Yep
Do your homework
Or hire someone independent to do it for you and you'd end up saving more $$ than just taking what sales reps hand you.
Solar panels, worth it?
- Thread starter BrunoMars420
- Start date
Do your homework
Or hire someone independent to do it for you and you'd end up saving more $$ than just taking what sales reps hand you.
Yes, eastern Iowa. We used Rabe hardware. Several people I know had used them and recommended, we have no complaints so far. We’ve had a few panels under produce and they have called to set up a time to swap out the panel before we even called about them.
No problem.
The only downside is they use SolarEdge so you still have an inverter (or 2), a lot of people recommend the micro inverters. SolarEdge does use optimizers so each panel produces independently but there is a single point of failure. We’ve been live for around a year and had one issue with one of our two inverters where a firmware push didn’t go through and shut the inverter down. There is an app so I could tell something wasn’t correct and Rabe was very good at following up and making sure the inverters were reset and running. All in all we lost half a day production from half the system.
At the end of the day I liked them the best when they came and talked about the quote. They’ve also been doing solar longer than most in Eastern Iowa and I felt comfortable they were still going to be around as a company if anything does need fixed.
We used “one source solar” on our project…they had an “exclusive arrangement” with Mid American in Polk, Dallas and Madison counties. They “delayed” installation until “X” number of signees wee enrolled…the more numbers, the cheaper the kilowatt cost, hence it was a way to control costs. Overall we are pretty satisfied with the results. We have been “on line” with them for 19 months now.
This thread prompted me to get some quotes. First one came in. Array size is 7.1 kW for annual production of 10,099 kWh. Price 23k before fed tax credit.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
Until there is great whole house battery developed at a reasonable cost and people aren't required to sell their power back to the grid before using their own production it will never be worth it.
There does need to be some sort of charge to maintain the grid but the idea that a utility takes the power you produce and gets to decide the rate they pay you year over year will never make this a trust smart or viable option.
There does need to be some sort of charge to maintain the grid but the idea that a utility takes the power you produce and gets to decide the rate they pay you year over year will never make this a trust smart or viable option.
I would recommend Rabe Hardware as well. They have installed 4 Geothermal units for me, and I occasionally have them service my solar systems that I installed. We had some inverters fail, so I found having them do the warranty repair was better than doing it myself.
It all depends on the utility company and state you are located in.
Net Metering can make that a mute point. My systems are several years old now, and grand fathered in under better rules than are available right now.
Linn County REC's Net Metering rules suck, they were made even worse about a year ago too. If that is your service provider solar may not be a good option for you without batteries.
My systems on Alliant Energy have all worked great. They did increase the bill last month though by adding a higher basic charge for 3 phase power customers, but that happened across the board not just with solar users.
With the exception of the 1 property on Linn County REC my solar systems are 100% paid off already and they are less than 10 years old.
I've gotten burned so bad on my " wave of the future " Geo-Thermal heat that I will never be stepping into any kind of new technology far into the future. 18 repairs in 10 years and they just left with another 600.00 bill 10 minutes ago. Paid triple for the initial installation over LP gas and I have nothing but ragrets. I'll likely pull the whole thing out next summer and install conventional LP furnace. Carrier is the brand and my installer has since dropped them. I've spent over 4K in repairs ( that doesn't even count all those that were under warranty ) over the last 3 years. The realtor tells me it's also huge negative on the resale value as well. Now I'll be paying a premium to retro fit it...
Exactly my point. Your asset and the utility and the state sets the rate where you have zero option to simply keep what you produce without going through them
Just outside Des Moines. This was 1 source solar.
I'll also be getting a quote from Rabe.
We used 1 source solar and th provided the service they promised…we are satisfied to date. We are going on 20-21 months now “on-line”.
