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Solar for the House in Los Angeles?


Kriky

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My wife and I are in the process of adding an addition to our house. I was thinking about installing solar power. We have great sun exposure so I think it will be a worthy investment. If anyone has any recommendation as to which solar company to use it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Kriky

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No recommendation on a company apart from avoiding any Lease type arrangements outright (which are designed to make them money by leveraging OPM, and giving you the scraps).

 

If you have a good handyman or electrician you can trust, you don't even need to go through a solar power installation company, you only need to schedule an inspection from the electic company before the final hookup of the grid-tie.

 

This stuff isn't rocket science.   There may be better brands of components that might last longer, but in Los Angeles' easy climate that's hardly an issue, and in 10 years the technology will be so much improved anyway that an upgrade would be better anyway...

 

If you can break even in less than 5 years, looking at a 10+ year lifetime, go for it.

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Hey Kriky,

 

I installed solar on my house in LA in 2002 and love it. 

The rebates at the local level are mostly used up, but you can still take a hefty credit off your income taxes. Line inverters are being replaced by microinverters, which can optimize output with varyling levels of light/exposure. Solaredge makes the longest warrantied microinverters.

 

Cheers,

 

Bud

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We installed a 4KW array on our house in Silverlake in 2009. At that time the DWP had a rebate program where we ended up getting a bit more than half of the total expense back but you had to go through DWP approved contractors. It was more expensive but that was the hoop to jump through  to get the rebates. We chose Buel from that list and dealt with Ulrich Buel who is in Echo Park and runs/ran the business out of Topanga.

It went well and a few years in now I have no complaints on any level.

http://buelsolar.com

I'm sure the playing field has changed but we were in the midst of a home remodel and the solar aspect was by far the easiest part of that endeavour.

Scott Harber

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I wrote Kriky a personal email but I will post it here as well --- could be useful for others contemplating solar installation.

Here’s my advice:
 
First, there are a few things you must answer before you pursue anything (and forgive me if you have already have thought these things out).
 
1.  lease or purchase
2.  standalone (off the grid, self-sufficient) or on grid (with net metering back to utility company)
 
My system is a leased, net-metering system from GCI Solar. I was with Solar City for 6 months and got no where with them (even though they are the biggest and most active I believe) and went with GCI finally to do the install. No money up front, they did a beautiful install, 25 year lease, fixed monthly payment on the lease. My monthly payment is less than my Southern California Edison bill ever was. The way net-metering works is during daylight hours the panels are producing electricity (it is a glorious thing in its own right to think we can get electricity from the sun) and with my installation and the demands from our house, sufficient electricity is produced to power our house AND have excess electricity that is fed back to Edison. In the evening hours and night when the panels are not producing, we are buying on the grid electricity from Edison (but at the lowest rate scale because it is night). The “net” result for us is that this nighttime Edison electricity is paid for with the credit we have with Edison for the electricvity we “sold” them during the day. In fact, we have excess credit (we sold them more than we bought from then during the night) and so we have never paid Edison anything — at the end of the year we got a check from Edison for $654.00 which cashed out or accumulated credit.
 
Advantage of lease: GCI maintains the installation, there is a performance guarantee and they will replace any and all parts if the system fails to perform.
 
Purchasing a system (and we’re still talking about a on the grid net-metering system), you have to come up with all the costs — usually this is accomplished by a low cost, low interest loan whose payments may be very similar to a lease payment). You fully own the system but are also responsible for maintenance, repairs, service, etc. Probably not a big deal and it seems that a purchase would ultimately cost you less than a lease. If I were to do it today (instead of the 3 years ago that I did the lease) I think I would do a purchase. This is because all the costs associated with an install today, the cost of the panels, the inverters, even the cost of labor (because they have streamlined the installation and their is competition amongst installers now) have come down.
 
Standalone off the grid system
 
I have had no experience with these and I’m not even sure it is possible to get off the grid completely in a big city like Los Angeles (certain laws and regulations, occupancy requirements, etc.). You would have to look into that on your own. The Tesla PowerWall figures into this as well as possible use in a on grid net-metering system. With the Tesla PowerWall (and there are a few other all-in-one storage system being made though none seem as well thought out as Tesla’s). In an off grid system, it would take a pretty high capacity PowerWall (or multiples) depending on the your house’s power demands. For an on grid net-metering system, adding the PowerWall would probably supply all the electricity you need during the night so you would be never, ever be purchasing any electricity from Edison. I don’t know how well this would work, having the cost of the Tesla PowerWall, I really can’t do the math but for me, as I have seen over the last 3 years, I’m not paying Edison anything and I’m getting money back from them.
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Thanks all!! Any and all info is helpful and I appreciate the replies. It does help! And thank you Jeff for the email. I live in Burbank and Burbank Water and Power still offers an incentive program that has to be applied for by July. I'll start there. I'm still undecided if lease or purchase is the best. Net-metering seems like the most practical way to go. One thing with Burbank Water and Power is they do not offer cash back if you're feeding power back to the grid.  And from my understanding if I were to lease the lease company takes the incentives. If Burbank is offering a $4k incentive it might make sense to purchase. I have yet to do the numbers. I'm in the collecting info stage.

Thanks again!

Kriky

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Possible secondary expenses to investigate:

Upgrading the main panel to 200 amp (to get enough spaces to add the grid tie), and replacing all breakers with AFCI ones (because they are mandated by NEC code and work is being done, so must be upgraded).   That might roll over into adding GFCI elsewhere in the house (bathroom / kitchen / laundry area) if it's not already there.

Pounding a ground rod if the house doesn't already have one.

Retrofitting any/all Aluminium wiring with Copper (Most electricians will say this is required, but there are approved ways of converting to Copper at the ends only).

Re-roofing, because once the panels are up there, you can't touch your roof without removing them, and if it's a lease, they won't let you do that, so the roof has to be done first if it's more than 10 years old.

Negating a previous point, Solar in California has to be installed by a state-approved vendor, you can't do DIY or handyman installation, grr.

The amount you pay on the total system increases the value of your house, so your property tax will go up by that factor. (reasearched - Incorrect, section 73 excludes solar from value increases, but that would have ended in Dec 2016 if it was not for SB 871, which pushed it to 2025) http://energy.gov/savings/property-tax-exclusion-solar-energy-systems)  http://www.pv-tech.org/news/california_property_tax_exemptions_for_pv_systems_extended_to_2025 (Additional edit : If the system is leased, at the end of the lease the system may be purchased outright - that does trigger a new assessment and possible property tax increase). If you are trying to get an assessment to lower property taxes based on falling house prices (fat chance), a purchased solar system would be counted to offset any potential reduction in overall house value.   Phew, that was a mouthful.

Does the installation company warranty their work in the case that it causes leaks into the house in a few years time?

Home Owners Insurance must be updated to cover the new system. 

Edited by Tom Duffy
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