https://diysolarhomes.com/blog/home-solar-power/home-solar-panels-cost/ By A Renewable Energy Enthusiast Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:55:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.3 https://diysolarhomes.com/blog/home-solar-power/home-solar-panels-cost/comment-page-1/#comment-410 Zelannii Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:50:38 +0000 https://diysolarhomes.com/blog/?p=98#comment-410 OK, 1) failed to mention whether or not subsidies were counted in the figure. I had quotes from 2 companies to put solar on a new construction (easier than existing construction) in SC where the house was considered a "perfect candidate" for solar due to facing of the home and a good roofline. For 1.4KW, it was over $30,000. Both quotes were within $1000 of each other. This did not include "storage" batteries, and was for a grid connected system. There are no state subsidies in SC for solar power. In NJ, this same system would have cost under $15,000. The article should specify the subsidies. 2) Increased insurance costs are not included in this pricing. Adding $20+K value to your home, especially solar systems which dramatically increases your costs due to potential for storm damage, is several hundred dolars a year. 3) Costs assume you pay cash for the install, and that your home is unfinanced. Having a home with a mortgage, paying the 30K as a principal payment against your motgage is a FAR better investment over tim than solar, but it later... If you have to finance the solar install itself, you could be looking at an additional 30-50% in costs over 10 years. 4) Maintenance costs. Solar panels degrade in performance over time. They also require periodic cleaning, component replacement (cheaper systems use plexi, not glass, and yellow over a decade or so further impacting performance). Batteries need to be replaced every 5-10 years. Inverters also fail after 10-15 years. 5) Recouperation costs over a 20 year period assume your power company allows you to "run the meter backwards" and basically put overproduction into the grid during the day and buy that power back at night for the same price. Many power companies don't do this (only 1 in SC does), and far more actually charge differing rates at different hours of the day, so your overproduction might be valued far less than nighttime power, or they only offer you wholesale rates. This is a bad article, and only takes into account INSTALLATION costs, which can be as little as 50% of the costs to own solar over a 30 year period, especially if you live in an area where heavy storms or hail is common (like most of the south east of the USA). OK, 1) failed to mention whether or not subsidies were counted in the figure. I had quotes from 2 companies to put solar on a new construction (easier than existing construction) in SC where the house was considered a “perfect candidate” for solar due to facing of the home and a good roofline. For 1.4KW, it was over $30,000. Both quotes were within $1000 of each other. This did not include “storage” batteries, and was for a grid connected system. There are no state subsidies in SC for solar power. In NJ, this same system would have cost under $15,000. The article should specify the subsidies.
2) Increased insurance costs are not included in this pricing. Adding $20+K value to your home, especially solar systems which dramatically increases your costs due to potential for storm damage, is several hundred dolars a year.
3) Costs assume you pay cash for the install, and that your home is unfinanced. Having a home with a mortgage, paying the 30K as a principal payment against your motgage is a FAR better investment over tim than solar, but it later… If you have to finance the solar install itself, you could be looking at an additional 30-50% in costs over 10 years.
4) Maintenance costs. Solar panels degrade in performance over time. They also require periodic cleaning, component replacement (cheaper systems use plexi, not glass, and yellow over a decade or so further impacting performance). Batteries need to be replaced every 5-10 years. Inverters also fail after 10-15 years.
5) Recouperation costs over a 20 year period assume your power company allows you to “run the meter backwards” and basically put overproduction into the grid during the day and buy that power back at night for the same price. Many power companies don’t do this (only 1 in SC does), and far more actually charge differing rates at different hours of the day, so your overproduction might be valued far less than nighttime power, or they only offer you wholesale rates.
This is a bad article, and only takes into account INSTALLATION costs, which can be as little as 50% of the costs to own solar over a 30 year period, especially if you live in an area where heavy storms or hail is common (like most of the south east of the USA).

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