Signed up for Solar late Feb of this year. The Federal Tax credits are set to expire in a couple years and they decrease every year. Right now its 26% and i think it goes down to 22% next year and then like 10% the following year and then it go away.
So my average electricity bill over the last 3 years is $230 a month so i decided to research solar option. I drove around my town and I went knocking door to door to people who had solar installed and asking people how their experience was with solar. Everyone i talked to was leasing theirs but over all they seemed happy and were seeing moderate savings 15 -25%. When you lease, you don't pay for anything out of pocket. You just let the company install the panels and you pay them an electricity rate just as you would your power company. ****OF NOTE: You do not get the solar tax credits if you lease, the solar company does. Leasing costs you more in the long run as the rates increase every year and like i said you don't get any of the tax credits. Plus, when my system is paid off, i own 100% of the electricity.
Then I went to Evergysage.com to research and get quotes and found a company called Green Power Energy out of NJ(im in CT) that had stellar reviews. So long story short, i did the consult, they designed the system for me, measured the potential of my roof to produce solar power ,showed me panel options and pricing/financing options and it all looked good to me. I went with LG Panels 350 watts x 33 panels to over produce what i average per year. The total cost of this was $38,000. Unfortunately i needed a new roof in order to do the project. Green Power already worked with a Roofing Company so they quoted my roof at $11,500 which is way less then what i thought for a 2500SQ ft house. Good deal. The good news is that the Roof can be lumped into the Federal Tax Credit as part of the Solar project.
So essentially this is a $49,500 project for 15 years at 3.99%. Comes out to be like $244 a month for 15 years. Connecticut has a Solar tax credit program as well so i was able to get around $4500 off the top of the loan to bring it down to $44,500. And then next year when i file my taxes i will get a Federal tax rebate of $12,740 on top of any other tax refunds we already get. That rebate needs to be applied to the loan as a one time principle payment next year which will bring the total loan to $31, 740.
It has been a long process. Our Solar just got up and running like 4 or 5 days ago but just wanted to share some numbers.
If I am looking at this correctly:
June 2019 we were averaging a usage of 34KWH per day. So far it looks like the Solar is producing 65ishKWh per day. Unless i am reading this wrong. Now obviously working from home and adding the hottub is going to increase the usage but i think it's generating enough to cover 100% of our electrical usage. You can see 5/2019 were were at 18KWH per day and 5/2020 we are at 27KWh per day so that shows how the work from home is effecting our usage.
Hope this was informative, feel free to ask any questions.
So my average electricity bill over the last 3 years is $230 a month so i decided to research solar option. I drove around my town and I went knocking door to door to people who had solar installed and asking people how their experience was with solar. Everyone i talked to was leasing theirs but over all they seemed happy and were seeing moderate savings 15 -25%. When you lease, you don't pay for anything out of pocket. You just let the company install the panels and you pay them an electricity rate just as you would your power company. ****OF NOTE: You do not get the solar tax credits if you lease, the solar company does. Leasing costs you more in the long run as the rates increase every year and like i said you don't get any of the tax credits. Plus, when my system is paid off, i own 100% of the electricity.
Then I went to Evergysage.com to research and get quotes and found a company called Green Power Energy out of NJ(im in CT) that had stellar reviews. So long story short, i did the consult, they designed the system for me, measured the potential of my roof to produce solar power ,showed me panel options and pricing/financing options and it all looked good to me. I went with LG Panels 350 watts x 33 panels to over produce what i average per year. The total cost of this was $38,000. Unfortunately i needed a new roof in order to do the project. Green Power already worked with a Roofing Company so they quoted my roof at $11,500 which is way less then what i thought for a 2500SQ ft house. Good deal. The good news is that the Roof can be lumped into the Federal Tax Credit as part of the Solar project.
So essentially this is a $49,500 project for 15 years at 3.99%. Comes out to be like $244 a month for 15 years. Connecticut has a Solar tax credit program as well so i was able to get around $4500 off the top of the loan to bring it down to $44,500. And then next year when i file my taxes i will get a Federal tax rebate of $12,740 on top of any other tax refunds we already get. That rebate needs to be applied to the loan as a one time principle payment next year which will bring the total loan to $31, 740.
It has been a long process. Our Solar just got up and running like 4 or 5 days ago but just wanted to share some numbers.
If I am looking at this correctly:
June 2019 we were averaging a usage of 34KWH per day. So far it looks like the Solar is producing 65ishKWh per day. Unless i am reading this wrong. Now obviously working from home and adding the hottub is going to increase the usage but i think it's generating enough to cover 100% of our electrical usage. You can see 5/2019 were were at 18KWH per day and 5/2020 we are at 27KWh per day so that shows how the work from home is effecting our usage.
Hope this was informative, feel free to ask any questions.