Went live with new solar electric system on my house

[thysrof]

Just went live on my new solar electric system for my house!

Long story short I have a 44 panel system that is a 0 down 10 year lease with option to extend lease for an additional 3-5 years or buy at end of lease for fair market value.

Like a lot of us I'm using an average of $430 worth of electricity a month. I will save at least $180 a month.It was really a no brianer

 

[Reef Bass]

Nice Bob! Please keep us up to date with how that is working for you.

I would love to put solar panels on my house (being Mr. 400w halides!) but my house is so far underwater one needs scuba gear to get to my front door, so it's just not financially prudent (no matter how good the deal) for me at this point.

 

[thysrof]

I hear you. The lease is transferable if you sell. The great thing is it's costs nothing up front. The company actually uses a google map picture and emails you the quote.You just need to give them your electrical useage.

How much electricity do you burn a month on the average. The numbers really work if you use a lot like i do

 

[thysrof]

Bye the way if you decide not to keep it at the end of the lease they come and remove it at no charge

 

[Grant W]

nice Bob, let us know how much the bill drops. With the tank,pool and three teenagers PG&E is killing me. My bills are on average 350-500 per month.

 

[thysrof]

Grant,

As I had mentioned there is a production guarantee, It's really a great deal. Here's what you want to do. Register on PG&E.com. You'll need your account number.

Click the usage link on the left side of the page. You will find a very nice clear 12 month usage history telling you how much electricity and gas you use and the price you paid for each. Print it or save it so you can fax or email it to the sales rep. I bought mine from Carrie McCandels 510-590-0302 cmccandless@sungevity.com. She will email you a quote using a Google mapping image.

I Gotta tell you it's really cool to see you're meter run backwards. I have a feeling it will save even more with the Smart meters charging more for peak time usage. Mine we're installed a couple of weeks ago.

 

[crispyreef]

I had four different solar companies come up to the winery for bids. It was pretty cool how they were going to do it. To power the winery and owners house it was going to take an acre and a half of panels!

 

[shaneh]

now that is just crazy! Must be a big winery!

 

[thysrof]

Chris,

With solar you don't need to have it supply all the power needs for a given business or Residence,mine doesn't.

The lower tiers of electricity are not very expensive. What you want from a solar system is to produce enough solar energy to eliminate the upper tiers usage. Especially in commercial where the rates are much higher.

If you have the space for the panels and did a lease how did the numbers come out? I'm guessing the lease costs 0 down with a monthly payment.

Remember the solar company makes more if you buy it. I can't imagine it making sense to buy a commercial system the costs would be astonomical.

 

[crispyreef]

True, but to power the winery during peak season (harvest) it requires huge power consumption and it would not be worth only doing solar for partial power. If we were going to do it, the owner wanted a bill of $0.00. The numbers worked when we crunched them, but the only way to take full advantage of all the benefits, rebates from the county and Pg&E is to pay for them yourself. When you lease, they get that.

 

[crispyreef]

I just looked at one of the proposals from Real Goods Solar, and it is for a 49.1 kW DC system. That is just for the winery. For the house, 54.6 kW DC, and guest house (that also runs some vineyard pumps, 32.8 kW DC. So the total system would be 136.5 kW system. We also wanted the sweet looking Kyocera panels on individual inverters and all that other good stuff.