Cali Kid Corals

Another year, another love of solar power.

Only have 3.26kW of solar panels on my roof, in San Francisco. Granted this year there wasn't a whole lot of lighting over my tank, 250W MH bulb and like 80W of LEDs, but it's a 300G tub with a lot of surface area and a ton of evaporation in an unheated basement area, so still a lot of power going to keep that water warm. End of year bill $288, and that's not JUST the tank either, that's the whole house.
 
ok reading it wrong, i thought it was a monthly bill. :p

my HOA won't let me install solar panels on the roof, i'd be all over the solar panels and save so much on the electricity bill.
 
Right there with ya Mike. Since we added solar I’ve gotton 2 bills , 1 was for $20 and the other was $40. We’ve added an AC unit and still getting zero $ bills.
 
Honestly much like a lot of home improvement labor trades the cost will fluctuate based on how much business they're getting. That said if you are feeling scrappy to do it yourself that is actually a very doable option with micro-inverters and can save you can save a boatload of cash, hell you could just do all the physical labor and call in an electrician to wire everything up if that part scares you, but you have to be willing to do your homework and shop around, online you're not going to Home Depot to pick this stuff up.

When I got mine the base cost was $23k or so, which if I did it myself could have knocked that down into the $6-8k range easily, but San Francisco had a ton of incentives going off at the time which knocked $11,000 off the cost for the neighborhood I live in, and the fact I hired a company using labor from SF, then there was another $3-5k from PG&E (state of California), can't remember the exact amount, and then 30% from the feds in the form of tax credits, which luckily for me was off the base amount before the SF rebate, now it doesn't matter that I didn't own that in taxes that year, because I'm allowed to roll it over to the next year until it's all used up. Out of pocket money, the check I write was somewhere in the neighborhood of $10k, after all the tax credits and what not I end up paying a bit over $3k for 3.26kW of solar power, and at $1/watt installed by a professional... needless to say I had no desire to DIY and haul that crap to my roof. But I was in a very unique situation at the time that no longer exists.
 
On a separate note, I did just install some Solatubes since my living area and bathroom didn't have good natural lighting during the day. Now we don't have to turn on lights during the day anymore. It is expensive though, $1000 installed, but has 30% tax rebate. Also came with free solar night lights, which is also neat, looks like moonlight.
 
Yeah definitely something to consider since PG&E is supposedly doing away with the many-tiered pricing method and is going to eventually just have a "baseline" and then a "bend over and take it up the ass" rate if you go over that baseline.
 
I've got about a 4kw system at the house which puts me into the negative on usage and a 8kw system at my work. I still have to pay a bunch at my office for electricity though.
 
Honestly much like a lot of home improvement labor trades the cost will fluctuate based on how much business they're getting. That said if you are feeling scrappy to do it yourself that is actually a very doable option with micro-inverters and can save you can save a boatload of cash, hell you could just do all the physical labor and call in an electrician to wire everything up if that part scares you, but you have to be willing to do your homework and shop around, online you're not going to Home Depot to pick this stuff up.

When I got mine the base cost was $23k or so, which if I did it myself could have knocked that down into the $6-8k range easily, but San Francisco had a ton of incentives going off at the time which knocked $11,000 off the cost for the neighborhood I live in, and the fact I hired a company using labor from SF, then there was another $3-5k from PG&E (state of California), can't remember the exact amount, and then 30% from the feds in the form of tax credits, which luckily for me was off the base amount before the SF rebate, now it doesn't matter that I didn't own that in taxes that year, because I'm allowed to roll it over to the next year until it's all used up. Out of pocket money, the check I write was somewhere in the neighborhood of $10k, after all the tax credits and what not I end up paying a bit over $3k for 3.26kW of solar power, and at $1/watt installed by a professional... needless to say I had no desire to DIY and haul that crap to my roof. But I was in a very unique situation at the time that no longer exists.
Wow...those were fantastic incentives
 
Mine is $166 a month for 20 years. With the way PG&E was killing me ( between $600 -$900 a month ) it was a no brainer.

I’m at $178 per month for a 9kw system. Came with the house so I paid no upfront fees. I can run the AC all day in the summer and not run into any overages that I have draw from the grid. It evens out during the night since the extra I make during the day goes to the grid.



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