Roof Solar Panels For Your House

[FlamesAddiction]

Hey guys,

I noticed that these things have come down in price quite a bit in the past couple of years and I am seeing them pop up all over the place.

Does anyone have experience installing and using them? I am just trying to figure out if it is worth it or not.

[Sluggo]

Yeah I would also be curious on how they hold up to our summer hailstorms.

[iggy_oi]

I've heard that the water heating panels actually save you more money than the electricity converting ones. Although I'm not sure if they can be installed on all homes.

[Fuzz]

^Where did you hear that?

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/...r-thermal-dead

[Calgary14]

I just received a quote for solar panels for my house. It's a typical Calgary style two storey home. Total cost is $17k and first year return is 2.2%. Costs will have to come down quite a bit for solar to become a reasonable option

[Calgary14]

Interesting article about one person taking it a step further and converting their home to net zero. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...home-1.3751832

[accord1999]

A Calgarian on reddit posted their experience in this detailed article:

http://imgur.com/a/aJ4BG

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

I just received a quote for solar panels for my house. It's a typical Calgary style two storey home. Total cost is $17k and first year return is 2.2%. Costs will have to come down quite a bit for solar to become a reasonable option

My monthly usage cost (excluding all the other charges) is under $30. Unless you go off grid, you will still pay those other fees. I'm not sure what you could recoup in selling back to the grid, but it would have to be a lot for this to make any sense right now. Now, once all the carbon taxes hit their peak in a few years it could be a different story. But by then panels will be a lot cheaper, so waiting it out seams the best plan.

[Flamenspiel]

Originally Posted by accord1999

A Calgarian on reddit posted their experience in this detailed article:

http://imgur.com/a/aJ4BG

This is my experience with it as well. even in sunbelt areas, there is not enough power(the panels are not efficient) for heating, AC, dryer, and other high power usages. Its good for lights, cellphones, and other small appliances.

I think you would need an acreage covered with panels to really get enough power for everything.

[Calgary14]

It's my understanding that any power generated gets sold back to the grid. In my case it would be about 5600 kwh. At $0.08 per kwh that means I'd save around $450 per year. That being said, it's likely that most of the electricity gets generated in the summer (least needed) and not nearly as much in the winter (most needed). So I'd have a large credit in the summer but would then have to buy electricity as normal in the winter.

This also assumes electricity prices stay the same - if they increase then the rate of return would also increase. Rate of return would also increase if the initial cost went down - at $6500 I could get about 7% return.

And FYI in case anyone is interested I noticed Enmax now accepts credit cards, so you can pay your monthly bill with a credit card and earn rewards on your card like any other purchase.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

^Where did you hear that?

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/...r-thermal-dead

From a tech who installs them, I'm not an expert just going off of what he told me. He said different climates have different benefits and that during our winters we don't get enough sunlight during the peak hours a home will use the solar panels for electricity. But the water in your hour water tank can be kept heated all day by solar power instead of the gas or electricity continually being used to reheat it during the day. Seemed to make sense, although I have no idea what the actual savings would be on either.

[Bobblehead]

I think electricity is most needed in the summer - that is when you always hear about how the system is being taxed by air conditioners. People can heat their homes with different things - natural gas especially - but for air conditioners in the summer you need electricity.

[jwslam]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

And FYI in case anyone is interested I noticed Enmax now accepts credit cards, so you can pay your monthly bill with a credit card and earn rewards on your card like any other purchase.

Where did you see that?!?!

edit: I guess it's posted on their website now. Since when?!
https://www.enmax.com/home/customer-care/payments

[Fuzz]

Just logged in and set up CC billing. Thanks Calgary14!

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

I think electricity is most needed in the summer - that is when you always hear about how the system is being taxed by air conditioners. People can heat their homes with different things - natural gas especially - but for air conditioners in the summer you need electricity.

If you look at the historical records http://ets.aeso.ca/, Alberta peak electricity demand is in the winter. As an example, January 2016 had consumption of 7342 GWh while July 2016 only consumed 6580 GWh and August 2016 only 6678 GWh.

[Ace]

Here is the trick (learned this from an ex-enmax employee). If you get a solar system installed by enmax, they only credit you the usage charge (not variable fees) that you give back to the grid (they put on a new meter to your house).

If you happened to install it yourself what it would do is actually turn your existing meter backwards. This reduces your total usage, which is important because many of the fees are tied to your usage.

Basically Enmax installed = 7 cents (or whatever) credit
Self installed = 7 cents + variable fees

I'm not sure if there is a legal requirement to notify enmax, essentially you'd only be modifying the electricity in your home (past the enmax infrastructure)...

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

And FYI in case anyone is interested I noticed Enmax now accepts credit cards, so you can pay your monthly bill with a credit card and earn rewards on your card like any other purchase.

Finally!

[MacDaddy77]

hopefully city of Calgary opens up cc payment for taxes next

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

And FYI in case anyone is interested I noticed Enmax now accepts credit cards, so you can pay your monthly bill with a credit card and earn rewards on your card like any other purchase.

Sweet, but too bad they don't take American Express.

[HotHotHeat]

Costs have come down, but the tech is still improving very quickly.

https://electrek.co/2016/10/12/tesla...solarcity-ceo/

SolarCity’s CEO, Lyndon Rive, said this week that the company should “definitely increase forecasts” for next year because of the upcoming new products that the company will unveil in a joint event with Tesla at the end of the month.

We already reported on how the integration of all three products to be unveiled on October 28, ‘solar roof’, Tesla Powerwall 2.0′, and Tesla charger, will be key to the overall offering of the new combined companies.

Though we learned today that the companies will not be merged by the time they unveil the new products since the proposed merger is only going to a shareholders vote on November 17. It’s likely that Tesla will phase out the ‘SolarCity’ brand after the merger since the company applied for trademarks to sell solar products under its own ‘Tesla’ brand, as we previously reported.

When Tesla CEO Elon Musk first mentioned the new ‘solar roof’, he said that the product will allow Tesla/SolarCity to differentiate their offering in the solar market.