In the coming months, we plan to replace our roof at our home in the Houston area. We are also considering the option of installing solar panels at the same time. Our total electricity usage for the past two years was about 7,850 kWH in 2022-23 and 8,250 KWH in 2023-24. Our peak usage per day was around 62 kWH occurring sometime in July or August.
We pay an average of 11.9 c/kWH. Our highest electricity bill was 170$ with max monthly usage peaking around 1,400KWH. On cooler months, we average around 600 - 900 kWH. Houston has seen an increase in the number of weather events leading to extended power outages. We do not want to consider generators and so are are also looking into seeing if solar and batteries can cover limited usage during extreme events.
I used Energysage to solicit quotes and got from 4 vendors for solar with an option to include batteries. All quotes below are reasonably similar, account for federal incentives and we intend to pay cash
Vendor 1: 11,500$ or 18,800$ with batt. (19 x 420W REC Solar panels, 1 Tesla PowerWall3, Tesla Inverter)
Vendor 2: 9,800$ or 19,300$ with batt. (19 x 410W mSolar panels, 1 Tesla PowerWall3, Tesla Inverter)
Vendor 3: 10,700$ or 18,500$ with batt. (18 x 405W SEG solar panels, 1 Tesla PowerWall3, Tesla Inverter)
Vendor 4: 10,700$ or 22,000$ with batt. (17 x 460W REC Solar panels, 1 Tesla PowerWall3, Tesla Inverter)
Vendors estimate the payback in about 5 years which I believe is very optimistic. I would add costs associated with maintenance and other repairs and estimate the payback to be around 8-9 years. We do intend to remain at our home in the long run. Our home is North facing and we do have enough unshaded roof space in the south side for the required number of panels.
Does it merit looking into the option of installing solar seriously given our electricity usage?
We pay an average of 11.9 c/kWH. Our highest electricity bill was 170$ with max monthly usage peaking around 1,400KWH. On cooler months, we average around 600 - 900 kWH. Houston has seen an increase in the number of weather events leading to extended power outages. We do not want to consider generators and so are are also looking into seeing if solar and batteries can cover limited usage during extreme events.
I used Energysage to solicit quotes and got from 4 vendors for solar with an option to include batteries. All quotes below are reasonably similar, account for federal incentives and we intend to pay cash
Vendor 1: 11,500$ or 18,800$ with batt. (19 x 420W REC Solar panels, 1 Tesla PowerWall3, Tesla Inverter)
Vendor 2: 9,800$ or 19,300$ with batt. (19 x 410W mSolar panels, 1 Tesla PowerWall3, Tesla Inverter)
Vendor 3: 10,700$ or 18,500$ with batt. (18 x 405W SEG solar panels, 1 Tesla PowerWall3, Tesla Inverter)
Vendor 4: 10,700$ or 22,000$ with batt. (17 x 460W REC Solar panels, 1 Tesla PowerWall3, Tesla Inverter)
Vendors estimate the payback in about 5 years which I believe is very optimistic. I would add costs associated with maintenance and other repairs and estimate the payback to be around 8-9 years. We do intend to remain at our home in the long run. Our home is North facing and we do have enough unshaded roof space in the south side for the required number of panels.
Does it merit looking into the option of installing solar seriously given our electricity usage?
Statistics: Posted by harrad — Fri Jun 28, 2024 9:38 pm — Replies 3 — Views 103
