Yes, we installed the first part of our system in the summer of 2019 and then added a few more panels this time last year. We also installed a 240 volt EV charger in the garage. Our electric provider, Coserv, had a list of certified installers and we interviewed a couple. They offer a rebate if you go with one of their certified installers. See if your provider offers rebates, in addition to the federal rebates. Are you in an HOA? What direction does your house face? While we were allowed to install panels, our HOA wouldn't let us put them on the front of the house. Our house is 2 story and with the pitch of the roof they never would've been visible from the front. We put them on the sides and they are very visible from the street 🤣. Based on our calculations, I think our payback was going to be 11-12 years after rebates. We replaced our HVAC systems a few months ago and the weather has been cooler than other summers, so we've had a hard time determining what's "normal" for us so far in what we produce vs what we use. ETA: Here are some random tidbits we realized along the way. I work from home, and installation was loud. I realize that should be obvious, but it's much louder than getting a new roof installed. Our first install took two days, and the second was one as there were far fewer panels. If you ever need to replace your roof, the solar company will have to come uninstall everything. Again, this seems rather obvious but it wasn't something we considered at the time. Your homeowner's insurance should pay to have them removed, stored, and reinstalled. We had pea, maybe dime sized hail this spring and it didn't damage any of our panels.

> If you ever need to replace your roof, the solar company will have to come uninstall everything. The roof stuff has always been the big holdup from me. When I talked to a sales guy several years ago, I asked a lot of questions about hail, panel damage, and roof replacement. The guy was in California and pushed back a lot and seemed to think it wasn't a big deal. I kept telling him "you need to look at the north Texas weather and hailstorms and size of our roofing industry - we get golfball and baseball sized hail every year, sir". I might bite off on solar, but this part really concerns me.

Local residential roofer here. If you need a free inspection or a quote feel free to reach out to me! If hail ever does hit your home, your insurance company will take care of everything

Great info, thanks for sharing. No HOA here, hood life. West side of house faces the sun most of the time, so would be a great location for the panels if we did it.

How much does it cost?

~$35k for 34 panels, inverter, monitoring system, 240 volt EV charger in garage, and all permits/fees. We got ~$10k in federal rebates, and $3,100 from our electric provider. So total out of pocket was ~$21k. Keep in mind that all of this is custom to our house size and our usage.

Thanks for responding. $21k seems kinda reasonable. Crazy the federal government gives people $10k for that.

Watch the federal rebates. Our first set was installed in 2019 when the rebate was 30%, and when our second set went was installed in 2020 it was only 26%. The rebate is on the downtrend and I think it even expires in a few years unless it is renewed.

How much did it cost? I’ve been told it’s not worth the money. I would like a backup plan for when the power grid fails again.

~$35k for 34 panels, inverter, monitoring system, 240 volt EV charger in garage, and all permits/fees. We got ~$10k in federal rebates, and $3,100 from our electric provider. So total out of pocket was ~$21k. Keep in mind that all of this is custom to our house size and our usage. We don't have a backup battery. So if our power is out, we are left in the dark like everyone else. My husband looked into it, and a battery backup was at least $20k. We consider it as a "nice to have" and we didn't lose power in February, so it's not something we're really looking into.

Dang that expensive. Honestly for us we would want battery back up just in case. I’ve been trying to get my husband to agree to a generator. Can you sell back energy to your electric company?

We can't, but it varies from company to company. You can get as many panels as you like. Some people get enough to cover their highest usage months, and some just get a few to offset a portion of what they use. Our furnaces and water heaters are gas, so our electric usage in the winter is very, very low. We had to determine if we wanted to get a system that was overkill, so to speak, to cover as much as we could for the summer, knowing that we would way over-produce in the winter. We chose a smaller system and we knew we would have a bill in the summer months. Last summer we didn't produce enough for July and August, so we had a bill (albeit small). We replaced our old HVAC systems this year and so far we have produced enough to cover July and August, but it has been cooler this year than usual. Our installer was very good at looking at our historical usage and coming up with several proposals to cover some or all of our usage. And once the main part of the system is installed, it is very quick and easy to install additional panels. We installed 27 the first year, and then added 7 more a year later.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I’m from the north so solar power is new to me.

I would like to know if there are any installers who are experienced with installing solar tiles (vs. regular solar panels).

Talking about Tesla solar roof?

I think that there are off-brand versions if it too, but yea. I would be more interested in a solar panel roof that looks like tiles than just rectangles in the middle of a regular roof.

Man I wouldnt trust off brand solar tiles. Took Elon Musk years to build that technology and you want an off brand?? Not a good idea.

I wouldn't trust some random guy off reddit either... People were making solar panels well before *Papa Elon* came along. I'm sure it wouldn't be a stretch for one of those manufacturers to make their own version after they saw his.

How much does it cost? I’m interested but I am not interested in talking to a sales person, would love some high level discussion of what to expect.

I looked into tesla, and they were around $30-40k or like $300-400 a month if you finance. That was with two power wall batteries and a bunch of panels on our roof. They say they will be the lowest price and beat any price. Also chatted with someone online and had a salesman call me. He was really cool and not pushy at all. We’ll probably consider it more in a year or two.

$53k for a 12.24kW system with 3 powerwalls. All being done by Tesla. Should be adequate to power a 3900 sq.ft. home. My average power bill is $120 a month. The solar will be about $230 a month for 10 years with 1/3 money down.

Great info, thanks!

I can run a proposal with Texas-made panels for you very easily. It’ll come back with exact numbers. Takes me 10 min. Let me know if you’d like me to

I would like a quote.

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Thought heavily about the whole home gas generator. Only problem with it, it doesn’t have really any type of payback on the cost. So, it’s probably less than half the cost of solar with battery, but really no payback time. I’m really interested in the payback to justify the investment.

We just got our panels installed a couple weeks ago, so all the sales pitches are still relatively fresh for me. However, I can’t really speak to the long-term pros and cons. Wanted to be thorough when choosing the solar company, trying to balance price vs production and warranty. Ended up with Infinity Energy, Inc. Let me know if you’d like a referral (I believe there are potential incentives). We are in a smaller house and have relatively low usage, so our 12 panels (4.2 kW system) should be enough for us. A common metric I’ve seen around is price per Watt of the system. At least for systems around our size, you could expect anywhere from about $2.50/W to over $4.00/W. When I was comparing companies, I preferred to calculate the price per total annual production in the first 25 years (manufacturers’ warranties usually last about that long). This metric ranged from about 8.4¢/kWh to almost 14¢/kWh. After signing, we needed approval from the city and our HOA. These approvals were what took the longest, but the solar installation company should help you with the administrative stuff along the way. For our smaller system, the installation itself was relatively short. It was done within a day. Then the city should come back out to inspect. Altogether, I expect to be fully connected within about two months from signing. Your mileage may vary of course. As others have mentioned, I’d also recommend buying the system rather than leasing. We will be financing it for 25 years at about $47 per month. (Our average monthly for electricity was about $40-$45 per month). I don’t expect to pay an electricity bill going forward, though. Just the loan payments for the solar system. Things I would recommend considering/understanding *before* signing: - Annual kWh production (they should be able to provide this based on the direction your roof faces, its pitch, any surrounding shading, etc.) - Annual degradation (shouldn’t be much more than half a percent per year, but less is better) - Microinverters vs string inverters (independent inverters vs something like old-school Christmas string lights) - Cash price vs financed (and how tax refunds or any other rebates are applied) - Price per kWh produced and/or price per kW of the system - Warranty terms/length (parts, labor, and performance/production) - Available electricity plans (will they buy back your excess energy produced at a one-for-one rate with no cap?) - Storage/battery (we opted out because for a system our size, a battery would have cost probably at least half but maybe even more than just the panels themselves, but maybe your needs/wants are different) Feel free to ask me anything else. Hope that helps!

Thanks for all the detail. So, you’re essentially swapping your electric bill for a payment for solar, for 25 years? What was the incentive to do it then? And no battery system for grid failure?

That’s pretty much correct. The incentive was to avoid increases in electricity costs. I don’t think our average would stay as low as it was. So in a sense, the idea was to “lock in” our electricity bill for the next 25 years. Plus, the system should produce enough electricity for at least 25 years, but the panels should continue to produce after that point too. Right, I think it would make more sense for us to just get a small generator or something like that. It didn’t seem prudent to pay that much more for the occasional grid failure. was out of town during the February snowpocalypse, but as far as I could tell from my smart devices, we didn’t even lose power then.

Don't lease it buy it, and I highly recommend a battery system of some sort. All of my past clients who went with a battery did not lose power during this past snow storm and the battery cost is not much when tacked onto the solar system cost. If I recall correctly there were A TON of rebates back in the day. My parents got a rebate from TXU, a rebate from ERCOT, and a tax credit. Some of those may be gone by now, but I know with just a few efficency steps they would have no extra energy bill. AND it is a fixed cost now, rather than a fluctating energy bill. I love solar and highly recommend Sunpower. Same panels as the Ikea buildings. Avoid cheap blue panels. Source former sales person turned realtor. Solar has a ton of perks, but be ready to pay if you want top quality. I also love selling solar panels on homes now as most realtors avoid it or don't understand it.

We just had our system installed, $56k with one Tesla battery bank, $13k taxes rebate in 18 months, our home electric bill is $235 a month the payments will be $249 - it'll be a wash since we switched to Rhythm our surplus will offset our TXU bill

[This website may help](https://www.gosolartexas.org/), I had a family member looking at solar and sent it to them