Is Solar worth it? My Experience 2 Years Later

So what do YOU think...is solar worth it? Compare solar quotes with EnergySage here: www.energysage.com/p/smarthomesolver/? Thanks to EnergySage for sponsoring a portion of this video.

Of course your electricity bill is $0... you paid $48,000!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did my homework and invested in EFFICIENCY FIRST. Then I bought my own solar and battery system from a wholesaler and I installed it myself with my background as an electrician. I paid about $13,000, took the 30% tax credit on that, and my solar system with batteries saves me over $2500 per year. Return on investment is less than four years and I can go for weeks with the power out and the only thing that goes down is my hot tub.

I’ve had solar for six months now, and am so happy with it. We have $0 electricity bills, and saved even more money by going solar through a co-op. Great to hear about your experience after two years!

Bill Shock!!!! This is the first year in the last 12 that we are home during the summer months and not up in the GA mountains. My electric bill last month was $336 where as it never went higher than $150. We normally averaged between 18 and 30kWh on average, but last month we hit 54kWh on a lot of the days. I will be starting my DIY solar installation next month and it will be completed in 3 phases. Can't wait to get started! Great video!

One thing people often forget is the opportunity cost of interest on the up front cost. If you invest the $31,000 (48k-rebates) at 6% interest you get $155 per month to start. By my calculations it's 25 years until break even. This assumes $200 savings/month with solar, compounding interest, and no maintenance or degradation. Of course it's difficult to put a number to the comfort of not worrying about electricity. Also possible rate increases in excess of inflation.

Great video Reed! We installed Tesla Solar 23.085 kWh of panels and 4 Powerwalls this year. We've really been reaping the benefits since the install.

I love the setup of it all, now all I need is a house, enough sun and a bit of money for it all

Dude, Those numbers are crazy to me. I live in denmark, in an average house, and i use 2300kWh in a year! You use 30kWh at night, and thats almost a weeks use of electricity for me.

Great video - Thank you for sharing your experience. As someone just looking for solar this is very helpful

Protection from the grid's unpredictable outage is, in itself, priceless especially in the era of cyberattacks and freak weather patterns! Also, I'm thinking the property value may be somewhat enhanced! But the overall peace of mind is, no doubt, incomparable! Thanks for sharing @SmartHomeSolver

Always loved the humor in your videos! Very interesting; thanks for sharing. In the Great North unfortunately Solar does not cut it; we need way more energy to heat our homes than AC demands and we have obviously less sunlight.

Not stressing about paying to much for the electric bill is worth it IMO 🎉nice breakdown reed!

Love the Hibbert ref!

Thanks for sharing Reed.

I love how the troll post in your video used Paul Hibbert's picture lol

Great video Reed, my next big project is going to be a solar system, $350/month is painful, this video is really helpful!

It's definitely worth doing the math. I bought a home with solar a few years ago and inherited a financing bill but also energy credits (Long Island, NY). However, since adding an electric heat pump to reduce 95% of my oil bill and a hot tub, I started burning through credits. So I had a talk, did the math, more talks, and am in the process of adding more panels and aim to be net positive with future proofing. Couldn't justify the Tesla walls but wanted one. All in all, once again, worth having a discussion and doing the math.

One thing not mentioned is when the utility and local government are ‘run by crooks’ factor. When I bought my system, the lowest my bill could be was $9.87. But since my State has a gov’nt authorized monopoly, they raised the minimum bill to $28.97 for everyone… and blamed solar customers for it. So check out how your local utility is run and how rates changes are approved.

Great Video for Newbies 2 powerwalls and 2 SunPower Solar systems (31 panels) over here We outgrew our 2014 system and installed an additional system in 2023. My only wish was maybe a 3rd powerwall and more panels? We're good for now. It took a little bit to coordinate with SunPower and Tesla to get the monitoring all dialed in. We love it. Our system covers 1 ev eeezy peezy. I don't use the Only Charge EV on Solar option, instead I already know how much the EV needs to charge every night so I set the reserve accordingly. I only use the grid to charge the EV and keep the 2 powerwalls just for the house if that makes any sense. Thankyou for the videos and keep them coming Reed.... What part of AZ are u at ?