Rooftop solar is one of the best things to happen to my home, but I still encounter trepidation when I speak about solar with others. There is a repetitiveness to the concerns, so let’s just address them head-on.
Let’s start with the obvious first. Solar, like renewable power in general, comes with a large upfront price tag. I’ve had rooftop solar for around a decade and have gone through the process of installing panels three times in that period. My wife and I have spent around $50,000 on the solar panels that line the roof of our current home (though we received around $15,000 of that back in tax credits that have since ended).
$50k is not the kind of cash that most of us have on hand, and there are many who are not able to secure that kind of financing. I get that. But for people who can—those who drop the same amount of money on a new gas-powered vehicle that will only ever cost additional money to fuel and maintain—this is a way to make an investment that eventually saves more money than it costs.
Electricity is not something I have the luxury of choosing not to pay for. That means I have two options: pay to produce that electricity myself or pay to rent it from someone else. As is true with homeownership, buying a car, and renting in general—it’s cheaper in the long run to own something if you’re going to use it often.
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With electricity prices rising, electricity bills of several hundred a month equate to several thousand a year going to the power company. If my family is paying $5,000 a year in electricity costs, then we will spend $50,000 in ten years. In twenty years, we will have spent at least twice that (especially when you consider that utility costs will likely go up over the course of that time).
As long as my wife and I continue to live in this house, the money saved by installing solar may just be enough to offset the cost of putting a kid through college.
When many people calculate the potential savings of switching to solar, they only take into account how much electricity their home currently uses. For families driving gas-powered vehicles, that’s not quite the full picture. You may not have an electric car today, but if you buy one five years from now, your solar panels will generate free fuel you will no longer have to buy. If your current electric bill is $150 a month, but you blow through $300 a month in gas, then that radically changes how quickly your panels pay for themselves.
Yes, buying those electric cars will cost money, but so do non-electric ones. My wife and I drive two electric cars, purchased roughly five years ago at around $40k each—meaning we paid less for them than average cost of a new car in the US today, electric or otherwise. Since we weren’t paying much to charge them at home, we were able to pay them off in part using the money we were previously putting toward gas. It’s when you stop paying for gas that EVs become the cheaper option.
I come from a part of the country where $40k is a lot of money, but the used gas cars I grew up with sell for much less than electric ones primarily because many are older. You can’t buy an electric car from 1998 when we didn’t really have a semi-decent number of long-range EVs until 2018. On the flip side, electric cars currently depreciate faster than gas, and as time passes, the used electric car market will continue to grow and bring prices down. When the year comes that you can snag a used Chevy Bolt or a Mustang Mach-E for relative pennies, you’ll be glad you already have your panels. After all, a 3-year-old Mustang Mach-E is already $10,000 cheaper than new.
I’ve heard people express concern about solar panels getting damage, which makes sense—If I’m dropping tens of thousands of dollars on something, I don’t want to then spend additional money on replacements or repairs. Yet just like cars, solar panels are designed to handle being left outside 24/7. In fact, they handle it even better than cars.
You see, I’ve yet to see solar panels suffer damage no matter what the sky throws at them. Our panels have survived snow storms, sleet, and hail. High winds have never been an issue either. Years down the road, they continue to look good as new.
Some people have told me they’d feel more comfortable installing ground-mounted solar panels than roof-mounted ones, because they don’t want to damage their roof. They’re quick to ask me if I’ve ever experienced any leaks. The answer is no. I haven’t.
I’m not going to tell you that it’s impossible for a rooftop solar installation to cause leaks. Like with anything related to your home, some contractors do better work than others. Yet in general, installing panels that don’t leak tends to be the rule, not the exception. If anything, the fact that solar installers won’t put panels on an aging roof, the process of replacing old shingles might actually make a home less likely to leak anytime soon.
I think of my panels more as an added layer of protection. The area of the roof underneath the panels does not suffer from direct sun, rain, and other weather like the rest of the roof does.
Just because I have no regrets with my solar installation, that doesn’t mean that others haven’t expressed remorse, especially those who were sold on various types of cost-sharing arrangements. I recommend getting a loan the same way you would a car, and then buying the panels outright. Your expenses may actually be higher initially as you make loan payments, but eventually you will be left with just a reduced utility bill, if not one that has been nearly eliminated altogether.
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Any warranties on my roof ran out ten years ago, but it might last another 20. Another 50 if I cover it with solar.
All electric HVAC is the best way to replace a failed gas furnace/AC rig. Mine is 25 years old and getting regular maintenance, but replacing it worth another gas unit would be foolish. I will save money up front, and then on a continuing basis, if I avoid gas when the change becomes immediate.
wpeckham
No doubt if you’re not under warranty that is not an excuse to avoid rooftop solar.
Trees would be my number one reason for not getting solar. Several solar companies have told me I’d need to cut down several trees to get enough worthwhile coverage on my roof. Though if the IL legislature hadn’t dropped the ball last week I’d be getting plugin solar for the one part of my lawn that gets great sun exposure. Thankfully I have a chance to move in the near future and solar will hopefully be in those plans.
