Free solar ???????

jonny88

i got a letter from a solar company saying they will install solar panels for free and instead of paying utility company you pay them the bill.Im in long island company is RGS

Is this to good to be true or where is the catch

SWEI

Probably

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_purchase_agreement  Not all states have enabling legislation yet.

elizebethwoodhall

Waiting

Yeah even i got such mail few months ago, still waiting for them!!!

SethK

Catch

They keep your federal and local grants/rebates/etc, and you are leasing the system and paying for it by paying them a lower rate.



Pros: it's easy, costs nothing up front and saves money, I believe no maintenance costs, and usually they will take it down the moment you don't want it.



Cons: you don't own it, those rebates can only be used once so you can't use them to buy your own system in the future, and your power will never be free -- if you own a system it will eventually pay for itself (5-8 years or so depending on many factors) and after that it's basically free power (minus maintenance and inverter replacement).



My plan is to buy my own system in 2016 before the federal incentives expire, unless my town does some big rebate before then.

Boiler Talk

I don't understand how we in the US have been sold on government subsidies for solar or electric cars. Does a family really need a $7500 subsidy to by a Tesla car that sells for more than $90,000? Will a poor person by a Toyota Prius? Why should my neighbor in upper middle class neighborhoods get paid for solar installation using tax money? Why do we support bird killing windmills?

Paul48

You have to do your homework with solar. The components of an off-grid system, pretty much ensure that you will never have free electricity. The batteries, inverter and charge controller will all fail, long before you've put a dent in a financed system. The panels will begin to fail around the time you've finished paying the note( provided you bought high quality panels to begin with). I can see pending legislation requiring the components of this type of system to not be located in the residence. Unfortunately, there will have to be some home fires that prompt it though. When inverters fail...it ain't pretty. These systems work great, for bringing power to remote locations, not free power though.
Grid-tie systems using micro-inverters is the way to go, if possible.

ChrisJ

Boiler Talk said:

I don't understand how we in the US have been sold on government subsidies for solar or electric cars. Does a family really need a $7500 subsidy to by a Tesla car that sells for more than $90,000? Will a poor person by a Toyota Prius? Why should my neighbor in upper middle class neighborhoods get paid for solar installation using tax money? Why do we support bird killing windmills?

Wow.
That's all I can say to that is wow. I'm speechless and ask anyone here, that's not easy.

BobC

Inverters are usually reliable IF they are properly designed and built with good quality components. Good inverters are not cheap, cheap inverters fail and when the do there often smoke and flame involved.

I know this because i was involved with the design and testing of them for 20 years. When a 20 amp FET (or IGBT) fails in a 300v inverter circuit it does so in a spectacular fashion.

Bob