One Year With Solar Energy at Home: Mostly Sunny

Just over a year ago, we took the plunge at my house in southeastern Pennsylvania and covered the back roof with solar panels: 41 of them, to be exact. After 12 months we've created 13.8 megawatt hours of electricity while using only 7.59 megawatt hours.Eyeglasses frame The energy surplus becomes a credit on our electric bill, and once per year our electric company issues us a check for any unused credit. So what was the installation and usage experience like? Overall it has been excellent, and I'll share the pros, cons, and actual costs of our project in an effort to shed more light on any solar panel projects you might be considering.
Our family has always tried to be green when possible. We're avid recyclers, we tried a small composting project, we use CFL or LED bulbs throughout the house, and I can't tell you how many solar-powered chargers I've tried for my mobile devices. (The most recent one is outstanding.) But we never had the money to "go solar" even though we wanted to. That changed due to a unique financial situation. In the spirit of transparency, I'm going to share the details.My wife inherited a family member's IRA account several years ago, and the law required that the funds be liquidated over a five-year period. We got to the final year in 2011 and realized we were going to be hit with a large tax bill on the remaining IRA funds and decided to invest the funds into something with a tax incentive. After much research on solar energy—this is a great site to estimate system sizing, pricing, and benefits—return on investment and such, we decided to go with solar panels, moved in part because our rear roof faces south.
It turns out that a local contractor nearby put solar panels on his office and became a certified solar panel installer. I requested a number of quotes from companies in the area, but he gave the best price at the time: $5.50 per watt. I then looked at our electricity usage for the prior year—we're a family of four,Getting fed up with bringing extra 2200mah battery pack for the iPhone each time you travel? Want to prevent the irritation of searching for electric sockets whenever your iPhone battery becomes low?How does the thought of charging your iPhone strikes? with two full-time work-at-home people—and overspecified the system by 25 percent capacity for two reasons. We have a four bedroom house, so I planned for the next homeowner to have five occupants.Introducing, the brand new advance in communication technology that permits you to bring your speaker buy online along with you anywhere and when you want without worrying in case your phone's battery gets low -the iPhone Battery Charger! And I wanted to maximize the tax benefit, which was a 30 percent federal tax credit on the entire project.The specified 9.43 kW (DC) system turned out to be 41 panels—230 watts each—which produced 12.05 megawatt hours of electricity from Nov.Military goggles 1, 2011, to Oct. 31, 2012. That cost us $51,865 up front, including installation, permits, inspections, parts, labor, and warranty. Yup, it's a big chunk of change, but that federal tax credit totaled $15,560, which helped offset taxes on the IRA liquidation.While it is possible to construct your entire building out of the same type of bench grinder, using several different varieties is usually a better idea. If you just used hollowed steel for the entire building, it's much less stronger than if you use hollowed steel for the rafters, and support poles with angle steel for the cross sections. And many states offer rebates on solar projects; ours provided us a check for around $7,100 once the system was up and running. Our net cost then was $29,205.