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Solar Panels

A Boy Named Seo
Aug 21 2018 02:27 PM

I have a dude coming by today to see the house and give me the pitch. Any of you take the plunge and get solar panels for the house? If so, let me hear all your praises/horror stories NOW!!!!

Benjamin Grimm
Aug 21 2018 02:53 PM
Re: Solar Panels

I looked into it a couple of years ago, and the math didn't work out. The time it would take for the effort to pay for itself exceeded the amount of time I'd likely be in my house.

If I was fifteen years younger (I'm 55 now) I'd probably have gone for it.

A Boy Named Seo
Aug 21 2018 03:10 PM
Re: Solar Panels

Yeah, I wanna pull the trigger but worry how long I'll be in this house, too. And worry that the tech will be outdated in 10 years. Or worry that it will be outrageous to repair when the warranty ends and something breaks in 20 years. What a boring, old fart I feel like.

Lefty Specialist
Aug 21 2018 03:13 PM
Re: Solar Panels

Too many trees at my place. Can't get satellite TV either.

Ceetar
Aug 21 2018 03:56 PM
Re: Solar Panels

Lefty Specialist wrote:
Too many trees at my place. Can't get satellite TV either.


Same. Well I haven't tried satellite tv. My neighbor has one on our property line though, so I imagine it's possible.

I love the mostly shaded backyard during the day though.

Frayed Knot
Aug 21 2018 07:05 PM
Re: Solar Panels

A Boy Named Seo wrote:
I have a dude coming by today to see the house and give me the pitch. Any of you take the plunge and get solar panels for the house? If so, let me hear all your praises/horror stories NOW!!!!


You, at least, are in a better part of the country for it than most of us: more days of sunshine, fewer trees, no big honking oceans nearby.

Nymr83
Aug 21 2018 10:20 PM
Re: Solar Panels

Lefty Specialist wrote:
Too many trees at my place. Can't get satellite TV either.


Do what is right for the environment - cut down all the trees and go solar!

smg58
Aug 22 2018 02:54 AM
Re: Solar Panels

A Boy Named Seo wrote:
Yeah, I wanna pull the trigger but worry how long I'll be in this house, too. And worry that the tech will be outdated in 10 years. Or worry that it will be outrageous to repair when the warranty ends and something breaks in 20 years. What a boring, old fart I feel like.


The tech will be outdated in five years. And that tech will be outdated five years later. In 20 years you will want new panels anyway.

Selling a house with panels can get risky -- some people will like the panels, some people won't -- unless it's clearly saving money.

They will tell you how much money you will save, but they present the best case scenario. You won't really get a sense of what the numbers are until they do a diagnostic on your roof to see how much light the panels will get exposed to. Don't make any promises before then. But for some houses it will be worth it. And the tech is steadily improving, so don't get too discouraged if the numbers don't add up right now.

A Boy Named Seo
Aug 22 2018 06:30 AM
Re: Solar Panels

Thanks for this, smiggy! Very helpful.