I was considering installing a solar system on my home since there are gov incentives that are promoting it.
After meeting with the people and doing the math I decided that I would have to own the home for 20 years before the "free" electricity would actually be "Free".
All that, even after sending electricity back to the electric companies and getting "credits" daily.
It appears that with past incentives that were "lifetime" warranted the companies have all but gone out of business so there is no "lifetime" warrantee on anything.
The new technology is supposed to last longer and not need repair as often.
But again, even after spending a lot of time to try to make a solar system work I could not justify the cost.
As I understand it, the cost isn't why most folks buy the systems, It's because they "want" to. There is nothing free about it unless they are used for a long period of time.
I build custom homes and have had many very large systems installed for several clients. They have always costed way more than what they were worth in my opinion.
However, I will say that those clients that live off the grid and did not have electricity available to them were well worth the cost to have some electricity on their properties. That being said, I had to run generators at each of those homes as the very large solar system set ups would not run halogen lights, compressors and multiple building tools that were needed on the site daily. Sure, they would work for a short time, but then the entire battery bank system would be used up on short order.
Someone, please. Show me how a solar electric home system pays for itself. I would very much like to see the math. I would consider installing one on my property if there was a pay off that wasn't longer than i want to own the home.
ANYONE?????