does anyone here use them on there house or business? I was wondering what savings you were getting.I was thinking of putting them on my home and maybe business home usage is around $200-$350 per month business is around $900-2500 per month on business

Depends entirely on your local cost/Kwh and how much power you can generate in a 'normal' day. That varies enormously with local utilities and local climate. You will need to extrapolate your power generation over the course of a year for your power generation, then compare to the utility price to determine expected annual savings.

Then you need to factor in the capital expense of purchasing the hardware and installing it (less any tax incentives). Find out the expected annual maintenance costs and the expected lifetime of the system you are buying.

Now you can plot out the expense over the equipment lifespan and the expected annual savings and determine how many years it will take you to 'break even' on the installation and maintenance costs and actually start banking savings.

And sadly, in most places, the break-even is AFTER the expected lifespan of the equipment. That is why there is a push for subsidies and tax incentives because that is the only way to make individual solar power financially viable in most climates.

Thanks for the info. I will look into it a bit farther unless i can get some tax credits it might not pay

it pays you will b selling electricity to the company instead of paying for it. win win, free electricity for you after saving installation costs, and putting more energy on the grid, growing exponentially

do you have them on your house? just wondering your experience with them.

try this calc http://costofsolar.com/

Clearly panels in say, Arizona, will be more efficient than the same panels in Seattle where sun is a rarity. This is what you need to find out and the only real unknown. I would find a message board and start asking questions there. There are probably people out there that live in or near your area with similar setups that you are looking at and pick their brain.

Unfortunately, in most climates solar isn't efficient enough yet, but the technology is improving daily and I see it as a profitable industry not too far down the road. If you can get a setup efficient enough and you have long low load periods then yeah, you can roll your meter backwards. You clearly still need municipal power unless you are going crazy with capacitors and batteries and all that fluff. Self sufficient solar power isn't that realistic on a civilian budget.

Find what your power needs are, in kwh, and then research your options based on that. Chances are if you want to be efficient enough to where you eventually turn a profit then you either need a grant/subsidy, a messton of research, and/or hire someone that is good at this fluff and hope they wernt lying when they told you they were.

The price of power per kwh varies depending on where you live too.

https://www.rockymountainpower.net/...teMap_Residential2015.jpg

Power cost more than 2x as much kn NY as it does in WA. Just a quick example. Your local $/kwh makes a difference. Living close to a nuke or hydro station can effect your rates. So telling us your power bill isn't that specific of a metric.

yes I have on mine, they have new solar energy programs out now. Any solid solar distributor or installer should b able to get you your paperwork. naturally tax benefits at tax time and energy credits also. Also I think I worked out off of last year, as only had that long, I will b getting paid in aprox 5 years. 15 year on panels, and they are getting much smaller also to convert same energy so weight installation is also less. Less panels, less cost. I live in my main house of 4300 sp ft. Fully installed, inspected, ran right at 37k. That also includes extra batteries I purchased, and a couple other frills, and I don't have a maintenance cost, they come in once a year inspect and certify. My home owners insurance went down slightly also.

i have them on my house cost me 2800 to install them but they will pay that back within 4yrs with what ill save vrs utility cost.

It can vary a lot depending where you live. For example here in Ontario anything you produce goes on the grid (assuming you are connected to the grid) and they pay well above market price for it.

Ya, but that won't last forever. There are often government programs that end up ensuring you make money for getting solar panels (over like a 25-30 year life) so if you can find & lock into one of those it would be good, farmer!

@Blueee -> that sounds really cheap! the projects I've heard of up here are in the 8-10k range. I wonder if that's because (like H4) I live in Ontario and the sun situation is not as good as parts of the US, so we need more to generate the same amount of power.

I work for a utility so I'm as you would say plugged in. Basically if you did do it, you would want to make sure you would be able to do "net metering" for the life of your panels and your local PUC (Public Utilities Commission) wouldn't screw you over like in Wisconsin recently where they were able to get the rates changed to have more cost sunk into the fixed costs for a reduction of the $/kWh (A direct assault on solar)

Also, another thing you might consider is joining a community solar garden. You basically buy into as many panels as you want and a mini solar-plant is built somewhere where there is cheap space. The advantage there is you all get to share the expensive inverters and controlling circuitry. Some of the electric coops in my area are putting these up and the kWh your panel produces is directly subtracted from your bill and if your panels produce more than you consume, they write you a check at the net metering rate. I see that as a safer option but lets face it, it's cool to have the panels right on your roof. Makes you feel better too. :)

Where I live is ideal for solar panels, very efficient. Just as good as if not better than prolly Arizona. However, when I first moved here 6 years ago. Power from the electronic company was one of the cheapest in the world (think it was like 3rd cheapest worldwide). So even though solar is very efficient here, it just was not worth the cost and would have ended up losing money.

A lot has changed since than though. First solar panels have improved a ton since than and more importantly the power company caught on to how cheap they were and have steadily been raising their rates. So it is getting about that time for me to start looking into it again.

You can find some solar panels around here n there, always have, but it is low amount. Unlike solar water heaters, always can find lots of houses with one of those on the roof. Especially used during winter months. But that set up is lot of cheaper (no batteries, resistors, etc) and no maintenance cost at all. Saves quite a bit on gas during the winter.

I will have to contact a installer and see what he says, there seems to be a huge difference in prices. as far as where i live not that far north i live in southern Indiana the electric rate is anywhere from .108 to .118 cents a kwh i use at my home 1700 - 2400 kwh and at my business 7000 -22000 i am thinking it would not work well at the business lots of dust around and large power swings. I went for a drive the other day and noticed there were several housed with them installed. I also live in a area where there are a lot of Amish they do not like to connected to the grid so that could have been some of them but there were also several that i am sure were not

The Indiana state government has made great strides in offering excellent incentives for property owners to cash in on green technologies within certain guidelines. For residents to become 100 percent exempt from property taxes by way of installing renewable energy systems to their home or mobile home, they must generate what the county auditor and/or assessor deem adequate to cash in on the exemption.

There is no specific requirement as to how much energy in kilowatt hours must be produced or stored, but the county auditor and/or assessor will determine if the system is up to code and of adequate efficiency.

Proof of out-of-pocket costs for materials and installation of the system will also be covered by way of tax deductions.

To claim these costs, all the property owner needs to do is provide invoices or other means of documentation for the out of pocket expenses involved in the cost of materials and installation.

.11 per kwh is pretty cheap.

good luck with whatever you decide! no property tax sounds good as fugg.

Northern Indiana here, and sounds like you found where you needed to go

I just had two companies come to my house and give me estimates. I live in Delaware. The companies are Solar City and Sungevity.

Over the past few years I've been looking into getting solar panels, but it seems the payoff for buying them is about 15 to 20 years.

These two companies have come up with a leasing deal. Basically, they put the solar panels on your house and they own the panels. They take care of all the maintenance.

As the homeowner, you purchase the electricity from them for a fixed price (set for 20 years). They guarantee how much savings you will have vs. the electric company.

The only problem I had was that I plan to move within the next couple years and I didn't want to lock into a deal for 20 years that could (very low chance, but it's still a chance) prevent me from moving. After I move, I will most likely get solar on my new home from one of these companies.

I'm waiting for Lunar Panels

Ha! Truss did you know that Lunar Solar is really a thing?

http://www.space.com/...elt-solar-power-idea.html

" Shimizu Corporation is proposing and they reckon their concept could harness a steady stream of 13,000 terawatts of power. According to Business Insider, "the total installed electricity generation summer capacity in the United States was 1,050.9 gigawatts." Such a vast energy resource could be transformative for our civilization."

i think that is a little different than what he had in mind. not to mention the iffyness of the transmission of said power.