Green Living
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Solar panels
Hi ladies,
we have been debating to install small solar panel in our house. We are just starting to research the subject but I was wondering if any of you has them. Pros? Cons? Is it expensive?
TIA
Re: Solar panels
We don't have them, but I will tell you my solar panel experience...
Our house would be totally perfect for them, because the roof is almost completely flat, and it's not shaded by trees or anything. The installers would have angled the panels slightly for maximum sun exposure, but that's all that would have had to be done. They don't actually attach anything to the roof, they're attached to brackets that sit on the roof (and are the equivalent weight of I think a foot of snow?), so you could move them if you wanted, and there's no holes in the roof or anything. Then there is just a single cable that runs down the side of the house to the meter.
When you have PV panels, you don't actually use the energy you collect. Instead, that energy goes back into the grid, and your electric company pays you for it - you basically end up with two electic meters on your house, one running forwards (for what you're using) and one running backwards (for what you're collecting). So if you can collect a lot and don't use much electricity, your electic bill could be almost nothing (if you have a lot of panels, the power company could end up paying you!). Not sure if this is how it works everywhere, but in PA you end up selling your solar electicity through a broker, so you can shop around for where you'll get the best price for it, or even tell them you don't want to sell it until the price gets to a certain amount.
In PA, they are offering rebates and tax breaks if you install solar panels. We had an analysis done and got an estimate, but unfortunately, even with all that, it would take us like 25 years to earn back what they were going to cost to install. It just isn't worth it for us in our current house, because we're planning on moving in less than 5 years, let alone 25! But when we get to our forever home, it's definitely something I'd like to look into again.
Whew! Sorry if that was a lot of info you already knew about. Since we didn't end up installing them I don't have that first-hand knowledge. But I do have some friends who are now in the PV panel business (I was going to buy from them, actually), so I can get you some inside scoop if there was something specific you wanted to know about.
We're interested to see if we can do this with our new construction home. Could you give me your friends info? Also how did you figure out the ROI? I've seen a lot of review saying payoff is like 20-25 years.
Where are you located? My friends' business is in Southeastern PA, and I'd be happy to send the info along if you're local.
They actually did all the calculations (projected energy use, cost per year, etc.) as part of a report they had to prepare as both their estimate for me and their report to PA for me to qualify for their rebates and tax breaks.
Return on investment varies widely on cost of living, cost of electricity, amount of sunlight (people typically overestimate this), and solar movement in your area (since residential panels are stationary they are angled for peak summer absorption but then they can't capture near as much light in the winter at higher latitudes).
Here in the Midwest general ROI is 30-35 years. But including tax credits and rebates that can be reduced by 5 years or so. Looking for ROI articles in CA for example will not apply to your area.
Here is some good information from a blog I follow:
Solar Panels:
http://www.catskillhouse.us/blog/category/solar-energy/
Solar Panel Savings:
http://www.catskillhouse.us/blog/solar-savings/
http://solar.coolerplanet.com/Articles/solar-tools/ (Solar calculator helpful but estimated cost is way, way low!)
Other Alternative Energy including Solar Hot Water:
http://www.catskillhouse.us/blog/category/alternate-energy/
Solar hot water panels are a much, much better idea! They are very inexpensive (a few thousand dollars vs. $40,000) and save similar amounts of energy. Giving them the shortest ROI of any renewable energy for residential use. Here is a very, very general breakdown on renewable energy ROI:
1. Solar hot water; 4-7 years
2. Geothermal; 6-15 years (ours is looking to be a 7-8 payback)
3. Photovoltaic panels aka.solar panels; 20-30 years
4. Wind energy; 40 years
Note: These are including standard tax credits. Local rebates would reduce the ROI. Geothermal estimate is for vertical bores which are the most expensive type but the most common because of space restrictions. Horizontal fields or pond loops would be significantly less.
We would love to have solar hot water panels but we live in a very shady location so geothermal was the next best option. For solar hot water and photovoltaic panels it is recommended to not have any trees nearby.