guys from California, you are totally crazy! 2.95USD per W, it's that for real?)) We are buying solar panels for 0.12-0.13 USD per W and selling it to our customers for 0.19-0.21. So we're normally selling 100kW on-grid solar system for 35-45k USD. Turnkey, including work and mounting system. And that is the fair price for top-quality equipment. P.S. I'm the owner and CEO of solar energy company since 2005.
We switched to EVs and switched off of our old oil heating system/central AC to geothermal and an air sourced heat pump. Our next step is to get solar. The things I've learned in my research so far is that * in many places, you have to tell your homeowner's insurance you're getting it. In some places, your premiums will go up. In others, you need extra coverage just for the panels. In some places, they straight up won't cover you. * if you're getting batteries, get those that if LFP (lithium, iron, phosphate). The benefit of these batteries is that they can go through many more charge/discharge cycles, which works well if you live in a place with time of use metering, meaning electricity is more expensive at certain points of the day than others. You can then, ever day, use the energy stored in your batteries when the sun it out (and you're not using too much) and use the battery energy when it's more expensive to use the grid. There's a lot of info you need to know. Do you get enough sunlight to make it worth it? Are there trees that will be blocking the sun that need to be cut down? Is your town even equipped to handle net metering? I read one story where someone got panels installed, only to find out after they weren't allowed to turn them on because the town wasn't equipped to handle them! You REALLY have to do your research to make sure you're not getting gurned.
When you buy a house that already has solar panels, you have to find out if the owner has paid it off or you the new owner ends up paying the rest off.
Thank you for sharing this! I’m not in the housing market but this is good to know. The power companies are SO expensive now any way to save will help.
Such a great detailed video, well done as per usual! 🙌🙌 From personal experience as a realtor, one of the reasons homes sometimes have a hard time selling with solar panels is when they are financed/leased. Even if a buyer would be happy to assume the lease to receive the benefits, this monthly charge is now added to their debt-to-income ratio which might push them over the limit where they no longer qualify for the mortgage on the home. That's at least what I've experienced multiple times down here in Florida. Either way, congrats on the solar. Looks like you made the right move! 🔆
In Florida, a friend with a mere 1200 sq ft home had $45k in solar. She wanted to sell but offers were under market and they all wanted her to pay off the solar financing before buying. So they wanted the future electric reduction for free!! People are so greedy bit they barely have the minimum down payment and closing costs to buy anyway.
As a teacher, I had my students review the costs of switching to solar panels. The cost of panels are close to $4k, the rest of the costs are coming from the tools needed to install the solar panels and the labor involved.
I think maybe you or your students don't understand everything involved with solar. For starters, 4K in panels will not cover everyone's power(also what panels are we talking about), the amount of panels you need based off power being used will determine how much it would cost to get an amount of panels that would cover that usage. 2nd, panels are not the only thing to buy, you've got an inverter, a racking system, permits (city & utility), NEM application, not to even mention the electrical work required. Also when installing solar yourself you take all risk for just about everything. Yes some equipment comes with warranties however it's so much easier going with a company that not only manages everything for you but also is there when you're having problems.
Here is the breakdown since you are asking. I did not include the inverter or any other extra tools needed to install, but just looked at the solar panels themselves. If the average for your state is near 1,462 kWh per month, if you divided that by 30 days it is about 48.6 kWh. You get only 4 hours of peak sunlight so you get 48.6/4 hours = 12.2 kW. Then you look into buying a 600 watt solar panel which converts to 0.6 kW. You start to divide 12.2 kW / 0.6 kW = 21 solar panels needed. There are deals online that give you 6 solar panels for $899 that are 600 watts. Which is about 3,146.50 not including shipping at taxes for at least 21 solar panels with that deal. @@investments4170
We've had our solar panel system for 12 years now and we did a lease. It was $0 down and they did everything, along with full support for the 20 years of the lease. Additionally it's a lease to own so we retain the option to buy out the entire system anytime we want, there is a purchase schedule in our contract which shows how much it would cost to buy it out at the end of each year. With terms like that to me it's better to lease because then you can take all that money you would have spent buying out the system and instead invest it, while retaining the option to buy it all out at any time. This was with Sunrun.
Homeowners ask about that all the time, truth is those systems never worked well and if you really want to heat your pool getting more standard panels or using gas (if available) is far more efficient.
We live in the desert. Energy and water are a premium here yes. Most houses in Tucson 1200 sq foot or larger pay $500 a month for electric and $300 for water/sewer including up to 1,000 if you are off the city grid with a dry well.
Would love to see Shelby and Monica talk about solar impacts on real estate prices. People in Seattle have net metering so those long summer days pile up statement credits for the winter.
In Arizona, many of the homes with solar leases didn't make sense to buy. The costs went up every year and after 5 or 10 years, some of the monthly costs were up 30 to 50%. I ended up finding a local company and financed. Panels came with 30 years parts, labor and production warranty for half the cost of some of the "national" companies.
We bought a 9K system in Washington State in 2015. It paid itself off with incentives in just over 4 years NOT counting saved energy. We were paid .54 cents per KW hour (AND we got to use that KW-H!!) Totally worth it. My only regret was not getting a bigger system. It does not cover even 50% of our needs. But with price increases, it's still great to have a FREE system on our roof. No batteries. Thinking about upgrading the system eventually, since this one was free.
7:49 Energy Effivient tax credits are amazing, especially when you purchase solar. I’ve had so many clients going solar and I love it! I’m a CPA, by the way, not a solar salesman or marketer.
How Much More Is Your Home Owners Insurance Policy? How Long Do They Work Before The Slow Fade? Like a Tesla Battery!! Where Do They Recycle Panels When Ineffective? $20k you'll be lucky to save $75 per month, actual recovery time + extra Home Ins = LOSS of Investment!
I don't even live in the US nor do I plan to but I will always watch your videos regarding stuff like this because it just i so interestin to know it and also the way you make your videos is great and I want to support you by wathcing it all :) Sending love from the Czech Republic
I've leased solar for two homes in Phoenix. I'd say the biggest negative is the ignorance of realtors. I even overheard my own realtor telling a prospective buyer that they really should buy a house where the solar panels were owned. The purchase price would have been $30K - $10K tax credit. The valuse of the house would not have been any higherwith owned solar. Transferring the lease to the buyer of my first home was one of the easiest things I did in the sale. When I leased another system for my new house, the program with the local power company had changed but it was still worth it. My lease costs $181/mo which supplies 125% of the electricity we use for our 3K sq ft house. (The AC works really hard in the summertime). The check I get for the extra only amounts to about $60/yr.
In Florida, I sold my house with solar - but financed. Similar type arrangement were I was told the loan was transferrable. Yeah, it didn't matter. Once the buyers found out the loan wasn't paid off, they used it as a negotiating point - even with copies of power bills showing the significant savings. Granted, if I had more time, I would have told them to pound sand, but I had a contingency to resolve. Oh well.
Great video. 👍 Adding panels/increasing system size was mentioned, but the rules around that were not: The CPUC has ruled that if you increase the size of your system by either more than 1KW or more than 10% of your existing systems size (whichever is greater), you lose your NEM 1.0 or 2.0 grandfathered status. So if you have an 8KW system, you can only add 1KW (basically just 2 more panels). That's a brutal consequence, since if you add more than 1KW, that means you'd be bumped into NEM 3.0's Net Billing Tariff, which as mentioned in the video pays solar system owners a fraction of what they get credit for power fed back to the grid. Solar was much more lucrative for anyone that got a system under NEM 1.0 or 2.0. Also probably worth mentioning that for anyone under NEM 1.0 or 2.0 where you get retail credit for power fed back to the grid, batteries aren't a good financial investment. Since you are getting retail credit for power fed back to the grid, in reality, you are using the grid as your battery to store excess production from a strictly financial accounting perspective. Batteries might only make sense for people who are in areas with frequent prolonged power outages that would benefit from having backup power (vs just being able to draw on them vs drawing from the grid when the sun isn't shining). I've never heard a solar salesman say that panels need to be cleaned. At least this guy left it as a "maybe," but in areas with high levels of dust and low rainfall, I think you'll see for yourself if they need to be cleaned to maintain the production levels you get when they were first installed. Whether or not it makes sense to pay to have them cleaned if you can't do it yourself is basic math.
The problem is you live in CA. That is an insane rate for electricity. As a comparison that same 1414 kWh which is not really that high, would be $226 in MD and even that is a high estimate as I pay much less at night, so some of that usage would be at 30% less. You are literally paying $0.39/ kWh. As a comparison I pay only $0.06 to charge my EV under a special rate at night. Glad you put in a Solar system as the payback with incentives has to be in the 6 year or lower category. In MD with SRECS payback is like 8 years.
It usually makes sense to try and improve a houses energy efficiency as much as possible before going solar. Improving efficiency is usually cheaper than a bigger solar system.
I have a 9.9kw system and live in Australia. I'd guess it's similar to LA where we get lots of sunshine throughout the year. The pricing here is very different. When I originally got solar panels (about 12 years ago), I only had a 2kw system, and I would get 56 cents per kw back into the system and was only paying 19 cents per kw to use (plus the connection fees). Then that scheme ended (went down to 9 cents per kw back into the system) and my solar panels also died (less than 10 years into having them despite being told they would last 20+ years) and was unable to get this fixed as the company that installed them went bust. My State was offering great incentives to get solar so I upgraded and got a new system which is the 9.9kw system and it was $7000 (mind you, this was 3 years ago so not sure of the price now and what the rebate is now). The initial scheme was 19 cents per kw back into the system and it was 26 cents per kw to use (plus connection fees). Within the first quarter, I had no electricity bill to pay and the electric company owed me about 50 (and yes, that includes the connection fee as the kw in can cover those fees as well). Now a few years later, the scheme has ended again and I get 7 cents per kw back into the grid and pay about 30 cents per kw to use (plus connection fee) however my solar system generates more than we use (especially when it's not summer as we don't use heaters in our house) so the electricity company owes us about $850. That said, we do have a gas bill for our gas hot water and cooking but most of that cost is connection fees. Definitely worth it, have been putting off getting a battery hoping prices would come down but they haven't come down that much in the last 5 years. The 9.9kw system isn't big enough to go off grid completely if you are using air-conditioning but is a great investment.
I get that solar owners hate the new net metering rules but honestly it is necessary for net metering to be sustainable. The utility has to have a reasonable profit margin between the cost of power it sells vs it purchases. The the bottom line is that solar owners should be incentivized to store the excess energy in batteries for later use vs dumping it onto the grid.
Local companies are better because you get better service. Also think many years from now, where will your provider be, because your system should last a few decades, and it needs your company to hang around until then, without going out of business
I had Solar City which then became Tesla Solar for ~8years. Never had a problem and always had excellent support when I called them. It cost me zero to install and saved me approximately 50% of my monthly bill each month.
Lucky for you getting your solar installed before NEM3. BE CAREFUL If you decide to upgrade with more panels and batteries the utility may cancel you NEM2 and put you on NEM3 where you sell your extra power for a lot less. Your current system with these longer days will pump out a lot of free power for you. Also if you decide to buy an EV like Tesla they need a lot of power so you may need to upgrade your solar for your EV. Hopefully the Supreme Court will repeal NEM3 if the refuse to do so an initiative to repeal NEM3 will go up to a vote.
Add the cost to the rent ...lol, extra $20-25 a day in the very warm months. This is how I do it at my airbnb's in Austria, in the winter months I increase the price to cover the price of heating. After doing this for 4-5 years you will know when to increase and decrease the price...easy. I will never invest in solar panels for a rental property when I can take money from clients... this is another thing that requires maintenance, cleaning, etc... no, thanks.
Super insightful video! I've been thinking about using solar for my rental properties, but wasn't sure if it was worth it based on where I lived. Also, love how information-packed all of your videos are! 💡
I'm surprised by the expense 😳over here in The Netherlands that would only cost around $8K. Many houses over here have 4 to 8 panels. One thing that makes solar very attractive (for as long as it last....) is that you can 'save up' the excess energy you delivered back and use it up in the winter. Energy billing is done anually, with monthly advance payments. It seems this is not a thing in the USA?
Yeah I was also surprised at the cost. For those prices I would have assumed solar shingles and not panels. I live just outside Toronto and I think we got solar panels on our house for free basically, as we didn't pay anything out of pocket as the government rebate covered everything.
Watched your vids when you were doing and post-op - you look super in what's now the long-term. Hope you're happy with the results :) On power, since you're not in it all the time I hope you have a system you can remotely monitor power from to minimize unoccupied times power drains. Not using power is like nega-watts, you're not paying for what you don't use.... it's a net gain $$$ Might be worth metering what's consuming the most power around the clock and seeing if there's less power draw replacements etc next. Look for "vampire" drains of various sorts... and having remote temp control can be HUGE savings for unoccupied times... heat pump/ac out there probably your largest draw. Good luck with it :)
i have 4 systems and have financed all of them with 0% down. highest interest rate is 4.49% that was originated last month. not sure where 8%+ rate was that he's seeing. i love having solar systems. especially sine energy bills out in Vegas have risen about 50%+ in just the last couple of years alone.
If you have the land for a ground mount system it's not too hard to do yourself with an off grid setup (off grid doesn't mean you are relying just on solar; it just means you aren't exporting power back to the grid) - the solar panels themselves are actually really cheap (I've seen them at 20 cents per watt when buying a pallet), it's the labor, higher cost for an inverter that can export power, and profit for the installer that really drives it up over $2 per watt.
We moved into a house last year that had panels and luckily as part of the deal, the previous owners paid off the solar unit, otherwise we were against taking over that portion. Even with us living in Arizona, we were not open to taking on additional payments/fees. We use the same app but I’m so confused on reading it lol.
it looks like you already have the metal racks ready for the entire roof. I believe you are planning to add more panels and generate more energy. I hope you will cover that soon and let us know the results. Thanks for sharing!
Leases are still bad because a 5 or 10 year old lease is very unattractive compared to a new lease. So a buyer would rather have a new system with better rates than take over an old one. Most buyers will want the lease bought out. There are always exceptions of course. Many leases also had rate escalators that are unfavorable.
Wow you do very good videos. Watching from Sweden and thinking of what you've said about tipping in US vs Europe and prices to go skiing and so on... I'd love to see a comparison between solar in Europe vs US. The differences are stark. Let me know if you want info. It's crazy how much easier it is with regulation, permits, choosing electric company so on and so on...
Great job Shelby, great job Nick! This is probably the best ad for solar and nick's "solar brokerage" (I had no idea that was a thing!) that there could be. solar seems attractive on the surface, but the ins and outs of it are such a morass that it turns people off. this vid/nick are filling a much needed hole in the process. I am not a homeowner and likely will never be with my financial situation, but I'd love to hear more about the process and how things go with the solar and the bill going forward. :)
Good video. My solar is worth it in LA. I definitely have to clean them at least 1-2x year due to the amount of dirt and grime that builds up with no rain for months on end. I can always see a jump in daily KWH production after cleaning them when super dirty so I do try and keep them reasonably clean.
Before you add solar panels to an existing roof you have to determine the life expectancy of the roof. If you have to reroof than you have the cost of taking the panels off and putting them back. I also would understand how long and at what rate is guaranteed to buy energy back from the utility company that serves your area. I have heard of companies changing the rules and instead of paying $ 15 -20 cents per kilowatt hour lowering to 5 cents which would cause your cost efficiency to drop. What is cost effective today may change tomorrow.
1. Nick got you a great price. Just be weary with the appraisal if/when you sell down the road... until there's reform in recategorizing "residential energy production" rather than as a "comp", you tend to get less than a quarter to half the value of your loan balance appraised when you sell, which means 90+% of homeowners result in losing more than they save (probably gonna make a video on this myself pretty soon... solar is really a longterm game (5-7+ yrs). 2. Higher APR loan product was smart... a lot of these solar guys will do loan trickery at a 4-5% APR in today's market, but not fully disclose often a 40% dealer fee is baked in to the price (essentially as prepaid interest), which is REALLY bad. Taking the ~10% APR resulted in a lower loan balance, and hopefully a faster paydown perioud before selling the airbnb. ^given these two things, I highly suggest continue paying what you were already budgeting toward your utility bill for your solar now instead, or at least contribute half the savings toward the solar loan, plus biweekly hack.. turn that 25yr term into
I've always wondered about what happens when you have to replace the roof? Will all the money you just saved go into paying them to come take it down and set it up again to replace the roof?
The wholesale price for the panels themselves is around $0.25 per watt of capacity. So 16KW of panels cost ~$4K. The rest is the balance of system (inverters and other devices) and "soft costs" (labor, permitting, etc.) It's this other stuff besides the PV modules that comprises a large majority of the cost of a complete solar installation.
I did calculation, her system running for 20 years would cost about $0.12 per kwh!! that is like paying a utility company in other states. good thing for her, her electricity costs $0.22 per kwh
The best way to get into Solar is to buy your own solar kit and have a certified electrician install it. Don’t go with a solar installer they’re going to bump up the prices knowing you get tax credits. I purchased an 18 kW solar panel system with an 18 KPV inverter and three solar batteries each with 14.3 kWh for a total of approximately 43 kWh of solar back up for less than $25,000. Then it cost me approximately $9000 to install. In total, I spent less than 35 grand on a completely off grid back up battery system. The batteries are EKG4 pro all weather. I couldn’t recommend them enough.
The whole time watching this I kept wondering, what happened 2 the old school way of installing it yourselve or with someone who knows what their doing or maybe even learn how it works so you can maintain your own..... so thank ub4 ur comment itvmade my heart encouraged!
Or you can get multiple solar batteries kits with some solar panels 😂
I have an Anker 522 and I hook it up with a 100W solar panel. It gives me 24X7 electricity for my WiFi.
I also have a bigger Anker power station and. 2000W solar panels. I just built a small rack and put them in my back yard. It runs my fridge and few of my 💡 24X7😊
We have solar with batteries and it's worth it not just for the lack of monthly expense, but we've had power (without a generator) when the power grid is off/down. Specifically our home in Maui, when the power was off for weeks in and around Lahaina, our solar and battery storage was enough to keep our home powered and provide shelter for several families.
That is the reason to get it.
Sad that so many people look at solar like it is some investment with a return or they analyze it over some 20 year payback period.
Get solar for security of stable power, that is the investment side that people ignore and are just looking for the 'when with this pay for itself' aspect.
The investment is about risk reduction, but if you live where electricity is costly, then getting a reduction in electric bills that is significant is icing on the cake.
Power when you need it when the grid is down....nearly priceless when it is even more than half a day let alone the weeks you experienced.
Just look at so many of the comments here. Most of them are excited about the payback or cheaper grid power. Not the point. Solar from that perspective is a bad investment and a large opportunity cost. But for how you used it, awesome.
I built my system for about 60k (before tax incentives). Today, with the drop in battery prices the same system is about 35k (before tax incentives). This includes 150 amps of continual use, 92 kwh per day production in winter and 170kwh production in summer and a 92kwh battery bank. I completely disconnected from the grid 2 years ago. I do have a backup generator, thus far it isn't needed.
hi friends, sorry to disturb you, nice to meet you, I'm from Indonesia, if you like videos about Indonesia, I'll make a video of my daily activities for all of you, and please support me, nice to meet you all, thank you 😀🙏
@@kylewatson5133 That is fantastic! Where are you located and what percentage of the rated output of your panels do you get? I'm assuming you probably have around double (16kw?) what Shelby is using in panels? What would the cost be without batteries? I've priced panels around .55 per watt. I think even with the mounting, cables, inverters etc. it will still come in way under the $2.45 avg that Shelby mentioned. I think the full service solar installers are probably making a huge markup.
Can't wait for the one year retrospective with the full numbers to truly compare.
Two recommendations that I learned when analyzing if purchasing a solar system made sense:
1. Solar cell output diminishes with time. Make sure that when you calculate the entire system amortization cost, the cells will last longer than your breakeven date. If there's a warrantee: read all of the fine print. And choose a company that will likely still be in business during the warrantee period.
2. If you're using a roof mounted system and your solar cells are going to be hard mounted to your roof, check if you're getting close to reaching the lifespan of your roof. It may make sense to preemptively replace your roof prior to the system installation. Also get in writing who pays for removing the solar cells if you do need a new roof (or roof repairs) during the solar cell lifetime. Also who pays to reinstall the system after the new roof is installed. The solar installation company and your insurance company may not cover this and the labor could be expensive.
About 1. most solar panels have 80% at 25 years, with some high end companies reaching 40 years.
Hi Shelby! Loved the video. I'm getting my bachelor's degree in Power Systems Engineering and I can explain why getting the same amount of money on the energy you produce from PVs is not good for the grid power system. Basically PVs produce energy when the grid doesn't really need it and the amount of electic power generated needs to always be equal to the amount of electric power consumed. Because it's very tricky to store this energy from PVs and you can't store it for long time periods the power system people need to stop some of the generators so that the power from PVs will not be "lost". That sometimes costs more money than not stopping them. Another fact to consider is that the actual cables that they use to transport the electrical energy can only carry a certain amount and if many people choose to get PVs in a certain area they need to change them. Another aspect is that if you have a PV system you need energy from the grid during the evening and night and that's when producing it gets more difficult and it costs so much more.
In spite of all this i do believe that people should get lots of money for the energy they insert into the grid from PV systems, I just wanted to explain why that may be difficult.
HERE FOR THE BEFORE AND AFTER COSTS!!! Need to look into them for our desert house!
Homeowner from Washington State here! We have a ~1200 sqft house and we bought a 10.4 kW system with 3 batteries for about $60K. We have in general low energy needs with a heat pump but a 1 Tesla Model 3 on the system. And we installed last November (off season for production).
Even during the winter months with minimal sunny days, we have halved our electricity bill. On the rare sunny days (ie last week when we had 7 days of 65° and sun) we produced 200% of our energy needs and sold back the extra. We have a $0 energy bills in our future because when we sell back our excess energy we will get money back from our electricity provider as a credit and we will have enough of a credit in the summer months to offset the winter ones (Marques Brownlee’s video on solar panels explains this well). Plus, we won’t lose energy if there’s an outage because of the batteries.
Whether or not solar is worth it is VERY dependent on WHERE you live and HOW the electricity system there is set up. It made sense for us especially with NEM 2.0 and when you factor in that we are planning on living in our house for another 20 years and the panels will pay for themselves in about 10. Plus we’re thinking of the need to transition to a greener source of energy and climate change as a whole.
I would encourage anyone who wants to do solar think about your particular variables and interview 3-4 panel companies. All should offer at least a 25 year warranty. We’re excited to be a little bit more future proof. It’s still possible even in cloudy Washington!
how many years of electricity could 60k buy you
what does it even mean to sell back the extra??? like how do they take your energy im so confused lol
@@steephaniieeeee my power company installed a special meter that sends back the excess power I make to the grid and then a credit is seen on my account when I do that
The absolute BEST solar installation explanation I've ever seen. You touched all the interesting topics of what needs to be reflected upon, and in a fast and understandable way too. LOVED THIS.
I'm so happy you went this route because it really makes sense with what you described in an earlier video. Solar seems SO right for you particular AirBnb location.
Before adding solar hopefully you had an energy "sleuth" investigate your house. They can advise on how energy is being lost (or even stolen) and can advise on energy saving options to reduce the losses eg insulation issues, energy leaks, power hungry appliances, water heater, etc. By Lowering your energy losses you might not need to add more solar or can have a much smaller solar system added. I think a backup battery system is a must though if your utility is not reliable and or your area is known for "brown outs".
She is renting the property -- tenants don't care about wasting power. They will open the door to the patio and run the AC full blast.
Her issue is that power is expensive more than how much was used... it said she was only using around 1500 KWH a month and they were charging 600 for it. (that is about $.40/kwh after all taxes and fees -- my power in Texas is about half that much)
That's crazy talk. People don't think. 😅 would they ever turn off their tv that is connected to wifi and bluetooth all day and night long? Of course not. Laptop? No way. They need all the confort they can get, to hell with their bills
I saw some random american youtuber, he spent 300 kwh a day... because he needed a full room of rackable computers to run his house, for 100+ loudspeakers.
I'm in New Hampshire and our surplus generation just goes into an "energy bank" and it deducts when you need it. I saved up so much in my energy bank from 2015-2018 that when I got my Tesla Model 3, my first 20,000 miles were free! Since then it bounces around between bank and costing. Most months have been $13/mo minimums grid fee, highest I've seen is $250/mo, for charging 2 EVs and home AC. Solar system was $25k before tax credit, ended up being around $14k, split over 12 years at 1.99% so it's $113/mo. So basically I pay $126/mo and that usually would cover one EV charging too. Only a couple years left until payoff! Also being in NH we get tons of rain and plenty of snow but the good news is that the rain keeps them clean and the snow slides right off after the storm stops.
Tesla told us our house was not a good fit for solar because of the way our house was situated and because we live in an area that gets more cloudy days than sunny days. We appreciated that honesty. Others told us we were perfect for solar so...be careful who you call. Another thing I should mention is a lot of HOA's won't approve solar systems and there are good and bad reasons for that so make sure if you live in an HOA that you know the bylaws.
That is why I went with Tesla, they were honest. I know there are honest sales people but it is hard to know when they are based on commision.
Another thing people should find out about is will your homeowner's insurance even allow it. Believe it or not, many insurance companies will drop you if you get panels or at least will raise your rates. Usually, this is in states like Florida, Southern California and Texas, where they've been taking a beating with weather issues.
hi friends, sorry to disturb you, nice to meet you, I'm from Indonesia, if you like videos about Indonesia, I'll make a video of my daily activities for all of you, and please support me, nice to meet you all, thank you 😀🙏
@@aaaal-z9nobody gives a F😂
For most people, who are to-be homeowners the most important decision you will ever make is the home you buy. If you buy a bigger home, the more it will cost to run it. If you plan for the long term (10+ years), then it might be a wiser choice to choose a more modestly sized house that costs less to run versus choosing a bigger home, then reacting to the utility bill by spending more money to add solar. Just food for thought. :)
My parents have a 600k home and love their solar. Lots of states people can go solar with no up front costs, they just replace the utility bill with a fixed solar payment. In these states solar always makes sense. You should do some research before yapping about it not making sense.
@@investments4170you don't have to do research before yapping about it. It's America don't you know?
more than food for thought. utilities!!!! who knew?
Buying a bigger home does not mean it will cost more to run it, it is not linear. There are many factors involved from windows, insulation, ceiling height, how much stuff you run, do you have multiple HVAC units, zoned system and the list goes on. I have had a couple 10,000 square foot homes and have had the bills as high as $1,000 a month and as low as $250 a month. Now if you talk about maintenance of a bigger vs smaller home, now that's a whole new ballgame. My bill in my current house which is about 5,000 sq.ft is around $500/month in the winter which is high, but I also have 9 flat screen TVs and a sauna in the house plus some windows that need replacing etc so that has to be factored in. Better advice is to work a little more to cover the expenses.
@@investments4170 What does a $600,000 home have to do with his comment? He mentioned size, not price. A $600,000 home could be 1800 sq.ft or 5000 sq. ft depending on where you are. Replacing one payment with another isn't exactly winning, in fact just a wash or worse. In my state there are several months where it's temperate and no heat or AC are running, in that situation I would be losing by still making a payment during those times.
I used Tesla Solar and service has been amazing. My team was Tesla employees, not contractors like some states have.
We installed solar panels on our Florida house. When we sold the house 5 years later the buyers were happy to be getting solar.
Your solar installation looks perfect. Very good choice in company that you picked. Bravo, and bravo to your provider who was professional and not toxic. So a very good overall experience, I hope everyone has the same when they choose to “go solar” ❤
I left a comment but then you answered it. :). FYI: I design DIY solar kits with batteries for under $1.60/Watt. Oh! I just noticed they used the wrong kind of CMU blocks. They are supposed to be solid CMU blocks (33lbs ea.), not hollow blocks (24lbs ea.). Your system may be susceptible to high winds. I would have them replace the blocks with solid CMU blocks, per the engineering plans, or confirm that this difference was accounted for.
And the ugly factor.
One thing many people don't realize is that the marginal cost of putting in solar at the time of house construction is much cheaper than adding it later, perhaps about half as expensive. There is also an opportunity cost of the money that you would have to invest in solar initially, that could be invested in somethng else to earn interest, etc. ... Anyway hi from Palm, Desert, CA !
had solar for years, love it, it's been paid off. we don't pay any utilities, I don't even have my gas turned on, I have all electric appliances, highly recommend! also our power never goes out like the rest of our block! we have batteries. that's so wild to me, so helpful & a huge incentive you don't hear much about
Dang. I'm "next door" to you in Phoenix, where the weather is ten times more harsh. My power bill for the last 30 days: $67. And I'm in a house built in the 1960s, back when they didn't put much insulation in the walls.
Can you use solar to heat your pool now? That would make sense, because most people swim during the afternoon, and that's when you get your most sun.
Did my house in Vegas in November last year 11kw system. Cost about 32k. 9% interest, which I will pay off early, but its financed for 25 years. NV energy keeps on raising rates. Makes sense even at the rediculous interest rate. Used Sol-Up with Solar edge system. Everything working great so far. Proably add a battery or two when I get an EV
Regarding permitting: "...it's like the sloth from Zootopia." BAH-HA-HA-HAAA!! I love it! So true. But seriously, I learn so much from your vids these days Shelby-san. So much digestable info and in an easy to understand way.
Been looking forward to this video Shelby!! Thank you for your incredible transparency! Love your content ❤
I love how your videos are simply informative, even when you could have have a bias on the subject. so well done!! Thanks for the info
In the UK I got a 14 panel system 400w each and solaredge inverter for £5500
awesome Bill USDGBP is .80 so that is $1.23 per watt instead of the $2.40 that Shelby mentioned. Did you do your own install?
Yeah!!! She got royally charged for this very basic setup.
I was hopping some batteries and a 18kwh - 15kwh inverter for the price, but what I saw is not remotely close to that.
it is what it is.🤷🤷🤷
Me with my $70-$130 per month electric bill 😮. As much as I would love to go solar, the upfront investment/lease price/monthly loan costs make it unfeasible since i can't guarantee the amount i sell back will offset the higher cost.
Get batteries if you want the most ROI and most efficient use of the panels. Not only that, during power outages, if you set it up right, you will still have power and a/c while the neighbors are in the dark and sweating. The more you can make the home self-sufficient the better.
Batteries aren’t for everyone. I have a 12kW solar panel system and straight 1:1 net metering. The power doesn’t go out at my house. There’s no reason for me or my neighbors to get batteries.
One EMP, solar flare, or grid malfunction and you're in the dark. Nothing wrong with not having them...until you need them. lol@@anthonyc8499
@@anthonyc8499 That's why Cali has Nem 3.0..... too much solar production during the day, causes issues with the big power plants cycling and hurts their efficiency
This was SO helpful! I'm only starting to look into buying a home but this was an amazing intro to a pretty nuanced topic. Thanks, Shelby!
Wow, that's pretty expensive but i guess that's USA pricing.
Over this side of the pond, a system of this size without any batteries would cost you less than 10k$ (and until this year, we had yearly netmetering; meaning if you produced 10MWh last year, you could use 10MWh this year, so no waste and almost zero utility cost). Because of said incentives have run out, like every 5th home has solar now. It's crazy.
If you go DIY route (you lose netmetering) you can build this sort of sized system for even half that, but would have to use DIY battery packs to make finacial sense.
Also, solar panels have gotten DIRT cheap over the years. I've seen deals by the pallet for as low as 160$/kWh for new panels. Crazy. Almost cheaper per square feet than roofing...
It's way cheaper in Canada too.
I have solar panels on my primary home 🏡. I use to pay $600/ month. Now I pay at most $200 or sometimes -150
I would need a battery 🪫 or a power wall down the road. Thank you Shelby!
I work with installers (including OWE) just a note to you personally you might know already, CA just said ANY changes to your PV system including adding a battery will lose you your net metering and put you on 3.0. With the way battery prices are falling that might be ok but thought I'd mention it.
Elastomeric roof coatings last maybe 10 years, then pull the PV system to re-coat.
wow, I'm just at the pricing part of the vid, and that's crazy expensive. I'm in Scotland, where you think Solar would not be a great idea lol, had it a month and even in Feb/Mar it's generated over 500kwh in 6 weeks. I was £1.80 per w (with 10kwh battery), or £1.09 per w solar only. That's a third of the price!! I have a 6.4kw solar, 10kwh battery, with 5kw inverter - for a 5 bed house - total £12k.
Not just engery is expensive in CA. Almost everything is. 😂
I figured out that California is artificially inflating energy costs to force people to buy EVs and solar. If you are paying $6 a gallon for gas there's huge incentive to buy an EV but once you hit states where gas is $3 and under there's little inventive that's why these industries are dying once they expand past places like California.
Unless I missed it the biggest thing I think you should add to this is how long do you plan to live in that home. For you I would assume a good 40 years or longer so you should get as big a system as you can. In 10 years you would have a $50 or so monthly bill while others are at $600. I am on 5 years with my LG panels and pay about $15-17 a month. A much smaller system then you have. I think leasing overall is not worth it in most cases, but if you cannot buy them then it might be a good option.
Absolutely! Investing in solar panels not only enhances the sustainability of your Airbnb but also offers long-term cost savings and demonstrates your commitment to eco-friendly practices.
im glad you didnt get the new glue on slim line panels . when they are removed is damages the membrane of a concrete roof .
Hi Shelby, I don't have any solar panels here, but it makes a lot of sense to have them, as they should reduce your electricity costs enormously. Here in Germany, if you install these solar cells, you not only reduce your costs, but the energy provider is even obliged to buy the excess electricity produced and credit it to me. I don't know what it's like in the USA.
In Germany, the total cost of an average system is around 7,000 - 12,000 euros. On the other hand, each kilowatt peak of solar power can generate between 800 and 1,100 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year.
I’m in Massachusetts. I DIY’ed my whole system (had an electrician do the tie in). I sourced my own materials, most new some second hand. I installed a 14.8kW system for $17,000 out of pocket. I got quoted $64,000 from SunRun for pretty much an identical system. If you have the know how, it’s definitely worth doing it on your own. I also get 1 to 1 net metering from my power company. With some of the highest rates in the nation ($0.33 kWh) I have completely eliminated my bill, and am in the process of getting out of fossil fuels and switching to heat pump heating and cooling. I sized my system to hopefully be able to cover my heating and cooling.
Like you I am on NM2 except w Central Cali. PGE. Have had solar since 2002 when the county did not know what permit to use. Have a 12 Kw system with 2 Inverters that when I am not charging my Tesla it puts out excess to the grid as a credit if needed. Your pool pump, and AC uses the most. Always add extra if you can for and EV, PV degradation, cloudy days. They have some great 500 watt+ panels that are bifacial, and would take efficiency advantage of the white reflective roof you have there. Great choice.
Great video! I'm learning about net energy metering and solar install at my work. Glad to be a part of this space.
OMG 😱 solar guys from California, you are totally crazy! 2.95USD per W, it's that for real?)) We are buying solar panels for 0.12-0.13 USD per W and selling it to our customers for 0.19-0.21. So we're normally selling 100kW on-grid solar system for 35-45k USD. Turnkey, including work and mounting system. And that is the fair price for top-quality equipment.
P.S.
I'm the owner and CEO of solar energy company since 2005.
true
We switched to EVs and switched off of our old oil heating system/central AC to geothermal and an air sourced heat pump. Our next step is to get solar. The things I've learned in my research so far is that
* in many places, you have to tell your homeowner's insurance you're getting it. In some places, your premiums will go up. In others, you need extra coverage just for the panels. In some places, they straight up won't cover you.
* if you're getting batteries, get those that if LFP (lithium, iron, phosphate). The benefit of these batteries is that they can go through many more charge/discharge cycles, which works well if you live in a place with time of use metering, meaning electricity is more expensive at certain points of the day than others. You can then, ever day, use the energy stored in your batteries when the sun it out (and you're not using too much) and use the battery energy when it's more expensive to use the grid.
There's a lot of info you need to know. Do you get enough sunlight to make it worth it? Are there trees that will be blocking the sun that need to be cut down? Is your town even equipped to handle net metering? I read one story where someone got panels installed, only to find out after they weren't allowed to turn them on because the town wasn't equipped to handle them! You REALLY have to do your research to make sure you're not getting gurned.
When you buy a house that already has solar panels, you have to find out if the owner has paid it off or you the new owner ends up paying the rest off.
Thank you for sharing this! I’m not in the housing market but this is good to know. The power companies are SO expensive now any way to save will help.
Not sure if I missed this in the video but it’s important to note with leasing you don’t get the federal tax credit.
Such a great detailed video, well done as per usual! 🙌🙌 From personal experience as a realtor, one of the reasons homes sometimes have a hard time selling with solar panels is when they are financed/leased. Even if a buyer would be happy to assume the lease to receive the benefits, this monthly charge is now added to their debt-to-income ratio which might push them over the limit where they no longer qualify for the mortgage on the home. That's at least what I've experienced multiple times down here in Florida. Either way, congrats on the solar. Looks like you made the right move! 🔆
In Florida, a friend with a mere 1200 sq ft home had $45k in solar. She wanted to sell but offers were under market and they all wanted her to pay off the solar financing before buying. So they wanted the future electric reduction for free!! People are so greedy bit they barely have the minimum down payment and closing costs to buy anyway.
Great video! We have solar on our building headquarters - which happens to be in the desert too. It’s been entirely worth it.
As a teacher, I had my students review the costs of switching to solar panels. The cost of panels are close to $4k, the rest of the costs are coming from the tools needed to install the solar panels and the labor involved.
The salespeople also take a huge cut
I think maybe you or your students don't understand everything involved with solar. For starters, 4K in panels will not cover everyone's power(also what panels are we talking about), the amount of panels you need based off power being used will determine how much it would cost to get an amount of panels that would cover that usage. 2nd, panels are not the only thing to buy, you've got an inverter, a racking system, permits (city & utility), NEM application, not to even mention the electrical work required. Also when installing solar yourself you take all risk for just about everything. Yes some equipment comes with warranties however it's so much easier going with a company that not only manages everything for you but also is there when you're having problems.
@@gennaro it’s not math, it’s science. Science is applied math
Here is the breakdown since you are asking. I did not include the inverter or any other extra tools needed to install, but just looked at the solar panels themselves. If the average for your state is near 1,462 kWh per month, if you divided that by 30 days it is about 48.6 kWh. You get only 4 hours of peak sunlight so you get 48.6/4 hours = 12.2 kW. Then you look into buying a 600 watt solar panel which converts to 0.6 kW. You start to divide 12.2 kW / 0.6 kW = 21 solar panels needed. There are deals online that give you 6 solar panels for $899 that are 600 watts. Which is about 3,146.50 not including shipping at taxes for at least 21 solar panels with that deal. @@investments4170
Agreed! plus the installers@@pdxshredder6883
well, a home battery is a great thing.. in case if you have a temporal no grid situation, you still can run basic stuff like you're Refrigerator..
We've had our solar panel system for 12 years now and we did a lease. It was $0 down and they did everything, along with full support for the 20 years of the lease. Additionally it's a lease to own so we retain the option to buy out the entire system anytime we want, there is a purchase schedule in our contract which shows how much it would cost to buy it out at the end of each year. With terms like that to me it's better to lease because then you can take all that money you would have spent buying out the system and instead invest it, while retaining the option to buy it all out at any time. This was with Sunrun.
Next up, you should put that system, where the pool water is piped up to the roof to be heated. And then see if that is worth it.
Homeowners ask about that all the time, truth is those systems never worked well and if you really want to heat your pool getting more standard panels or using gas (if available) is far more efficient.
We live in the desert. Energy and water are a premium here yes. Most houses in Tucson 1200 sq foot or larger pay $500 a month for electric and $300 for water/sewer including up to 1,000 if you are off the city grid with a dry well.
Would love to see Shelby and Monica talk about solar impacts on real estate prices. People in Seattle have net metering so those long summer days pile up statement credits for the winter.
In Arizona, many of the homes with solar leases didn't make sense to buy. The costs went up every year and after 5 or 10 years, some of the monthly costs were up 30 to 50%. I ended up finding a local company and financed. Panels came with 30 years parts, labor and production warranty for half the cost of some of the "national" companies.
If you plan on owning the property for a long time and have the means to buy solar then it’s worthwhile
We bought a 9K system in Washington State in 2015. It paid itself off with incentives in just over 4 years NOT counting saved energy. We were paid .54 cents per KW hour (AND we got to use that KW-H!!) Totally worth it. My only regret was not getting a bigger system. It does not cover even 50% of our needs. But with price increases, it's still great to have a FREE system on our roof. No batteries. Thinking about upgrading the system eventually, since this one was free.
7:49 Energy Effivient tax credits are amazing, especially when you purchase solar. I’ve had so many clients going solar and I love it! I’m a CPA, by the way, not a solar salesman or marketer.
Amazing information Shelby. That tax credit alone; is worth the savings! Thanks for keeping us informed.😊
How Much More Is Your Home Owners Insurance Policy? How Long Do They Work Before The Slow Fade? Like a Tesla Battery!! Where Do They Recycle Panels When Ineffective? $20k you'll be lucky to save $75 per month, actual recovery time + extra Home Ins = LOSS of Investment!
Excellent information, well done.
I don't even live in the US nor do I plan to but I will always watch your videos regarding stuff like this because it just i so interestin to know it and also the way you make your videos is great and I want to support you by wathcing it all :)
Sending love from the Czech Republic
so much good info in this. Thanks Shelby! ☀☀☀
I've leased solar for two homes in Phoenix. I'd say the biggest negative is the ignorance of realtors. I even overheard my own realtor telling a prospective buyer that they really should buy a house where the solar panels were owned. The purchase price would have been $30K - $10K tax credit. The valuse of the house would not have been any higherwith owned solar. Transferring the lease to the buyer of my first home was one of the easiest things I did in the sale.
When I leased another system for my new house, the program with the local power company had changed but it was still worth it. My lease costs $181/mo which supplies 125% of the electricity we use for our 3K sq ft house. (The AC works really hard in the summertime). The check I get for the extra only amounts to about $60/yr.
In Florida, I sold my house with solar - but financed. Similar type arrangement were I was told the loan was transferrable. Yeah, it didn't matter. Once the buyers found out the loan wasn't paid off, they used it as a negotiating point - even with copies of power bills showing the significant savings. Granted, if I had more time, I would have told them to pound sand, but I had a contingency to resolve. Oh well.
I've been waiting for this video since you teased it a while back!
Great video. I have solar panels on my San Francisco house and have had similar results as you reported in this video.
Love this video! I am in a sunny, pocket desert in Canada and lots of solar panels on houses here and vineyards have them too.
Great video. 👍
Adding panels/increasing system size was mentioned, but the rules around that were not:
The CPUC has ruled that if you increase the size of your system by either more than 1KW or more than 10% of your existing systems size (whichever is greater), you lose your NEM 1.0 or 2.0 grandfathered status. So if you have an 8KW system, you can only add 1KW (basically just 2 more panels).
That's a brutal consequence, since if you add more than 1KW, that means you'd be bumped into NEM 3.0's Net Billing Tariff, which as mentioned in the video pays solar system owners a fraction of what they get credit for power fed back to the grid. Solar was much more lucrative for anyone that got a system under NEM 1.0 or 2.0.
Also probably worth mentioning that for anyone under NEM 1.0 or 2.0 where you get retail credit for power fed back to the grid, batteries aren't a good financial investment. Since you are getting retail credit for power fed back to the grid, in reality, you are using the grid as your battery to store excess production from a strictly financial accounting perspective. Batteries might only make sense for people who are in areas with frequent prolonged power outages that would benefit from having backup power (vs just being able to draw on them vs drawing from the grid when the sun isn't shining).
I've never heard a solar salesman say that panels need to be cleaned. At least this guy left it as a "maybe," but in areas with high levels of dust and low rainfall, I think you'll see for yourself if they need to be cleaned to maintain the production levels you get when they were first installed. Whether or not it makes sense to pay to have them cleaned if you can't do it yourself is basic math.
The problem is you live in CA. That is an insane rate for electricity. As a comparison that same 1414 kWh which is not really that high, would be $226 in MD and even that is a high estimate as I pay much less at night, so some of that usage would be at 30% less. You are literally paying $0.39/ kWh. As a comparison I pay only $0.06 to charge my EV under a special rate at night. Glad you put in a Solar system as the payback with incentives has to be in the 6 year or lower category. In MD with SRECS payback is like 8 years.
It usually makes sense to try and improve a houses energy efficiency as much as possible before going solar. Improving efficiency is usually cheaper than a bigger solar system.
My electric bill here in Manhattan is about $1K every single month. No matter what I do or dont do.
Bought a house with a lot of solar panels on them here in socal, totally worth it even with a lease. Most months I get credit back from SoCal Edison
I have a 9.9kw system and live in Australia. I'd guess it's similar to LA where we get lots of sunshine throughout the year. The pricing here is very different. When I originally got solar panels (about 12 years ago), I only had a 2kw system, and I would get 56 cents per kw back into the system and was only paying 19 cents per kw to use (plus the connection fees). Then that scheme ended (went down to 9 cents per kw back into the system) and my solar panels also died (less than 10 years into having them despite being told they would last 20+ years) and was unable to get this fixed as the company that installed them went bust. My State was offering great incentives to get solar so I upgraded and got a new system which is the 9.9kw system and it was $7000 (mind you, this was 3 years ago so not sure of the price now and what the rebate is now). The initial scheme was 19 cents per kw back into the system and it was 26 cents per kw to use (plus connection fees). Within the first quarter, I had no electricity bill to pay and the electric company owed me about 50 (and yes, that includes the connection fee as the kw in can cover those fees as well). Now a few years later, the scheme has ended again and I get 7 cents per kw back into the grid and pay about 30 cents per kw to use (plus connection fee) however my solar system generates more than we use (especially when it's not summer as we don't use heaters in our house) so the electricity company owes us about $850. That said, we do have a gas bill for our gas hot water and cooking but most of that cost is connection fees. Definitely worth it, have been putting off getting a battery hoping prices would come down but they haven't come down that much in the last 5 years. The 9.9kw system isn't big enough to go off grid completely if you are using air-conditioning but is a great investment.
I get that solar owners hate the new net metering rules but honestly it is necessary for net metering to be sustainable. The utility has to have a reasonable profit margin between the cost of power it sells vs it purchases. The the bottom line is that solar owners should be incentivized to store the excess energy in batteries for later use vs dumping it onto the grid.
lol just a cash grab by utilities. Simple as that
Local companies are better because you get better service. Also think many years from now, where will your provider be, because your system should last a few decades, and it needs your company to hang around until then, without going out of business
Wow! the practical insights into the process of installing and using solar panels, helping me evaluate whether such an investment would be worth it.
I had Solar City which then became Tesla Solar for ~8years. Never had a problem and always had excellent support when I called them. It cost me zero to install and saved me approximately 50% of my monthly bill each month.
Lucky for you getting your solar installed before NEM3. BE CAREFUL If you decide to upgrade with more panels and batteries the utility may cancel you NEM2 and put you on NEM3 where you sell your extra power for a lot less. Your current system with these longer days will pump out a lot of free power for you. Also if you decide to buy an EV like Tesla they need a lot of power so you may need to upgrade your solar for your EV. Hopefully the Supreme Court will repeal NEM3 if the refuse to do so an initiative to repeal NEM3 will go up to a vote.
Add the cost to the rent ...lol, extra $20-25 a day in the very warm months. This is how I do it at my airbnb's in Austria, in the winter months I increase the price to cover the price of heating. After doing this for 4-5 years you will know when to increase and decrease the price...easy. I will never invest in solar panels for a rental property when I can take money from clients... this is another thing that requires maintenance, cleaning, etc... no, thanks.
Super insightful video! I've been thinking about using solar for my rental properties, but wasn't sure if it was worth it based on where I lived. Also, love how information-packed all of your videos are! 💡
I'm surprised by the expense 😳over here in The Netherlands that would only cost around $8K. Many houses over here have 4 to 8 panels. One thing that makes solar very attractive (for as long as it last....) is that you can 'save up' the excess energy you delivered back and use it up in the winter. Energy billing is done anually, with monthly advance payments. It seems this is not a thing in the USA?
Yeah I was also surprised at the cost. For those prices I would have assumed solar shingles and not panels. I live just outside Toronto and I think we got solar panels on our house for free basically, as we didn't pay anything out of pocket as the government rebate covered everything.
No, in the US we pay monthly bills based on our usage
Watched your vids when you were doing and post-op - you look super in what's now the long-term. Hope you're happy with the results :) On power, since you're not in it all the time I hope you have a system you can remotely monitor power from to minimize unoccupied times power drains. Not using power is like nega-watts, you're not paying for what you don't use.... it's a net gain $$$ Might be worth metering what's consuming the most power around the clock and seeing if there's less power draw replacements etc next. Look for "vampire" drains of various sorts... and having remote temp control can be HUGE savings for unoccupied times... heat pump/ac out there probably your largest draw. Good luck with it :)
i have 4 systems and have financed all of them with 0% down. highest interest rate is 4.49% that was originated last month. not sure where 8%+ rate was that he's seeing.
i love having solar systems. especially sine energy bills out in Vegas have risen about 50%+ in just the last couple of years alone.
Such an informative video Shelby! Thank you
If you have the land for a ground mount system it's not too hard to do yourself with an off grid setup (off grid doesn't mean you are relying just on solar; it just means you aren't exporting power back to the grid) - the solar panels themselves are actually really cheap (I've seen them at 20 cents per watt when buying a pallet), it's the labor, higher cost for an inverter that can export power, and profit for the installer that really drives it up over $2 per watt.
We moved into a house last year that had panels and luckily as part of the deal, the previous owners paid off the solar unit, otherwise we were against taking over that portion. Even with us living in Arizona, we were not open to taking on additional payments/fees. We use the same app but I’m so confused on reading it lol.
it looks like you already have the metal racks ready for the entire roof. I believe you are planning to add more panels and generate more energy. I hope you will cover that soon and let us know the results. Thanks for sharing!
CA seems crazy! Solar from NM and our electric coop pays us well for our extra power.
Leases are still bad because a 5 or 10 year old lease is very unattractive compared to a new lease. So a buyer would rather have a new system with better rates than take over an old one. Most buyers will want the lease bought out. There are always exceptions of course. Many leases also had rate escalators that are unfavorable.
Great video, Shelby 👏🏼 so informative!
Wow you do very good videos. Watching from Sweden and thinking of what you've said about tipping in US vs Europe and prices to go skiing and so on... I'd love to see a comparison between solar in Europe vs US. The differences are stark. Let me know if you want info. It's crazy how much easier it is with regulation, permits, choosing electric company so on and so on...
Great job Shelby, great job Nick! This is probably the best ad for solar and nick's "solar brokerage" (I had no idea that was a thing!) that there could be. solar seems attractive on the surface, but the ins and outs of it are such a morass that it turns people off. this vid/nick are filling a much needed hole in the process.
I am not a homeowner and likely will never be with my financial situation, but I'd love to hear more about the process and how things go with the solar and the bill going forward. :)
I tried but grid company didn't allow reasonable capacity. So only way out is to do off-grid with grid backup. 🇱🇻
Good video. My solar is worth it in LA. I definitely have to clean them at least 1-2x year due to the amount of dirt and grime that builds up with no rain for months on end. I can always see a jump in daily KWH production after cleaning them when super dirty so I do try and keep them reasonably clean.
Before you add solar panels to an existing roof you have to determine the life expectancy of the roof. If you have to reroof than you have the cost of taking the panels off and putting them back. I also would understand how long and at what rate is guaranteed to buy energy back from the utility company that serves your area. I have heard of companies changing the rules and instead of paying $ 15 -20 cents per kilowatt hour lowering to 5 cents which would cause your cost efficiency to drop. What is cost effective today may change tomorrow.
1. Nick got you a great price. Just be weary with the appraisal if/when you sell down the road... until there's reform in recategorizing "residential energy production" rather than as a "comp", you tend to get less than a quarter to half the value of your loan balance appraised when you sell, which means 90+% of homeowners result in losing more than they save (probably gonna make a video on this myself pretty soon... solar is really a longterm game (5-7+ yrs). 2. Higher APR loan product was smart... a lot of these solar guys will do loan trickery at a 4-5% APR in today's market, but not fully disclose often a 40% dealer fee is baked in to the price (essentially as prepaid interest), which is REALLY bad. Taking the ~10% APR resulted in a lower loan balance, and hopefully a faster paydown perioud before selling the airbnb.
^given these two things, I highly suggest continue paying what you were already budgeting toward your utility bill for your solar now instead, or at least contribute half the savings toward the solar loan, plus biweekly hack.. turn that 25yr term into
I've always wondered about what happens when you have to replace the roof? Will all the money you just saved go into paying them to come take it down and set it up again to replace the roof?
I hope she got it replaced recently
The wholesale price for the panels themselves is around $0.25 per watt of capacity. So 16KW of panels cost ~$4K. The rest is the balance of system (inverters and other devices) and "soft costs" (labor, permitting, etc.) It's this other stuff besides the PV modules that comprises a large majority of the cost of a complete solar installation.
I did calculation, her system running for 20 years would cost about $0.12 per kwh!! that is like paying a utility company in other states. good thing for her, her electricity costs $0.22 per kwh