Putting a new roof on the house... Silver lining?

[Dorsilfin]

So, the winter has been rough on my house.. going to need a new roof as in soon. I've already got people lined up for estimates and all that stuff..

I've applied for a Home equity line of credit to help the cost of the project which Im hoping will not be that bad..

so onto the silver lining.. Friday im having a site survey and rough estimate drawn up to go SOLAR If its even remotely possible for me to do it, I might just jump at the chance.. new roof with Solar = Yum!

it would be nice to simply negate the electric bill and the payoff wouldn't be too bad.. I guess it all comes down to $$ and how much ill have to spend.

-D

[DrPop]

Oh man, that would be sweet. It's still a fairly large investment from what I've heard, but with the prices of electricity, it will easily pay for itself if you live there long enough. I think that's the key - it will take time. For example, if you spend ~ $250 / month on electricity, That = $3K per year. For a $30K investment, that would take 10 years to pay back. Then it makes you 10% per year thereafter. Of course, as electricity rates are always going up, it might actually pay for itself in 8 or 9 years, and give >10% return on your money thereafter.

One other thing to check is whether or not you can sell the electricity back to the grid during the day (high peak priced hours) and then buy it back as you need it at night (cheaper non peak hours). I know folks who do this out here in Cali...

[Dorsilfin]

well, at 18 cents a KW in NY.. anything will help haha.

Sadly the sell back rate is only 6 cents, and thats what the electric company pays for it.. the other 12 cents is all "overhead" to deliver the electric.. so me selling back isnt making the 18 cents they are charging me.. /rude

The goal would be to simply negate my usage and not so much look to "Sell" any power. At the end of the year when they tally me up, id rather not be selling them X number of KW at 6 cents.. id rather be close to just breaking even and not selling or buying.

But ill have to wait and see how the site survey goes and what types of money will be needed. Really what id be interested in is them laying out the whole appraisal and then all the rebates/grants/incentives/taxbreaks etc etc.

I can see putting up 25k now, if I know come tax time im getting 15k back =o

[c303a]

I used to sell solar at one time a long time ago. We had a lot of companies trying to put in solar for electric and heat etc but at that t[I]me it was only good for hot water in this area. Make sure you get some real good data (and not just from the company selling the solar) on your area as to the feasability and the payback. Remember that the further North you live the less sunlight you get due to snow and rain. I would love to get solar here but I have had independent surveys run and they all say the same thing...payback is to long. I hope it is different for your area as I am a big believer in alternate sources of energy. Besides that just think how many more crunchers you could get if you were selling power to the utilities.

[Dandasarge]

The Gov money line I think is 26k or was last year when I was looking at it. Over that you don't get as much back from uncle sam. As close to that will give you the best rebate per dollar spent. Banks also have loans set up like car loans with 5 year or so payoffs if you can't get it in under your home.

[Dorsilfin]

Well well well.. I got my solar proposal done.

Hrmmm!

Total out of pocket cost would be 16,000 dollars for a 4.9 Kwh system which would cover nearly 100% of my yearly electric bill.

After federal and state tax credits/rebate id get 9000 back and be around 7000 out of pocket at that point.

from that point it would be about an 8 year payback, which is higher then I had hoped but still an option.

Ahh the joys of owning a house ><

[DrPop]

Hmmm...that is tempting. What kind of % return would that be on your $7K investment after the 8 year pay off?

[Crazybob]

Well well well.. I got my solar proposal done.

Hrmmm!

Total out of pocket cost would be 16,000 dollars for a 4.9 Kwh system which would cover nearly 100% of my yearly electric bill.

After federal and state tax credits/rebate id get 9000 back and be around 7000 out of pocket at that point.

from that point it would be about an 8 year payback, which is higher then I had hoped but still an option.

Ahh the joys of owning a house ><

Also, how far North are you? That doesn't sound too bad, but I live in the land of snow and large hail. Would hate to put out the cash and have a storm take me down.

[Dandasarge]

Hmmm...that is tempting. What kind of % return would that be on your $7K investment after the 8 year pay off?

knowing you don't have to rely on the power company is priceless. Other then that he gets about a buck a day out of it.

[Dorsilfin]

knowing you don't have to rely on the power company is priceless. Other then that he gets about a buck a day out of it.

Sadly, the system only works while the power company's Grid is up. it doesnt have any battery backup and is a "Grid Tie" system where as.. when the grids up it pumps.. if its down so is my house..

but the cost with a hybrid gridtie/standalone is astronomical.



Im about 80 miles north of NYC.. So we get snow and ice.. but they have quite a few installs in the area and no one has reported problems yet.



the pay off of that 7G is about 8 years.. even that is all hypothetical assuming energy goes up.. stuff doesnt fail.. etc etc etc..


30 Year Cumulative Electric Cost WITHOUT Solar $72,060
30 Year Cumulative Electric Cost WITH Solar† - $11,401
30 Year Solar Savings = $60,659
System Cost or Investment* - $7,387
Total Profit from Solar Investment $53,272 over 30 years.