Any experience with SolarCity?
January 20, 2015 6:14 PM Subscribe
SolarCity wants to put panels on my roof. The deal looks too good to be true: they claim it will knock my average monthly bill from $90 to $26, no money down, free repairs for life.
Someone asked almost an identical question here a year ago, so I'm hoping someone with a year or two of experience with this kind of deal can tell me how it's working out for them. I'm in New England, and most of my electricity usage, year round, happens in the evening (except for the fridge and chest freezer). I rarely use AC. My garage roof is perfectly positioned for enough panels to power two homes, maybe.
Someone asked almost an identical question here a year ago, so I'm hoping someone with a year or two of experience with this kind of deal can tell me how it's working out for them. I'm in New England, and most of my electricity usage, year round, happens in the evening (except for the fridge and chest freezer). I rarely use AC. My garage roof is perfectly positioned for enough panels to power two homes, maybe.
Response by poster: You are giving up the tax break and the ability to take the gamble yourself by buying grid tied panels and getting paid for making electricity.
I suppose I should add that there's no way I'd be able to afford solar without this kind of deal, not even close, so the tax breaks mean nothing to me.
posted by Camofrog at 6:30 PM on January 20, 2015
I suppose I should add that there's no way I'd be able to afford solar without this kind of deal, not even close, so the tax breaks mean nothing to me.
posted by Camofrog at 6:30 PM on January 20, 2015
Check if you home insurance allows this, or if it will increase and cancel out the savings.
posted by scruss at 7:53 PM on January 20, 2015
posted by scruss at 7:53 PM on January 20, 2015
A woman at my church has had panels from Solar City for a year and says it's working out exactly as they said it would. She's a total evangelist. She's almost got me convinced to do it.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 9:11 PM on January 20, 2015
posted by rabbitrabbit at 9:11 PM on January 20, 2015
Best answer: The problem with this kind of deal in the UK has been that the property is locked into a 20 year contract so it becomes more difficult to sell during that period as apparently potential house buyers are way of taking it on. Might be worth looking onto whether there are any similar problems emergent in your state.
posted by biffa at 11:37 PM on January 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by biffa at 11:37 PM on January 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Came in to say the same as Biffa. We house hunted over the summer and the agent at one place actually warned us about the property because of this issue. There was a question of whether the mortgage company and solicitors would accept the contract terms (and thus give us money) because we weren't the ones who made the original contract and because it was locked in. The agent had already had the sale on that house fall throught at least once over the solar panels.
posted by IncognitoErgoSum at 12:05 AM on January 21, 2015
posted by IncognitoErgoSum at 12:05 AM on January 21, 2015
Best answer: The one big risk to the leased solar approach is that states are hearing the screeching nails on a blackboard from the utilities, who are demanding higher grid access charges, supposedly to be offset by lower per-kWh charges (and reimbursements for reverse flow or whatever it's called). Some of that risk is borne by the vendor, but some may be on you, so check that angle out carefully.
posted by dhartung at 12:06 AM on January 21, 2015
posted by dhartung at 12:06 AM on January 21, 2015
Don't assume you will have power when the grid goes down!
posted by Mac-Expert at 10:46 AM on January 21, 2015
posted by Mac-Expert at 10:46 AM on January 21, 2015
Response by poster: Great advice so far, Internet friends. It's a lot to look into. More advice welcome!
I rarely lose power for long because I am on a main road with big businesses, so they fix us first.
posted by Camofrog at 11:43 AM on January 21, 2015
I rarely lose power for long because I am on a main road with big businesses, so they fix us first.
posted by Camofrog at 11:43 AM on January 21, 2015
Best answer: I've got a SolarCity installation. It's great; I highly recommend them. They have three options:
1. You buy and own the system outright. This has the largest potential upside but the most risk. This would have been $25k for our system. Payback would have been 4 - 8 years, depending on specifics. While the equipment all has various warranties, you'd be responsible for contacting the manufacturers and arranging for the work yourself.
2. You do a lease but prepay the electricity. They own the system and are responsible for the maintenance and for fixing your roof of something goes wrong. This would have been about $10k for our system, brunch out cost to $0.05 / kWh.
3. Do a lease and pay monthly. Our rate is about $60 / month. The term is 20 years. It's transferrable if we go to sell our place. Or we can prepay the balance and just transfer the usage.
So, there's no reason that it should be a barrier to selling your home.
We just got our first annual statement and our system generated about 1000 kwh more than they had projected. If we had had to pay for that (waived the first year), it would have been about $100.
Ignoring that for the moment, we're getting about two months for free due to the excess electricity that we generate during the day being sold back to the utility.
posted by reddot at 12:51 PM on January 21, 2015
1. You buy and own the system outright. This has the largest potential upside but the most risk. This would have been $25k for our system. Payback would have been 4 - 8 years, depending on specifics. While the equipment all has various warranties, you'd be responsible for contacting the manufacturers and arranging for the work yourself.
2. You do a lease but prepay the electricity. They own the system and are responsible for the maintenance and for fixing your roof of something goes wrong. This would have been about $10k for our system, brunch out cost to $0.05 / kWh.
3. Do a lease and pay monthly. Our rate is about $60 / month. The term is 20 years. It's transferrable if we go to sell our place. Or we can prepay the balance and just transfer the usage.
So, there's no reason that it should be a barrier to selling your home.
We just got our first annual statement and our system generated about 1000 kwh more than they had projected. If we had had to pay for that (waived the first year), it would have been about $100.
Ignoring that for the moment, we're getting about two months for free due to the excess electricity that we generate during the day being sold back to the utility.
posted by reddot at 12:51 PM on January 21, 2015
Best answer: I just got home and did some math. Our electric bill previously was an average of $100 / month. So, we're saving about $400 / year.
posted by reddot at 4:41 PM on January 21, 2015
posted by reddot at 4:41 PM on January 21, 2015
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Bay Area, CA. Solar City is good. They are taking a 20 year gamble on energy prices. Yes, your energy cost will be cheaper, and yes the % drop is significant.
You are giving up the tax break and the ability to take the gamble yourself by buying grid tied panels and getting paid for making electricity.
They have competition... you can make them duke it out for your roof space.
posted by bobdow at 6:20 PM on January 20, 2015