Apart from some of the mindless dribble here ...

I did not realize what my northern climate here would support solar energy production -- apparently solar panel efficiency has advanced a lot. That is a good thing ...

Don't say Govt Robbie.. Say who it is. It's the fucking Republicans who run your state. Republicans all over the country have been push anti "self ownership" solar bills trying to drive up the cost of installing your own systems.

They are trying to make it very hard for you to be self sufficient and make you stay connected to the grid allowing power companies to fuck you over. Educate yourself because this is a Republican fueled agenda to force you to stay tied to the grid limiting future technologies..

Democrats are NOT pushing this kind of BS only Republicans are. Your state and your issues with making it hard to go solar are a direct result in your state being run by Republicans. That is what YOU voted for..

"Support the grid"?
Barry, I am saying there should be no grid.

Everyone on renewable energy with their own solar and wind generation.

The grid is antiquated, technologically obsolete, and a huge vulnerability to our country.

Not sure why you are pro-utility company.
Not very liberal of you. :)

All of the new houses being built here are being built with solar. In order to sell my house in the future, I will need to have solar panels on the roof. People do not want to buy houses where they have a power bill.

Same thing in Republican run Arizona.

In December republicans in Arizona stopped buying energy from residential solar panel customers.

Arizona regulators vote to stop net metering for solar

Isn't is fucking hilarious how all the haters are also the right wing goon squad?

There has to be a "grid". Eventually everyone will generate their own power. However, in some areas solar cannot provide enough power on a daily basis to provide enough power. If you live someplace where it snows or rains a lot and you don't see the sun for days at a time, that can be a problem. On those days you will be draw power from the power grid.

Then you should stop voting for Republicans in your state, because the GOP agenda is to make it hard if not illegal to be off grid. Here in FL Republicans tried to push a bill this last election that would give the power company veto right over a home owner being able to install solar panels on their own house.. (ie the power company could tell you you can't get solar)

They then pushed it as a "pro solar" bill trying to fool the dumb dumbs, but luckily there was some pretty good campaigning by the solar industry to educate voters on what the intentions of the bill were so it failed.

It shows what a lie the alt-right movement is.

They say they want the system to crumble and independence from government, then a member gets energy independence with solar and every single one of them has nothing but negatives to say about it. Quite telling.

Looking like The GFY alt-right is just bitter racist trolls with multiple nics nothing more complex than that.

I posted this originally to Facebook, and Mark told me he didn't want to post it to GFY because - you know - people are assholes. It's stunning that a simple post about someone investing into solar turns people into assholes who want to do nothing more than sling crap at people.

I am going to save $2k - $3k a year.

The value of my house will go up. In the very near future you will need to have solar in order to sell your house; People will not buy a house without solar when they can buy a house in the same neighborhood with solar and save themselves $300 - $450 a month on power.

The comments about the HOA are, well, dumb. My HOA is great. For $120 a month I get free Internet, and they keep our common areas nice and tidy. If this is not enough, they are building the largest HOA pool structure in California. Right now as it is we have a shallow play pool for kids, and a larger pool for adults. There is also a hot tub and a "water play area" for kids, a small gym, and a play area. If this isn't enough... My HOA is building a third pool PLUS a "lazy river" surrounding the entire pool area - and a thirty thousand foot two story gym. The HOA is best thing about my neighborhood.

But you know, haters gonna hate.

Wow thanks! I can take you for a ride in a Volt, we can talk about how cool Obama was, watch some Rachel Maddow and drink some microbrewery beers. It'll be fun!

;)


Good point!! I never thought of that.


Hey! I did NOT call GFY'ers assholes! (I think I called them fuck-heads! Or dipshits! Or Dynamos, or....)

But of course you should always post this kind of stuff on GFY. GFY is nothing if not a caring group of people who love each other dearly and care about the future of our planet. {GFYGroupHug!}

It's a matter of practicality.

If the grid was going to close in 2018 and you would have to buy your own power generating system you would bitch about paying for it -- even if you had the money. We all would. You never appreciate what you have until it is gone.

80% of people don't have the capital investment money to buy their own power generating system. 50% of the population would be living in the dark lighting fires to stay warm in the winter, many burning down their homes. In the summer desert they would be dropping like flies from heat stroke.

You just can't have you cake and eat it too ... You cannot have a dual infrastructure, it is too expensive when there are few stakeholders. That is like saying we need no national defense spending -- I own guns and will kill any invader -- that is ludicrous. Some things are for the common good. Unless you want a huge tax burden subsidizing the power grid for those that need it -- that is a bad alternative.

However, you can have a redundant infrastructure.

I do agree with the vulnerability issues. I am more worried about storm outages than the foreign government cyber attack or electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, solar flare ... That is a doomsday scenario -- I am just not going to worry about that.

Edgy pornographers!

It's very true. Why buy a house without solar and have to pay a power bill every month when you can buy a house with solar and not have a power bill?

I will never buy a house without solar from this point on. It's just not worth it.

I was disappointed with that form's projected 3% increase in value projection. Maybe other locations have much better projections?

Maybe, it is for the reason that I would need to clear the snow cover off the roof solar panels when it snows overnight -- the panels don't get hot when it is dark :helpme I have open land I could use to make this easier too. But I would have to plow out a path to the land based panels.

Maybe, there is some work-around like wiper blades to activate -- what would that cost?

Lot of ifs to consider in this :2 cents:

You are misunderstanding me.

I am trying to say that if the govt. truly believes that global warming/climate change is caused by man & is THE biggest threat above all else...then maybe instead of printing a couple of trillion dollars to bail out wall street, they could have used that money to put people to work installing solar panels and wind power on every building in the US.

You know...solve the problem that is said to exist and everyone would have solar.
Win/win

Now of course the big utility company's and the company's making billions buying and selling "carbon credits" were never gonna let that happen.
Just like the price of solar panels will never be allowed to come down to a reasonable price that 80% could afford.

If you said rather than spend $2 or $3 trillion on a useless war and military build up I would agree. Wall St was just covering up this spending with the high risk mortgage scam, derivatives leveraging, et al. then got caught with their hands in the government cookie jar. So, like good stooges they got stuck with the blame. Hands slapped and sent to their room. They then got a bonus on their allowance.

Don't blame the drug addict blame the cartel or the dealers ...

I would love to do this. Electricity in Ontario is like being ass fucked every month.

I don't understand why they would spread it over 20 years though. If it's just a loan for $28,000, why wouldn't they do it over 5 years like a car loan? Maybe I missed the explanation earlier.

My guess would be to make the monthly payment low enough to entice you to do it & also to make more interest money off the loan

The first real sales job I had was selling a food and freezer deal when I was 19.

We sold the commercial bags of frozen vegetables and a side of beef near cost and the fucking freezer we paid wholesale $268 for cost $1,600 + financing at term loan rates. But over the year to eat all that food for a family of 4 -- we did some penciling -- and -- hocus pocus we proved it was actually less expensive -- hey you get the freezer free that's a $559 value -- do we have a deal?

I made $175 a deal -- that was 1974 -- today adjusted for inflation =$853.30
We did 1 to 3 deals a week that the credit was accepted on.

Sell the sizzle not the steak LITERALLY.

In Cali or Nevada you do have the bright sunshine.
How do the solar panels affect your roof's longevity?
Do they shade the roof from the sun or add heat during the day? This affects asphalt shingles -- tile roofs or metal roofs would just heat up making the house harder to air condition in warmer climates. This might add heat during cold weather mostly beneficial.
How do you re-roof with solar panels installed?

I like the land based idea better -- the difference is just the expense of burying 2 cables -- the land area loss is incidental to me; 1 from the panels to the barn for the battery storage then 1 from the barn to the house electric service entrance. Small advantage I can free up the 30 Amps of 220V from the house to the barn.

You cannot borrow like a car because the installation becomes real property when it is attached to land or a house -- default requires real foreclosure not simple repossession like a car or refrigerator.

A home equity loan, mortgage refinance, or personal loan (not likely) will be the only financing available -- the contractor will want to cash out on that job.

Right now, home loans are at historical low interest rates for 1st mortgages ...

I need free shower tonight

Barry, most homes in Vegas have ceramic tile roofs (as does mine)

And their are a few homes with solar panels in my gated community who had them installed a couple of years ago before the state took away all incentives and passed a law in favor of NV Energy that really hurt all the solar companies here.
So I have to assume that solar panels would have zero effect on ceramic roofing

Not true.
If that were the case people would never be able to do a short term loan for a swimming pool, or adding a room to the house or adding a garage. Or any other home improvement loan.
You don't need a 20 year loan to put some panels on your roof.
It's more likely a 20 year loan to make the payments low to justify the panels.
Make the payment cheaper than your current power bill. :)

Robbie I was a licensee building contractor for 14 years. And a mortgage broker in California for years ... so Robbie knows better

Done

So today the city inspected the system and approved it and now I just wait until the power company turns it on.

In some snowy climates where winter lasts longer, The sun spends much more time on the horizon, not straight overhead. Therefore your panels are angled towards the horizon and its slope stops most of the snow from accumulating. There are tricks to use at the bottom of the panels to reduce this too.

Over 25% of all solar panels are sold in snowy climates. Snow increases albedo, which has a positive effect on performance. (I know! Check out https://www.thestar.com/business/201...r_problem.html and https://blogs.scientificamerican.com...albedo-effect/).

Of course I'm sure there are times when panels still get covered up. If you're storing the energy, maybe you can use electric heaters to melt the snow off? I don't know. Good question though. I found https://www.thesolarco.com/5-methods...-solar-panels/ and this: Snow No More: Technology Keeps Solar Panels Clean

I am just thinking of my well insulated ceiling and my roof covered with snow -- the barn is not normally heated so that roof is always covered with snow -- slate grey asphalt shingle -- reflective. I got an ITC of $500 on just the materials and not the installation labor in 2012.

Canada has similar weather.

Just as you are saying the angle would change seasonally for optimum output.

Ideally the panels would be land based with some form of angle adjustment. You could just go broom the panels off after a storm -- but that is like chopping wood or shoveling snow -- wasted labor. My time or hire someone -- coal miners need the work ...

I do like the idea of self produced dependable power with a grid backup. Selling $10 a month power back to the grid is cutsie but not a real factor. When the power goes off for 30 seconds the computers stay on. If there is a day or two of outage, it is a minor inconvenience locally. My power is uninterrupted.

Mark, think of how good it would be to charge your electric car with solar energy. That might be a better use than selling power back to the grid. Not about the money but the efficiency.

I made a nice chunk of change shorting the long term bond market today -- but you need to be connected 99.999% of the time playing that game. My worst nightmare would be scrambling on a 4G attempting timing of buys and closing out the positions.

Got word from the solar company late last night to turn the system on... We are now generating solar power.

Well, you don't need A/C at night for the next few months so you will have little grid electric consumption. In the heat of the summer you will see the worst numbers. That is why you need battery storage -- how much per kw hour does the utility company buy your excess electric power for and what do they charge for the electric you buy?

Will you break even or come out ahead if you buy a power pack battery storage?

Woohoo! Awesome news :thumbsup

One fitty Sunny Days ! :thumbsup

I talked to my neighbor this past weekend; He lives about four doors down from me and has the same floorplan I have. He told me he had his system installed in 2015 and hasn't paid anything for power since then. Instead, he makes $30 a month from the power company.

If I can do the same I'll be paying $87 a month for power.

These numbers will change in the future, but only in my favor. My costs will remain the same, while the cost of energy will continue to go and eventually the power company will be paying more for the power they buy from me.

Win / win.

Tits for you!

http://38.media.tumblr.com/6b9ba795f...uuy2o1_400.gif

Tesla just started selling solar shingles for roofing -- I can't seem to find the weight /100sq ft but they are competitive with traditional high end shingles. Just a matter of weight and any necessary structural improvements. They are coming in at $200 or so per square (100 sq ft) for material only?

Petty seamless appearance -- heat issues. Could be beneficial in colder seasons here ...

I called a local solar company since I'm about to move to a different house in Tampa...

they said they install the Tesla Powerwall as a backup *these run $7k per... a HELL of a lot less than the $35k a backup professional generator costs

then they install the solar panels

My Teco bill immediately goes to ZERO dollars but you finance the solar and Tesla powerwall (for emergency and evenings etc) once the entire thing is paid off $30k you don't pay for power anymore and as a matter of fact... you can SELL the excess energy BACK to TECO

the Republicans tried to pass this "solar initiative" in Florida to prevent folks ANYONE besides the energy companies to sell energy... not individuals.... but folks saw right thru these crooked Republican cunts and voted NO

get solar it's awesome

Yup just saw this today. Another great day for green energy. Go fuck yourself, fossil fuels.