I live in Riverside and do the same thing....81 feels like the North Pole when its 200 degrees Farenheit outside........
I would definitely vote for solar.....that pretty bike must be kept at a comfortable 68 degrees 24-7 IMHO.....
I think solar panels are at the point were they can pay for themselves. The profit margin to run a solar power business though is weighing down on the efficiencies. That's not saying anything against solar companies, the average margin on a home built by a developer is 100%. Contractors are pretty close to that, about 65-75%. That said, if you have the know how, technical and regulatory, I think it will probably work out. If the home is purchased with a solar system installed, the matter relies less on the cost of the system, but the appraised value of the home.
We had bills around $250-300 in the summer with So Cal Edison. Price was too high but we weren't about ready to die without AC. We looked for other areas to save electricity. With the tiered rates that most utility companies have the little bit of power could save a good amount of money. Since your bill is high you might be in higher tiers which means the energy you save is worth more a good amount. We were in tier 4 and cut about 200 kWh a month which has saved us almost $50 a month. If we were in lower tiers we would have saved less money. (Tier 4) 200 kWh x $0.23 = $46 (Tier 1) 200 kWh x $0.09 = $18 We switched out our incandescent can lights in the living the room with LEDs on dimmers, swapped our screens to Super Solar Screen, and cut 30 minutes off our landscape lighting at night. Seemed pretty easy to save some dough. If you two are out of the house for long periods (work, traveling, partying, etc...) you might look into one of those newer thermostats you can control with a smartphone. You could shut off your AC or raise it a few degrees. Turn it back on when you're on your way home. It seems the AC is the best way to dramatically lower your usage.
Not to derail the thread, but 100% margins for developers? So they have no costs? Contractors, 65-75%? I know the contracting business quite well, and a typical profit margin for a contractor is about 10%, if they are lucky. The competition in so cal, OC especially is extremely high. This drives down prices considerably. If a contractor has an incorrect bid, or breaks a key expensive item, then they can easily lose money. If you know a business with a true 65% profit margin, please give me details, I'm in!
On the lease side, how does the roof get repaired/replaced if needed? I'm assuming the panels are not easily removed, or on hinges for moving out of the way. I've thought of this often when I see roof top panels. Thoughts?
To add to your question, I've observed my neighbors new solar panels (less than a year old) covered up in a layer of dust. It is a one-story house, and the panels are visible and easily accessible in order to spray them with a hose......but there they sat covered in dust all year until we got hit with the freak summer rain storm from a week ago....now they are dust free...... How about the two-story houses where the panels are higher up and/or not visible (to check for dust).....Dust on solar panels is what killed one of NASA's Mars landers.......
I had planted some trees years ago to shade the south facing side of our house. We had a solar guy come out and give his pitch and the first thing he said is that we should cut down the trees so the roof gets the most exposure for the panels. Lol. Planting a good shade tree (or trees) does make a difference as well.
The statement means to relate that for a 100 dollar home, it costs a developer only 50 dollars to build. That's for a developer built. Costs involved in marketing, financing, insurance, legal etc. are not yet included. I read property developer research for about 12 years as part of my old job. As for contractors, I used industry standards. http://www.hardhatpresentations.com/NineNecessaryNumbersYouNeedToKnow.htm I never question your figures, as there are merely averages. I believe that your figures apply to your own business. In any business that isn't high volume turn over, if youre making 10% over basic materials cost, by the sound of it, that's a tough business. more here.. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/gross-margins-remodeling-construction-industry-34959.html and this blurb explains it pretty well. "Nearly all successful remodeling contractors have found that the minimum mark-up to stay in business is 50% of direct job costs, which translates into a 33% gross profit or gross margin (see table below). In fact, most successful contractors find that 67-75% mark-up for a 40-42% gross profit margin is essential if there is to be a net profit to the company after overhead, recognizing that overhead includes owners' and managers' salaries. This higher mark-up is particularly important as a company's volume grows beyond $500,000 per year." https://www.hometechpublishing.com/economics-of-the-business-ezp-73.html
Interesting timing of this thread. I'm in the middle of installing a 6kw system right now with 24 Enphase microinverters and Kyocera 250 watt panels. My roof was old heavy cedar wood shakes that needed replacement. While the roofer was doing the reroof we installed the mounts and electrical pass-throughs are all properly flashed. The electrical is easy peasy...especially since I just rewired the entire house and upgraded the panel and preran a few things here and there. It was also super easy running some of the conduit while the roof was wide open (it needed to be sheeted). I started getting quotes from companies like Solar City, and while their prices aren't too bad, they just use the cheapest Chinese junk they can find...as do most of the big outfits. They figure that their profit margins allow them to replace a lot of panels or inverters under their own warranty. Watch some of them squirm when you ask the companies specifically what panels and inverters they're going to use. If you're capable, you can save a ton of money doing it yourself. You can also shop the equipment online so that you don't have to pay retail to the installation company. As far as I'm concerned, stay away from leases. We all know about the tax credits on the solar system, but did you know that if you have to reroof the house, that you can get some credits on that, too?
When we had our new house built we opted for solar. Ours is a 14 panel 3.2 kW system. The panels are built flush into the roof. We own the system and it provides 90 percent of our needs. The system is by SunPower. Just so you know, with solar, you'll get one bill at the end of the year for any electric bought from the grid. So you do want to keep an eye on this.There is a monthly maintenance bill of $1.80. Also, if the grid loses power the solar system is turned off. It is some sort of safety feature.
You're correct. That's so the linemen working on restoring the power don't get zapped by your backfed power. In case of a loss of power, when I set up my panel, I have an interlock device and input plug that allows me to easily use a generator to power the house. Though there's some debate on how well a generator can turn the solar back on and have it work properly - but that won't be my objective - I'll leave the solar off in that case.
New home. Bakersfield. Desert. Dry Heat. A lot of the points about solar have already been covered but one thing I'd bet that yours being new construction doesn't have is a good evaporative (i.e. "swamp") cooler. If you're running conventional refrigeration A/C and trying to keep indoor temps that low and have a bill that high your A/C is probably a big chunk of it. For about $800 including the pumps and motor you can buy an efficient evaporative cooler with 12" rigid media that will likely use a quarter or less power than the conventional A/C. Installation isn't too bad depending how you want to go ranging from doing it yourself and single inlet duct to professional install with ducted vents. SCE and other utilities also usually have decent rebates as well. You're just about in the perfect environment for one and during the monsoon season or other times when they're not efficient due to high relative humidity you can always mix in or use A/C to pull humidity out of the air. There aren't a lot of options but you could ask a reputable HVAC company about two-stage evaporative coolers (indirect & direct stage evap cooling) that put a lot less humidity into the air if that's a concern. Personally having lived in the high desert for a long time I didn't mind the extra moisture and like the continual air turn-over with fresh outside air. I don't think I ever had an electric bill over $45-50 in summer and that was running the evap non-stop and quite a bit of other electrical appliances.
Nice thing about the beach, rarely need A/C. I don't even have it. Electricity is $30 per month. Though rent and home prices aren't cheap. a co-worker put panels in several years ago and is past the break even point. Great thing now is that he has a couple electric cars, too and it is really paying off.
This thread is a little old, but... I have a 9kW system on my house. I consider it the best investment I ever made. Granted, I have a big pool, koi pond, etc, but I went from an average of $350 per month to virtually zero in the summer (I am a net generator). Nothing like watching an electrical meter run BACKWARDS to put a smile on your face I've had my system for four years. It has performed EXACTLY as well as they said it would. Couldn't be happier. The system had a five year cash pay-back, assuming zero residual value. A year from now it will have paid for itself and the rest will be money in the bank.
The inverters are supposed to be switched out as a matter of course every ten years - though I have not noticed anywhere near the degradation they projected. Panels: Kyocera Solar - KD210GX-LPU Inverter: Fronius USA - IG Plus 7.5-240 Initial solar forecast 11,809 kWr/yr - actual yield to date 12,794 kWr/yr 2014 year to date it has generated 10,468 kWhr (through 9/22)
yours is a great story. You mind if I ask how much you spent on the sYstem? Financed (what rate?) or cash purchase? I wanted to see is the 350 bucks a month saving is close to the cost of money used on the system.
The state incentives are nowhere near as generous anymore. Panel prices are declining but not as fast as the subsidies are disappearing. If the chance comes around again to buy power using taxpayer money, I'm jumping on it. I have a plug-in hybrid that doesn't get plugged in during the summer because gasoline is cheaper than tier 4.
